Free A Death of Distinction by Marjorie Eccles Page B

you? What? No, I bloody didn’t, but I will if they come here again. I’m not letting that little bleeder mess things up for us again, so you’d better be telling me the truth.’
    â€˜Well,’ said the major from the army bomb disposal unit, ‘there you are, can’t have it clearer than that. All the Provo IRA trademarks, though now we’re all friends ...’ He shrugged eloquently. ‘Doesn’t rule out other subversive organizations, mind, animal liberation weirdos, or even some maverick IRA bugger – somebody who knows what it’s all about from the good old days. They knew how to pack a bomb – though clueless, you wouldn’t believe it, sometimes, I tell you. If I were you, I’d be looking for somebody with access to several pounds of Super Ajax, Swiss-made detonators and a helluva grudge. And the ability to put it all together in a plastic lunchbox with weedkiller and sugar.’
    â€˜Commercial explosive, hm? And Continental detonators? Not something you buy over the counter.’ Mayo looked across the desk at the young man. ‘We’re not talking amateurs, then?’
    â€˜Doesn’t follow. The stuff’s easy enough to get if you’ve the right sort of friends. And most of the components you can buy anyway from any electrical store. But take it from me, this was no Mickey Mouse box of tricks.’
    â€˜And the know-how?’
    â€˜Elementary chemistry. Plus a lot of care – unless you want to spread yourself all over the ceiling.’ He laughed, this clean young man whose everyday business was dealing with death and destruction, who came within a hair’s breadth of his own death every time he defused a bomb.
    â€˜So it wasn’t simply a warning –?’
    â€˜It was meant to kill, all right. Fixed to the underside of the vehicle, wired up to go off immediately the car was vibrated in any way.’ He described the mercury tilt switch which had been used, sensitive to any movement of the car, to the rocking of the suspension when anyone lowered themselves into the driving seat, which would have activated the chain reaction which exploded the bomb.
    â€˜All this from the debris,’ Abigail said. ‘Rather you than me.’
    â€˜Piece of cake, this one. You should see some of ‘em.’
    He was tall and fair and ruddy, his cropped hair as short as his clipped speech. His smile was bright as a toothpaste ad, as white as his certainties. He adjusted his black beret to the correct straight line above his eyebrows and left them without any room for doubt.
    Nearly everyone was already there in the incident room – the team assigned to the inquiry, around thirty men and women – constables, three sergeants and two inspectors. The hum of conversation died, computer screens were abandoned as Mayo took up his position facing them, the window behind him thrown open in a vain effort to clear the air of the cigarette smoke that rose to the ceiling and hung in a carcinogenous pall. The gesture failed to make any impression on the serious smokers. Mayo called the room to order.
    â€˜Right, let’s see what we’ve got, then.’
    Six-thirty in the evening of day two of the investigation. Not a lot achieved as yet, but the initial turmoil settling down into ordered chaos. Not a lot of hope that much would be achieved quickly on this one. Plenty of enthusiasm, though. Nobody liked the idea of a murder, especially a cold-blooded bombing that could rip apart flesh and tissue, wipe somebody off the face of the earth in a split second, and they were all out to get the bastard who’d done it.
    â€˜That feminist animal liberation group in Hurstfield we had trouble with some time since,’ Mayo said, after repeating what the major had told him. ‘Ted? You were looking into that, weren’t you?’
    â€˜Disbanded, after we nabbed the ringleaders.’ This was Carmody, long face