Dexter directed Jane down back streets, from Trafalgar Square along Floral Street until they arrived at Covent Garden. The street was still cordoned off and the tube station was out of service. Police cars and vans parked were scattered outside the station entrance, with forensic officers still searching and gathering the rubble and debris left after the bomb. They had already cleared the rubble outside the station itself, as it was imperative to get it reopened and for daily life to resume.
Jane accompanied Dexter through the crime-scene barrier, and followed him into the wrecked ticket area of the station. A few officers acknowledged Dexter, who held up his ID as he guided Jane towards the top of the staircase that lead to the platform below, stepping over potholes and mounds of rubble.
‘I want you to walk me through exactly where you were positioned from the moment you came upstairs.’
Jane turned to face the ticket barriers, her back to the stairs.
‘I had just walked up from the platform. There was a woman behind me with a pushchair… she was carrying her baby and finding it difficult to manage them both. I was about halfway up when I offered to carry the pushchair. We both reached the top, and I handed back the pushchair, and she put the baby inside.’ Jane turned away from him, recalling the young mother’s face covered with a sheet in the emergency ward. She was almost in tears.
‘I saw the nurses with the baby… the poor woman died from her injuries…’
Dexter dug his hands deep into his trouser pockets. ‘Don’t go there, Jane. Let’s just keep going through your movements.’
She nodded. ‘I was holding my ID up to the ticket collector, who was standing at the far side of the entry from the stairs. It was very crowded, with passengers getting off from the Underground and climbing up the stairs, and then more passengers going down to get to the platform… so it was really thronging with people, because it was rush hour. They were just innocent people going about their daily lives…’
Dexter gripped Jane’s arm tightly. ‘Just focus on why we are here, Jane.’ He gestured for her to continue.
She moved about four steps towards the station exit, with the ticket office on her right.
‘Then I heard Daphne Millbank calling out, “You left your bag!” She was pointing to a rucksack. I followed her gaze and caught sight of a man wearing a hooded winter coat, walking away with his head down. He was moving quickly towards the station exit.
Jane paced out exactly how she had followed the man toward the exit.
‘By now I’d become concerned, so I began to run and called out “Police”, but he didn’t stop. As I got close enough to make a grab at his arm, he turned and swiped my hand away, I stumbled backwards and he ran on.’
Dexter held his hand up. ‘So, he kept on running straight ahead, no turning or crossing the road?’
‘No, he just kept running… So I went back to the ticket office to warn everyone. I was worried about the way he’d had behaved, and the rucksack he’d left behind.’
‘Walk me through what happened next,’ Dexter said gently. He could see that Jane was becoming even more tense. Together they re-entered the station. Jane explained how she’d been hemmed in with people trying to get out and others pushing their way towards the ticket barriers.
‘I saw the mother and child ahead of me, then I saw the ticket collector pick up the bag. Daphne Millbank had already started to walk out and was beside the wall when the bomb exploded. I was saved because a big man moved directly in front of me… if it wasn’t for him I would have been… Dear God, I have no idea who he was! I owe him my life, and I don’t even know if he made it. After the explosion, the thick cloud of smoke and debris made it impossible to see clearly.’
Jane recalled the screams and pandemonium as the terrified passengers tried to get out, the injured lying on the ground. She described again the whine of the bomb in her ears as she spotted the overturned pushchair, the sight of the mother shielding her child, Daphne Millbank’s missing leg…
Dexter nodded and gently patted her shoulder. ‘Just need you for a short while longer… come on outside with me.’
They left the station and Dexter held her elbow as they walked along the pavement a few yards. Up ahead there were two bomb squad detectives with a SOCO dusting a red phone box for prints. The door was propped open with a large piece of concrete that must have been blown loose by the blast.
Dexter indicated to Jane to wait, as he ducked beneath the cordon that marked off the phone box. There was a lengthy conversation between him and the officers, and Jane saw Dexter nodding and looking at the amount of fingerprint dusting that had been taken. He then walked slowly back to Jane.
‘I’ve just been told we have a witness who has described a female using this phone box at the time of the bombing. She was aged twenty to thirty, wearing a headscarf that hid her face, but she was in there for some considerable time. They’re dusting for prints but it’s doubtful they’ll be much good as it’s a public phone box, so God knows how many people have used it. But they’ve got a good high-heeled imprint and scuff marks… although, again, it’ll be a stroke of luck if it pans out.’
‘You think a woman planned this explosion?’
‘We don’t know for sure. The witness had been waiting to make a call to her husband, and there was a woman inside the phone box. She gave us a reasonable description but she never saw her face as she was wearing a very expensive headscarf… it looked like it could have been Hermès, with dogs like red setters printed on it. She said it was tied under the woman’s chin in a knot, just like the Royals wear them. I’m pretty sure the bomb was a radio-controlled device and the woman in the headscarf might have been an accomplice. She might have been attempting the coded call to the newspaper when the panic-stricken bomber pressed the button, or maybe she had the detonator… we just don’t know.’
‘Did your witness see them together?’
‘Not exactly… she was walking away from the phone box to find another one, but recalled seeing a man with the woman, running across the road shortly before the bomb exploded. It’s even possible three people were involved at the scene.’
‘Three people?’ Jane sounded surprised.
‘Sometimes they will use a lookout as well while the bomb is planted.’
Jane sighed. She had been right when she described the man having his hands free, so maybe he hadn’t been carrying the detonator? On the other hand, it could have been in his pocket…
They returned to the underground station and although all items of interest had already been removed to the Woolwich lab, she watched Dexter make a lengthy inspection of the damage. When he was satisfied, he announced he would return to the lab to see if there had been any developments.
‘Why don’t you go home?’ he suggested to Jane, checking his watch. ‘You’ve had a pretty traumatic time going over what had happened. I’ll speak to Church about Daphne and pick you up in the morning and let you know how it went.’
‘You free for dinner tonight?’ he asked.
‘I’m not, actually. I need to call this girl about moving in. But thanks for the invitation.’
‘Rain check again. You look after yourself.’ He grinned.
Jane watched Dexter stride off. She would have liked to spend more time with him but Lawrence’s warnings had made her wary of his intentions. It would better if she kept him at a distance.
It was late afternoon by the time Jane got home. The plain-clothes SPG protection officers gave her a nod as she approached her flat and let herself in. She rang Pearl and confirmed that she would like her to move in if she still wanted to.