Page 104 of The Final Vow (Washington Poe #7)

Charing Cross Police Station, London

Puck looked at Bradshaw in astonishment.

‘But . . . but I shot you,’ he said.

‘You’re a very silly man, Ezekiel Puck,’ Bradshaw said.

‘It was on the news! In the papers!’

‘Haven’t you been paying attention to the autocrats, Ezekiel?’ Poe said. ‘The mainstream media can’t be trusted.’

‘But how ?’

Poe held his eye. Saw nothing but self-pity.

Poe yawned. Bored of the man. Tired of thinking about him.

‘You’ll have plenty of time to wonder how, Ezekiel.

But I will say this; you’re a psychopath and you’re a narcissist. As soon as we got our heads around that, you weren’t particularly difficult to catch.

You’ve never formed an emotional attachment to anyone so it’s unsurprising you don’t understand how you were caught.

But let me be clear – there are no circumstances in which I would knowingly put anyone in danger. Tilly was never in your sights.’

‘It was a trick.’

‘No trick. We knew how you would react to your wife becoming an overnight millionaire. We knew it would consume you.’

Puck slumped in his seat. Beaten. Then he smiled.

‘If you do know me, Poe, you’ll know I’m part of your life now.

I’ll always be part of it. We might not meet again but know this – I will never stop thinking about you.

Never. And manipulating people is what I do best. I’ve done it to sophisticated, wary people – what chance do you think His Majesty’s incarcerated population have against me?

At some point, one of them will seek you out.

Seek out this bitch here, that bitch of a fiancée.

Maybe I’ll let you live with the pain for a bit.

Maybe I won’t. Deciding what to do and when will keep me warm at night, Poe.

This isn’t fucking over!’ He screamed the last bit. Got a bit foam-flecked and ranty.

Poe sighed. ‘You’ve got bigger things to worry about than silly revenge fantasies, Ezekiel. You killed Jools Arreghini. And her father is a man with . . . let’s say, some very dubious business partners.’

‘You’re lying,’ Puck smirked. ‘Nice try, though.’

‘I really don’t care if you believe me or not,’ Poe said. ‘But just so you know, when I get home a bottle of Macallan M will be waiting for me, a gift from Archie Arreghini. It’s a very expensive whisky. What did Archie say to me, Tilly?’

‘He said if you caught the man who killed his daughter, he would send you the bottle, Poe.’

‘Anything else?’

Bradshaw nodded. ‘He told you he would take care of everything else.’

‘What do you think Archie meant by that, Ezekiel?’ Poe said.

Puck gulped. ‘I demand protection.’

Poe shrugged. ‘And you’ll get it. I don’t think there’s a segregation cell safe enough, though. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe the father of the daughter you killed will be in a forgiving mood. You’re the expert in despair, Ezekiel. What do you think?’

Puck put his head in his hands. He started to weep.

‘I’ll get you for this, Poe. I don’t know how, but I will. I’ll get you.’

‘Jolly good,’ Poe said. ‘But can it wait a couple of days?’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m getting married tomorrow.’