‘Kind of you,’ Poe said.
‘The second reason for your involvement was that I didn’t have a clue who the last man was. He’d not given his name to anyone other than Carmichael. I knew my best chance of identifying him would be to set you loose.’
Jesus . . .
He hadn’t thought about it like that. His discovery of the bank statement had given Reid Montague Price’s identity. Poe might as well have killed him himself. Although it was hard to feel sympathy for someone who’d been complicit in the rape and murder of children, Poe knew he’d made a mistake. He’d been Reid’s puppet.
‘By then, Price had already gone to ground. During the raid I planted evidence at his home to ensure Gamble made him suspect number one and started a national search. I was confident that when he was caught, he’d have solid alibis and make bail. And as soon as he did that, he’d be mine. All I had to do was wait.’
‘But he didn’t get caught. He handed himself in and tried to make a deal.’
‘And that meant Hilary Swift’s charade of not being on the boat would come to an end and she’d be arrested as well.
With them both in custody, neither of them would get bail because the full story would start to come out. Using the van, I had a contingency plan to abduct one person from custody, but it was a trick that wouldn’t work twice.’
‘You needed to get to Swift before Price talked.’
‘Before we left Shap Wells for Seven Pines, I called my . . . accomplice and told him to get on the road. He knew the address. By that time, I had the dosages bang on. I made the drinks and I gave Swift a smaller dose. I wanted her drowsy but awake. My accomplice came in, took Swift, then went back for the kids.’
‘And half an hour later we woke up. She was gone, and you were a victim just as much as I was,’ Poe finished for him. It was genius, really.
‘Which gave me a little bit of breathing space. I knew you were close, though, and the way Tilly had the board laid out in Shap Wells was exactly how you’d figure it out. That fucking money-laundering law – I knew that if the van was ever identified as the abduction vehicle its paper trail would be my undoing, but the rewards of having it outweighed the risks. I’m assuming that’s how you put everything together?’
‘The Sunday abduction. There wasn’t a special court on and prison transfers are strictly Monday to Friday.’
‘Jesus, you’re a clever bastard, Poe, you really are. And with the van, you got me? That was quick work. I thought it would have taken you longer to track down who’d bought them. GU had put nearly two hundred vehicles on the market over the last couple of years and you didn’t have the van’s original registration number.’
‘It wasn’t just the van,’ Poe said.
‘Oh?’ Reid said.
‘You never take your jacket off.’
‘I never take my . . . ?’ he said, before it dawned on him what Poe meant. For several moments he said nothing. The tears that had dried began running again. ‘My scars.’
‘In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never seen your arms. Not once,’ Poe said. He had almost everything now. But . . . there was still something he wasn’t being told. Everything Reid had said could have been said by phone or sent via email. For some reason he wanted Poe here.
‘You said you had three reasons for involving me, Kylian,’ Poe said. ‘So far you’ve only mentioned two. What’s the third?’
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Reid stared at Poe with a ferocious intensity. ‘I need to ask you something first, Poe. And I need you to be honest.’
‘I’ve nothing to hide,’ Poe replied.
‘You sure?’
Poe hesitated. ‘I’m sure.’
‘What happened with the Peyton Williams case?’
‘You know what happened!’ he snapped.
‘That DI of yours asked me, you know? Wanted to know why you hadn’t stayed to fight the charges. Why you were just lying down and letting everyone fuck you over.’
‘And what did you tell her?’ Poe said, his voice less sure.
‘I told her that you were struggling to come to terms with having made a mistake that cost a man his life.’