The Puppet Show (Washington Poe)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Poe was reading about the third murder – Michael James, the South Lakes councillor who’d died two weeks ago with Poe’s name carved into his chest – when he came across a document that made him laugh out loud. It had been written by one of the detective sergeants on the case and he was the only man who could get away with describing the smell at the crime scene as having a ‘miasmatic quality’ to it.

He was one of life’s clowns but he was also one of the most intelligent men Poe had ever met. The type of man who could win a game of Connect Four in three moves. His name was Kylian Reid and he was also the only real friend Poe had in Cumbria. They’d met in their early teens and had been close ever since. He felt a pang of guilt he hadn’t looked him up since he got back; he’d been so wrapped up in his own problems it hadn’t occurred to him. Saying that, he and Reid had known each other a long time and had far too much history for them to ever really fall out. Poe borrowed Flynn’s phone and opened the dictionary app. He typed in miasmatic. It meant noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter. He wondered how many people before him had been forced to do the same. It was Reid all over. Getting one over on senior managers by making them feel stupid. No wonder he was still a sergeant.

Things were looking better if they were going to be working together again. Poe picked up the rest of the file and read on.

After the second victim had been found and SCAS were called in, Flynn’s name began to appear in reports. The second victim also started a media race to name the killer. In the end – as they always did in matters like this – the red tops won with ‘Immolation Man’.

He finished his first readthrough and put down the file on the rear seats. He closed his eyes and rolled his neck. He’d read the file again soon, every document. Get it imprinted on his memory. The first time was simply to get a flavour of what he was dealing with. SCAS were rarely called in immediately, so reviewing files like they were cold cases was an important skill. They weren’t just looking at the evidence; they were looking for mistakes the investigating teams had made.

Flynn noticed he’d finished reading and said, ‘Thoughts?’

Poe knew he was being tested. He’d been away for a year – she and van Zyl needed to know he was still up to the job.

‘The circles and the immolations are probably a dead end. They’ll mean something to the killer but we won’t find out what until after he’s caught. He has an idea of what he wants but he’s happy to change if the reality doesn’t live up to the fantasy.’

‘How so?’

‘The first victim was tortured, the others weren’t. For some reason, that didn’t do for him what he thought it would. So he stopped doing it.’

‘Michael James had your name carved onto his chest. Seems like torture to me.’

‘No, he put that on for a reason we don’t know yet. The pain he caused was incidental. Graham Russell’s pain was intentional.’

Flynn nodded for him to continue.

‘All the men are in the same age group and they’re all wealthy. You’ve found nothing to suggest they knew each other.’

‘You think he’s choosing them at random?’

Poe didn’t, but he wasn’t ready to say why yet. He needed more information. ‘He wants us to think he is.’

She nodded but said nothing.

‘And none of them were reported missing?’ Poe asked.

‘Nope. They all seemed to have genuine reasons to be away from home. It wasn’t until after they were killed that we discovered the lengths the Immolation Man went to make sure they wouldn’t be reported missing.’

‘How?’ Poe knew it was in the file but sometimes it was better to get an interpretation of the facts.

‘Graham Rus

sell’s car and passport were logged getting onto a ferry, and his family got emails saying he was holidaying in France. Joe Lowell sent his family texts from Norfolk saying he was staying with friends and he’d be shooting red-legged partridges until the season ended. Michael James lived on his own so wouldn’t have been immediately missed, but his computer history still showed he’d been planning a bespoke whisky tour of the Scottish Isles.’

‘So you can’t be sure when any of them were taken?’

‘Not really, no.’

He thought about what that meant and decided all it did was confirm what he already knew. The Immolation Man was well organised. He told Flynn.

‘How so? He leaves a chaotic crime scene.’

Poe shook his head. She was still testing him. ‘He’s in control at the crime scene. No improvisation. Everything he needs, he brings with him. No physical evidence at the abduction sites or the murder sites, and given that evidence transfer is inevitable and retrieval techniques have never been better, that’s remarkable. By the third victim there was a fair bit of surveillance on the stone circles, I gather?’

‘Most of them. The one at Long Meg had only just been lifted.’

‘So, he’s also surveillance aware,’ Poe said.