As the men walked out of the efflux chamber, the inspector looked over the side of the cliff and down at the sea. ‘I suppose we could get some of our boys from the station, to scour the cliffs and the shore down below for the clipboard and the lever, just to be sure that they are not lying there somewhere.’ He looked across to the right at The Needles, and then noticed the small coastal path snaking around the headland. ‘I didn’t realise that there was a path along this part of the cliffs.’
Mitchell turned to also look at it. ‘I suppose it has been there ever since the Old Battery was built.’
Dugdale stared at it again for a few moments, and suddenly something caught his eye. He moved closer and surveyed the footprint in the mud and pointed down at it. ‘Looks like one of your men used this path recently.’
Mitchell stared at the print. ‘Well, we all do from time to time, to walk around the cliff and relieve ourselves,’ he said slightly embarrassed. ‘The nearest toilet, is either back at the Control Block, or up the hill at the Admin Block.’
Dugdale smiled to himself, imagining the sight of the rocket men standing in a line to urinate over the cliff. He then moved away from the edge, back onto the concrete base. ‘That’s about all we can do, until we can establish why Powell happened to be where he was, at such a dangerous time. I mean, I’ve heard the sirens, as far as Fairwater, when you lot were testing the other rocket; Black Knight, I think it was called.’
Mitchell confirmed this with a quick nod.
Dugdale continued, ‘So, Mr Mitchell, what I’m saying is, that Powell would have had plenty of warning, the Black Arrow was about to be fired, wouldn’t he?’
Mitchell decided not to answer, leaving Dugdale’s question as just a rhetorical one, one that would play on his mind, until this tragic mystery could hopefully be solved.
As they walked back up towards the Control Room, Dugdale’s colleague Detective Sergeant, Ian Morris pointed to a fishing trawler, anchored about four miles off shore. ‘Mr Mitchell, what’s the local catch here, I suppose that boat is fishing for lobsters?’
Mitchell stopped and turning to him, he smiled. ‘Actually, Sergeant, that boat is fishing for secrets. Believe it or not, that is a Russian spy trawler out there. They have been a regular visitor, since we built this place to test our rockets, and somehow, they always seem to show up whenever we are just about to conduct a test firing.’
Chapter 12
Later that day in Mitchell’s office, Dugdale and Morris sat at the desk, while the bald Firing Officer went to the control room and checked who had been monitoring the camera, prior to launch. A young, black-haired man in a white shirt and black tie, raised his hand. ‘That would be me, Brian,’ said Sean Baker.
Mitchell walked over to him. ‘Sean? Were you happening to be watching prior to the launch, when the Blockhouse team were walking down to the gantry?’
Baker thought for a few seconds. ‘On and off, I did see them walking down, as they came into view.’
‘Did you see Mr Powell?’
‘Yes, I remember, that he was at the back of the group. You couldn’t mistake his red hard hat, could you Brian?’
Mitchell agreed, thinking of what was now left of that hat. ‘No, you couldn’t, Sean.’
Baker remembered something. ‘I think, he was talking with Heinz. If you give me a few minutes, I might have been recording, before then, as I had to nip out to the loo, and thought that I might forget to switch it on when I came back.’ Baker checked the bulky Phillips EL 3400 recorder on the shelf above, pressing the rewind button and watching the white printed black dials work backwards. He stopped at the point of 00:00:00 and then pressed the play button. On the TV screen, the image of Gantry 2 came into view and Mitchell suddenly saw the Blockhouse team, as they walked down the hill, towards the Black Arrow.
Mitchell patted Baker on the shoulder, praising him for his account, then walked back into his office. ‘Inspector, one of our technicians, Sean Baker, has recorded the footage of the team walking down to Gantry Two.’
‘Excellent!’ Dugdale exulted. Quickly, he stood up and followed Mitchell out of the door, closely followed by Morris.
They watched attentively, as Baker played the footage again. Mitchell saw Powell talking with one of the engineers, and pointed him out to the detectives. ‘This is Kevin Powell, talking with Mr Gruber.’
Dugdale studied the screen, watching the two men in conversation. ‘That German scientist who was shot by gangsters in London last week, he worked here as well, didn’t he?’
Mitchell sighed, ‘Yes, Karl Ruger. He was also a good friend of mine. I’ve just lost two good friends in less than a week, Inspector.’
Dugdale looked at Morris. His Sergeant didn’t have to say anything to suddenly realise that on hearing the comment from Mitchell, his boss had just acquired one of his infamous detective’s hunches, and knew that it would not be long, before that hunch card would be played.
Half an hour later, Highdown’s resident medical officer, knocked on Mitchell’s door and then entered, looking at the two policemen.
‘Ah, I’m glad you gentleman are still here. Brian, I’ve just heard from the mortuary at St Mary’s. It seems that when they finally managed to prise the suit away from the body, they discovered a large gaping wound on the top of Mr Powell’s head. They think, he may have already been dead, before the test firing. Of course, we won’t know for sure, until the post mortem. You obviously know what this could mean gentlemen?’
Dugdale gave Morris a sceptical glare, stood up and walked across the room. ‘Yes, it does. We could be looking at a suspicious death investigation.’ He turned to face them all. ‘Right, we will need to set up an incident room, here at this site. I’ll call the station, and see if we can get some more men down here. However, due to that prisoner escaping from Parkhurst yesterday, we are a bit thin on the ground for extra bodies, at the moment, which means that I may have to contact the mainland for some help. I should also probably contact Scotland Yard, seeing that another Highdown employee has ended up dead in the space of a week.’ He looked over at the Firing Officer. ‘Mr Mitchell, I will need you to round up all those men that appeared on the footage we saw, as they seem to be the last people to have seen Mr Powell alive. If you could also be so kind as to let us use this office, and your phone, I’ll do the interviews in here, and I think we’ll start with this German chap. Also, this is a closed site to the public, so we should have no problem in maintaining a complete Press blackout. For the time being at least.’
Brian Mitchell rubbed his head, trying to get a grip on what was actually happening. ‘I need to try and contact Mr Hallett. He really needs to know what has happened here.’
Dugdale agreed.
That evening, at The Furrows, Swan and Higgins were having dinner together in the restaurant, when the waiter approached the table.
‘Excuse me, Mr Swan, you have a telephone call, from an Inspector Lovett, from Scotland Yard?’
Swan put down his knife and fork, and wiped his mouth with a serviette. ‘Please excuse me, a moment Sir Alistair, I expect this could be news from the ballistics lab.’ He stood up and followed the waiter, passing Dennis Martin and his friends, who were sitting at another table. Martin watched him quizzically, as Swan disappeared through the doors into the hall. Ten minutes later, Swan returned.
Higgins looked up at him. ‘Trouble, Alex?’
Swan sat down and continued with his Beef Wellington, which had gone cold. He glanced over at Martin, who had been alerted by one of the others, to his return. He leant forward, lowering his voice. ‘A body has been discovered on a building site in Battersea. The description sounds like it could be Kappelman. If it is, then he wasn’t on an overseas business trip, as we were first led to believe.’