Seventy-Seven Clocks

∨ Seventy-Seven Clocks ∧

7

Detonation

“My foot’s gone to sleep,” complained Bryant, stamping experimentally on the pavement. For the past hour they had been standing in the mistshrouded garden beside their suspect’s house. “Nearly eleven p.m. I wish he’d hurry up. I have to say you’re not much company.”

“I needn’t have come at all,” May pointed out. “This isn’t my case.”

“Yes, I suppose stakeouts are a bit beneath you these days. I like to keep my hand in. Look at this fog. The damp gets right into your bones. It’s doing my chest no good at all. I’ll need a vapour bath.” Bryant pulled down his scarf and peered over the sodden hedge. Dew had formed on his bald head and ears. He resembled a minor Tolkien character.

“You’re getting old before your time,” warned May. “I can’t imagine what you’ll be like in your eighties.”

“I’m ageing gracefully, which means not trying to look like a member of Concrete Blimp.”

“I assume you mean Led Zeppelin. Can you hear someone coming?”

A figure solidified from the surrounding haze. Bryant felt a chill as he recognized the whiskers, cape, and cane. Brass-heeled shoes clipped loudly on the street’s sloping pavement. May tapped his partner on the arm and the two detectives stepped in front of the garden gate. Their quarry drew up before them, his eyes staring angrily beneath bushy brows. There was an overwhelming sense of the past about him, from the heavy cut of his clothes to the sharp smell of rolling tobacco that hung over him. It was as if the man had stepped through the fabric of time.

“Mr William Whitstable?”

“Would that it were not.”

May unfolded his wallet and held it aloft. “We’d like to ask you a few questions about an incident which occurred at the National Gallery…”

“That was indeed my doing, but it remains no damned business of yours, Sir.” Whitstable’s hand tightened around the head of his cane.

“The destruction of a painting on loan to the nation is reason enough to make it our business,” said Bryant angrily, “and to apply the full penalty of the law.”

The figure seemed to fall back a little. When he spoke again his voice was tempered with reason. “My sympathy lies with Mr Waterhouse and with no other. Nature has burst the bonds of art. If I cannot remove the symptom of this sickness I must at least remind them of its root.”

Whitstable was starting to back away, one boot sliding behind the other. May moved forward, wary of the cane. “Why did you do it?” he asked. “Why this painting?”

“How would any other do?” cried Whitstable. “I made it known that our ranks are broken. They think they can get away with behaving as they please, but as God is my witness I’ll owe no further allegiance, and be gulled no more.”

Suddenly he raised the cane and struck out, catching Bryant hard on the arm. Then he turned and fled into the fog.

“I’m all right,” gasped Bryant, falling back against the garden wall. “Go after him, quickly.”

May soon gained on his quarry, but the night and the fog had settled in a concealing shroud across the brow of the hill. For a moment he glimpsed a figure darting beneath sodium lamplight, then it was gone, the click of boot heels lingering in the murky air.

“Are you all right?” asked May, returning to his partner and examining his arm.

“Of course not,” complained Bryant, hauling back his coat sleeve and checking for bruises. “I’ve had a nasty shock. I need a cherry brandy.”

“We have to put out a call and bring Whitstable in. He can’t get far dressed like that.”

“Or perhaps a large Courvoisier,” continued Bryant. “He said he had to make it known that their ranks were broken. And what was all that about nature bursting the bonds of art?”

“I don’t know. It sounded like a quote. That’s your department.”

“It doesn’t ring any bells, but my memory isn’t what it was.”

“Let’s hope your investigative powers are intact. We have our work cut out for us.”

♦

On Friday morning, Bryant moved the last of his possessions to the new unit above Mornington Crescent station. As most of his friends were operating double shifts to cope with the criminal fraternity’s run-up to Christmas, there was no time for a farewell drink, party, or presentation from grateful colleagues. Bryant left the office with a parcel of belongings under his arm, feeling more like a prisoner leaving his cell than a transferring officer of the law.

