The Body in Nightingale Park by Nick Louth

Author:Nick Louth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

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The press conference was set up in the grand oak-panelled room in the main Mount Browne building. Seating for 300 journalists, a place for TV camera tripods, and a cordoned-off area of the car park for the satellite trucks. Gillard had left most of the arrangements to press chief Christina McCafferty. His biggest problem was the lack of progress in finding the assailant. An e-fit of a stocky bloke wearing motorcycle leathers and a helmet was hardly going to make any difference. The lack of any CCTV coverage of him or the electric scooter was baffling. Purely based on his own recollections, they had been able to narrow down the make of scooter to five different models, principally based on the position of the lights. This was hardly much help, as tens of thousands had been sold in the last year, and unlike registered road vehicles the names and addresses of purchasers were less rigorously retained. Indeed, these were essentially illegal vehicles on both the road and particularly on the pavement, and the law had yet to catch up. Likewise there was no database of tyre treads, if indeed these lightweight vehicles left any traces. Technology, as so often, ran far ahead of legislation and policing practice.

There were just five minutes to go. The room was buzzing with conversation, packed with journalists, and there were even a couple of reporters doing their pieces to camera. His mobile rang, and the screen showed it was Sam’s mother. He didn’t have time for the call, but prayed that it wasn’t anything related to the birth. Three minutes later, just as he was sitting down, there was a text from Sam. ‘Waters broken. She’s coming.’

Looked up just as Alison Rigby took a seat next to him. ‘All set then, Craig?’

‘Bear with me,’ he said, getting up. Christina McCafferty, just sitting on the other side, looked alarmed. ‘Two minutes,’ he said and made his way out of the room at the back. He rang Mary, who answered immediately.

‘I’m just taking her to the Royal Surrey. It could be any time,’ she said.

‘That’s brilliant, Mary, I’m so glad you’re there for her. I’ve got a press conference and will hopefully be there in an hour. Actually, I’ll slip out earlier whatever Rigby says. Maybe half an hour.’

‘I’d still make it quicker than that, if I were you,’ she said. ‘Got to go now.’ She hung up. He didn’t have time to dwell on her slightly terse tone. He’d promised to be there, and he wasn’t. There was still time to put it right.

He made his way back to the desk, between the chief constable and Christina. The moment he was there, Alison Rigby opened a brief statement describing the shocking and apparently unprovoked attack on a public figure. ‘We have our top team on this,’ she said, glancing towards Gillard. ‘But it’s very important that the public help us to catch this most dangerous assailant.’

She passed over to Gillard, who showed the e-fit of the suspect, and a picture of an electric scooter similar to the one used.

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