Except one man. An elderly man carrying what looked like a canvas satchel on a strap across his chest and wheeling an electric bicycle. He looked up towards the victim, nodded — clearly nodded — and kept going. He was in shot for no more than four seconds but at least McLusky had been holding the mobile more or less still at the time. Old boy on bicycle. Another old boy on a bicycle. He remembered the man cycling away from the site of the burnt yacht Eleni. Had it also been an electric one? He couldn’t remember. There had to be thousands of men over sixty riding bicycles in this city, electric or otherwise.
He dug about on his already cluttered desk and found the disks Technical Support had produced from the SD cards Austin had commandeered on Brandon Hill after the first explosion. Some contained video footage and pictures taken before the explosion as well as after the incident. It didn’t take him long. There he was once more in a still photograph, obviously taken before the explosion. The camera was focused on the group in the centre, three middle-aged women posing in front of a bed of red and white flowers in the park. On the tarmac path behind he once more wheeled a bicycle, same man, same bicycle, same satchel. While zooming in on his target with clicks of the mouse he dialled the CID room number but before he got an answer there came a knock on his door. It was DC Dearlove with a sheaf of reports.
‘Dearlove, where is DS Austin?’
‘Ehm, haven’t seen him.’
He hung up. ‘Look at this man, Dearlove.’ He swivelled the monitor for him. ‘I think this might be our man.’
‘The wrinkly with the bike?’
The phone rang. ‘Hang on.’ He snatched up the receiver. ‘McLusky.’
‘Inspector McLusky, it’s Dr Thompson. At the Burns Unit, Southmead. We spoke in connection with a patient of mine, Ms Bendick.’
‘Oh yes, how is Ms Bendick?’
‘Recovering, though she will require extensive surgery. But that’s not what I’m calling about.’
‘Go on, then.’
‘Well, it’s a bit tricky for me. It would mean breaking patient confidentiality and puts me in an awkward position.’
‘Look, doc, if you’re calling me then you’ve already made up your mind to tell me so why don’t you just go ahead and do it because I’m a bit busy right now.’
‘Okay, sorry, I’ll get to the point. I treated a patient in A amp;E the night before last. For burns to his right hand. These burns and the damage to his skin were quite severe in some places and will need aftercare but the point is he told me he had burned his hand at a barbecue. I’ve treated burns for eight years now and those injuries were not consistent with burning yourself on a barbecue. I have seen injuries like these before and they were invariably caused by fireworks going off in people’s hands. Naturally I thought of all those devices going off. The man may just be an innocent victim, I want you to bear that in mind.’
‘You were right to call me. You haven’t still got him there, then?’
‘Unfortunately not.’
‘Do you have his name?’
‘He didn’t want to give his name. Then later he said his name was Dave. But one of the nurses recognized him from a previous injury he presented involving some barbed wire and she thought his surname was Daws.’
‘Daws! Around twenty-eight years of age?’
‘About that, yes.’
‘Doctor, you did the right thing when you called me. I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, if he shows his face for some more treatment you must call. Not just me, dial 999 and try and keep him there for as long as you can. I’ve gotta go now, thanks, doctor.’
For a few seconds he remained standing at his desk, staring at the image on the screen, then grabbed his jacket and keys. Old boy or Daws, what did it matter? He wasn’t precious about his hunches. ‘Dearlove, get this image printed out and distributed and put it up on the board in the incident room. I want that man found.’
‘Okay. Where will you be, sir?’
‘I’m going to check something out. Tell Austin to get in touch with me when you see him.’ He walked down the corridor, then fell into a trot. Daws, Timothy Daws. They had never followed that up.
As he unlocked his car in his new reserved parking space he was hailed from the far end of the car park.
‘DI McLusky, sir?’
He recognized the grey-haired officer from Traffic. ‘What can I do for you, sergeant?’
‘Not sure I should show my face here. I owe you an apology for leaving the mud sample in your lobby without telling anyone but I was in a hurry as usual. And I want to thank you for delivering the perpetrator as well. That was well beyond the call of duty, sir.’
‘No problem, though I’ve had mud-jokes up to here.’ He indicated a line below his chin. ‘But while you’re here, there’s something that’s been bugging me. Was it you who mentioned the kite festival to me?’
‘Might have done. I think we were talking about the gridlock situation we had last year. The traffic from the kite festival was definitely a contributing factor.’
‘Remind me what else went on.’
‘A tourist bus broke down …’
‘One of those Citytours things?’
‘I don’t remember what company. There was also a running fight between drunks and an abnormally wide load came in off the motorway from Wales.’
‘What kind of abnormal load?’
‘A boat, sir. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Big thing, they delivered it to the docks here. I didn’t see it myself.’
‘Why would a boat come by road rather than sea?’
‘Not seaworthy?’
The Eleni had come overland from Cardiff, he was pretty sure that’s what the owner had said. ‘Bloody hell. Didn’t you also say emergency services couldn’t get through? Thanks, sergeant, I think we might be quits.’
Sitting in his car he dialled Austin’s mobile. It was answered instantly. ‘Jane, it’s Liam. I’m in the car park about to pay Daws a visit.’
‘You want me to come down?’
‘No. I want you to check something urgently. Last year, I’m not sure of the date, you had virtual gridlock here one day.’
‘Nothing virtual about it — ’
‘I want you to check the logs for all emergency calls for that day. Find any that had a long delay in being responded to. I think that’s where our man’s grievance might originate. Get back to me as soon as. I’m following up on Daws. Apparently he presented with a burnt paw at A amp;E.’
Timothy bloody Daws. Damn. Why hadn’t he followed that up ages ago? Because he didn’t fit the bill, that’s why. A cheat and petty criminal of his age certainly had the potential to graduate to the big stuff, especially if he was sent to prison for any length of time, but a sustained campaign of terrorizing citizens with bombs surely was too long a jump?
Yet the boy he had living at his house had definitely been nervous about something, he thought, as he parked the Mazda out of sight of Daws’ front door. He shouldn’t be doing this by himself, really needed someone to cover the back of the house. Better check the back of the house first.
As soon as he rounded the corner McLusky began to feel uncomfortable, though he couldn’t explain why. He hesitated at the entrance to the alley that ran along the rear of the fenced-off back gardens. Why should he suddenly feel spooked in the middle of the afternoon? Mentally shaking himself free of the strange feeling he nevertheless advanced cautiously to the locked back door of Daws’ desolate little garden. He pulled himself up, peered across and dropped back instantly. Someone was in the kitchen, just behind the window, and it didn’t look like the young kid. He walked back to the glass-strewn entrance of the alley. What was the rush? Better call for back-up.
As he reached inside his jacket for his phone he was grabbed by two men and slammed against the fence, face first. ‘Police, don’t move, don’t speak!’ Suddenly the place was busy. In the corner of his eye he saw uniformed officers in body armour troop past up the alley. Seconds later he heard the splintering of wood and the familiar shouts. ‘Police! Show yourselves! Police, come out, keep your hands where we can see them!’