‘Hundreds, maybe, but to be honest I’ve lost count. Most of them were when I was working in Northern Ireland with the Army. I had to attend suspected or live devices, and the aftermath of explosions, almost every day.’
‘You must have seen some horrible sights.’
‘Yes, and lost colleagues. But you have to put it out of your mind to do the job. If you can’t detach yourself, you could make a mistake that leads to your own death.’
As they passed the mannequin she was amazed to see that the bomb suit was intact. A large burn mark ran like a bruise over both jacket and trousers. Fragments of metal peppered the dummy. Dexter knelt over the mannequin and prodded the chest.
‘The bomb suit stops fragmentation injuries, but the explosive force from larger bombs doesn’t care about the suit. Either the explosive force hits you without it and you haemorrhage and die, or it hits the suit and the suit hits you and you haemorrhage and die.’
Jane was amazed at how matter-of-fact and unemotional Dexter was. Both of the mannequin’s hands had been blown off.
‘Don’t you wear protective gloves?’
‘No, they’re too bulky and make it nigh on impossible to hold the tools properly.
‘I made this tool kit up myself,’ he said, unfolding his toolkit. ‘Medical items, like scalpels, are best — high quality. I’ve also got pliers of various sizes, wire cutters, screwdrivers and spanners. Everything is non-magnetic so they won’t cause a spark, which could detonate the bomb. Mind you, if you’re lucky and it’s a combustible-type IED, then simply pulling the fuse from the device and separating the detonator to render it safe takes seconds.’
‘What’s the worst type of bomb to deal with?’ Jane asked.
‘Bloody car bombs. The vehicles are usually booby trapped so even getting to the bomb is a major problem. It’s worse still if it’s radio-controlled, as the bastard bomber could be nearby. He waits for you to approach the car and triggers the bomb.’
‘Would you two fucking get on with it?’ Crowley shouted over the radio.
Dexter turned to Jane. ‘No more questions now… I need to concentrate.’
He placed the rucksack by the sandbags before raising his hand in the air to indicate to Crowley that he was ready, then the klaxon sounded.
Kneeling beside the rucksack, Dexter carefully opened the flap, and very slowly removed a large wooden cigar box. He held it at eye level and, using a magnifying glass, checked around the rim of the lid. Next, he took a thin paper clip from his toolkit, which he unravelled, then eased it into the rim of the box, slowly moving it along the edges. As he did so he gave a continual commentary over the radio.
‘I’m checking for any anti-handling wires that may be connected to the lid to set the bomb off on opening it. I’m satisfied there’s no such device attached.’
Dexter placed the box on the ground and Jane watched as he carefully opened the lid. She could see some Eveready batteries and an alarm clock with wires attached leading to a small metal rod which was protruding from a round white lump of what looked like bread dough. She suddenly felt nervous and took a couple of paces backwards.
‘Don’t worry, it’s only a lump of Play-Doh. It’s rigged so the only thing that will happen if I screw up is a small pop and a puff of smoke from the detonator.’
Dexter continued to describe in detail what he had in front of him over the radio, using terminology and phrases that Jane didn’t understand. Under the circumstances, she thought it best not to ask. Dexter picked up a pair of wire clippers and moved his hand towards one of the wires on the alarm clock. He was about to snip it when he stopped, put the clippers down and lifted the box. He picked up the paper clip and, using it as a measuring stick, held it against the cigar box, both outside and inside.
‘Thought you had me there, didn’t you, Crowley? But I’ve seen this type of device when I was in Northern Ireland. The box is deeper on the inside than it appears… so that means the bomb mechanism is resting on a false bottom and the wires I can see are probably part of a collapsing circuit.’
Dexter slowly removed the false bottom. Attached to the underside were more wires and another battery. He looked at Jane.
‘It’s a form of booby trap. If I’d cut the wire attached to the alarm clock, the power would have been relayed to the concealed circuit, and BOOM.’
Dexter took out another paper clip from his kit, connected it to two wires, then removed the detonator.
‘Job done,’ he said into the radio. ‘How long did it take to disarm the bomb, Crowley?’
‘Well done… three and a half minutes.’
Dexter and Jane walked back to the shelter as the head scientist and Crowley started clapping and congratulating him. He shook his head.
‘I could, and should, have done it in three minutes… Right, let’s get to work in the lab on another jammer.’
Jane watched the three men walk away. Dexter’s composed professionalism had impressed her. When she returned to the lab, she found Lawrence standing by a table with one of the scientists. Pieced together like a jigsaw and laid out on a white sheet were lots of pieces of torn and burnt grey cloth material, bits of brown leather and the piece of strap and buckle which Jane had found when sifting through the debris of bin eight. The two shapes formed the back and front of the rucksack she had seen the ticket guard holding when the bomb went off, she was sure of it. Lawrence smiled and, with a gloved hand, picked up a half inch square scrap of material.
‘Looks like you were spot on about the colour of the rucksack. We even found a bit of the label with “Karri—”on it. It’s a positive lead. We now know the bag was a Karrimor Joe Brown. The preliminary Griess test on the rucksack cloth samples was positive; as was the more sensitive TLC test.’
‘TLC?’ Jane was lost when it came to forensic terminology.
‘Thin layer chromatography. That was positive for nitrates… we can conclude that the bomb at Covent Garden was nitroglycerine based and contained between 4–6 pounds of explosive.’
Jane remembered what she’d learnt about fibres from the Carol Ann Collins murder investigation at Hackney.
‘So, if the suspect still has the jacket he was wearing there may be fibre traces from the rucksack all over the back of it.’
‘Exactly. We found some black fibres on parts of the rucksack that probably came from the same jacket.’
‘Did you find any more bomb shards?’ she asked.
Lawrence nodded. ‘Yes, quite a few pieces — but they’re still reconstructing it in the other lab. Things are beginning to move in a positive direction now, Jane.’
Jane was less enthusiastic when Lawrence told her that she would have to spend the rest of the day in the dusty hangar, sifting through debris from the bomb site. This time, though, she didn’t mind getting dirty. Now more than ever she realised how important it was to find the evidence left behind by the IRA Active Service Unit — evidence that might lead them to the killers.
Chapter Eleven
Jane returned home just before seven that evening. Pearl was already there and the TV was switched on in her bedroom. Jane called out that she was back and went into the kitchen. It was immaculate, which pleased her. She was about to put the kettle on for a cup of tea when the phone rang. It was Dexter.
‘Do you fancy fish and chips?’ he asked. ‘I can be at your place in half an hour, and I know a restaurant in Ladbroke Grove that serves the best in London.’
Jane didn’t hesitate and said she would be outside her flat in three quarters of an hour. She needed time to shower and change, and doubted if he had been truthful about being such a short distance away. After seeing Dexter at work on the testing site she had to admit to finding him even more attractive, despite the warnings she’d been given.