Dead if You Don’t

15

Saturday 12 August

17.00–18.00

The steward’s body language worried Roy Grace. He watched her talk to the man in the next seat along, who shrugged his shoulders. She turned to the people in the row behind, asking them questions.

Telling Bruno to stay where he was, Grace slipped out into the aisle and hurried down to her.

There was a sudden surge of energy from the crowd. A massive roar.

‘ALBION... ALBION... ALBION!’

But any thoughts of the game were far from Grace’s mind: he was in full professional mode. ‘Hi,’ he said, holding up his warrant card. ‘I’m a police officer. Are you worried about that camera?’

She joined him in the aisle. ‘I’ve been asked to check it out, sir, yes. Did you see the man who was sitting there?’

‘Yes, and I wasn’t happy about him. He was looking very nervous.’

Annette Day spoke into her radio to Morris. ‘Sir, I’m with a police officer, Detective Superintendent Grace, who was sitting a couple of rows behind and has concerns about the man who left his seat and the camera.’

Adrian Morris straight away sent out an instruction to all stewards to go to Priority Messages on their radios. It was code for a potential major incident. He updated Andy Kundert, who immediately ordered all police officers in the ground to switch their radios to TX Inhibit, which would block any transmission — a standard procedure for a suspected bomb, as many explosive devices used by terrorists could be set off by transmission from a mobile phone.

Next, Kundert updated Oscar-1 on the developing incident, giving him brief details, then asked Morris to arrange for the Expo dog handler, Anna Riis, who was at the stadium on standby, to check the camera out urgently.

The dog handler appeared with her springer spaniel, Brayley, wearing a fluorescent green harness labelled EXPLOSIVES SEARCH.

A fresh chant broke out. ‘WE ARE BRIGHTON, SUPER BRIGHTON, WE ARE BRIGHTON FROM THE SOUTH!’

Several people stood up to avoid their view being blocked by the handler, which had a ripple effect, and in seconds the whole stand was on its feet. The steward directed the handler to the suspect device. The excited dog stood, placing both paws on the edge of the seat, pointing at the camera with its nose. Then, as it had been trained, it tapped its right paw, several times.

Now for Adrian Morris the nightmare had become real.