Half an hour later, on an old bomb site in Battersea, ten-year-old Karen Richards, threw stones she had collected from a heaped pile, made ready to be used for the foundations of the new Surrey Lane Estate. She was what many adults called a tomboy, wearing denim dungarees over a white cotton T-shirt, and on her feet, brown monkey boots, without socks.
Known as Kazz to the three friends playing with her, she also enjoyed playing football with them in nearby Battersea Park. Being their only child, Karen Richards’s parents, had finally given in to her during a weekend shopping trip to nearby Clapham Junction; buying her the Batman and Robin themed yellow child’s football, she had so wanted to have. From that moment, Kazz had proudly carried it under her arm, almost everywhere she went, and this afternoon, the ball slowly moved in a puddle of rain water left over from a recent April shower.
Kazz laughed as the stones thrown by her friends, standing a short distance away, splashed into the water. Poking out her tongue and pushing her curly blonde hair out of her eyes, she suddenly saw an opportunity to go to higher ground, scaling the mound of assorted bricks and wood, from the recently demolished houses. At the top, she now had a perfect advantage over the boys. She beckoned them on with teasing chants and the waving of her bare arms, and with the boys now spent of stones, Kazz began to gather some ammunition of her own. She picked up a few shards of brick and threw them; her salvo hitting the puddle, causing her ball to slowly drift along to the other side. Then, looking around for more water bombs, she spied a solitary brown leather men’s Derby boot and picked it up. She held it in front of her, and noticing the elasticated sides, gripped one of them, to throw the boot down at the boys. She placed it behind her head, hurled it towards them and watched as it plummeted next to the ball, splattering them with the dirty water.
Kazz had enjoyed this moment, and spying the toe section of the other boot half submerged among the broken bricks, a few feet in front of her, she excitedly bent over to pick it out, but discovered that it was stuck. She tugged at it vigorously, but still it would not budge. Then gripping with both hands with all her might, she leant back and pulled. Slowly it began to move. The debris that had held it, also gave way, and triumphantly, Kazz could now feel it lifting in her hands.
Bracing themselves, the boys looked on. Suddenly, she screamed, letting go of the boot. The boys quickly scrambled up to help her. They followed her arm, as sat trembling, pointing to the grotesque looking booted ankle protruding from the rubble, a few feet away from her. Also, slightly visible, was the charcoal grey material of a man’s trouser leg covered in brick-dust.
As fast as their small legs could carry them, the children ran to their homes, and into the comforting arms of their parents. On Karen Richards’s little yellow football, Batman & Robin were up to their necks, bobbing in the puddle of rain water; the ball being abandoned by its owner.
Chapter 11
Almost an hour after the gruesome discovery at Highdown, the ambulance from Cowes had arrived, and was parked at the base of Gantry 2.
At 3.10 pm, the scolded remains of the body inside the protective suit, had been officially identified as that of Deputy Chief Engineer Kevin Powell, and with just a visual observation, owing to the condition, was pronounced dead at the scene, by the site’s medical officer, Dr Harold Astley.
Powell had then been lifted onto a stretcher and placed into the mortuary van, to be taken back to St Mary’s Hospital, where a full autopsy would be carried out on Monday.
Also at the site, was a blue Rover 2000 police car. Detective Inspector, Lionel Dugdale from Newport CID, stood inside the efflux chamber with his curly blonde-haired colleague, Detective Sergeant, Ian Morris. Viewing the area, they consulted with Brian Mitchell.
Dugdale brushed his ginger hair out of his eyes. ‘So basically, Mr Mitchell, Powell would have perished instantly under the rocket, once it had been ignited?’
Mitchell nodded in agreement. ‘That’s right, even though the exhaust is supressed by the water compression, you still have quite a high temperature inside here, However, what still baffles me, is that Kevin would have known this. So, why didn’t he just keep clear? If he had noticed the coupling was loose, and had been trying to sort it out, he would have alerted the guys in the Blockhouse, to abort the test.’
Dugdale turned to his colleague who was writing down some notes in his small black notebook. ‘Unless of course, he had got himself trapped somehow, perhaps maybe in the coupling mechanism?’
Mitchell shrugged. ‘To adjust the coupling, you don’t have to touch the actual thing. It is all done by this brace over here. All you do is place the lever in…’ Mitchell suddenly stopped talking, noticing the control lever was missing from its mounting. He carried out a quick scan for it around the chamber. ‘That’s odd, the lever doesn’t seem to be here.’
Dugdale scanned the chamber. ‘So, if he didn’t have this lever, then he would not have been able to adjust the coupling. Am I right?’ Dugdale’s curious eyes bored into those of the Chief Firing Officer.
‘That’s correct, Inspector.’
Morris recorded this in the notebook.
‘So, where is the lever then?’ Dugdale enquired.
Mitchell looked sheepish. ‘Beats me Inspector. Standard protocol, would be to have it in place, prior to a test firing. It’s on the checklist. Hang on a minute, Kevin would have had the checklist.’ He looked around for a wooden clipboard, then out of the entrance, and over The Solent, he drew to a conclusion. ‘The clipboard could have been blown out by the blast of the test. Come to think of it, so could have the lever, if it was just left lying around unsecured. If Kevin wasn’t in this well, and had fell in the chamber itself, the steam would have combusted around him and he would have exploded inside his suit. Mind you Inspector, looking at what happened to him, I think that it would have been a better way to go.’
Dugdale nodded. ‘Poor sod. Could he have been trapped in some way, maybe injured and not able to call for any help?’
Mitchell shook his head. ‘Not Kevin, he knew what he was doing, and was always cautious, especially as we were mucking around with HTP. And believe me Inspector, you don’t want to be messing around with that stuff too often.’
‘I see,’ said Dugdale. He noticed a small camera above Mitchell’s head. ‘This camera, would it be on during the test?’
Mitchell turned around and looked at it. ‘It probably was, but as this place was full of steam, it was of no use until the end of the test. That’s how we all first saw Kevin’s body.’
Dugdale suddenly had an idea. ‘Do you record what’s on the cameras?’
Mitchell nodded. ‘We don’t usually record on this one, as all you get is a steamed up lens.’
‘What about before a test?’
‘Not this one, but we do have the gantry view camera on all day.’
Mitchell pointed to the camera situated on top of the Blockhouse.
‘So, is it possible, someone here had monitored this?’
Mitchell nodded. ‘Yes, I can take you back up to the Control Room, and ask the technicians. Have we finished here, Inspector?’
Dugdale looked around in the chamber and then into the well, where Powell had been found. ‘For the time being. The problem is, that the test blast has obliterated the incident scene. The forensic team could come down here, but I doubt that they would be able to come up with much.’