“You’ve an interview with the junior arts minister at ten,” said May as his partner entered the new PCU for the first time. “We’ll have to move some of this stuff if you’re going to base yourself here.” He clambered between the enormous typewriters that still lined the hallways of the unit.

“Just find me a quiet corner to sit,” said Bryant. “All I need for the moment is a notepad and a telephone.”

“You’ll require your own electric typewriter.” May indicated the IBM on his desk, knowing full well that although Bryant had attended a typing course, he steadfastly refused to operate any technical equipment more complex than a fountain pen.

“I hardly think so, John. I blew up the last one.” Bryant removed his overcoat and began to peel off a variety of woollen layers. “If I’d known it was electric, I’d have been more careful about where I set my soup. Why is it so cold in here?”

“We haven’t managed to connect the central heating yet. I’ll get you a bar radiator.”

“How Dickensian. Right, I’ll settle here.” Bryant slapped the back of a chair and sat, staring straight ahead, his hands in front of him.

“Wait a minute, this is my office,” began May, alarmed.

“You said we could share. You obviously have the best street view, and you can work various bits of electric gadgetry for me on the rare occasions I require their services.”

“But Arthur, I like to spread things around. You’re too tidy for me. You alphabetize your toxicology manuals.”

“I’ll have to put up with your vile habits, too. Cleaning your nails while thinking aloud, I know what you’re like. It’ll be good for you to have someone in here to bounce ideas off.”

May regretted his offer. He knew that after a few weeks he’d be wanting to bounce more tangible items off his partner. Bryant was searching around for a wall socket. “I hope you don’t object to music?”

“Not the Mendelssohn,” groaned May. “It must be worn out by now.”

“It helps me to think. Perhaps you could find me a three-pin plug. Do we have anyone assisting us?”

He had obviously acclimatized himself to the office. There was nothing for May to do but accept it. “An old friend,” he replied. “Janice Longbright. She’s sitting outside.”

“I thought she went off to get married?”

“It fell through again. Ian asked her to choose between a husband and a career. Better not say anything about it.”

Bryant straightened the huge knot in his tie and stuck his head outside the door. “Janice? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to live in a big country house and have lots of babies.”

“No, I was going to live in a one-bedroom flat with a Labrador and a man who’s never home before ten. I thought I’d get more regular meals if I came back to work.” The sergeant gave him a bone-cracking hug which left lipstick on his collar. “Your ten o’clock appointment is already here. I thought you’d probably want to get settled in, so I told him you were in a meeting. Said you’d be free for just a few minutes.”

Bryant smiled approvingly. Just as her mother had been before her, Janice Longbright was the kind of female officer he loved: strong, decisive, and not easily prone to emotion. Inevitably, her personal life had been subordinated to her work. His admiration for her had grown with the passing years, although he was careful not to show it.

“The arts wallah? Let him in, will you?” He grabbed May by the sleeve as he attempted to slip out of the office. “I’d like you to sit in on this, John.”

“We’re sharing the room, not individual cases. I’m down for witness interviews on the Max Jacob death this morning.”

“You don’t need to be there for that, do you? Just give me twenty minutes. Have you had the pleasure of Mr Faraday before?”

“I don’t think so.”

“The government’s most pedantic civil servant, which is saying something, a professional junior-status minister, but curiously useful for all that. In a brief and unillustrious career he’s been shunted all over Whitehall. First he was minister of snow, and managed to bring the roadgritters out on strike. Then he was appointed minister of sport, and sparked off a race riot by inviting a white South African paramilitary leader to a Brixton Jail cricket match – ”

“Then how is he useful?”

“Simple. He never forgets anything.”

A pudgy young man with slicked sandy hair appeared before them. Shaking his hand was like removing wet laundry from a washing machine. His brown suit was expensive but badly cut, so that his trouser bottoms were accordioned over his shoes. It would have been hard to imagine a man less interested in any branch of the arts.

