Head high, Carol led the way through familiar corridors to the back entrance of Scargill Street. Nobody tried to stop them. Once they were in the car and out of the car park, Sam said, ‘Working on the principle that we were being recorded, I wasn’t strictly accurate in there, ma’am.’
Carol flashed a quick glance at his rueful face and sighed. ‘That’s what I was afraid of, Sam. That funny smell? It’s bridges burning.’
Carol’s plans to follow up Sam’s disclosure were thwarted by the unexpected presence of John Brandon in her squad room, forbidding in his dress uniform, cap under his arm. Her heart sank. Had her latest run-in with CTC made it back ahead of her? He looked as serious as she’d ever seen him. She’d barely made it through the door when he spoke. ‘DCI Jordan, I was looking for you. I need a word.’ He gestured towards her office and she led the way in.
‘Carol, I have some difficult news,’ he said, settling into one of the visitors’ chairs and tossing his cap carelessly on to the other.
‘Sir?’
‘You remember Tom Cross? Ex-Detective…’
She nodded, caught off-balance by the direction of the conversation. ‘I saw him this afternoon at Victoria Park. A paramedic was helping him to an ambulance. He’d apparently been helping the injured, but he’d taken too much out of himself.’ Understanding dawned. ‘He didn’t make it,’ she said, surprised at the stab of sorrow she felt.
‘No, he didn’t make it. His heart gave out.’
‘That’s tragic,’ Carol said. ‘Who’d have thought that helping other people would be the death of him? Did he have heart problems?’
Brandon shook his head. ‘No. And it would appear that it wasn’t helping with the rescue attempts that killed him.’ He looked troubled; Carol suddenly saw how he had aged in the past few years and it gave her a disturbing glimpse of her own mortality.
‘What do you mean, sir?’
‘One of the doctors on the civil emergency team down at Bradfield Cross is Elinor Blessing.’
Carol nodded. ‘She’s the one who spotted the ricin poisoning.’
‘Exactly. And she says herself that’s probably the only reason poison occurred to her in this case. But occur to her it did. Sadly, before they could get enough of the antidote into his system, his heart failed. They tried to keep him going till they could finish the treatment, but it didn’t work out.’
Shocked, Carol clutched at a straw. ‘You sure she’s not just seeing poison everywhere because of Robbie?’
‘I suppose it’s possible. But she says this wasn’t ricin. She thinks it was another plant derivative, though. Foxgloves or something. The bottom line is that she says she can’t write this up as natural causes or accident.’
‘So, murder, then?’ Carol said.
‘It looks that way. At least to Dr Blessing it does. I want your team on this. He was one of us, no matter what happened at the end of his career. You should look at possible links to Robbie Bishop too. Maybe ask Tony what he thinks, if he’s up to it.’ Brandon picked at a piece of lint on his black trousers. ‘I know it’s a bit of an irony, given what Tom thought about Tony and his ilk. But we throw everything at this. Leave his widow till tomorrow, but somebody should talk to the doctor this evening. She should be in A&E till late.’ He stood up and retrieved his cap.
‘We’ll do our best,’ Carol said. ‘But there were another thirty-five murders in Bradfield today. We’re trying to give them our best attention too.’
Brandon turned back, his face stony. ‘Leave them to CTC. Concentrate on Tom Cross.’
‘With respect, sir…’
‘That’s an order, Chief Inspector. I’ll expect a preliminary report on Monday.’ He marched out of the room, erect as if on parade.
That is just so wrong,’ Carol muttered under her breath. ‘So bloody wrong.’ She leaned back in her chair and sat for five minutes staring at the ceiling. Then she jumped to her feet and stood in the doorway. ‘Everybody-in here, now,’ she called.
They jammed themselves in, Kevin and Chris claiming the chairs on the grounds of seniority. ‘Sorry about this,’ Carol said. ‘But I don’t want anybody barging in on us. Sam, keep an eye on the main door. OK. Here’s how it is. I know you are all as angry and upset as I am about the attack on Victoria Park this afternoon. It was a horrific experience for everyone concerned. But it’s our job to get beyond our emotional response and to do what’s necessary.’ She pushed her hands through her shaggy blonde hair and jiggled her head. ‘And I believe you’re all as determined to do that as I am.
‘Only problem is, we’ve been told not to investigate the thirty-five murders that happened in our force area this afternoon. Or at least, not unless we’re invited to carry out certain tasks on behalf of the CTC. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s just not good enough for me. It’s my intention to pursue such lines of inquiry as come our way. We have a unique perspective here-this is our patch and we know it. We’ll pass on outcomes to CTC, but in the first instance, what comes to us stays with us. It’s probably not going to do our careers any good, but I’m not in this for the sake of the glory. If there’s any one of you who isn’t happy about that, say so now. I won’t hold it against you, and there’s plenty of other work to be going on with.’ She looked around expectantly. Nobody moved.
‘OK. In that case, we’re in this together. Now…’ She saw Stacey raise one finger. ‘Stacey?’
‘We’ve already got Yousef Aziz’s laptop,’ she said. ‘Kevin and Paula brought it back from his house.’
Carol frowned. ‘Who’s Yousef Aziz?’
‘The bomber,’ Kevin said. He brought her up to speed on what he and Paula had uncovered. ‘We didn’t want to phone you when you were with CTC,’ he added apologetically.
‘Not a problem. Great work, guys. How are you doing with it, Stacey?’
