Chapter 69

‘Is it a new tattoo or is it one of Cornelius Green's, Tilly?' Poe asked. He had Cornelius's tattoos in his notebook, but Bradshaw retained information like a NASA computer.

‘CSM.12.R2.CL is one of Cornelius's six tattoos, Poe,' she replied.

‘I doubt Nathan did this to himself, not on the sole of his foot. When we check the writing against Cornelius's, I'd be very surprised if it isn't the same.'

‘It is the same writing, Poe. The angle-step, size and spacing are identical. I would need to examine both samples side-by-side, of course, but my field analysis is that they're a match.'

Poe nodded. ‘And when Estelle strips him for the post-mortem, what's the betting we'll find the other five tattoos?'

‘I don't imagine we will, Poe.'

‘You don't? What makes you say that?'

‘Because there were six self-penned tattoos on Cornelius Green's body and we uncovered six undocumented conversion therapy courses. I believe the tattoo on Nathan Rose's foot relates to the specific course he attended.'

‘Like a course code?'

‘Yes, Poe.'

Poe glanced down at Nathan Rose's corpse. ‘Maybe it's a reminder of what he went through,' he said. ‘A permanent elastic band.'

‘I don't understand that reference, Poe.'

‘Neither do I,' Linus said from behind him.

Linus had sat with Virginia Rose until the police arrived. Now specialist officers were with her, he had nothing left to do. Poe wanted to get away but Superintendent Nightingale had asked him to wait until she arrived.

‘It's sometimes used with addictive behaviour,' Poe said. ‘The user wears an elastic band on their wrist and when they have a craving, they stretch it and let it snap back. It's a distraction technique for intrusive thoughts.'

‘What good's a distraction technique on the sole of the foot though?' Linus asked. ‘He wouldn't have been able to see it.'

‘You make a good point,' Poe admitted. ‘But once you have a tattoo, you always have a tattoo. It's part of you.' He slapped his right bicep. ‘I have a tattoo here and even though I can't see it, I know it's there. Perhaps that was enough.'

‘I don't think that's it, Poe,' Bradshaw said. ‘If it was a distraction tattoo, why is it a seemingly random collection of numbers and letters? Why is it not something motivational? Or, given the rich pickings in the Old Testament, why not have a Bible passage like Leviticus 18:22, which says homosexuality is a "detestable sin"? We know from Cornelius Green's profile that he held these extreme views.'

‘You make a good point as well,' Poe said. ‘So why are the tattoos so ambiguous?'

A high-pitched wailing noise cut through their whispered conversation. Poe wondered if Superintendent Nightingale was downstairs now. Under circumstances like this it was procedure for the senior investigating officer to inform the next of kin that the paramedics had confirmed death.

‘Poor woman,' Poe said. ‘She was quietly leading her life the best way she knew how, and we turn up and smash her world to pieces.'

‘You had to ask those questions,' Linus said.

‘I didn't have to ask them the way I did though, Snoopy. I shouldn't have read Bethany's journal on the way here. I wasn't in the right frame of mind for an interview like this. I should have postponed it.'

‘I agree with Linus, Poe,' Bradshaw said. ‘We couldn't possibly have known something like this would happen.'

‘But—'

‘How many times have you told me that investigating murder isn't a nine-to-five job?'

‘I don't know. Twice maybe?'

‘Twenty-six times.'

‘That many?'

Bradshaw nodded.

‘I need a new saying then,' Poe said.

‘At least it's better than your black pudding saying,' she said. ‘That makes no sense and it's kinda gross. No wonder your doctor—'

‘That's enough, Tilly,' Poe said, clipping her sentence. Superintendent Nightingale had joined them on the landing.

‘Poe, can I have a word?' she said. She walked into the bedroom from which Bradshaw had called the emergency services. Poe followed her.

‘You need to leave,' she said.

He didn't need to ask why. ‘Mrs Rose is blaming me?' he said.

‘She is. She said you were antagonistic towards her and her husband from the moment you arrived. Your interview was aggressive and it brought up too many painful memories for her husband to cope with. That it should have been done more sensitively. She claims he hanged himself as a direct result of how you spoke to him.'

‘He also took off a shoe and one of his socks so we wouldn't miss that he had one of those alphanumeric tattoos.'

Nightingale's eyes widened. ‘He has one as well?'

Poe nodded. ‘And it matches one of Cornelius's.'

‘What the hell's going on?' she whispered.

‘Tilly has a theory,' he said quietly. ‘She thinks the six tattoos on Cornelius were bespoke codes for the six courses. We know Nathan Rose's course was one-to-one conversion therapy because he told us before he hanged himself, so it's safe to assume the other five were as well. Tilly thinks, after each course had finished, the course code was tattooed on both Cornelius and the attendee. If the post-mortem shows Nathan has just the one tattoo, I think she's probably right.'

Nightingale considered it carefully. After a few moments she said, ‘What possible reason could there be for that?'

Poe shrugged. ‘No idea, but decoding those tattoos is what I'm working on from now on.'

‘And when you say you—'

‘I mean Tilly, yes.'

‘Good,' she nodded. ‘Didn't you say Israel Cobb had those tattoos?'

‘I only saw them briefly, but I think they were the same.'

‘And you don't want to re-interview him?'

‘I don't think I'll get anything more from him,' Poe said. ‘He stormed off last time.'

‘I'll send one of my guys round tomorrow. We can't not try.'

Poe nodded. ‘We'll get away,' he said. ‘All I'm doing here is causing Mrs Rose distress.'

Nightingale moved aside to let him pass. As he did, she said, ‘She says you made a joke about Jesus?'

Poe said nothing.

‘I told her she must have been mistaken.'

‘She wasn't,' Poe said. ‘She overheard me talking to Linus.'

‘Shit, Poe,' Nightingale said. ‘She said it was a sign of deliberate disrespect and indicative of how you conducted yourself this evening. I can't protect you if she wants to take it further.'

‘Nor would I ask you to, ma'am.'

Nightingale sighed. ‘What a bloody mess.'

Poe glanced at Nathan Rose's corpse then across at Linus. The man from London was furiously typing into his tablet. ‘In more ways than one, I suspect,' he replied.