‘Under the 2006 Terrorism Act they can be held for fourteen days before being charged,’ said Waterman. She smiled. ‘Sorry, don’t mean to be teaching anyone to suck eggs.’
‘No, you’re absolutely right. But if we know, as we do, that they were acting under duress, we can hardly claim later that we were planning to lay terrorism charges against them. And we run up against the same problem, namely that one of the men is a serving police officer. We can’t be seen to be treating him any differently from the rest of the suspects.’
‘So if they were under duress, there’s no offence?’ asked Murray.
‘It would depend on the nature of the duress,’ said Gillard. ‘But basically, yes. So our prime concern at the moment is to interview all nine. At this stage I think we do it without them being under caution. We interview them as witnesses rather than suspects. Hopefully, they’ll give DNA and fingerprints to assist us with our enquiries.’
‘What if they ask for a lawyer?’ said Kamran.
‘We explain that they’re only helping us with our enquiries and they’re not facing charges.’
‘But if we charge them later we’ll have problems,’ said Kamran. ‘If there is any possibility that they’ll be facing charges, they have to be cautioned.’
Gillard nodded. ‘My gut feeling is that they were all coerced and that they won’t face charges, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.’ He looked at his watch. ‘They should be here within the hour so let’s see what we can do about getting interview rooms prepared and see what we have in the way of detectives available.’ He nodded at Kamran. ‘Mo, you and I will have first go at Kashif Talpur. Hopefully he’ll have the answers we need.’
BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.40 p.m.)
Inspector Adams walked into the hangar and went over to Sergeant Hawkins. ‘The nine men who were wearing the vests are to be transferred to Lambeth Central Communications Command,’ said the inspector.
Hawkins nodded. ‘So I gathered,’ he said. ‘I’m to offer you any assistance you need.’
‘First of all we need to split up all nine. Make that eight. I’ll take care of Kashif Talpur. The other eight need to be separated and taken to Lambeth. The police can handle that. It does appear that they were acting under duress, which means they’re not regarded as a direct threat. So it looks as if your job is done. Thanks. Much appreciated.’
Hawkins faked a salute. ‘Happy to be of service.’
Adams went over to Talpur, who was sitting on the floor with his back to a stack of sandbags, drinking from a plastic bottle of water. ‘Inspector Biddulph is on his way,’ said Adams. ‘He can take you to Lambeth.’
‘Lambeth?’
‘The Central Communications Command. SO15 is using that as a base for the time being.’
‘Am I being treated as a suspect?’
‘You’re providing intel,’ said Adams.
Two SOCO officers came over. One was holding a plastic bag containing a paper suit and another with paper shoes. ‘I’m going to need your clothes,’ he said.
Talpur sighed and got to his feet. ‘It sure as hell feels like I’m being treated as a suspect,’ he said.
LAMBETH CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND CENTRE (8.30 p.m.)
Chief Superintendent Gillard walked into the interview room holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a cheese sandwich from the canteen in the other. Kashif Talpur was sitting at the table and Inspector Mark Biddulph was next to him. ‘Apologies for me having to eat on the hoof,’ said Gillard, sitting opposite them. ‘I’m starving.’
‘You and me both,’ said Talpur. He was wearing a white paper forensic suit and had white paper slippers on his feet.
‘Haven’t they given you anything?’ asked Gillard. He pushed the sandwich over the table. ‘You have this. I’ll get some more sent in.’
‘We’re having something brought down from the canteen,’ said Biddulph. ‘It’s all been a bit frantic, obviously.’
On cue the door opened and a uniformed constable brought in a tray with two coffees and a selection of sandwiches and biscuits. He put the tray down on the table and left. Talpur had already started on Gillard’s sandwich so the chief superintendent reached for another. It was tuna salad but he didn’t care what it was: he just needed the calories. He took a bite, swallowed, and washed it down with coffee. ‘So, Kashif, how are you?’ he asked.
‘Still a bit shaken up, sir,’ said Talpur. ‘And everyone calls me Kash.’
‘Okay, Kash, I need you to tell us exactly what happened this morning.’
‘It started last night,’ said Talpur. ‘I was getting home and a couple of guys approached me. One pushed something over my face and I passed out.’
‘This was where? Your home?’
Talpur shook his head. ‘I’m in a small flat in Brentford,’ he said. ‘Part of my cover. The gang I’ve infiltrated have been bringing in heroin from overseas through Heathrow. Some of them are working as baggage handlers and they have a guy in Customs. He’s the one I’ve been after.’
‘So you’ve been undercover for how long?’ asked Gillard.
‘Three months. Almost four.’
‘And you’re in deep cover?’
Talpur nodded. ‘I haven’t been home in two months. I work part-time in a kebab shop owned by one of the targets.’
‘Okay, so they knocked you out. What then?’
‘I woke up in a warehouse. I was tied to a chair and there was a bag over my head. I don’t know how long I was out or how long I stayed tied to the chair. Hours. All night for sure. When they took the bag off my head there was light coming through the roof skylights. It was eight o’clock, maybe.’
‘You say “they”. How many were they?’
‘In the warehouse? Just one. Called himself Shahid. I never saw his face. He wore a ski mask. We all had ski masks on, under the hoods.’
‘So they took the hood off you. What then?’
‘Shahid told us what we had to do. We all had on suicide vests. He said we would each be given our instructions and that if we didn’t do as we were told the vest would detonate. There were triggers that we had to keep in our hands, but the triggers wouldn’t work. The vests could only be detonated by mobile phone. He said we were being watched and that if we didn’t do as we were told we would be blown up. There was a pack around our waists containing our instructions and a phone. The phone couldn’t be used to call out but he could call us.’
‘And your instructions were to board a bus?’
Talpur nodded. ‘They put us in a van and dropped us off one by one. We had to wear the hoods in the van and he took them off when we got to where we were going.’
‘Shahid took off the hood?’
‘Yes.’
‘So who was driving the van?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Talpur. He frowned. ‘No, I think it was Shahid who was driving. He drove, and when he had parked he climbed into the back.’
‘So he was working alone?’
‘I think so. Yes.’
Gillard took another bite of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully.
‘Is something wrong, sir?’ asked Talpur.
‘I just find it hard to believe that one man could have such complete control over all nine of you,’ he said.
‘We were scared,’ said Talpur. ‘Terrified. He could have killed any of us with just one phone call.’
‘There were no explosives,’ said Gillard. ‘They were all fake. You were never in any danger. No one was.’
Talpur shook his head fiercely. ‘I saw one of them explode. There was blood and shit everywhere. It was real, no question.’
‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ said Gillard.
‘One of the guys started screaming that he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Shahid told him to be quiet. He wouldn’t listen. He was hysterical. Shahid took him to the other end of the warehouse and used a phone to set off the vest. Fucking thing blew him into a thousand pieces.’ He grimaced. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to swear, sir. But it was intense. I was sure I was going to die.’