Chapter 74

One of the problems with juice and smoothie bars was that however much they dressed it up, they really only served fruit and vegetables. It didn't matter that the ingredients had been blended, put in a cup and served with a soggy cardboard straw, it was still a gunky mess of unpalatable leafy greens and unbearably sour or sickeningly sweet fruits. Ingredients supermarkets wouldn't put on the same aisles were forced together then given misleading names such as Liquid Sunshine and Endless Summer.

But the main problem was that for a supposedly fast and convenient food, smoothie and juice bars were slow and inconvenient. Poe reckoned he and Linus had been waiting for fifteen minutes. And, to make matters worse, the place Bradshaw had sent them no longer did milkshakes. The teenager behind the counter had offered Poe frozen yoghurt instead, to which Poe had replied, ‘I'd rather piss in my shoes.'

While they waited Linus said, ‘You seem to have a lot of these little "life battles", Poe.'

‘What battles?'

‘Well, this one for a start. All you had to do was say no thanks to the frozen yoghurt. Instead, it became a whole big thing. I'd be surprised if they don't spit in our smoothies.'

‘And I'd be surprised if you noticed,' Poe said.

Linus smiled. ‘She's like a machine, isn't she?' he said.

‘Who, Tilly?'

‘Yes.'

‘Only in that she won't get bored,' Poe replied. ‘By every other metric Tilly's far superior. She'll think her way around problems, spot patterns and make connections that even the most advanced computer never could.'

‘But you don't think she'll crack this one, do you?' Linus said. He looked disappointed.

‘The problem is, it'll be something low-tech,' Poe replied. ‘Cornelius Green tattooed himself and he tattooed Nathan Rose and that means it's likely the alphanumeric string is something he came up with. He didn't own a computer and he lived a simple life. That means if it is his code, he came up with it using a pencil and a piece of paper. And as Tilly says, human brains aren't capable of generating random numbers. If he had tried to come up with a secret squirrel code, she'd have figured it out within minutes.'

‘Which is why she's been sending you all over Cumbria tracking down random books.'

‘Exactly. Because if it isn't random, those alphanumeric strings meant something to Cornelius. Therefore, the more information she has – or frames of reference, or metadata, or whatever the hell else she calls it – the more likely it is that Cornelius's beliefs will align with her notes.'

‘So you think she will crack his code?'

‘I think she got rid of us both earlier because she had a theory she wanted to test.'

‘What? Why didn't she tell us?'

‘Because if she had, she'd have got bogged down explaining every little thing. We'd have asked endless questions, we'd have made suggestions, all of which she would have already considered, and all of which would slow her down.'

Linus checked his watch. He craned his neck to check the status of their smoothie order. ‘I assume we're heading straight back?'

‘Why would we? I haven't got my pie yet.'

‘But if Tilly—'

‘She'll call if she has something.'

The teenager plonked Poe's order down on the counter. The smoothies were in tall, clear plastic cups and were a sort of olive-green colour. Flea-sized black seeds, the kind you were still finding in your teeth three months later, were suspended in the thick gloopy mixture. Poe took a ten-pound note from his wallet and placed it on the counter. ‘Sorry about earlier,' he said. ‘Keep the change.'

‘That will be sixteen pounds, sir,' the young woman said.

‘Jesus,' Poe muttered. He put the tenner back in his wallet and put a twenty down. ‘OK, keep the change now then.'

‘Ooh, now I can afford that new iPhone.'

Linus sniggered. ‘Serves you right,' he said to Poe on the way out.