Jones began to get up out of her chair. The man gestured for her to stay sitting.
‘I am Detective Ronald Grant of the New Jersey State Police Force, and you, ma’am, are in a great deal of trouble,’ he announced.
Jones opened her mouth to again plead her innocence. Detective Grant, straightening with one hand a tasteful cream-and-brown striped silk tie which did not need to be straightened, didn’t give her the chance.
‘Right. I would like to know who you are, and what you were doing lurking around at a major crime scene?’
Almost gratefully Jones answered the first question, but found she had no proper answer to the second.
‘I just wanted to see it,’ she finished lamely.
‘Any particular reason?’
‘I worked with Constance Pike and Paul Ruders years ago. I... uh... I wanted to see for myself what had happened to them, what had happened to the lab.’
‘You came over from the UK specially?’
Jones considered lying. But she knew she wasn’t thinking clearly enough to successful maintain a lie.
‘Yes, I did.’
‘You were arrested just before five a.m.,’ Grant continued. ‘Funny time to be visiting a crime scene, wasn’t it?’
‘I couldn’t sleep,’ Jones replied, acutely aware of just how lame that sounded.
‘I see. So if your attentions were so innocent why did you resist arrest?’
‘I didn’t. Well, I didn’t mean to. I was just frightened. I wasn’t even sure it was police out there.’
‘You weren’t? But the officers identified themselves as police, did they not?’
‘No. I mean, I don’t know. They shouted “stop”. I couldn’t hear properly. Anyway, they weren’t regular cops, were they?’
Detective Grant did not answer that question.
‘Were you alone at the scene, ma’am?’ he asked instead.
‘Yes, I was.’
‘Our boys reported seeing someone else with you. Someone who ran away from the scene, in spite of warning shots being fired over their head.’
‘What?’ Jones was momentarily puzzled. ‘I don’t understand. I was alone.’ She fought to clear her head. ‘I heard the shots. I thought I was being fired at.’
Detective Grant’s ample chins wobbled. He was well over six feet tall and probably weighed getting on for twenty stone, Jones thought obliquely.
‘This is Princeton and we are the New Jersey State Police. It is part of our legislation that we do not shoot suspects, except in self-defence.’ Grant paused. A small smile played around his lips. ‘In any case, if our boys had been shooting at you, ma’am, you would not be sitting here with me. You would be dead.’
Jones’s throat, still sore from the spray, felt dry as dust. She gulped some air down. She was once more on the verge of panic. Her eyes continued to sting.
‘What did they do to me?’ she asked suddenly. ‘What was that stuff they sprayed in my face? I thought I was going to go blind.’
‘Oleoresin Capsicum, ma’am. Pepper spray. That’s all. Standard procedure when a suspect resists arrest. No danger of your sight being permanently harmed.’
Jones grunted. She wondered how Detective Grant would like to have the stuff thrown in his face.
‘Right,’ continued the detective. ‘Let’s get some answers, shall we? How exactly did you come to trip and fall this morning, ma’am? You tried to run, didn’t you? Just like whoever else was out there with you.’
‘No. I mean, yes. I started to run, but nobody was with me. I was startled. No, frightened. I heard footsteps close by, saw a shape. I didn’t know who it was. I didn’t realize it was a police officer.’ She paused. ‘Was it a police officer?’
Detective Grant looked down at his hands, two huge plates of pale pink meat clasped together on the table before him. Again he made no attempt to answer Jones’s question.
‘Ma’am, I have already informed you that it has been reported that someone else was with you when you were confronted. So please will you tell me who that was?’
‘Nobody was with me. I keep telling you. I mean, there was someone there, but I don’t know who the hell it was. Like I said, I was scared. I tried to get away. Only I fell, and the next thing I knew there was a knee in my back.’
‘So you couldn’t identify this other person?’
‘No. Absolutely not. I couldn’t see. I knew there was someone there, but I’ve no idea whether it was a man or a woman, even. Then, after I was arrested, I just assumed it had been another police officer, or somebody from whatever security forces were out there. But you’re telling me you don’t know who that person was either, isn’t that so?’
Jones felt shakier than ever. This interview seemed to be going in all the wrong directions. Detective Grant leaned back in his chair. The cream jacket strained against its central button. Grant undid the button and the jacket fell open, revealing his rotund belly. The chair creaked. Jones wondered if it might collapse under the strain. Grant frowned.
‘I’m not saying anything, ma’am. Just answer the questions please. Did you know anybody else at all who was involved in the explosion?’
‘No. I don’t think so. Not the other scientist who was named, anyway, and almost certainly not either of the injured students. It was a long time ago that I was at Princeton.’
‘So how exactly would you describe your relationship with Connie Pike and Paul Ruders?’
‘We are old friends.’
‘Are old friends?’
Dear God, these people were going to pick her up on everything.
‘Were old friends, I suppose. I haven’t got my head around that yet.’
‘And is that all?’
What on earth was the man getting at? Jones realized she really was going to have to get her act together, shake off her shock at what had happened to her. It was time she asserted herself.
‘Look, I’m a British National and I am also a leading academic and a television personality.’
She felt so stupid taking this line of approach, but she really didn’t know what else to do.
‘I am internationally known,’ she heard herself continue. ‘I really feel—’
‘Unfortunately, ma’am, you appear to have no proof of any of this, do you?’ Detective Grant interrupted. ‘You do not have your passport on you, nor any other identification.’
‘It’s all at the Nassau Inn. I checked in there last night. Nobody’s given me a chance to explain, for God’s sake. Why don’t you just let me go and fetch my stuff?’
‘I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere until your presence in Princeton has been fully investigated. I’ll send an officer round to the Nassau. Meanwhile would you please tell me when you arrived at Princeton?’
‘I got here yesterday evening. I only arrived in the States yesterday afternoon. I was on the other side of the Atlantic when the lab exploded, if that’s what you’re getting at. You can check airline records, can’t you? And I can give you the names of all kinds of people in the UK who will vouch for me, at my university and so on. Even the BBC for God’s sake. Surely you can contact them?’
‘We are in the process of making enquiries in the United Kingdom. These things take time. Meanwhile, I would like to know if there is anyone in Princeton who can confirm your identity.’
Jones thought first of all of Thomas Jessop, and straight away suggested him. There couldn’t, surely, be anyone much better to speak for her than the dean of the university.
‘I am afraid the dean isn’t here, ma’am. He was in hospital in New York having a minor operation at the time of the explosion, and I understand will not be discharged until tomorrow.’
Jones groaned. That only left Ed. And Jones was not at all sure she wanted to involve Ed in this, or even if he would allow himself to become involved.