“Leslie Faraday,” announced the minister. “We met two years ago, didn’t we, Mr Bryant? August seventh, I think it was, nice and sunny but it clouded over in the afternoon. I read about you in the paper last year, cracking secret codes in a multiple-murder case. The Daily Telegraph, wasn’t it? Someone fell out of a window and you were in trouble for hijacking a Porsche. This must be your partner. I wonder if I could possibly have a cup of tea? Brooke Bond will be fine, nice and milky, two sugars if you don’t mind.”

Sweat was beading on Faraday’s pale forehead despite the chill in the room.

“What can we do for you, Mr Faraday?” asked Bryant, anxious to short-circuit the minister’s recollections.

“It’s about this vandalized picture, the Watermark thing. I know it was painted by an Englishman but the Aussies seem to own it now and they’re bloody furious, and not because it was worth a bob or two. To tell the truth, this is a relatively new field for me. I don’t go much for your modern arty-farty types. It’s not painting, it’s exhibitionism. They’re very good at building thirty-foot-high plaster models of their private parts but ask them to paint a decent duck in flight and see where it gets you. The trouble with artists is they’re not businessmen. What’s so awful about giving the public what they want? We don’t all have to like The Beatles.”

May seated himself on a corner of the desk and watched, fascinated, as Faraday dabbed at his leaking brow with a handkerchief.

“The Waterhouse painting,” prompted Bryant, as the tea arrived.

“Yes, it seems that there’s rather a lot at stake here,” explained the minister. “Is that tea mine? Nice and hot, jolly good. As you know, the paintings were loaned against the wishes of the Australian government, whose talks concerning the return of aboriginal artefacts from the Museum of Mankind have stalemated. Her Majesty’s Government isn’t prepared to negotiate for their return because a precedent would be set, and we already have our hands full with the Greeks. Certain aboriginal items were placed on display years ago as part of what has become a highly disputed permanent exhibition. Just some old mud masks, nothing to get excited about. I remember seeing them on a school field trip. Rained all day, although it brightened in the evening as I recall. This chap Carreras is bellyaching and threatening to boycott the Common Market conference. Now, I understand that the painting can’t be restored, but the next best thing is to find the culprit as quickly as possible.”

“We already know who he is,” said May.

“You do?” Faraday grew visibly agitated. “Then why on earth hasn’t he been arrested?”

“I am hopeful that he will be within the next few hours.”

“This is capital news.” Faraday slapped his hands together wetly. “And you’ll tell me as soon as you discover a motive for this malicious act?”

“Of course.”

“Well.” Faraday set down his teacup and rose. “All in all, a good morning’s work. Lunch beckons, I think. Is it me or is it hot in here? I can see myself out.”

♦

“What an exhausting man,” said May, closing the door. “Why is he so interested in the motive?”

“He’s hoping for a face-saver. Ideally his vandal would prove to be an Australian national protesting against the English, but I think there’s little chance of that.” Bryant shifted his chair nearer the window and looked out on to the street below. “It’s almost as if Whitstable destroyed the picture because he somehow believes himself to be living within its time frame. His speech was as archaic as his dress. He said he wouldn’t be ‘gulled.’ It’s an obsolete term. He may be mad, but he seemed sincere.”

“Mad people always are. Have you had a chance to think about the phrase that sounded like a quote?”

“You mean ‘nature and the bonds of art.’ I’ll have to run a check.”

“Whitstable hasn’t returned home yet. The house is under surveillance, but so far there’s been no report of any activity. He has a brother, Peter, registered as living in the same house, although we’ve had no sight of him so far. Obviously we’ll interview William if and when he returns. I’d better let you get on with your unpacking.”

“Looks as if you have a bit of a backlog to deal with yourself.” Bryant gestured at the unsteady stack of cardboard folders propped up on his partner’s desk. It was characteristic of May to take on more work than he could handle.

