Peter Helton - Falling More Slowly

‘Nobody came for it? Someone somewhere is sad now.’ He gripped the shiny ovoid with one long-fingered hand. ‘Can I take the carrier too?’

Disappointment spread over Sally’s face. ‘Oh, Witty … You’re not taking it home to snaffle by yourself, are you? I thought we could share …’ She tilted her head and fluttered her eyelids in a parody of silent-movie seduction.

Witek hesitated with one hand resting on the egg, the other stretched out towards the carrier bag. He had thought of presenting the egg to Emma. His eyes wandered towards the window. He could see the quayside but no sign of her. Happy Easter, Emma … But then she might know that he had found the chocolates on the bus and not bought them for her. She might think it was a cheap gesture. And if he took it away Sally would think he was mean and greedy. Everything to do with girls was complicated. You always found you wanted to please them and it broke your heart to disappoint them. ‘I remember now, I don’t really like chocolate. You will eat them, Sal.’

‘Are you sure? You don’t want any of it? They’re expensive chocolates …’

‘Total sure. You will enjoy them more. I go home now.’ On a sudden impulse he gave the egg a vicious twist, leaving it spinning on the counter in front of a mesmerized Sally as he walked out of the office.

He stood on the pavement, squinted towards the bus stop and tried to make out Emma among the people on the quay. The force of the explosion made him stagger against an old lady. With a cry of dismay she fell to the ground beside him. Witek thought he heard the crack as her hip bone shattered.

They walked to the locus, McLusky had insisted on it. Austin was glad he had as the traffic turned out to be particularly bad. They were easily keeping pace with the cars and by the time they got within sight of St Augustine’s Parade traffic was stationary everywhere. As they approached the Citytours office it didn’t take them long to discover why. The building that housed Citytours had been evacuated, along with the buildings to either side. The stretch of road in front of them was closed to passing traffic. The tarmac beyond the police tape was crowded with police cars and Forensics vehicles.

Something about the way the police tape hung limply across the road threatened to drain McLusky of his goodwill to mankind. He grabbed the first uniformed officer he saw. ‘What’s with the bloody roadblock?’

‘Standard procedure, inspector, with a bomb threat.’

‘I thought the bomb had gone off.’

‘It has. There could be secondary devices, though. Couldn’t there?’ The constable looked unsure now.

‘What kind of bomb was it?’

‘A small device. Hidden in an Easter egg, is what I heard.’

‘Any Easter eggs in the road?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘What about the victim?’

‘Two victims, sir. An old lady got knocked off her feet, suspected pelvic fracture, the ambulance has just left. The other was an office worker, she was closest to the blast. Slight bruise and a nasty shock, otherwise she’s fine, apparently.’

‘That’s the first good news I’ve had since this thing started.’ He saw that Forensics were already at work. ‘Where is the office worker now? Not still inside, I take it?’

‘No, she and a co-worker are in that cafe further along, with PC Purkis.’

‘That’s the second good piece of news. How did the egg get here, any idea?’

‘Left on one of their buses, I believe. Driver found it.’

‘Right. Do you see any Easter bunnies in the road? No? Then get the damn traffic going, constable. Pronto.’

The constable set about getting all the police vehicles moved while muttering about sarky CID gits and making up one’s bloody mind. McLusky ignored the Citytours office and swept on to the cafe. Here he found PC Purkis sharing a large pot of tea with a pale woman sporting a burgeoning bruise on her forehead and a broad-shouldered blond man with mournful eyes.

‘Every time I see you, constable, you seem to have a cup of tea in front of you.’

Purkis didn’t know how to answer that, since it was true, but then she had only met the inspector once before, at the old man’s house in Knowle West. He seemed to be in a foul mood so perhaps he was in need of a cuppa himself. ‘That’s true, inspector. Best thing in a crisis, I always think.’

McLusky sat down on the last free chair, next to the broad-shouldered man. ‘Jane, you heard what the officer always thinks, so get us a large pot of tea. And a chair for yourself. Hang on, I’ll give you the money.’

‘I think I can manage.’

The cafe was crowded with refugees from the evacuated buildings and the voices sounded excited, even happy, perhaps at the interruption of an otherwise dreary day at the office.

Purkis made the introductions. McLusky noticed that Sally’s hands displayed a small tremor as she lifted her teacup. ‘Has that bruise been seen to?’

PC Purkis resented the implication that she might have neglected the basic care for the victim. ‘The paramedics took a look and ruled out concussion.’

Sally spoke up. ‘They offered to take me to the Royal Infirmary just in case but I’m fine, really. Considering. Even my ears have stopped making that horrible high-pitched sound. I mean, compared to what could have happened I’m all right. It could have blown my fingers off.’

‘That’s probably what it was meant to do. Do you feel like telling us exactly what did happen? I know you already told the story but I’d like to hear it myself.’

‘Sure.’ Sally told the tale right from the beginning, from how and when the egg arrived to how Witek had left it spinning on the counter. Halfway through her account Austin arrived with the tea then disappeared again in search of a chair. By the time he reappeared Sally’s tale was coming to its conclusion. ‘The phone rang. I went to my desk to answer it. I had my hand on the receiver when it happened. It blew me over. It was like a big wave on the beach that knocks you off your feet. And I nearly brained myself on the edge of an open drawer. Stuff from the counter was flying everywhere. It looked like a storm had blown things about. Nothing broke or anything apart from the egg, that was just gone completely. It took me a while to realize what’d happened. Do you think it was a time bomb?’

‘I doubt it, though it’s possible. It’s more likely that it was meant to go off when someone opened it and that the spinning motion set it off prematurely. Forensics will tell us, no doubt.’ He turned to Witek, who was pale and looked preoccupied. ‘You found it, Mr Setkievich.’

‘Yes. Ehm, two weeks ago.’

Sally waved her hand in disagreement. ‘Three weeks this Friday, actually.’

‘Is there CCTV on the buses?’

‘No. We do not need TV. Is peaceful, nice people normally, nobody makes us trouble.’

‘Can you remember where you found it?’

‘Lower deck, I think. On the floor, in a white plastic bag.’

‘You don’t remember who sat there?’

‘No, no. Could be anybody. I don’t look at passengers, I look at the road. And people move about. We go slow, is quite safe.’ Witek nodded reassuringly.

For once McLusky wished for more CCTV. ‘People don’t book these tours in advance, do they?’

‘Mostly they pay me. They come and go as they want. No booking.’

No bookings, no names, no CCTV, no witnesses, no memories. ‘I suppose I’ll have to talk to your boss too, just to cover all the angles. Where would I find him?’

‘Her.’ Sally sniffed at the built-in sexism of the inspector’s question.

‘Her, sorry.’

‘Madeira. For another week.’ She sighed. ‘On the plus side it’s been raining there ever since she arrived, I checked on the net.’