Page 84 of The Final Vow

‘Just a general sense of unease,’ Poe said.

Flynn said nothing for almost a minute. ‘Great!’ she snapped. ‘NowIhave a general sense of unease.’

‘You can’t take it to Mathers anyway. She has snipers training their rifles on the roof of that stupid building. She has undercover cops on the ground and more inside. She doesn’t need a doubting Thomas getting inside her head.’

‘Agreed,’ Flynn said. ‘So, whatcanwe do?’

‘Nothing,’ Poe said. ‘Mathers is committed to this play now, and that means we have to see it out with her.’ He took a breather then added, ‘But, we keep our eyes peeled. This bastard is up to something.’

Chapter 70

If Ezekiel Puck was up to something, it didn’t seem to be in the heart of London’s financial district. The only thing of note that happened during the first six hours was that a bird shat on Flynn’s shoulder. A big green and white splat that splashed off her shoulder and into her hair.

‘Fucking seagulls!’ she snapped.

Bradshaw cleared her throat. ‘Seagull is a colloquialism, DCI Flynn,’ she said. ‘There are over fifty species in the Laridae family and they don’t all live exclusively by the sea.’

‘Shitehawks then! Is that acceptable terminology, Tilly?’

‘I would just say “gulls”, DCI Flynn.’

Poe guffawed. After a beat, Flynn did too. Mathers wandered over to see what they were laughing about. Anything to relieve the tension on a high-stakes operation, Poe thought.

‘The boss has just had some good luck, ma’am,’ he explained.

Mathers looked up. ‘They’re a nuisance, aren’t they?’

Poe had spent the last ten years living on Shap Fell. Any gull stupid enough to try its luck there would be gleefully met by goshawks, peregrine falcons, marsh harriers, even golden eagles. Gulls weren’t pests on Shap Fell. They were snacks.

‘They’re noisy,’ Mathers continued. ‘They’re aggressive. They damage roof tiles and they block drains and gas flues, even chimneys. They carry salmonella and tuberculosis, both of which can be fatal to humans. And, as DCI Flynn can now attest, they shit everywhere.’

Poe gave her a quizzical look. ‘You seem to know a lot about sea . . . about gulls, ma’am.’

‘I attended a lot of idiotic community panels when I was in uniform,’ she explained. ‘We’ve been given access to one of the executive bathrooms on the thirty-ninth floor, Steph; why don’t you go and get yourself cleaned up?’

‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Flynn said gratefully. ‘If I don’t get it out of my hair now, it’ll harden and be there until I get home.’

‘You should leave it on,’ Bradshaw said. ‘You bleach your hair anyway, and gull excrement contains uric acid.’

‘I donotdye my hair, Tilly,’ Flynn said.

Poe, who had noticed some darker roots on Flynn’s head even before he’d been assigned to the boat, said nothing.

‘Shedoesdye her hair, Poe,’ Bradshaw said after Flynn had stomped off the roof to the executive bathroom. ‘She has an Amazon subscription for it.’

‘How the hell do you know what’s in the boss’s Amazon basket?’

‘Oh,pur-lease. Amazon’s network firewall is weaker than your one-one-one-one mobile phone password, and I like to make sure everyone I love is healthy. It’s why I think she might be perimenopausal. She put a book in her basket last month. It’s calledSo You Think You’re Perimenopausal?’

‘Do you know what’s inmyAmazon basket?’

‘You don’t have an Amazon account, Poe.’

‘Still sticking it to the man, Poe?’ Mathers said, smiling.

Poe shrugged. ‘I never saw the point. They wouldn’t deliver to Herdwick Croft, and Highwood has everything I need. It even has a game larder.’

‘Which makes me gag every time Poe goes in it to see what’s for his tea,’ Bradshaw said.