While Bryant had remained at Bow Street to oversee specific ongoing operations, May had been staffing and organizing the new unit. This was a chance for him to set up a division running on entirely new lines. Their high arrest rate had been acknowledged by their superiors in the Met, but their unorthodox techniques were impossible to incorporate into the Greater London network. A revamped independent unit designed to showcase new methodology was the logical answer; much to his surprise, May had been able to persuade the legendarily slothful Home Office and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary that this was so. Now they had to prove their claim.

Bryant was filling the last of his desk drawers with files when the overhead lights began to flicker.

“Does that sort of thing affect the electric typewriter?” he asked, staring at the keyboard as if expecting it to bite him.

“It shouldn’t,” replied May. “The London Electricity Board has been warning everyone about outages all month. The National Grid is about to start rationing power. If Edward Heath is forced to put the nation on a three-day working week, we’ll be sitting in the dark writing with pencils. It’s a dilemma; either Heath gives in to union demands, or he blacks out Britain.”

Sergeant Longbright entered and handed a single sheet of paper to May.

“Well, here’s a turn-up.” May tipped his chair forward. “Guess who we have listed as the largest clients at Jacob and Marks, and personal friends of Max Jacob?”

“Who?”

“Whitstable, Peter, and Whitstable, William, brothers currently residing together in Hampstead. Max Jacob is their family lawyer.” He thumbed his intercom button and called Longbright back. “The lads on their way to question Peter Whitstable, tell them they’re to observe the house and follow the occupant if necessary, nothing more.” He turned to Bryant. “Looks like our two investigations just became one.”

“Both events occurred around the same time on Monday evening, within a quarter of a mile of each other. At least it rules out William Whitstable as a murder suspect, unless he could be in two places at once.”

“You mean it rules out one of them. William can’t go back to his house. If he tries to meet with his brother, we should be there.”

♦

The call came through at four twenty-five p.m. “Peter Whitstable returned to the house a few minutes ago, and just left again on foot,” reported Longbright.

“Our car’s following. Do you want to speak to them?”

“No,” said May. “Tell them we’re on our way.” Bryant grabbed his car keys from the table. “I’ll drive,” he said cheerfully. May well remembered their last nightmarish journey together. His colleague was more interested in the drivers around him than the smooth navigation of his own vehicle. Staying in lane, waiting for lights, signaling moves, and remembering to brake were all actions that fell below Bryant’s attention level. “Thanks for the offer, Arthur,” he said, “but I think I’d rather drive.”

“Really, it’s no problem. I find it rather therapeutic.”

“Just give me the keys.”

“The traffic system needs a complete rethink,” mused Bryant as the unit’s only allocated vehicle, a powder-blue Vauxhall with a thoroughly thrashed engine, accelerated through Belsize Park. “Look at these road signs. Ministerial graffiti.”

“It’s no use lecturing on the problem, Arthur. That’s why your driving examiner failed you thirty-seven times.”

“What makes you such a great driver?”

“I don’t hit things.” May circumnavigated the stalled traffic on Haverstock Hill by turning into a back street. “Did you know that in 1943 the London County Council architects produced a marvelous road map for London that was so visionary it would have ended all modern traffic snarl-ups as we know them?” said Bryant.

This was the sort of bright snippet of information he was apt to produce while taking his driving test.

“What happened to it?” asked May, turning into a side road.

“One of their tunnels was routed under St James’s Park. It’s royal ground. The councillors were scandalized and threw the plans out. Progress toward a better world halted by the threat of displaced ducks, that’s postwar England for you. There they are, just ahead.”

The unmarked police vehicle was two cars in front of them, at the traffic-blocked junction of Health Street. A portly middle-aged man was threading his way against the crowds exiting from the corner Tube station. “They’ll meet in the station foyer, out of the way. Pull over here.” Bryant had opened the door and was out before the car had stopped. “I’ll stay close by. You get ahead of them.”

