Chapter 112
‘Youknow him?’ Poe said.
Doyle nodded.
‘I’ve known him a while,’ she said. ‘Long enough to know he prefers Frederick to Fred, and that hehatesFreddie.’
‘Where did you meet him?’
‘Conferences mainly. We always seemed to be competing for funding at the same time. I admired him, but, like everyone else, I didn’t like him. He was singularly obsessed with researching acquired Breeg–Bart syndrome. Nothing else mattered to him.’
‘Which fits with Tilly’s profile,’ Poe said. ‘She concluded that Beck had devoted his entire life to curing his wife. After the newspaper article made it impossible for him to continue his research, it was as if the whole world was conspiring to kill her. When she eventually succumbed, it pushed him into a cycle of destruction. Turned him into the narcissist we’re dealing with now. It also explains why he chose to meet Henning Stahl in Chance’s Park instead of a more suitable location. He’d have known there was a Breeg–Bart fund-raising run that day.’
‘I’d like to see the profile.’
‘Tilly will print one off for—’
‘The link to Douglas Salt’s surgery is live now,’ Bradshaw cut in, pointing at the image on her laptop.
Bradshaw and Flynn sat in front of the laptop, Henning Stahl, Poe and Doyle were standing. They all had a good view.
Mathers was the only non-medical person in the theatre. She had been allowed to set up fixed cameras. One of them was directly above Salt’s pale, hairless belly. Another showed the whole theatre.Poe reckoned there were close to twenty people in there. Doctor Mukherjee wasn’t taking any chances.
‘Do we have audio, Tilly?’ Poe asked.
She nodded and dragged her mouse across a sound bar at the bottom of the screen. Doctor Mukherjee spoke first.
‘I will now make the midline incision,’ he said. And he did.
Bradshaw paled. ‘I think I’ll print off that profile now,’ she said.