Chapter 63
‘OK,’Poe said. ‘Let’s say Henning Stahlisfit to meet with you; I assume you have a plan?’
‘I’ll call with a location. We’ll be meeting at eleven a.m. the day after tomorrow.’
‘That’s a Sunday.’
‘It is.’
‘We’re meeting in London, I assume?’
‘The most surveilled city in the world? I hardly think so. No, you’ll need to get in your cars and head north.’
‘And where do we stop?’
‘You stop when you get home, Sergeant Poe,’ the Botanist said. ‘I’ll be meeting Henning Stahl in Cumbria.’
The phone went dead.
‘Tilly?’ Poe said. ‘Anything?’
She shook her head.
‘He’s using a different phone each time and he either calls from a high-population area or somewhere very rural. I can tell you he’s just called from Covent Garden, but we can’t narrow it down any more than that.’
‘Why the hell does he want to meet in Cumbria?’ Poe said. ‘And what did he mean when he said, “So I gather,” when I told him I was working on another case?’
‘Perhaps he’s watching you,’ Mathers said.
‘Why?’
‘No idea,’ she shrugged. ‘We can talk about this later but right now I need to let Cumbria know we’ll be operating in their area on Sunday. Anyone I should speak to up there? We could do with an ally.’
‘Detective Superintendent Jo Nightingale,’ Flynn said. ‘We’ve worked with her before and she’s good. She’ll help if she can.’
Mathers nodded her thanks and left the room.
‘I suppose I’d better go and collect Henning Stahl,’ Poe said. ‘Meet back in the hotel bar?’
‘Is that wise?’ Flynn said. ‘What if he relapses?’
‘After a day?’
‘We’re cutting his treatment short, Poe.’
‘I’ll speak to his doctors. See what we can and can’t do.’
‘And ask them if he’s still pissing the bed every night,’ she said. ‘If he is, I’m buying him a multipack of TENA adult nappies.’