Chapter 95

‘Worse?' Doctor Lang said. ‘Worse than watching an execution by stoning?'

Poe held up his hands. Kept four fingers down on his left. ‘Six executions,' he said. ‘And only two of them were death by stoning. Israel was right when he said four of the boys couldn't be compelled to murder, even under the threat of more torture.'

‘How did the men die then? Cornelius couldn't have let them go.'

‘I'll get to that.'

‘Do you want to talk about what you saw?'

‘No, but I will. It's important you understand. Without the context of what was on those videos, you won't truly understand the horror of what happened afterwards.'

‘Shall I call for more tea first?' she said. ‘I don't know what the time is, but we must have been talking for a good couple of hours.'

‘A cup of tea would be nice,' Poe said. ‘You stay there; I'll go and find someone. I could do with stretching my legs.'

Ten minutes later they were drinking lukewarm tea again. At least the orderly had brought a plate of biscuits this time. Poe grabbed a handful. He waited until he had finished eating before he spoke. He was about to describe people being murdered; it didn't seem right to do that while he was dunking a custard cream.

‘Israel Cobb told me that Cornelius had trawled the streets of Manchester and Newcastle and Glasgow searching for the homeless, the drug addicts,' Poe said. ‘He was looking for people who wouldn't be missed. Israel claimed he'd only ever picked up gay men, but I thought, given what was about to happen to them, Cornelius probably just focused on the weak and the vulnerable. Ignored their sexuality.'

Poe took a swig of tea. It was already cold.

‘I put this to Israel and he recoiled in horror,' he continued. ‘He said, "Cornelius would never do that." Apparently Cornelius genuinely believed they were doing God's work; taking shortcuts would have damned them all to hell.'

Doctor Lang snorted in derision.

‘Obscene, isn't it?' Poe said. ‘Anyway, Israel played the videos in chronological order. The first was recorded in 2001, the second in 2003. I suspect they waited a couple of years between one and two to make sure they were going to get away with it. They then ran one course a year until Aaron Bowman's in 2007. Six in total.'

‘You don't need to tell me about them, Washington,' she said. ‘Not if you don't want to.'

‘To understand what I'm going through now, you have to understand what I went through then,' he said. ‘I think I need to tell you.'

Doctor Lang finished her tea and took a biscuit: a Jammie Dodger that had been hiding under a stale digestive.

‘OK, Washington,' she said, taking a bite and catching the crumbs in her cupped hand. ‘Like I said earlier, this is your story. You tell it the way that makes most sense to you. This isn't a case review – I'm here for you, and you alone. What's said in this room, stays in this room.'

‘This isn't pleasant,' Poe warned. ‘What about your mental health?'

She shrugged. ‘The difference is you'll be describing a memory; I'm just a conduit, little more than a voyeur. You remembering what happened without reliving what happened is how you get better, Washington. And you need to do that in a safe environment.' She gestured at their surroundings and smiled. ‘I think this is about as safe as you can get.'

So Poe talked.