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‘I hadn’t,’ Hartley-Graham confirmed. ‘I presume a buyer was lined up.’

The NCA were already putting every case Flynn had been involved in under the microscope. As Poe understood it, some potential grudge holders had already been dragged out of their beds.

‘Talk me through what you did. I want to know how you got from the Black Swan Challenge to performing illegal surgery on an NCA officer.’

‘First, I had to make sure that DI Flynn worked the case. That wasn’t as easy as it seemed. SCAS have cracked some high-profile cases recently and you’re in high demand from all the territorial police forces. A single weird murder wouldn’t guarantee your involvement. But a series of weird murders? In Cumbria? The locals would definitely bring in you, Sergeant Poe. And why wouldn’t they? A respected resource right on their doorstep. And once you were involved then DI Flynn would be too. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. I was told she wouldn’t be able to help herself. Even if it meant staying at work longer than she should.’

‘You used her stubbornness against her?’

‘I did.’

Poe bit down his reply. This interview was all about delicately threading a needle.

‘So you dreamt up a scenario involving a revenge plot against Edward Atkinson?’

‘I found a bunch of vulnerable kids online and convinced them I’d installed malware on their computers. Most of them didn’t care and I let them go.’

‘Robert Cowell cared,’ Poe said.

‘He did. I don’t know what it was he didn’t want me to see but it was enough for him and his sister to commit a couple of nasty offences. After that it was an easy enough thing to steal his kite and put it near one of the victims’ houses, somewhere you’d eventually find it. That would start you off on the path that would lead to the one person who linked the three murder victims. And once you’d made that link it was only a matter of time before you ended up with me on the island.’

‘How the hell did you find Edward Atkinson, though?’ Poe said. ‘Even the chief constable hadn’t been told where he lived.’

Hartley-Graham frowned in confusion.

‘I didn’t find Edward Atkinson, Mr Poe,’ he said. ‘I happened upon him. Until I landed on that island I’d never heard of the man.’

Realisation dawned on Poe. ‘You simply found an isolated location and constructed a narrative around it.’

‘I’d been told that it was empty during the winter months,’ he said.

‘Because, apart from Edward, none of the other islanders live there full time,’ Poe said.

‘Exactly,’ Hartley-Graham said. ‘Edward didn’t advertise his presence there so it was a bit of a surprise when I stumbled upon him. But, after … talking to him, I quickly realised I could turn this to my advantage.’

‘You improvised the whole thing,’ Poe said.

‘It’s what I do,’ he said. ‘One way or another I’d have found a way to get Miss Flynn on the island when I needed her there. All you need is a good story, Sergeant Poe. People will follow a good story anywhere and Edward Atkinson’s, as sad as it was, was compelling.’

‘Correction. It’s what you did.’

‘Did,’ he agreed. ‘Anyway, I practised the surgery on the two women. Neither of them were pregnant, but they had wombs obviously. I got Amanda Simpson’s surgery wrong. Didn’t use enough anaesthetic and she woke before I could finish closing the wound. Struggled so much I nicked her ovarian artery and she bled out.’

Poe knew all this. Estelle Doyle had confirmed it during the post-mortems.

‘The second procedure went well. I was able to open and close Rebecca Pridmore without too much mess. I didn’t need to get it exactly right. I just needed the surgery to be survivable.’

Poe’s fist tightened. He stood up. He needed a break.

Chapter 88

Bradshaw leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder.

‘Will DI Flynn be all right, Poe?’

‘I don’t know, Tilly. I really don’t. She’s resilient and she’s tough but something like this changes a person. It has to.’

Although Bradshaw was using her glasses as a hairband, her candyfloss-hair was all over the place. Her eyes were hollow and empty. She was close to tears but was holding it together. He suspected it was for his sake. She knew he had to go back in.