Read Online Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson - Free Book Online Page B

bus at the stop at the bottom of the Tottenham Court Road?”
    Ross thought. He shook his head.
    “He’s been pulled before,” said Spicer.
    Jim turned his head to look at the Superintendent. “Beg pardon?”
    Spicer nodded at the screen. “Chummy. Look at him. This isn’t the first time he’s been in an interview room.”
    Jim looked at the screen again. “Do you think so?”
    Spicer nodded. “Look at his body language.”
    Jim looked. He made another note.
    In the interview room, Detective Sergeant Collins asked, “Many people on the bus?”
    “It was packed,” Ross replied.
    Collins looked at him for a few moments, seemed to reconsider what she had been about to ask, and said instead, “Can I just ask why you always take the bus rather than the Northern Line?”
    Ross shrugged. “Why not?”
    “It’s just...” Collins consulted her tablet. “You customarily take the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road and get the bus to Muswell Hill from there. Why not just change to the Northern Line, get off at Highgate, catch the bus there? Quicker journey.”
    Ross smiled. “Have you ever travelled on the Northern Line?”
    “He’s in no hurry to get home,” Spicer said.
    “Oh?” said Jim, studying Ross’s body language to see where this insight had come from.
    “We’ve got footage of him from earlier, phoning his wife to say he was going to be late,” Spicer went on. “Got her side of the conversation with comms interception, she was yelling down the phone at him, giving it this and that. I don’t blame him for wanting to take his time getting home.”
    “Oh.” Jim made another note.
    “So,” Collins said in the interview room. “Could you show me on this diagram where on the bus you were sitting, please, Mr Ross?” She poked at her tablet a couple of times, then held it out so Ross could reach it, but the angle was wrong for Jim to see it on the camera.
    Ross studied the tablet’s screen for a few moments, then touched it. “There.”
    Collins sat back and looked at the screen. “Lower deck, right hand side, seat 4d,” she said for the people sitting in the observation room. “By the window,” she added.
    “Comms interception is a little... contentious...” Jim hazarded.
    “You’re not one of those civil liberties bods are you, sir?” Spicer asked.
    “We’re required to be conscious of these issues,” Jim said. “But one could hardly do one’s job...”
    “Well exactly.” Spicer nodded. “This is my station, sir. Anyone who thinks they can make a phone call here and not be eavesdropped on is deluding themselves.”
    “I see. Have you ever had the opportunity to argue this point in court, Superintendent?”
    Spicer beamed. “On numerous occasions.”
    On the screen, Detective Sergeant Collins asked, “Where did the bus stop between Tottenham Court Road and Camden Town station?”
    Ross shook his head. “Every stop, felt like.”
    “Did you see the gentleman board the bus?”
    “No. The bottom deck of the bus was packed with standing passengers. I couldn’t see the doors.”
    “So you’re sure he didn’t get on at the first stop with you, and you don’t know which of the other stops he got on at.”
    “I didn’t say I was sure he didn’t get on at the first stop,” Ross corrected mildly. “I said I didn’t see him.”
    “I like DS Collins,” Spicer noted. “Good copper. Patient, careful, attentive. Always checking a suspect’s story.”
    Jim raised an eyebrow. “Is Mr Ross a suspect?”
    Spicer looked at him. “I was instructed to regard everyone on the bus as a suspect.”
    Jim nodded. “Of course.”
    “He got on at Warren Street.”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “The victim. Got on at Warren Street. Some of the standing passengers remember him.”
    “Ah.”
    “Didn’t have an Oyster. Paid in cash. Asked the driver what the fare was to the terminus. North Finchley.”
    “He asked for North Finchley, or ‘the terminus’?”
    Spicer looked at him. Jim