He strolled past his subject and stopped by a magazine rack. It was growing dark, and the lights were on in the tiled ticket hall. Bryant glanced up from the magazines. If Whitstable was meeting his brother from a train, William would have to pass through the ticket barrier to his right.

Just then, Peter Whistable hove into view. He resembled his brother in complexion and corpulence, but was dressed in modern-day clothes. Behind him, Bryant could see May’s car stalled in traffic. There was no sign of the unmarked surveillance vehicle. If it had turned the corner it would be caught in a rush-hour stream from several directions. Bryant hoped his partner would be on hand to help. He was in no shape to single-handedly tackle a pair of angry fifteen-stone men.

The ticket hall emptied out. Hampstead was the deepest station in London, and reaching the surface involved waiting for a lift. Bryant stepped back behind the racks as the younger brother approached. He asked the stallkeeper for the time, then took a slow walk to the barrier.

His watch read exactly five o’clock. He could hear one of the elevators rising, its cables tinging in the shaft. The lift doors parted to reveal a car crowded with commuters. As they began to filter out he caught a glimpse of William Whitstable’s black silk hat. Whitstable was checking a fob-watch on an elaborate gold chain. Bryant looked around anxiously. There was no sign of his partner. What could have happened? Peter had spotted his brother and was moving toward the barrier. Bryant stepped aside to avoid the barrage of passengers, and in doing so revealed himself to both parties. William’s eyes locked with his, and he launched himself back to the elevator. Just as the doors were closing, he managed to slip inside.

Bryant looked around. Peter had pushed into May’s arms, while the two surveillance men ran past him in the direction of the stairs.

“They’ll catch him, Arthur,” called May from the entrance, but Bryant was already boarding the next arriving lift.

Below, home-going commuters filled the northbound platform. The south side was almost empty. Bryant could see his men working their way up through the passengers.

A warm soot-haze filled the tunnel as the distant rumbling grew louder.

Moments later a crimson southbound train burst free from the tunnel and roared in. The few waiting passengers stepped back from the platform edge. There was a sudden commotion on the opposite side as William Whitstable was discovered by one of the policemen.

Bryant saw arms flailing as people were pushed aside.

Suddenly he knew that Whitstable would escape unless he did something to prevent it. He rushed on to the platform, stepped through the open doors of the stationary southbound train, and found his way to a seat, watching from the window as his quarry appeared, running along the empty platform, to jump between the closing doors three carriages further along.

As the train moved off, Bryant rose and moved forward. He had walked through the second carriage when he spied Whitstable standing in the aisle of the third. The train was already starting to decelerate as it approached the downhill gradient to Belsize Park station. If he managed to alight before Bryant could stop him, Whitstable would be faced with the choice of reaching the surface via the lift or the stairs. Bryant knew that if his quarry took the stairs he might lose him. He reached the door to the third carriage just as the train rattled over points. The carriage lights flickered ominously. He tried to twist the door handle, but it would not budge. Whitstable was turning to face the doors, readying himself to jump through.

The train slowed as Belsize Park’s platform appeared.

Bryant threw his weight down on the red metal handle, but was unable to shift it. He stared through the glass at William Whitstable. The pair were immobilized, hunter and hunted, unable to fix a course of action.

A muffled explosion slammed the tunnel air against his eardrums. He looked up to find that the window in the connecting door had suddenly become coated with dark liquid. For a moment he thought that Whitstable had thrown paint around the walls, in an act reminiscent of his attack in the gallery. As Bryant stumbled towards the next carriage, he could hear shouts of panic as passengers fought their way free of the wrecked compartment. A shocked young woman with spatters of blood on her face tipped herself into his arms. Before he could ask what had happened, she turned and pointed back at the smoking detritus which had embedded itself in the walls of the train.

“He exploded,” she screamed at him and kept on screaming. “He was just standing there and he exploded!”