Peter Helton - Falling More Slowly

‘Closed to the public due to pyrotechnical writing accident.’ McLusky inhaled deeply from a freshly lit cigarette.

‘Good thinking.’ Austin lit one for himself. ‘Those capitalized words, could they add up to a message or something? Have you tried stringing them together?’

‘You’ve watched too much Inspector Morse.’

‘It was worth a thought. He’s just mad then?’

‘Mad as a box of frogs. You didn’t really expect anything else, did you? But he’s made contact. It’s a classic “Don’t call me stupid” thing.’

‘He thinks you’re a “very Very Stupid Man”.’

‘Good. Underestimating the opposition can be fatal. The important thing is that we got him riled enough to take risks. Contacting me was a big risk. His first mistake.’

‘Shame he didn’t sign it while he was busy making mistakes.’ He fanned the thick smoke between them with the letter. ‘Do you think Forensics will find anything on this?’

‘Apart from my fingerprints? I shouldn’t think so. But you never know. The postmark is central.’

‘That covers several districts, including yours. What he doesn’t tell us is why he’s doing all this.’

‘Oh, but he does. Here.’ McLusky tapped the letter. ‘The madness is out there and I’m going to stop it, or something. He thinks the world has gone mad and only he has remained sane. He’s going to shut us all up.’

‘Yes. He’s threatening you personally though.’

‘That’s the beauty of it.’

‘How?’

‘Because it wasn’t part of his plan. I’ve irritated him. If he comes after me it’ll interfere with the rest of his crazy scheme. Which is obviously planned in advance. What I have to do is wind him up some more.’

‘Careful, Liam. It could backfire, then what?’

‘Admirable choice of words, Jane.’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘I’ll be careful. I’ll try not to pick up any strange objects.’

‘I’m not sure the super will go for it. Provoking the bomber doesn’t sound like a Denkhaus strategy. He’ll scupper it.’

‘I mean it as a last resort. But you’re right, Jane. Best not burden Denkhaus with the knowledge of this.’ He took the evidence bag from Austin and made it disappear in his leather jacket.

‘You mean not tell him you got a communication from the guy? Are you serious?’

‘Why bother the man with operational detail? He’s far too busy with public relations and performance targets.’

‘This could mean real trouble, especially if — ’

‘Okay, look, it’s my problem. I never showed you the letter, you need not be involved. And if it has to be mentioned later, well, it’s not dated and I might lose the envelope, I can be so sloppy, and I’ll pretend it only just got there.’

Austin thoughtfully scratched the tip of his nose. This kind of thing could easily go wrong, especially if the case came to court. ‘Just so long as you know what you’re doing …?’

‘That’s very unlikely. But it makes me feel less naked having this up my sleeve.’ Perhaps this metaphor-mixing was catching. ‘So far he has all the weapons and we’re just mopping up behind him, waiting for him to make a mistake. It’s a costly strategy.’

‘Depends on how quickly he can make the bombs.’

‘Yes. Unless …’

‘What?’

McLusky prised a cigarette out of the packet Austin was holding and walked off, talking to the echoing foyer. ‘Unless he’s made them all in advance. For all we know there could be fifty of them already out there.’ He turned at the end of the corridor. ‘And then what? We’re up the creek then. Catching him wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference then.’

McLusky stocked up on Extra Light cigarettes at a nearby newsagent’s. Lunchtime had crept up on the city and everywhere people were rushing to join queues in cafes, post offices, supermarkets and sandwich bars. His own internal clock appeared stuck at breakfast time. He bought a sticky Danish pastry at a nearby bakery and ate it while he walked.

When he returned to his car he found it unmolested by car thieves and traffic wardens. It was another warm spring day. The fungal damp-canvas smell of the Polo’s interior had intensified with the rising temperatures. McLusky suspected a dead mouse or rat under the broken upholstery but had so far failed to locate it.

Back at Albany Road he found the station car park was crowded with a large army truck awkwardly parked. Not having been allocated a permanent parking space yet meant he only just managed to squeeze into a corner at the back. Here he made sure to lock the car, in case someone was watching. He looked up. There was. There were faces at every window. He saw DC Dearlove wave at him which had to be a bad omen.

Outside the main entrance stood a group of Uniforms plus Tony Hayes, the desk officer. ‘You can’t go in, sir. Suspect package. The ground floor has been evacuated and no one from upstairs is allowed to come down.’ He pointed at the army truck. The cab door was marked 33 Engineer Regiment . ‘Explosive ordnance disposal. The package was addressed to you, sir.’

‘What? Get out of my way.’

‘But, sir …’

Impatiently McLusky shouldered his way through the group and opened the door to the lobby.

Inside three engineers in full body armour looked up and shouted at him almost in concert. One rushed towards him, arms outstretched. ‘Please move outside, sir.’

McLusky held up his ID. ‘I’m McLusky.’

‘That’s who it was addressed to. But it makes no difference.’

‘It does. I don’t want the thing to blow up. No controlled explosions if you can help it.’

‘Please, sir, let’s talk outside.’

Away from the door and the uniformed officers McLusky and the engineer, a man with freckles and a moustache, talked quickly.

‘Try not to blow it up. If at all possible we need it intact. Why hasn’t the rest of the station been evacuated?’

‘Because all personnel would have to practically file past the thing, this station is badly designed.’

‘How big is the device?’

‘Big enough to demolish the lobby but perhaps not enough to do structural damage. It’s heavy, according to the desk officer, and looks to be about four by three inches and three inches deep. Rectangular. We have a portable X-ray already in the lobby and are about to have a shufti, that should give us a better idea.’

‘It relates to a case I’m working on …’

‘Yes, we have followed that with interest. We expected to be called sooner or later. Fortunately we’re never far away.’

McLusky tapped the man’s bulky armour. ‘Got another one of these?’

‘We have but I’ll have to ask my superior about that. Please wait here this time.’

It seemed an age until the engineer returned. ‘Follow me.’

Inside the truck he found that putting on the bulky body armour took him longer than expected. ‘I thought a stabbie was heavy but this weighs an absolute ton.’ The weight of the helmet with its blast-proof visor gave him a headache in less than the time it took him to walk across the car park. Tony Hayes’ ever-mobile eyebrows had risen to maximum elevation. He had asked if he could be there when they dealt with the package — after all, it was his lobby, or at least he thought of it like that. They had flatly refused to entertain the thought. How come the new DI always got what he wanted?

Inside the lobby McLusky found the other two engineers busy around a grey contraption balanced on the counter. Two station phones were ringing unanswered in the background.

One soldier waved him over. ‘Come and have a look, inspector.’

On the small monitor beside the X-ray machine was a faint grey image that to him looked like nothing identifiable.