‘No, she and a co-worker are in that cafe further along, with PC Purkis.’
‘That’s the second good piece of news. How did the egg get here, any idea?’
‘Left on one of their buses, I believe. Driver found it.’
‘Right. Do you see any Easter bunnies in the road? No? Then get the damn traffic going, constable. Pronto.’
The constable set about getting all the police vehicles moved while muttering about sarky CID gits and making up one’s bloody mind. McLusky ignored the Citytours office and swept on to the cafe. Here he found PC Purkis sharing a large pot of tea with a pale woman sporting a burgeoning bruise on her forehead and a broad-shouldered blond man with mournful eyes.
‘Every time I see you, constable, you seem to have a cup of tea in front of you.’
Purkis didn’t know how to answer that, since it was true, but then she had only met the inspector once before, at the old man’s house in Knowle West. He seemed to be in a foul mood so perhaps he was in need of a cuppa himself. ‘That’s true, inspector. Best thing in a crisis, I always think.’
McLusky sat down on the last free chair, next to the broad-shouldered man. ‘Jane, you heard what the officer always thinks, so get us a large pot of tea. And a chair for yourself. Hang on, I’ll give you the money.’
‘I think I can manage.’
The cafe was crowded with refugees from the evacuated buildings and the voices sounded excited, even happy, perhaps at the interruption of an otherwise dreary day at the office.
Purkis made the introductions. McLusky noticed that Sally’s hands displayed a small tremor as she lifted her teacup. ‘Has that bruise been seen to?’
PC Purkis resented the implication that she might have neglected the basic care for the victim. ‘The paramedics took a look and ruled out concussion.’
Sally spoke up. ‘They offered to take me to the Royal Infirmary just in case but I’m fine, really. Considering. Even my ears have stopped making that horrible high-pitched sound. I mean, compared to what could have happened I’m all right. It could have blown my fingers off.’
‘That’s probably what it was meant to do. Do you feel like telling us exactly what did happen? I know you already told the story but I’d like to hear it myself.’
‘Sure.’ Sally told the tale right from the beginning, from how and when the egg arrived to how Witek had left it spinning on the counter. Halfway through her account Austin arrived with the tea then disappeared again in search of a chair. By the time he reappeared Sally’s tale was coming to its conclusion. ‘The phone rang. I went to my desk to answer it. I had my hand on the receiver when it happened. It blew me over. It was like a big wave on the beach that knocks you off your feet. And I nearly brained myself on the edge of an open drawer. Stuff from the counter was flying everywhere. It looked like a storm had blown things about. Nothing broke or anything apart from the egg, that was just gone completely. It took me a while to realize what’d happened. Do you think it was a time bomb?’
‘I doubt it, though it’s possible. It’s more likely that it was meant to go off when someone opened it and that the spinning motion set it off prematurely. Forensics will tell us, no doubt.’ He turned to Witek, who was pale and looked preoccupied. ‘You found it, Mr Setkievich.’
‘Yes. Ehm, two weeks ago.’
Sally waved her hand in disagreement. ‘Three weeks this Friday, actually.’
‘Is there CCTV on the buses?’
‘No. We do not need TV. Is peaceful, nice people normally, nobody makes us trouble.’
‘Can you remember where you found it?’
‘Lower deck, I think. On the floor, in a white plastic bag.’
‘You don’t remember who sat there?’
‘No, no. Could be anybody. I don’t look at passengers, I look at the road. And people move about. We go slow, is quite safe.’ Witek nodded reassuringly.
For once McLusky wished for more CCTV. ‘People don’t book these tours in advance, do they?’
‘Mostly they pay me. They come and go as they want. No booking.’
No bookings, no names, no CCTV, no witnesses, no memories. ‘I suppose I’ll have to talk to your boss too, just to cover all the angles. Where would I find him?’
‘Her.’ Sally sniffed at the built-in sexism of the inspector’s question.
‘Her, sorry.’
‘Madeira. For another week.’ She sighed. ‘On the plus side it’s been raining there ever since she arrived, I checked on the net.’
McLusky decided that Sally would recover from her experience soon. ‘Mr Setkievich, what time of the day would it have been when you found the egg?’
‘I found it after the first tour. So about twenty past ten is when I pull in again, depends on traffic. Sometime is later.’
‘And you’d have set off when?’
‘Nine thirty.’
He turned to Austin. ‘Right, we’ll work backwards, get the route, get all available CCTV for that morning and find footage of the bus going round the city. Mr Setkievich, how many Citytour buses are there?’
‘Two. But the other was not running that day. I remember because someone made sabotage on bus. Mechanic took all day to find rotten fruit in bus exhaust. I think apple.’
‘Well, that makes it easier. If we spot the bus then we might catch a glimpse of the passengers.’ He nodded at the civilians. ‘Thanks, you’ve been very helpful. We will need written statements from both of you in due course.’
Sally looked put out. ‘Will we have to come to the station to do that?’
‘Oh, no. PC Purkis here will visit you at home. You can do it over a mug of tea.’
Purkis perked up. ‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.’
Outside the scene had changed. Traffic was once more flowing in normal treacle fashion. Behind the now much smaller police cordon stood a bevy of reporters and photographers. He spotted Phil Warren just as she looked his way. Her gaze was interested and unrepentant. McLusky signalled to her with one hand at waist-height, you/me, flashed an open palm for five, mouthed Marriott Hotel. Warren widened her eyes in surprise, gave a slight nod, then walked away casually. The whole transaction was so quick no one else appeared to notice, including Austin who walked beside him.
‘There’s that Phil Warren slinking off. Probably scared you’ll have a go at her.’
‘Oh yeah, so it is. I’ll get a chance to mess with her mind some other time. Right, Jane. Get on to CCTV, grab as much help as you can find, see if we can spot anything at all.’
‘What will you be doing?’
‘Me? Just … stuff. I’ll catch you up.’ He ducked under the tape and stuck his head into the door of the Citytours office but didn’t cross the threshold. Forensics were everywhere, picking the place over. The team leader with the blond moustache looked up from bagging fragments of bomb mechanism. ‘Someone was damn lucky, inspector. This could have removed more than her sweet tooth.’ The team groaned. ‘Blinded her, more likely. Common fireworks injury. There must have been a pound of gunpowder in this one.’
‘Any chance it was a time bomb?’
‘No, we can safely rule that out. Same type as the others, perhaps not as lethal.’
‘How so?’
‘It’s all about containment, the tighter the charge is confined the more powerful the explosion. You see, the can killed the bloke because it was soldered shut. The pen too was bad news because of the metal casing, that’s what nearly did the librarian in.’
‘It didn’t look good at first but he’s recovering well.’ He would send Jane to speak to him. They were constantly playing catch-up, going with the slow grind of the police machine, giving the bastard time to get the next bomb off. This egg proved just how easy it was for the devices to travel in time and space before they went off. Planted nearly three weeks ago, a safe distance. ‘How are they set off, just out of interest? Do they have detonators that might be traceable?’
‘Detonators? Good lord no, nothing as snazzy as that, inspector, you don’t need any of that. It’s simplicity itself. The action of opening the device completes an electric circuit. At the centre of the gunpowder sits a filament from an ordinary torch bulb with the glass removed. Connected to a battery. The moment the circuit is closed and the filament is connected to the battery it glows white hot. Works just like a fuse. Simple but deadly effective. Low-tech is always best. Take a revolver, for instance, as opposed to a semi- …’