First Response

LAMBETH CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND CENTRE (7.32 p.m.)

Kamran and Gillard walked back into the briefing room and took their places on the podium. Kamran sat down but Gillard remained standing. ‘Well, the prime minister wants to thank you all for a job well done. And you can add my thanks to his because this could have gone a lot worse. A lot worse. I still don’t quite understand how or why it worked out the way it did, but we can all pat ourselves on the back for carrying out our duties as professionally as we did. Just to give you an update, the Bomb Squad has confirmed that all the devices were non-functioning. There were no explosives, though it appears that the men wearing the vests believed that there were. It looks as if Shahid had somehow forced the men to do what they did.’

‘But why?’ asked Waterman. ‘None of this makes any sense.’

‘I’m as confused as you are, Lynne,’ said Gillard. ‘What we’re going to do is split the nine bombers up and bring them here. We’ll need nine interview rooms, which I know we don’t have so we’ll have to improvise. Mo and I will carry out preliminary interviews but I want two investigating officers assigned to each suspect and full statements taken. I also want DNA and fingerprints. At the moment we’re not arresting them, we’re asking them to help with our enquiries. If they insist on leaving, the only way to keep them is to arrest them and therein lies our problem. The NCA officer has already told Silver Commander at the scene that he was acting under duress. That being the case, we can hardly arrest him. But if we can’t arrest him, it makes it very difficult for us to arrest any of the others. And if we arrest them, under PACE we can only hold them for twenty-four hours before charging them. But what do we charge them with?’

‘Under the 2006 Terrorism Act they can be held for fourteen days before being charged,’ said Waterman. She smiled. ‘Sorry, don’t mean to be teaching anyone to suck eggs.’

‘No, you’re absolutely right. But if we know, as we do, that they were acting under duress, we can hardly claim later that we were planning to lay terrorism charges against them. And we run up against the same problem, namely that one of the men is a serving police officer. We can’t be seen to be treating him any differently from the rest of the suspects.’

‘So if they were under duress, there’s no offence?’ asked Murray.

‘It would depend on the nature of the duress,’ said Gillard. ‘But basically, yes. So our prime concern at the moment is to interview all nine. At this stage I think we do it without them being under caution. We interview them as witnesses rather than suspects. Hopefully, they’ll give DNA and fingerprints to assist us with our enquiries.’

‘What if they ask for a lawyer?’ said Kamran.

‘We explain that they’re only helping us with our enquiries and they’re not facing charges.’

‘But if we charge them later we’ll have problems,’ said Kamran. ‘If there is any possibility that they’ll be facing charges, they have to be cautioned.’

Gillard nodded. ‘My gut feeling is that they were all coerced and that they won’t face charges, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.’ He looked at his watch. ‘They should be here within the hour so let’s see what we can do about getting interview rooms prepared and see what we have in the way of detectives available.’ He nodded at Kamran. ‘Mo, you and I will have first go at Kashif Talpur. Hopefully he’ll have the answers we need.’