The Puppet Show (Washington Poe)

‘Damn straight,’ Poe said without cracking a smile. It had been the first time she’d really smiled. When she did, her face was transformed.

After they talked about her SCAS work, they discussed her time at Oxford. It was a one-sided conversation; Poe didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Maths had ended for him as soon as they replaced numbers with letters. It was clear Flynn had been right, though. Bradshaw was an asset. She had an in-depth understanding of all their profiling disciplines but her real strength was being able to devise bespoke solutions as and when they were required. Flynn had told him it was her program that arranged the slash wounds into his name. He thanked her. She’d probably saved his life.

She blushed.

‘Why are you called Washington, Poe?’ she said minutes later. She smiled shyly when she realised what she’d said. She rephrased it. ‘Poe, why is your first name Washington?’

‘Don’t know. Ask me another,’ Poe replied.

‘Why does no one like you?’ she said.

Poe glanced at her. She wasn’t being rude. She didn’t seem to understand the concept of small talk; if she asked you something, it was because she wanted to know the answer. ‘Boy, you just come right out and say things, don’t you?’

‘I’m sorry, Poe,’ she mumbled. ‘DI Stephanie Flynn says I have to work on my people skills.’

‘It’s fine, Tilly. It’s refreshingly honest, actually,’ he said, keeping his eyes on the road as he overtook a lorry. ‘And I didn’t realise I was that unpopular.’

‘Oh, yes. I listened to Deputy Director of Intelligence Justin Hanson and Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn talking about you.’

‘Deputy Director Hanson blames me for not getting promoted,’ he said.

‘Why is that, Poe?’

‘A lot of people didn’t want me investigating Peyton Williams, Tilly. He was an MP’s aide, and Deputy Director Hanson, along with some other senior managers, were terrified of causing a scandal. If they’d listened to me in the first place, Peyton Williams wouldn’t be dead.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I don’t care for Deputy Director Justin Hanson too much. I think he’s mean.’

‘You’ve got that right,’ Poe said. ‘And anyway, you couldn’t have heard them this morning. Even I couldn’t hear what they were saying and I was nearer DI Flynn’s office than you were.’

‘Not this morning,’ she said. ‘I was in Conference Room B with Deputy Director Justin Hanson, DI Stephanie Flynn and Director Edward van Zyl when I was showing them the MSCT data. After a while, I think they forgot I was there.’

Poe said nothing. He glanced in the rear-view mirror again. Flynn had woken up. Her eyes were red and gritty. Car sleep was never as satisfying as bed sleep.

Bradshaw turned in her seat and said, ‘You don’t like Poe do you, DI Stephanie Flynn?’

‘What are you talking about, Tilly!’ she exclaimed. She looked worried, though. ‘Of course I like Sergeant Poe.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I thought when Director Edward van Zyl said that the Serious Crime Analysis Section needed Poe because he had an “encyclopaedic understanding of serial killers”, and you said, “But a microscopic understanding of not being a dickhead, sir”, it was because you didn’t like him?’

Poe laughed so hard, hot coffee jetted out of his nostrils.

‘Tilly!’ Flynn said, mortified.

‘What?’

‘You should never repeat private discussions.’

‘Oh.’

‘That wasn’t a nice thing to say. About either of us,’ Flynn said.

Bradshaw’s bottom lip began to quiver and Poe jumped in. ‘Don’t worry about it, Tilly. Being liked is overrated.’

She smiled. ‘That’s good, because no one likes me either.’

He turned to see if she was joking. She wasn’t.

Bradshaw turned to look out of the window. The conversation was over.