Page 89 of The Final Vow (Washington Poe #7)

‘Really?’ Poe said. ‘You know when I’m going to die? Why do I find that hard to believe?’

‘I know when all my targets are going to die, Sergeant Poe,’ Puck replied.

Poe smiled. ‘Is that right?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘And how do you know when I’m going to die, Ezekiel? Because as far as I can tell, your little ambush failed. I’m still here.’

Puck nodded. ‘It’s true I wanted to kill you on that horrible little mountain of yours—’

‘It’s not a mountain; it’s a fell,’ Poe said. ‘According to Tilly it comes from the Old Norse word fjall .’

‘But that doesn’t matter,’ Puck said. He took a breath. Sipped from the dusty bottle of water in front of him. ‘I know when you’re going to die because it’s what I did for a living. It’s what I was good at. No, scratch that, it’s what I excelled at. Just ask Alastor Locke.’

‘I didn’t have to,’ Poe said. ‘He told me.’

‘Then you understand.’

‘No, Ezekiel, I don’t understand.’

‘You fucked around and you found out, Poe.’

‘I’m not the one in handcuffs, Ezekiel.’

‘In a few weeks I’ll be given a whole-life sentence,’ Puck said. ‘Yours has already started.’

‘I think you’d better enlighten me,’ Poe said. ‘Because when I leave here, I won’t give you a second thought.’

Puck laughed. Not a faux-laugh, this was a real belly-buster. The kind of laugh that gets you thrown out of the cinema.

‘Your little friend is dead, Sergeant Poe,’ he said when it had subsided. ‘I blew the specky bitch’s brains out with a bullet designed for lightly armoured vehicles. And I did it because of you, Poe. Your ego got her killed. That’s why I know when you’re going to die.’

Poe didn’t respond.

‘And that was just the first domino to fall,’ Puck continued.

‘Your reckless disregard for Matilda’s life caused the press to turn against you.

They carried the public along with them and your snooty fiancée soon followed suit.

They’ve allowed you back to work because you somehow caught me, but that won’t last long.

The inquiry will push you out. No best friend, no rich woman to leech off, and no job to take your mind off it all. ’

Still, Poe said nothing.

‘If I had a calendar, I could mark off the day for you. It may happen sooner, it won’t happen later.’

‘And what exactly will happen, Ezekiel?’

‘Why, you’ll take your own life, of course,’ Puck said. ‘You’re clearly a very selfish man, Poe, so you’ll hold out for as long as you can, but you will eat a shotgun barrel by the end of the year. It is inevitable.’

‘A shotgun barrel?’ Poe said woodenly.

‘Or something equally dramatic,’ Puck nodded.

‘You once were a recluse, and you’ll try to become one again, but the peace you found in earlier years will elude you this time.

I understand you suffer from PTSD? Well, trust me, what you went through before is nothing like what you’re about to go through.

Matilda’s death will haunt you, Sergeant Poe.

She’ll be there when you’re awake and she’ll plague your dreams. If you thought your nightmares were bad before, just wait until she gets inside your head.

I might even find a way of sending you the video I recorded.

Would you like that? Maybe for your birthday?

You won’t be around for Christmas, obviously, but I’m sure I can get it to you before then. ’

Poe sighed. ‘I think you’re labouring under a misapprehension, Ezekiel,’ he said. He looked at the ceiling camera and nodded. ‘Maybe the defining one of your life.’

Puck frowned at the same time as the door opened.

Tilly Bradshaw stepped into the interview room.

And there wasn’t a scratch on her.