Page 32 of The Mercy Chair

‘He told you this?’

‘He didn’t have to; he knows how I work. Knew that if something the Children of Job were doing had led to Cornelius Green’s murder, I would find it. He also knew I wouldn’t be intimidated by threats of going above my head.’

‘Did you trust his information?’

‘I treated it as I would any other unverified source of intelligence. It was robustly checked.’

‘And?’

‘It was accurate. The Children of Job were a cult in all but name. Their aim of establishing a theocracy in the UK was insane, of course, but it was an aim they pursued vigorously.’

‘By indoctrinating their students in biblical literalism?’

Poe nodded. ‘As the bishop said, they were playing the long game. Putting Children of Job alumni into as many influential positions as possible, in the hope that someday they would be able to effect national policy.’

‘Reverse same-sex marriage laws, stop a woman’s right to choose, ban gay men and women from serving in the military?’

‘All of that, yes.’

‘I imagine not everything in the file Tilly scanned had been obtained legally?’

‘Is this a privileged meeting?’

‘It is. You can speak freely.’

‘Then no, I suspect not everythingwasobtained legally. It wasn’t exactly Watergate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had broken into the Children of Job’s offices at some point. Someone took that stuff about conversion therapy from a locked filing cabinet.’

‘What else was there?’

‘The file was over an inch thick, Doctor Lang. There were financial records, previous applications to the Charity Commission, non-disclosure agreements, employment records. Details on the seminars they ran. Contracts with outside catering and laundry services. Lots of information on Cornelius Green. They even knew about his tattoos. A gold mine, basically.’

‘Details of the students attending their courses?’

‘No,’ Poe said. ‘That bit was missing. I think the bishop saw them as victims.’

‘OK. You had your file; you had your marching orders, and you had the bishop’s card should you run into difficulties. What did you do next?’

‘I went to see if my Bugger Rumble trap had been sprung.’

‘And had it?’

‘Oh yes,’ Poe said.

Chapter 28

They left the cathedral to find Linus leaning against the bonnet of Poe’s car. In his tailored suit, he stood out like a pube on an egg. Poe sighed. This was one of those occasions when he’d hoped he was going to be wrong. ‘Where’s my coffee, Snoopy?’ he said.

‘Youditchedme?’ Linus said. ‘What are you, ten years old?’

‘How’d you find us?’

Linus ignored him. Instead, he gazed at the cathedral and said, ‘I kind of feel this is wasted here. That it should be in London where it can be properly appreciated.’

Poe, who was rude about Carlisle on an almost daily basis, bridled anyway. ‘I asked how you found us.’

Linus shrugged. ‘Where else could you be? After I’d checked you hadn’t simply gone to the bishop’s house without me, this was the obvious choice.’

‘Really?’ Poe said. ‘There are two hundred and forty parishes across Cumbria, the diocesan office is in Penrith and there are hundreds of pubs and restaurants we could have been meeting in. Yet you came straight to the cathedral. So, I’ll ask again: how did you know where we were?’

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