Page 21 of The Final Vow (Washington Poe #7)

‘Shipping and warehousing are competitive businesses, Sergeant Poe,’ Archie said. ‘And they are, particularly for fledgling companies, cutthroat businesses. You cannot be successful without making enemies. It’s why I hire people like Matthew.’

Personal protection officers couldn’t find gainful employment in Cumbria.

The only celebrities were chefs – Cumbria was plagued with them – and Melvyn Bragg.

That meant Matthew either had legitimate employment in London, or illegitimate employment in Cumbria.

If it was the former, there was no reason why Matthew should know him.

But if he had been into some shady stuff .

. . well, then he’d know who Poe was. All the criminals in Cumbria knew who Poe was.

Also, Matthew was tall. Suspiciously tall.

Sniper -tall. Poe made a mental note to investigate him the moment he left the marquee.

‘Tilly will want a list of names,’ Poe said.

‘Are any of the other victims in the shipping industry?’

‘Not as far as I can tell.’

‘Yet you’re asking me about my enemies. Why is that?’

Poe tapped the manilla folder. ‘You’re a well-connected man, Archie. You know why I’m asking.’

‘You’re talking about the files the authorities keep on me.’

‘I am.’

Archie stared wistfully at the empty Macallan. ‘While I admit nothing, you understand, a person who built up a similar-sized shipping business might have had to cut corners along the way.’

‘And what corners might those have been?’ Poe asked.

‘Maybe he bribed officials to look the other way. Or added something to the cargo that wasn’t on the docket. Perhaps he threatened a problematic union leader. Spilled the occasional drop of blood. That such a person would attract the attention of the authorities is as inevitable as disappointment.’

‘Did this . . . similar person ever order a murder?’

Archie shook his head. ‘Never.’

‘A beating that maybe went on a bit too long, resulted in life-changing injuries?’

‘No.’

‘A business deal that saw someone lose everything they’d worked long and hard for?’

This time he wasn’t so quick to dismiss it. ‘There is always collateral damage.’

‘Funny you should say that,’ Poe said. ‘My boss used that exact phrase when it came to one of the prevailing theories. That someone is using randomly selected targets to hide the motivation for the true target.’

‘You think my Jools is the C in The ABC Murders ?’

Poe shrugged. ‘I don’t, but it’s not something Commander Mathers will dismiss out of hand.’

Archie shook his head again. ‘If Jools was the intended target, it wasn’t for revenge.’

‘A warning maybe?’

‘No.’

‘You seem very sure.’

Archie sighed. ‘In the past, I have had to occasionally issue warnings. An unpleasant but necessary business strategy. And the one golden rule is that the person receiving the warning has to know it’s a warning.’

‘And you don’t see one?’

‘I don’t. It’s the same with revenge. If it really is a dish best served cold, if the sins of the father have been visited upon the daughter, why hide it? Why not let me know? Add to my pain. Would that not make sense?’

‘It would,’ Poe conceded. ‘I’ll still need that list of names.’

‘How far back do you want me to go?’

‘Since you were a child. Grudges and slights don’t have a shelf life, they fester like fermented cabbage.’

Archie picked up his smartphone. Thumbed a text to someone. Whooshed it into the ether. ‘You’ll have it by the end of the day.’

‘Thank you,’ Poe said.

‘Don’t waste your time on this, Sergeant Poe. Nor you, Miss Bradshaw.’

‘Almost everything Poe asks me to do is a waste of my time,’ Bradshaw said.

‘Thanks, Tilly.’

‘You’re welcome, Poe. But don’t worry, Mr Arreghini; on the face of it, wasting my time is what I do. And that’s as it should be. Wasting time is what makes up the bulk of science.’

‘It is?’ Arreghini said.

‘Science is the pursuit of knowledge,’ Bradshaw said. ‘And ninety-nine per cent of that pursuit ends in failure. Most of the knowledge gained is how not to do something.’

‘It sounds like a thankless task, Miss Bradshaw.’

Bradshaw’s eyes shone. ‘Oh, no, science is wonderful . Science is truth. And each time we fail, we are one step closer to finding that truth. So, when Poe asks me to correlate your list of enemies with everything we’ve gathered so far in the investigation, I’ll do it with a song in my heart and a smile on my lips.

Because I won’t be wasting my time, I’ll be discovering one more way he isn’t selecting his victims. Do you understand? ’

‘I certainly see why you and Sergeant Poe are such a formidable team,’ Archie said. ‘So, tell me, Miss Bradshaw. Where would you start looking for this man?’

‘Wherever Poe tells me to look.’

‘It’s not as simple as that,’ Poe said. ‘We have no forensics, no motive. No profile worth speaking of, and – believe me when I tell you this – Tilly is the best there is at that stuff. Other than this being the second time he’s targeted a wedding, we have nothing to go on at all.’

Bradshaw coughed nervously. ‘Actually, Poe, that’s not quite true.’