factory? Who were her closest friends? Did she have any hobbies? What do you remember most about her?’
It was all too much for Maureen. Having exhausted her ability to bring the women back to life, she was now overcome by the horror of their deaths. It was borne in upon her that she’d never see any of them and hear their lively banter. They’d been wiped instantaneously out of her life. Hands to her face, she burst into tears and bent forward. Her father put an arm around her and pulled out a grubby handkerchief to thrust at her. As his daughter continued to sob, he looked accusingly at the visitors.
‘Did you have to badger her like that?’ he said.
‘Your daughter has given us a lot of important information, Mr Quinn,’ said Marmion. ‘Until now, she was doing extraordinarily well. But I can see that we’ve gone as far as we can now,’ he added, getting up. ‘Thank you, Maureen.’
‘Yes,’ said Keedy, also on his feet now, ‘it was very brave of you. We’re sorry to intrude at such a time but you’ll appreciate that this is a criminal investigation. We need all the help we can get if we’re to bring the person who planted that bomb to justice.’
‘Make sure you catch the bastard before I do,’ growled Quinn. ‘If I get my hands on him first, there won’t be anything left for the hangman.’
In search of more comfort, Ellen and Alice Marmion had adjourned to the living room. Every so often, one of them would glance up hopefully at the clock on the mantelpiece, only to be jolted by the lateness of the hour. Ellen had been very unhappy at the notion of her daughter giving up her job as a teacher to join the Women’s Emergency Corps. While she admired the sterling work performed by the organisation, she feared — wrongly, as it turned out — that it would be filled with militant suffragettes who’d have a bad influence on Alice. She was even less pleased with her daughter’s move into the ranks of the police force, believing that law enforcement was primarily a job for men. They not only had the necessary strength and stamina, they were less likely to be shocked by some of the hideous sights they’d inevitably see and more able to cope with situations of grave danger.
From Alice’s point of view, there was one great drawback to the move. She was under the strict supervision of someone who clearly disliked her.
‘Who is she?’ asked Ellen.
‘Thelma Gale,’ said her daughter, ‘or, as she insists on being called, Inspector Gale. If you met her, you’d see why her nickname is “Gale Force”. When her temper is up, she’s like a one-woman hurricane.’
‘And she treats you badly?’
‘She treats
‘But you said that she keeps picking on you.’
‘Yes, I can’t do anything right for Inspector Gale.’
‘Have you complained?’
‘What’s the point?’ replied Alice. ‘Her job is to give orders and mine is to obey them. That’s all there is to it.’
‘I don’t like the thought of you being harassed by her all the time.’
‘I’ll survive, Mummy.’
‘Why not ask your father to intervene?’
Alice smiled. ‘Daddy is at the root of the problem.’
‘Oh? I can’t see why.’
‘Everyone at Scotland Yard knows and respects Inspector Marmion. When he solved those murders in Shoreditch, he became really famous; and people still talk about his other triumphs. It was the first thing Inspector Gale told me,’ recalled Alice. ‘She warned me that I wasn’t to expect any favours because my father was in the Metropolitan Police. And she said it so nastily. That’s what upset me.’
‘Is there a Mr Gale?’
‘No, she’s not married. She’d frighten any man off.’
Ellen was disturbed. ‘She’s not one of those suffragettes, is she?’
‘Yes, and it’s the one good thing in her favour,’ said Alice before correcting herself. ‘No, that’s unfair. Gale Force is very efficient at her job and works like a Trojan. Women police are still very much there on sufferance but she won’t let any of the men patronise us. She’ll even stand up to the commissioner.’
‘That takes a lot of doing.’
‘I just wish that she wouldn’t keep throwing her weight around.’
‘Have you told Joe about this?’
‘No, Mummy. I can look after myself.’
‘He might be able to give you advice.’
‘Joe has his own problems with Superintendent Chatfield — so does Daddy, for that matter. Superior officers always like to pull rank. I’ll just have to grin and bear it.’ Alice glanced at the clock once more. ‘Heavens! Is it that late? I’d better go.’
‘You can always stay the night,’ suggested Ellen. ‘Your bed is made up.’
Alice spoke with quiet firmness. ‘It’s not
‘Well, it is to me.’
‘I must be off.’
The moment that Alice rose to her feet, the telephone rang. Ellen got up and rushed into the hallway to grab the instrument. Her daughter could hear the mixture of pleasure and fatigue in her voice. When she eventually came back into the living room, Ellen was beaming.
‘Your father’s on his way back — and so is Joe. You’ll have to stay now.’
Marmion and Keedy sat in the back of the car as they were driven in the direction of central London. It gave them an opportunity to review what they’d so far established.
‘Let’s start with the positives,’ said Marmion.
‘I didn’t know there were any, Harv.’
‘We’ve just talked to one of them.’
‘Maureen Quinn?’
‘She’s a survivor, Joe. She was in that outhouse only minutes before it went off. Without realising it, she’s a source of valuable information. If her father hadn’t been there, we’d have got far more of it out of her.’
‘Yes,’ said Keedy, ‘he was an awkward customer, wasn’t he?’
‘More to the point, he doesn’t like policemen. He made that clear. As a rule, that means one thing. He’s been in trouble.’
‘Is it worth checking up on that?’
‘I think so.’
Keedy lurched sideways as the car went around a tight corner.
‘Right,’ he said, sitting up straight again, ‘what are the other positives?’
‘The local police were very cooperative. They don’t always put the flags out for what they see as overpaid detectives from Scotland Yard.’
Keedy snorted. ‘Overpaid! Is that what we are? I can’t say I’ve noticed.’
‘We’ve got them on our side, Joe. That will save a lot of time arguing over boundaries. They accept that we’re in charge. Another positive is that man you spoke to when you went to the factory?’
‘Mr Kennett is the works manager.’
‘According to you, he promised all the help we’ll need.’
‘He sounded like a thoroughly decent man, Harv. He was close to tears when I told him that five of his female employees had been blown up at that pub.’
‘Then we come to the last and best positive.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘We don’t have to go back to the Yard to tell Chat what we’ve been up to.’
Keedy laughed. ‘That’s a huge relief,’ he said. ‘Chat is bad enough in the daytime when he’s full of beans. By late evening, he gets tired and that makes him even more fractious. He’s like a bear with a sore head.’
‘That’s why I advised him to go home.’
After exchanging a few jokes about the superintendent, they turned their minds back to the case in hand. Marmion listed all the things they had to do on the following day. They had to deliver a comprehensive report to Claude Chatfield, then appear at a press conference, asking crime correspondents of newspapers to broadcast an
