‘Any word on the search for Price?’
‘Only that he’s not where he normally is. TSG are still looking.’
‘And what about that bloke who knows him? We could do with someone saying whether it was Price’s voice on the hotline.’
Flynn shrugged.
‘All they told me was that he’s on his way.’
‘He went a bit off-script in the middle, didn’t he?’ Poe said. ‘Completely wigged out.’
‘Who?’ Flynn said. ‘The so-called Botanist? Just a bit.’
‘No, he didn’t,’ Bradshaw said.
‘No? What do you mean, no?’ Poe said. ‘He lost the bloody plot halfway through. I mean, no one likes millennials, but even I thought he was being a bit harsh on them.’
‘There were two distinct phases to the conversation, Poe. The first was when he responded to PC Griffiths’s questions. These were unrehearsed as he didn’t know what he was going to be asked. The second phase was what you call him “wigging out”. I believe he was in complete control in this part. Although it may appear tobe unstructured and spontaneous, I would be very surprised if he hadn’t been reading directly from a script.’
‘How can you tell?’
‘I’ve reduced the ambient noise and listened to his speech pattern. In the first section it was free flowing, but in the shouty bit there were regular pauses. Almost immeasurable, but I have a program that can spot them.’
‘Pauses?’
‘The kind of pause you get when reading from a page. When the eye has to move from the end of one line to the start of the line below, there’s a tiny delay as the eye moves from right to left.’
‘Why would he read from a script though?’ Flynn said.
Poe considered it, but only for a moment. ‘To give the appearance of someone who isn’t in full control,’ he said.
‘That’s concerning.’
‘Very.’
A knock on the door made them all turn. A tall, beady man had entered the room. He was in plainclothes but was clearly a police officer. Cops looked like cops even when wearing a bear outfit at a fancy-dress party.
‘Ah, you must be the person who’s going to tell us if it was Brian Price who called the hotline earlier?’ Flynn said.
‘No, ma’am,’ he said. ‘IamBrian Price. I heard you were looking for me.’