You Are Dead

110

Sunday 4 January

The moment the plane had taxied to a halt at Heathrow Airport, Roy Grace switched his phone from flight mode. It took some moments before it found a signal. As soon as it did, he texted Cleo to say he was back safe.

Then his phone buzzed, indicating he had voicemail.

He checked it. There were two messages from Cassian Pewe, the second sounding more impatient than the first. ‘Roy, call me urgently, will you, please.’

A loud bing-bong sounded, and people all around him began standing up and removing their belongings from the overhead lockers. Grace joined them, shuffling along and out of the plane. Pewe could wait a few minutes, he decided, and anyway, he was officially on leave.

A little while later, he entered the short-term car park. Then, just as he reached Cleo’s Audi, his phone rang again. He looked at the display but the number was withheld.

‘Roy Grace,’ he answered.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ said the whiny voice of Cassian Pewe.

‘In Germany, sir.’

‘Germany?’

‘I’ve just flown back to London.’

‘I’ve been trying desperately to get hold of you. What have you been doing in Germany?’

‘Family business, sir,’ he said, barely masking his irritation at Pewe’s tone.

‘Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?’

‘I’m still on sick leave, sir.’

‘I need you back on Operation Haywain right away. We have a very big problem.’

His heart sinking, Grace said, ‘What’s happened, sir?’

‘I’ll tell you what’s happened. Dr Edward Crisp has happened. The excavation of the collapsed tunnel where you last saw Crisp has been completed. He isn’t there.’

‘That’s not possible, sir. He was buried.’

‘Did you see him being buried?’

Grace was silent for a moment. ‘No, not actually buried.’

‘Down in his lair, where he had a cosy little set-up, there was a hatch which dropped down into the main sewer for the area. He must have gone down it. I’ve spoken to Southern Water who are responsible for the entire Brighton and Hove sewerage network and they say it’s very unlikely he could have survived. Apparently after all the rain of the past two months, the sewers have been in flood. He could have been carried several miles along the tunnel but then he would have hit a series of filters designed to stop and break down large objects, before they are carried on to the plant at Peacehaven, and ultimately out to sea.’

Puzzled and dismayed, Grace asked, ‘So are you saying Crisp escaped into the sewer system, but would then have drowned, or been ripped to shreds?’

‘What I’m saying, Roy,’ Pewe’s voice sounded on the cusp of a snarl, ‘is that we need a damned body, or at least some body parts. Our Specialist Search Unit know how to search sewers. They need to find something urgently. Do you understand?’

‘I do, sir, and a Happy New Year to you.’

‘Huh.’