Page 6 of The Mercy Chair

‘You accepted, obviously?’

‘I love her,’ Poe said. ‘We haven’t been together that long, but I think I’ve loved her for years. I didn’t realise on account of her being so terrifying. We toasted it with some beer she’d chilled in one of the mortuary’s cadaver fridges.’ He paused. Looked at Doctor Lang’s incredulous expression. ‘Like you said, it was an unconventional proposal.’

‘So where was she? Why were you on your own?’

‘Estelle was in the States.’

‘For work? I understand she’s one of the world’s foremost forensic pathologists.’

‘She is, but she wasn’t in America to work. She was there to support Tilly.’

Doctor Lang checked the file. Flicked through to the personal statements Bradshaw, Flynn and a few others had made. The ones he hadn’t bothered to read.

‘That would be Miss Bradshaw?’ she said. ‘I have her statement here.’ She started to read it. ‘Good grief, that’s a lot of letters after her name.’ She looked up. ‘She’s a friend?’

‘My best friend. She was being presented with a maths breakthrough award at some swanky ceremony in New York. Something to do with the Kissing Number Problem.’

‘I’m not familiar with it.’

‘Apparently, if a bunch of spheres are packed together, each sphere has a kissing number. That’s the number of other spheres it can touch. For example, in a one-dimensional line, the kissing number would be two. Each sphere could kiss the one on its left and the one on its right, like if snooker balls were lined up against the cushion. And in two dimensions it’s six.’

‘That doesn’t seem too complicated.’

‘The kissing number for the twenty-fourth dimension is 196,560.’

‘OK, that sounds a bit more complicated.’

‘Indeed. And Tilly’s equation was for the twenty-eighthdimension,’ Poe said. ‘I was with her when she wrote it. Took her about half an hour.’

‘She’s good at maths then?’

‘I’m not exaggerating when I say she might be one of the best there’s ever been.’

‘Did you not fancy going with her?’

‘I’d have loved to.’

‘Then why—’

‘I was giving evidence in a murder trial. Absolutely no way of getting out of it. Neither could the boss.’

‘Detective Inspector Flynn?’

‘Yes. She was at the same trial so couldn’t get away either. Tilly had never been abroad before. Never even been on a plane. She asked Estelle if she wanted to go with her.’

‘OK, so you’re in the pub and Estelle calls. What happened next?’

Chapter 4

‘You at the airport yet?’ Poe asked Doyle after they’d caught up with each other’s news.

‘We checked in a couple of hours ago. Boarding in twenty minutes.’

‘How was Tilly’s speech?’

‘Weird.’

‘Thank you, Captain Obvious.’

---