Peter Helton - Falling More Slowly

‘ Ciao bella .’ Or was that Italian? He’d never been much good at languages. He watched Rebecca walk away. She was a kid, really, and she could have been seriously hurt. He would never have forgiven himself. As she reached the street corner he got ready to wave if she looked back but Rebecca walked on without turning.

He slid the letter open and read. Perhaps This will Shut you Up. I have Warned You. Now I will employ My Armies everywhere. Homes and Churches will be safe but Silence will settle on the Parks and Streets of this City . This one he couldn’t possibly keep to himself. ‘Superintendent? Rebecca found this in the car before it went up.’

Denkhaus read. ‘I wonder if he intended you to read this before or after you were incinerated. I’m sorry this investigation has got a bit close to home for you. The man knows where you live, what car you drive. All, no doubt, a result of you talking to Phil Warren. You weren’t all that hard to find once the bomber knew your name. Is there somewhere else you can stay until he is apprehended?’

‘I’ll have a think.’

‘Think fast, McLusky, this guy wants to hurt you.’ He returned his attention to the letter. ‘Mm … I have warned you , what does that mean, I wonder. We hardly need any more warning.’

‘I think what’s significant about the letter is the mention of parks.’

‘He exploded his first device in Brandon Hill …’

‘I think he’s going to target parks again. This kite festival, where is that held?’

‘That’s at Ashton Court.’

‘Well, I think it should be cancelled.’

‘Bit late for that, McLusky, it’s today.’ He checked his watch. ‘Started an hour ago. Do you have any particular reason for thinking the festival could be a target?’

McLusky hesitated. If only he knew why the words ‘kite festival’ reverberated in his mind. ‘No, just … a feeling. The place will be full of children, sir, they’ll pick up anything, no matter what they’ve been told. It’s a golden opportunity for the bomber to spread panic.’

‘And you think on the strength of your … feeling I should order the festival interrupted? Send everyone home and have the whole bloody park searched?’

McLusky held the superintendent’s critical stare for a few seconds before answering. ‘Yes. Yes, I do, sir.’

‘I thought you might say that.’ Denkhaus was already walking away shouting instructions at uniformed police. ‘Constable! Get yourself across to Ashton Court at the double, it needs to be evacuated. You may be the first there but back-up won’t be long.’ The constable made a tentative move towards his car, then stopped and opened his mouth to ask how on earth he was going to evacuate a huge place like Ashton Court but Denkhaus cut across him. ‘Use your initiative, go.’ In his car he gave orders over his airwave radio for several units to converge on the park and to use loudhailers to clear the area. ‘Don’t create a panic, I want an orderly evacuation.’ He turned to McLusky. ‘Let’s go and watch your drama unfold, shall we?’

By the time Denkhaus had threaded the Land Rover through the traffic, across the river and into Ashton Court a thin stream of people were moving towards car parks and the nearest exit. Many were adults with children. Practically all carried one or more kites, large box kites, Chinese dragons, kimono girls, birds, stunt kites. The bright colours of kites and children’s clothing were enhanced by rays of sunshine piercing the grey, threatening cloud that had rolled in again from the west. Many more people were still on the slope where the main event took place, packing up. There were refreshment marquees and trading stands selling everything from kites to crystals. A patrol car drove slowly up the gently curving lane beside the hill using a public address system, telling people to leave the park by the nearest entrance, not to run, not to pick up anything that did not belong to them.

They stood by the Land Rover and watched. McLusky was shocked at the extent of it. ‘I had no idea it was that big.’

‘Spring kite festival. People come from all over the country to show off with stunt kites and what have you. It’s a big deal.’

‘I thought it was just a couple of hundred kids flying their kites. There must be a thousand people here.’ He took out his mobile and started recording the panoramic scene of exodus from the festival site.

‘We usually get two-and-a-half thousand visitors, perhaps fewer this year thanks to our little problem.’

McLusky saw the plume of smoke and the man falling a second before the crack of the explosion reached his ears, like the blast from a large-bore shotgun. People started to converge on the spot halfway up the slope, others hurried their children away. Some waved kites and clothing in the air to attract the attention of the paramedics parked on the road. They didn’t need telling. Having heard the noise they had started their engine and were now already driving on to the grass.

Denkhaus fixed him with an evil stare. ‘McLusky, I hate intuition and hunches and especially hunches that come too late to be of any bloody use. I want to know how you knew!’

McLusky’s mobile told him he had reached the limit of his recording facility. He pocketed it. ‘I didn’t know anything, sir. I don’t even know where I heard about the kite festival before, on the radio perhaps.’ They made their way up the slope, walking fast, following the tracks the ambulance made on the grass. ‘I think we can expect many more devices to go off. He says in his letter something like … can I have it again, sir?’

Denkhaus stopped, glad to catch his breath for a moment, and handed him the note, now protected by a clear evidence bag.

‘Here. Now I will employ my armies. The devices are his soldiers. I think he has a suitcase full of the damn things and he’ll probably dot them all around the city in one go, if he hasn’t already done it. From then on all he has to do is stay at home and watch it all on telly.’

‘Bloody hell.’ Denkhaus took the letter back and stared at it with disgust for a few seconds, then put it away. ‘I know what you’re saying, but you might be wrong there.’

‘How so?’

‘You got us here, didn’t you? You were just not quick enough and you haven’t got a clue why you brought us here. You’re unmethodical, McLusky, that’s your problem. Get yourself organized!’

They had arrived at the site of the explosion. Curious onlookers had formed a tight circle around the paramedics who were tending to a middle-aged man sitting on the grass, a woman and young boy kneeling by his side. Denkhaus waved his ID and bellowed at the civilians. ‘Make your way to the nearest exit unless you’re close relatives of the victim. Get going, this emergency isn’t over. Walk, don’t run, and for God’s sake don’t pick anything up, not even if you find the crown jewels.’

The man doesn’t need a megaphone, McLusky thought. He squatted down by the victim, who drank shakily from a water bottle. ‘How are you feeling, sir? What happened?’

‘I nudged it. It was just back there.’ He nodded his head at the hill behind him.

‘What was?’

‘It was a box of biscuits. I hadn’t seen it before but I thought it might be ours. I had my hands full so I nudged it with the folding chair I was carrying. To see if it was full or empty. It knocked me back off my feet. Completely winded me. Thank God my wife and son had gone ahead.’ The man’s face and hands were peppered with angry red spots where debris from the device had hit him. ‘I mean, I know we were told not to pick anything up but it was instinctive, you know?’

‘Do you remember what kind of biscuits they were?’