Bryant & May on the Loose: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery Page 0,39

Bimsley, telling herself that it would probably never happen again.

When Bryant entered the room he received a round of applause. ‘All right, you lot,’ he called, ‘settle down, we’re losing time. John, run through the salient points, will you?’

May stepped forward. ‘In order to make this work we have to be very organised,’ he told them. ‘I know the place is a dump—we won’t even have a functioning bathroom until Friday at the earliest, so you’ll have to use the one in the pub opposite—but the freedom we have does give us a few advantages.’

‘The Home Office won’t be able to find us,’ remarked Bimsley, causing laughter.

‘That’s true, we have a few days in hand before the old restrictions kick in. They want this so-called “gang killing” dealt with before word gets out, and we have to work with them. If they’ve covered up our existence, the press won’t know where to look for us, but even so I reckon we only have two or three days’ grace. You’ll have read Janice’s notes on what we have so far, which isn’t much at all—no positive ID on the body, no cause of death, no motive, no suspects.’

‘Situation normal, then,’ said Meera. There was more laughter.

‘We have an approximate date of demise—a week ago, around last Tuesday—we think our victim was a welder, and he probably wasn’t killed on the site. Islington CID’s only suspect has been released on bail. A gentleman named Rafi Abd al-Qaadir—have I pronounced that right?—who purchased the shop’s lease. Oh, and the original owner of the property has been traced to Nigeria. We’re waiting for the Lagos police to interview him, but you won’t be surprised to hear that they’re being uncooperative and are refusing to tell us when that will be.’

‘So we have no leads at all?’ asked Banbury. ‘I don’t know how we’re supposed to work without access to police databases.’

‘I found traces of mud that appear to match the construction site up the road,’ said Kershaw, ‘where they’re building the new King’s Cross development. But it’s all over the area, trodden into the pavements and gutters. It’s probably just transferred material.’

‘Unfortunately,’ said May, ‘there are more welders and general building workers in King’s Cross than anywhere else in London right now, which is going to make your job much harder. Start with all the site foremen, see if they’re missing anyone. We need to hit all the shops on the Cally Road and find out if anyone saw the door to number seventy-three being forced. Try the tattoo parlours in Camden, see if there’s anything unusual about the ivy-wreath tattoo. And find out whether anyone noticed a van parked outside the shop at night.’

‘Vans park along there all the time after six-thirty p.m.,’ Ban-bury pointed out.

‘Ask anyway. Janice has a task list, and you’ll see that everyone has been assigned a specific set of duties over the next few days. It’s by-the-book stuff, and we stick to it until we get a break. Giles, if you could spare the time I’d like you to take a look at the location with Dan. We’re treating it as a murder site. The place is full of plaster dust and timber—whoever did this must have left something behind. I’m sorry we haven’t got any safety kit or any Airwaves—you’ll have to use your mobiles to contact us, but it’s not as if you’ll be requesting S019.1 Any questions?’

‘Good. Let’s move onto the other odd event in the neighbourhood,’ said Bryant with relish. ‘The sighting of a man dressed as a stag near the Keys nightclub, and the possible abduction of a young female last night.’

Meera blew through her nose and looked at the ceiling. Bimsley shot her an angry look.

‘Arthur has a very good reason for wanting to investigate this second matter,’ said May. ‘The issue here is that some of the more superstitious workers on the surrounding building sites hail from remote villages in Eastern Europe. Stories about such creatures are apparently still part of their cultural heritage. Since these sightings, some of them have started refusing to operate on buildings nearest this creature’s supposed haunts. If the employers can’t keep their workers, and at the same time get wind that a gangland killing has occurred in the area, they’ll start asking questions the police can’t answer. At this point there can be no loss of confidence in the King’s Cross project. It requires a gigantic leap of faith in a neighbourhood that has always