Page 91 of The Final Vow

‘Hello, Sergeant Poe,’ she said. ‘It’s been a while.’

Chapter 77

Poe didn’t scare easily, and he desperately wanted Clara Lang to find the peace she deserved, but this was giving him the heebie-jeebies. The woman on the other side of the Rubicon was looking at him like he was food.

‘Who am I speaking to?’ he said. ‘Clara or Bethany?’

‘Clara doesn’t live here any more,’ Bethany said in a singsong voice.

Poe nodded. Good. He said, ‘I gather you’ve been in the wars?’

Bethany grinned. ‘My therapist says I’ve defiled myself.’ She opened her mouth. Showed Poe her sharpened teeth. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think you need a different therapist.’

‘That’s whatIsaid!’ She leaned against her tether and stretched out an arm. Clenched her hand. ‘Fist bump?’

Poe saw that Doctor Gray was right to be apprehensive about the Rubicon being untested. At full stretch, Bethany could reach halfway across the painted red line. If they’d miscalculated the length of his wire rope by even an inch, they’d be able to touch each other. He suspected they hadn’t considered how much new wire rope could stretch. Poe knew this from his work at sea. Most of the boat’s equipment was secured with wire rope. When a load was applied – for example, someone pulling it – the dimension became smaller causing the rope to become longer. It was known as constructional elongation, and it remained in place until the wire rope had been subjected to a load several times.

‘I’m happy where I am, Bethany,’ Poe said.

‘It’s usually Clara you want to see, Sergeant Poe. Yet, unless I’ve misjudged this, it’s me you’re pleased to see today.’

‘It is.’

‘May I ask why?’

‘Do you consider yourself to be a bad person, Bethany?’

‘You know I don’t.’

‘Idoknow,’ Poe said. ‘Yet youhavedone bad things.’

‘For her.’

Poe nodded. It was true. Bethany had murdered three people, injured several more, but, in her mind at least, it had all been to protect Clara Lang.

‘For her,’ he agreed.

‘What do you want, Sergeant Poe?’

‘Your help.’ Poe had found that the only way he could get through to Clara or Bethany was by being open and honest. They both saw through subterfuge. Clara because of her training as a trauma therapist; Bethany because of what she’d been through as a child. ‘There’s a killer outside and he’s causing havoc. I can’t get in his head. I know why he’s doing it, but I don’t know how to stop him.’

‘And you think I might?’

‘I do.’

‘Why?’

‘Because this man is pure spite.’

Bethany raised her eyebrows. ‘You think I’m driven by spite, Sergeant Poe?’

‘No. I think your parents were driven by spite. It’s why I think you’ll have a unique insight.’

‘But I don’t want to think about my parents.’

‘And in ordinary times I wouldn’t ask you to. But this man has killed twenty people and he isn’t stopping any time soon. These arenotordinary times.’