‘You don’t think he’ll press charges?’
‘No idea. I’m just not worried. I’ve gone through it over and over again and I firmly believe it was the only option I had. Oliver Hartley-Graham might be clever and organised but at the end of the day he’s a contract killer. Taking him down was the only way to save the boss’s baby. It isn’t always, but my conscience is clear on this occasion.’
He didn’t add that there was another reason Hartley-Graham wouldn’t press charges, one Poe could only discuss with the person who’d hired him. It would happen soon, he hoped.
Nightingale nodded. ‘You’re a disobedient bastard, Poe, but the chief constable agrees – under the circumstances you had no choice. Cumbria won’t be seeking to press charges and, unless they receive a complaint, neither will the CPS.’
Director van Zyl had been in touch, too. He’d been calling about Flynn but he’d also told him that there would be no internal investigation on the actions he’d taken. When Poe had driven into the Walney Channel, jurisdiction was … unclear. It was a Cumbrian investigation so it was their case. But, an officer in the National Crime Agency had been in imminent danger and Poe had been within his rights to go to her aid. In the end common sense had prevailed and the whole thing was put down as a learning experience. Van Zyl and the chief constable would deliver a joint paper on it at a meeting they were attending in April.
‘If you’d waited for the tide to come in with the rest of us we’d have missed him by thirty minutes,’ Nightingale continued. ‘He and DI Flynn’s baby would have docked at the Isle of Man and caught a flight to mainland Europe. We wouldn’t have known where to start looking for him. We wouldn’t know what he looked like and we wouldn’t have had his name.’
Poe already knew this. Bradshaw had found Hartley-Graham’s private charter details and subsequent travel plans on his laptop. If he’d got off Montague Island he’d have been gone for ever.
‘Hey, guys, get over here,’ Bradshaw said. ‘Something’s happening.’
Hartley-Graham and his solicitor were having a heated argument. Notman looked to be reasoning with him. As best he could given his extensive injuries, Hartley-Graham was waving her away.
‘Looks like you’re on, Poe,’ Nightingale said.
Poe retook his seat. It was still warm.
The detective constable with him completed the formalities. It would be the last time she’d speak. Poe was in charge from now on.
‘I’d like to cooperate, Sergeant Poe,’ Hartley-Graham said.
Poe said nothing.
‘I have three conditions,’ he continued. ‘One, my solicitor is legally absolved from all consequences. This is my decision and she has advised against it.’
‘Noted,’ Poe said. ‘If Mrs Notman draws up the relevant paperwork, you can sign it before she leaves the building.’ He turned to the solicitor. ‘Is this acceptable?’
She nodded and visibly relaxed.
‘Two,’ Hartley-Graham said, ‘I’ll give you everything you want but I have to be prosecuted in this country.’
‘I’ll do everything I can to make sure you spend the rest of your life in a British prison,’ Poe said, ‘but if I think you’re lying, or lying by omission, I’ll take you to the bloody airport myself.’
‘Fair enough.’
‘What’s your third condition, Mr Hartley-Graham?’
He tried to smile. It came out as a grotesque grimace.
‘I want to know what I did wrong.’
‘The criminal who doesn’t make mistakes is yet to exist,’ Poe replied, ‘and you didn’t have the discipline to stay in role …’
Chapter 86
It’s sometimes the smallest thing that cracks a case.
Dennis Nilsen’s blocked drains.
The BTK Killer sending a traceable floppy disc to a television station.
The Son of Sam’s parking ticket …
Small mistakes, unimaginable consequences.