Kim growled.
Bryant raised an eyebrow. ‘No offence, Guv, but ours is a potential suicide. Do you really think they’d send you if they had a choice?’
She turned to Jenks who was now standing behind her.
‘Okay, Jenks, we’re gonna have to leave it there for now. If you do think …’
‘I couldn’t have stopped it, could I, Marm? I mean there’s nothing I could have done, is there?’
Kim had nothing to say.
THIRTY-FIVE
‘I’ll drive,’ she said, rushing past him.
‘On this occasion I was actually going to suggest it.’
Kim fired up the engine and overtook anything that got in her way, flashing her lights and hitting the horn. They made it to the edge of Brierley Hill in record time.
‘Get out the fucking way,’ she screamed at a black Range Rover whose female occupant was speaking into a mobile phone.
‘I know you’d love to book her, Guv, but first things first, eh?’
Kim manoeuvred around the vehicle and parked at the cordon, currently manned by two uniformed police officers. A quick assessment told Kim they were the only presence on site.
The four-storey structure was no more than six months old and was part of a regeneration of the town in an effort to lure customers away from the free parking at the nearby shopping complex. Vehicle access was from the front but the cordon was set at the top of a service road that ran the length of the car park to the right.
Kim fought through the swelling crowd and ran along the darkened service road, stopping about halfway.
She looked up into the darkness, and thanks to one street light, could easily make out the figure who had stepped over the metal fencing on the top level of the car park and was hanging onto the barrier from the wrong side.
Bryant caught up with her. ‘Four PCSO’s just turned up. Two are manning the entrance and two doing a second sweep to make sure the car park is evacuated. Eyewitness says he’s been in this position for about twelve minutes now.’
‘Accurate?’
Bryant nodded. ‘Yeah, she’s recording it on her mobile phone.’
Of course she was. ‘Has he asked anyone for anything?’
Bryant shook his head but was prevented from speaking when a casually dressed male started shouting to them from the cordon. Great, just what they needed.
‘Go see what that nutter wants.’
Bryant ran over to the cordon as she considered any strategy that would just keep the man in place until a negotiator arrived. There were officers trained specifically to be able to talk potential jumpers down with the least amount of fuss. Kim knew if she opened her mouth he’d lose the will to live and drop immediately. She barely knew how to talk to people who weren’t on the brink of suicide, so this was a no-go.
‘Guv, this is David Hardwick, of Hardwick House. He knows this guy.’
The male was two inches taller than her and appeared pensive and out of breath. ‘Long version or short?’
‘Well, he’s been up there for about fifteen minutes now, so I’d go for short.’
Bryant touched her arm. ‘I’ll go and give a quick briefing,’ he said, nodding towards the cordon. Two squad cars and an ambulance had just caught up with them.
‘His name is Barry Grant. He called me about an hour ago to say that he wouldn’t be coming back and to divide his stuff up. He said he didn’t deserve to live after what he’d done.’
‘What’s he done?’
The male shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but one of the guys at the house recalled him mentioning this place as an ideal suicide point, so I headed down here to see if I could find him. I kept trying to call but his phone is switched off.’
Kim looked up. ‘No point trying again, he can’t really answer. What’s his story?’
‘He was released from prison a few months ago. He was jailed for GBH on his brother for having an affair with his wife. He put the guy in a wheelchair.’
‘Charming.’
‘He’s an ex-boxer so he knows how to cause pain. He did his time without getting into any scrapes and seemed genuinely sorry for what he’d done. That’s why we accepted him at Hardwick House.’
Kim wasn’t sure what Hardwick House was but she recognised the name from somewhere.
‘Had he said anything about wanting to die?’
‘Nothing. He’d been adapting well to life outside of prison. We were looking to get him back into a driving job and he seemed to have accepted that his previous life was over.’
‘So, what changed?’
David shook his head, bewildered.
Kim turned and saw Bryant heading towards her with another person.
‘You have got to be bloody kidding me?’ Kim said as her eyes fell on the familiar shape of Doctor Thorne.
The woman nodded towards here. ‘Detective Inspector.’
‘Doctor Thorne,’ Kim acknowledged.
Bryant shrugged and stood beside Kim as David started filling in the doctor.
‘She says this guy called her. Apparently she does pro bono work for this shelter or halfway house or something.’
‘Really?’ Kim asked, surprised.
Bryant nodded and shrugged.
Kim stepped away. Bryant followed. ‘Where are we?’
‘Umm … negotiator is dealing with a situation the other side of Birmingham. Alcoholic with a knife won’t let his wife out the house.’ Bryant looked at his watch. ‘Even if he left now, with the traffic, we’re looking at forty minutes at least.’
Yep, getting through the city centre at five thirty was not going to be easy. ‘Damn. Anything else?’
‘Press is arriving. They’re all busy interviewing witnesses, who are only too happy to share the story so far. The area is as sterile as it can be and there’s a cleaning company on the way in case we need to clear him up.’
Bryant did not say this callously. It was a fact of life that the man might fall or purposely drop at some point.
A quick assessment confirmed that the press and onlookers would get a great shot from the end of the road. And there would be an air of disappointment if it never occurred.
She glanced at the sea of eager faces at the cordon. She had briefly considered letting them stay where they were and if they were fortunate enough to witness the impact of his bones breaking like breadsticks they would have the pleasure of reliving it in their dreams for months. Only procedure stopped her from making that call.
‘Bryant, we need a second cordon. Get those folks moved back around the corner.’
Bryant took a few steps away from her then bellowed the instruction to the growing swell of fluorescent jackets.
‘Let me go and talk to him,’ Alex said, speaking to her for the first time.
‘Have you been prescribing yourself stupid pills?’
Kim was sure Bryant could have offered a more professional response but she didn’t have the time.
Alex looked around and smiled. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear – you seem to be running out of options. I know Barry. He’ll listen to me.’
Kim ignored the doctor and turned away.
Bryant returned to her side. ‘We just need something to break his fall.’
Kim nodded and then had an idea. She’d read a report recently of police officers hiring a bouncy castle and inflating it at the projected point of impact. Because he was on a ledge that ran the entire length of the car park he would only need to shuffle two feet along and miss the thing completely.
‘Send some officers into the shops. Round up as many of those garden gazebos as they can find.’ She looked up at the height. ‘If we get enough we can line them up along the edge. It’s not a high-rise building, so if he drops they might just reduce the impact.’
‘The difference between dead and not.’
‘Exactly.’
Bryant issued the instruction over the radio to the officers at the cordon.