The Puppet Show (Washington Poe)

That didn’t stop him preparing. He decided that to give himself the best chance of succeeding, he would join Cumbria police. George had been wary – he’d wanted Reid to join him at his practice – but Victoria encouraged it; she thought that by helping others it could form another stage of the healing process. He planned to dedicate himself to passing the detective’s exam, then get attached to major crimes. And once there, he’d make sure he stayed. Poe often wondered why Reid had refused to go on the inspector’s course or to consider more interesting roles, but this explained it: he’d planned to be in the middle of his own investigation, subtly steering it in the direction he wanted, staying ahead of the hunting pack.

Gamble hadn’t stood a chance.

Poe had attended Victoria Reid’s funeral, and although hindsight gives you twenty-twenty vision, he remembered Reid showing steely determination rather than the grief he’d expected. Instead of something more sinister, he’d put it down to watching someone you love waste away in front of your eyes, and having mentally prepared for their death many months ago.

‘Did you know the men involved?’ Poe asked.

‘Only Russell. I wanted to take him and force the rest of the names out of him but I opted for caution. I wasn’t ready. Ideally I’d have liked another year.’

‘But then Carmichael’s body was discovered . . .’

‘That was my starting pistol. If I’d left something on the body that could identify him – although by then his children had done a bang-up job of convincing everyone he’d died abroad – the other men involved might have taken precautions. I needn’t have worried. Carmichael’s identity was never discovered. Not until you turned up.’

‘So you started earlier than you wanted to?’

‘There were some things I did immediately. Buying the vehicles and some other equipment. I needed somewhere to work. My dad had told me about this place. Said it hadn’t been farmed for years. I’d stolen some paperwork when I investigated a burglary a few months before I started, and I’d applied for a passport in case I needed formal ID for anything. I used it to lease this place, and paid cash for a year.’

So that’s why Bradshaw couldn’t find it. The farm wasn’t in his name.

‘When I was as ready as I could be, I went live.’

‘You abducted Graham Russell?’

‘And with a little persuasion he gave up everyone except Montague Price, who’d never used his own name. Only Carmichael knew his real identity and he’d been dead for over twenty-five years. I didn’t find out Price’s name until you uncovered that bank statement. By then he’d worked out what was happening and was in hiding.’

It explained why it was only Russell’s body that had the additional signs of torture.

‘And then I went to work on finding them.’

‘How long did it—?’

‘Not long. I killed Graham Russell to ensure a major investigation was launched. It gave me every excuse I needed to look in databases that would have earlier raised suspicions. I found them quickly and compiled dossiers on them all. One by one, I abducted them.’

‘How?’

‘Come on, Poe, you know how easily a police badge opens a door. A cup of tea while we discussed their security, a good dose of propofol and into the van they went. It was easy.’

Murder was easy if you were organised and knew what you were doing. It was the unorganised killers who got caught. ‘What about George, though? He’s no psychopath; he wouldn’t have had truck with this. Not unless you forced him.’

‘George? You think George had something to do with a

ll this?’

‘You didn’t do this on your own, Kylian. You had an accomplice.’ He said it as a fact. He pointed at the van and the lorry. ‘And it was the Scafell Veterinary Group that bought these vehicles.’

‘My father died over a year ago, Poe. Opened a book one night and never got to the end. I guess he just wasn’t as interested in living after Victoria died. He had nothing to do with any of this.’

Poe said nothing.

‘It’s possible I forgot to report his death,’ Reid added.

‘I’m sorry.’ And he was; George had been a good man.

Reid cleared his throat and Poe knew he was struggling to hold it together. ‘I buried him on these moors, Poe. It’s not far from here. I’ve marked the grave with a simple cairn. The PM will show when and how he died. Other than me using his company as infrastructure, George wasn’t involved in any way.’

‘You didn’t do this on your own, though,’ Poe said. He had been saddened when he thought George had been assisting a serial killer. He was relieved. But everything did point to an accomplice. If not George, then who?

‘No, I didn’t. I did have help. But the “who” isn’t important and I won’t discuss it now. Just so you have peace of mind, though, I’ve included the information with the evidence in the four-cell van.’