Page 34 of The Mercy Chair

‘Can I go now, Sergeant Poe?’ Bugger Rumble asked. ‘It’s about to rain.’

‘Yeah, you get away, Bugger. I’ll bring Tilly for a chat when all this has finished. You have my word.’

After the happy tramp had disappeared, Linus said, ‘I’m not your enemy, Sergeant Poe.’

‘But you’re not my friend either, are you?’

‘It seems we might have got off on the wrong foot.’

‘And I suppose now that you and the other covert bellend have had your trousers pulled down by a man so conspicuous he wears a top hat, you want to do what – pool resources?’

‘I was going to suggest mutual cooperation.’

‘And why should we do that?’

‘Because it’s the right thing to do.’

Poe considered that for a moment. ‘OK then, you can start this mutual cooperation by answering this question: what exactly is MI5’s interest in Cornelius Green?’

Chapter 30

‘Whatwastheir interest?’ Doctor Lang asked.

‘I’ve worked with the security services before,’ Poe explained. ‘Their definition of cooperation isn’t found in any dictionary you or I have on our bookshelves. You’ve heard the phrase “Eat like a bird, shit like an elephant”?’

She smiled. ‘I have. It means spreading knowledge liberally.’

‘Well, MI5’s phrase might as well be, “Eat like an elephant, shit like an egg-bound ant”. As far as information goes, they’re a black hole – they consume everything in their gravity well and don’t let anything out.’

‘Linus didn’t cooperate?’

‘To be honest, I don’t think he knewwhyhe’d been asked to monitor the investigation.’

‘He didn’t?’

‘That’s the impression he gave anyway. As soon as he realised his cover story had sprung a leak, he was able to disclose who he really worked for. He told us he had only been with the security services for a couple of years and was relatively junior.’

‘Maybe their interest was in the Children of Job. If they were as extreme as the bishop painted them, they’re bound to be on a list somewhere.’

‘Which is exactly what Tilly and I thought,’ Poe said. ‘We assumed they’d taken the opportunity to piggyback on a legitimate police investigation. Have a root around and see if there was anything they needed to be concerned about.’

‘But that’snotwhy he was there?’

Poe shook his head. He waited before he replied. The pain was still too raw. ‘No, Linus was there for something else entirely.’

‘Oh?’

‘We’ll get to it later, if you don’t mind, Doctor Lang. If I tell you now, it won’t make sense.’

‘I’m a passenger on this story, Washington. You tell it any way you want.’

‘Thank you,’ Poe said. ‘Anyhow, I called Detective Super-intendent Nightingale and updated her. I couldn’t share the contents of the file, obviously, but I told her what I could. I then rang DI Flynn and told her about Linus and asked her to do some digging.’

‘And then what?’

‘It was raining. I went home.’

Chapter 31

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