‘Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me… I have no one…’
Jane was unable to question her further. The ambulance man placed a mask over Daphne’s face and instructed Jane to sit further away so they could monitor the old lady’s breathing.
They arrived at St Thomas’ Hospital on the south side of Westminster Bridge in Lambeth. Jane waited in the A & E department as they began working on the old lady’s injuries. It was mayhem. More and more injured people were being brought in and doctors were being called down from all the other wards to assist. The area was filled with the sound of pained cries and weeping, nurses and doctors rushed between the cubicles, and gurneys were hurriedly wheeled up to the operating theatres. Jane watched helplessly as the devastating aftermath swamped the hospital.
A young woman doctor swished back the curtain surrounding the cubicle Daphne had been wheeled into. Jane jumped up and made her way towards her.
‘I am DC Jane Tennison. Could you give me an update on Daphne’s progress?’
‘We need to amputate her leg. It’ll be touch and go if she survives…’
‘Did you get her surname?’
‘No. She’s been unconscious ever since she came in… Excuse me, I’m needed in the cubicle next door.’
Jane watched as the gurney was wheeled out to go up to the operating theatre. Daphne seemed so tiny and vulnerable lying beneath her blanket. As Jane turned to leave, the young doctor pulled aside the curtain from the cubicle next door. A nurse came out carrying the baby Jane had placed in the pushchair after the explosion. The child was screaming, wrapped in a bloodstained sheet.
‘She’s fine, doctor… but I’m afraid the mother…’
The doctor leaned over the bed and slowly drew up the blood-soaked sheet to cover the young mother’s face. Jane put her hands over her ears; sounds were becoming distorted. The baby crying, the screams and shouts… It was a while before Jane could move away from the panic-stricken scene surrounding her. Hospital staff attempted to identify the incoming injured as yet more victims kept on arriving. The nurses and doctors moved with a weary efficiency; this was not the first bomb they had had to deal with and they were used to managing the aftermath. Jane knew there was nothing she could do at the hospital. She would only be in the way if she stayed.
The traffic outside the A & E department was chaotic with ambulances. The road leading to the hospital was almost at a standstill due to the explosion and Jane had no option but to walk to Bow Street. Her mind was frozen, and she kept stopping to take deep breaths to calm herself down. It was impossible to make sense of such terrible violence, of the murder of innocent people who had been going about their everyday lives.
Jane knew that the man who had unintentionally shielded her must have suffered serious injuries, or most likely had been killed. She could still hear the cries of the baby in her head like a tormented echo, and tried to understand what it would mean to the young woman’s husband and her family. She had to force herself to keep on walking, unaware that her clothes were covered in thick, filthy plaster dust. One sleeve of her jacket was torn, and her face and hair were covered with blood and dirt.
‘I should get to court…’ Jane muttered. She kept on walking, in an almost zombie-like manner, until she reached Bow Street Magistrates Court. By now it was midday. She entered the court foyer in the hope of seeing someone from the Dip Squad, but the area was empty. She went to the door leading to the police officers side of the court, and when the sliding hatch opened she showed her warrant card.
On seeing the state that she was in the court sergeant opened the door.
‘Dear God! Are you all right, luv?’
‘Yes… I’m sorry I’m late but I got caught up in the explosion at Covent Garden and then I had to go to the hospital with some of the injured—’
‘Well, the court cases have all been put off for the day.’
‘I’m here for the bail objection to—’
‘Come with me, luv. Come on, now.’
The sergeant led her into a police waiting room and explained that because of the bomb incident her two prisoners had not been brought into court, and they were still at Vine Street Police station.
Jane sat in a daze as he brought her a cup of tea and then produced a small hip flask of brandy. He poured a nip of it into Jane’s mug and a larger one into his own.
‘Did anyone from the Dip Squad turn up for the hearing?’ Jane asked.
‘No. Tell me, are you new to that team?’ The sergeant seemed to sense that Jane couldn’t process the morning’s events and let her change the subject.
‘Yes, it was my first day yesterday.’
‘So, you nicked those two pickpockets, did you?’
Jane turned away from him. It was difficult for her to even contemplate what had occurred on her first day. It was a lot more than two pickpocketers. It made her think about Regina and the whole unpleasant discovery of what the young girl had been subjected to. On top of the shocking events she had just been through, she felt nauseous at remembering the sight of Regina stripped naked and being sexually abused.
The sergeant saw she was having difficulty talking, so he wagged his finger and said, ‘I’ll bet that Dip Squad bunch were all out on the piss last night to celebrate.’
She nodded. She’d left them in the bar drinking, celebrating not so much the arrests, but the news that they’d be able to hand over the paperwork to the Vice Squad.
Jane took a long sip of the tea and felt the brandy warming her, although her hand was still shaking badly.
The court sergeant was white-haired and overweight, with a long service history and experience. There was nothing he didn’t know about the various squads but he had no notion about what had happened the previous night.
‘When that lot make an arrest, they act as though they’ve clobbered the old-time villains like the Krays. Arresting the dirtbags who are nicking stuff is hardly worth the aggro, but you gotta do what you gotta to do to try and protect the public from them. I was nicking dippers while most of the squad were still at school. Those squad lads are all too big for their boots… they usually draw straws for who’s going to remain sober to be in court the following morning. I’d say, as you were on your first day, they gave you the short straw… this morning they’ll all have hangovers, and the magistrate is a teetotaller who gets nasty if he even smells a whiff of alcohol.’
Jane smiled wanly as she drained her mug and handed it to him.
‘Thank you for your time… and I appreciate that nip of brandy.’
The sergeant tapped his bulbous nose. ‘It’s between you and me, luv… and if you want some advice, you call in UC — uncertified sick — and get home now. You’ve obviously had one hell of a morning and you may think you’ve got it all sorted, but then it comes back and hits you like a sledgehammer. Go home.’
Jane was escorted out of the court, but she had no intention of going home. She hailed a taxi to take her to Vine Street and sat back trying to compose herself. At least she had stopped shaking.
Chapter Four
The Dip Squad team gathered around a small colour TV. The basement office had poor reception, and Stanley was holding up the aerial trying to get a decent picture. The other men were all yelling different instructions, and eventually he stood up on a chair.
‘How is it now?’
‘Just stay up on the chair,’ Jimmy Church said.
On the screen the news reporter was standing outside Covent Garden station. He announced that the IRA were suspected of being responsible for the bomb, even though the usual coded warning had not been sent prior to the explosion.
They all remained silent as they listened to the reporter confirming that there had been many fatalities and a huge number of people injured. Church gestured for Stanley to get down from the chair.