Mathers stared at the diagram. Read everything again. ‘I think you’re right, Poe,’ she said. ‘I’ll still need to inform CTC, but I’ll ask to stay in charge. Now, what was it you wanted to speak to me about?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘When I rang, you said you were about to call me.’
‘Beck has a second passport, in the name of Stuart Rich. Used it to fly to Rome. He could have got new papers in Italy, which would have allowed him to travel anywhere he wanted.’
‘Well, isn’t today the day that keeps on giving?’ Mathers sighed. ‘You’ll email me the details?’
‘Tilly already has. And why don’t you head home for a few hours? Nothing is going to happen right now, and we need you fresh …’ He trailed away.
‘What is it, Poe?’
Poe had been watching one of the CSIs photographing the carpet. He had assumed it was a stain of some kind, but after she had recorded the carpet from a number of angles, she plucked something from the weave with a pair of forensic tweezers. Poe strained his eyes to see what it was. Tweezers were only used when something was too small to be picked up by hand. And if it was that small, it might not be part of the manufactured scene.
‘What’s that?’ he asked.
‘A couple of bits of thread,’ the CSI replied. ‘Probably nothing, but they looked a bit out of place as the carpet is blue. Maybe he walked it in.’
They were cotton. One thread was white, the other was red. They were about four inches long.
And they looked familiar.
Nothing recent, but he’d seen threads like them before. Snatches of memory resurfaced. A detail from years ago, nibbling at the edges of his memory. He cast his mind back to his army days. He thought that was where the answer was.
‘What is it, Poe?’ Mathers asked again.
Poe ignored her. ‘Can I smell them, please?’ he asked the CSI tech.
‘Smell them?’
‘Yes.’
The tech looked at Mathers for confirmation. Mathers shrugged then nodded. She held out the tweezers.
Poe leaned in and took a deep breath. His eyes snapped open. ‘Cricket bats,’ he said.
A huge piece of the puzzle had just dropped into place.
And someone he cared about was in imminent danger.