Brock walked up the ramp, pulled a large box out of the trailer and took it to the scoop on the machine. It fitted easily through the opening. ‘Then what?’ he called to Jackson, looking up at him from the roadway.
‘Hit the green button.’
He did so. The machine gave a slight lurch and a snort, as if waking from a nap. An amber warning light on its top began flashing, a steel cover slid automatically across the feeder opening, and with a deep throbbing the motor cut in. After a moment’s pause the compactor began vibrating with the passage of the hydraulic ram down its interior. There was a sound of crackling and crunching as the material inside was crushed harder and harder against the far end. Then a moment of heavy, throbbing consolidation followed by a long, deep sigh as the hydraulic pressure was released, the ram withdrawn slowly. When that was complete, the light and motor switched off and with a final shudder the machine went back to sleep.
They walked back with a cold breeze fanning their faces, refreshing in the humid, fumy fug of the service road, until they saw a striped barrier across the way ahead, controlling access at the foot of the entry ramp, a guard visible at a control window to one side.
Jackson led them into a large, brightly lit room glittering with VDUs, computer screens and zoned alarm panels alive with winking multi-coloured lights. As he described the functions of the pieces of equipment and introduced them to his operatives, Kathy noticed that Harry Jackson had relaxed.
‘Nothing like a bit of technology to make everyone feel more secure, eh?’ he said. ‘That’s what people want to keep the bogeyman at bay these days. In the States the latest thing is to have your security centre right up there, in the mall, where everyone can see you behind plate glass, with all your computers and communication equipment, and they can all feel safe in the knowledge that Speedy there is keeping his beady little eyes on everything on legs.’ He nodded at one of the figures watching the VDUs, a pony-tailed man who raised a hand in acknowledgement without turning away from his flickering screens, his jaw muscles working on gum. ‘Although it wouldn’t be Speedy sitting there, nor me come to that, because we’re not photogenic enough.’
He gave a laugh, and raised a smile from Lowry.
‘Straight up, Gavin, it’s true. You should see the girls they have on mall patrol in some of those places in Florida! They look like Hollywood film extras. Leads to a glamourisation of the industry, see?’ He shot a quick glance at Kathy to see if he’d said something inappropriate. Or perhaps her silence was beginning to bother him. ‘I suppose it’ll come to us all, eventually.’
‘You keep yourself in pretty good shape, Harry,’ Lowry said. ‘You’ve lost a bit of weight since I saw you last.’
‘I do my best, Gavin. At my age you’ve got to take care of yourself. And we’ve got everything here at Silvermeadow, you know. I work out at the gym three times a week, and have a swim most days.’
‘What sort of crime do you get here, Harry?’ Brock asked.
‘Shop theft’s the main thing, as you’d expect. We work closely with the tenants’ own staff on that. Mostly it’s pathetic or perverse-old ladies or kids from well-to-do homes. Once in a while we get the professionals trying to hit the place, and that’s when we particularly value help from the local CID, of course, like Gavin here. After shoplifting comes car theft from the carparks outside. Again, both amateurs and pros.
‘We have, on occasions, had our more exciting moments.’ He smiled grimly. ‘An armed robbery at the bank, and two ram raids last year-stolen vehicles were driven through the glass mall doors and smashed into a shopfront inside. One, a jeweller’s shop, was during shopping hours, and a shopper got run down as they drove back out again. We’ve put bollards at all the mall entrances now to combat that.’
‘What about violence against individuals-robbery or assault?’
He shook his head. ‘Very little. Too chancy, really, with having to make your escape out of the building on foot, and patrols in the mall. Occasionally we get complaints of handbag theft, or some kid comes out of bodybuilding all pumped up and knocks an old geezer in a walking frame. That’s the main thing, really. There are so many different types come here, you’re bound to get some accidental conflict. We’re as much babysitters as watchdogs. We’re all trained in CPR and first aid, and we’re much more likely to be called out for a heart attack or a mislaid toddler than for a crime. Know what I mean?’
‘I’d like a complete list of all reported security incidents since the centre opened, Harry,’ Brock said. ‘Can you manage that?’
‘No problem.’ He nodded. ‘It’s all on the computer.’
Lowry said, ‘Sounds boring, Harry.’
‘Depends what you’re after, Gavin. Far as I’m concerned this is what policing should be like, how it used to be. We get to know our public. We open up early two mornings a week so the over-sixty power-walkers can do their six lengths of the mall before the rest of the customers arrive, and we make sure the kiddies and the pregnant mums get front-row seats when Mount Mauna Loa erupts for the Hawaii Experience.’ Jackson beamed-the rosy-cheeked village constable, Kathy thought.
The closed-circuit television screens were of most immediate interest to Brock, two banks each of six screens, each screen split into four images that continuously flicked from scene to scene. Brock went over and stood between the two people monitoring the screens, seated in shirtsleeves, their leather jackets slung over the backs of their chairs, one Speedy and the other, introduced now as Sharon, the young woman who had been in the reception party at the mall entrance. Brock leant forward, asking questions, and they showed him how their control panels worked, selecting individual images, freezing, zooming, panning.
Harry Jackson turned to Kathy, trying to include her. ‘Ever worked in this part of the country, Kathy?’
‘A little. I was in traffic for a while before I joined CID.’
‘But never in Two Area, eh? I think I’d have remembered if I’d come across you.’
She shook her head. ‘I was in Eight Area before I went to SO1.’
‘Ah.’ Jackson seemed satisfied, the genealogy established.
‘Gavin and I go way back. We were at West Ham together,’ he said to her. ‘When did you arrive, Gavin?
Eighty, was it?’
‘Eighty-one,’ Lowry said.
‘Then you moved on to Dagenham. And who’s your chief now?’
‘Forbes.’
‘Old Mother Forbes? What’s he now? Going for commander, last I heard.’
‘No, no, no.’ Lowry shook his head dismissively. ‘No way. Chief super still. He should do what you did, Harry. Get out.’
Jackson chuckled at that one. ‘Think anyone would have him, Gavin? Not out here. Not in the real world, mate.’ He turned to Kathy, wondering if he’d been tactless. ‘Met Mr Forbes, have you, Kathy?’
‘No.’
‘He’s not exactly what you’d call a hands-on working copper. A committee man, not like Mr Brock there.’
‘Not any more, Harry. Forbes is SIO on this one.’
‘Senior investigating officer! Forbes?’ Jackson exploded, then, seeing Brock turn sharply to see what was going on, lowered his voice and murmured, ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Gavin. For all our sakes.’
‘Harry,’ Brock called. Jackson snapped to attention and hurried over. ‘Would it be in order for me to brief your people here?’
‘Course. Hush everyone! Listen up, please. Chief Inspector Brock from Scotland Yard wants to say a few words.’
Brock cleared his throat, the hum of the machines suddenly loud as the humans went quiet. ‘We’d appreciate your help in tracing the movements of a fourteen-year-old girl by the name of Kerri Vlasich, from the Herbert Morrison estate, who was last seen at her school on Monday, sixth of December. The body of a naked girl matching her description was found earlier today, and it seems probable that it was dumped in the blue compactor here at Silvermeadow.’