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‘Washington,’ a glassy-eyed Jessica Flynn slurred, ‘what are you doing here? How did I get in?’

She giggled.

‘I mean, how did you get in?’ She waved her hand. ‘Doesn’t matter. Good that you’re here. Drink? I’m having one.’

‘I’m good, Jessica.’ He remained seated.

‘Party pooper.’

Jessica lurched over to the polished wooden bar and opened a bottle of wine. Clumsily poured it. More fell on the floor than in her glass.

‘I need some air,’ she said. She opened the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the car park. She stepped outside and peered over the balcony. ‘I don’t see your new Range Rover down there, Washington.’

Poe didn’t respond.

She stepped back inside and collapsed onto the couch. Half her wine slopped out.

‘Balls.’

Poe said nothing.

‘What’s happening with the … the … you know, the case thingy?’

‘We have a name for the Curator. He’s called Oliver Hartley-Graham.’

‘And the org

an grinder?’

‘We have a decent lead,’ Poe said. ‘A few years ago Stephanie helped convict a paedophile. He died in prison. Last year his daughter won the lottery. The financial adviser the lottery company appointed helped her invest in bitcoins. It’s how Hartley-Graham was paid. Cumbria are investigating.’

‘S’good,’ Jessica said. ‘Sounds promising.’

‘It does.’

‘What you doing here anyway?’

‘I’m on my way to see Steph. Thought I’d pop in to see you first.’

He held up the keys to the Range Rover.

‘I can’t accept this,’ he continued.

‘Why not? You earned it. My little sister would be deaded or something and baby Flynn would be in the Middle East by now if you hadn’t gone all Starsky & Hutch on us.’

‘Actually, Scrapper wouldn’t be in the Middle East.’

‘Well, Russia then. You’re the policeman, how am I supposed to know where trafficked babies end up?’

‘Not Russia, either.’

‘Where then?’ she snapped.

‘I’ve been keeping something back from everyone,’ Poe said. ‘Something Hartley-Graham told me on the island. Something he only told me. I made a deal with him there and then that if he didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t mention it.’

‘And what was that?’

‘That he wasn’t to wait for instructions on what to do with Steph’s baby.’