‘What is it, Dawn?’
Silence.
‘Dawn, are you still there?’
Still no reply.
‘Dawn, can you still here me?’
‘Yes, we’re still here…’ Dawn sounded deflated.
‘What happened?’
‘There was another massive shudder and the walls just collapsed in on themselves. There’s nothing left of the building.’
‘What about the person inside?’
‘Buried! There’s no way he could have survived.’
‘Okay. Stay on air, Dawn. We’ll be right back to you after a word from our sponsors,’ Pete informed her as they went to an ad break.
Dawn felt sick.
‘That was great, Dawn. Keep focusing on the human tragedy perspective,’ Seb encouraged her through her headset. ‘We’ve had NBC, CBS, Sky and the BBC, not to mention all the local TV stations wanting to interview you when you get back to base.’
Great! She was finally going to get to fulfil her lifelong dream of being on TV. But, somehow, she didn’t think she’d have the stomach for it anymore.
CHAPTER 12
‘Bonsoir, Professor Halligan.’ Pierre held out his hand to take Tom’s coat from him. ‘And, may I say, it’s a pleasure to see you again so soon.’
‘Thank you, Pierre,’ Tom said, as he handed his coat over.
‘Will you be joining Herr Volker and Dr Weiss this evening?’
Tom was a little taken aback by the question. ‘Er… no, I didn’t realise they were dining here. I’m actually meeting a young lady, but I’m a few minutes early.’
‘I see. Then let me show you to one of our booths, they’re a little more… intimate.’
Tom caught the insinuation and blushed. ‘Oh… no… that won’t be necessary. She’s a colleague from work.’
‘Of course she is, Sir.’
Did he detect a hint of sarcasm in Pierre’s voice? Or was he just being a bit paranoid?
He followed Pierre across the restaurant to a table in the corner. He spotted Deiter in the seat he had occupied the previous evening. He was deep in conversation with Fredrick, which was probably why neither of them had noticed him. He thought about going over to their table to say hello, but their discussion seemed so intense that he decided it would be impolite to interrupt them. He sat down on the chair proffered by Pierre with his back to them.
‘Can I get you an aperitif, while you are waiting for your guest?’
‘Thank you, Pierre. I’ll have a scotch on the rocks, a large one. On second thoughts, make it a triple.’
Tom’s nerves were getting to him. He still couldn’t believe he’d had the gall to ask Serena out, on only the second day of his new job. It was under the pretence of work, he reminded himself. But, after the day he’d just had, that was the last thing he wanted to talk about.
Pierre returned with his drink and a menu. ‘Perhaps you’d like to browse the menu. I’m afraid we’ve sold out of the lobster, but we do have some excellent pan-fried sea bass fillets, served on a bed of celeriac mash, accompanied by a cream of saffron sauce.’
‘Sounds delicious,’ replied Tom. ‘But it would have to go a long way to beat the fillet mignon I had last night.’
Pierre smiled and left the menu with him.
Tom checked his watch. Five to eight. He glanced over his left shoulder to the entrance. No sign of her. He glanced over his right shoulder and could only see Frederick’s face reflected in the window. He didn’t look as jovial as he had the previous evening; in fact, he looked tired and drawn. He was shaking his head at something Deiter was saying to him, his expression stern.
Tom felt a little guilty about spying on a man he admired so much, but this was a different side of Frederick that he hadn’t seen before. Besides, who wouldn’t practise a little voyeurism if they knew they could get away with it?
‘I’m not interrupting anything, am I?’
Tom jumped around with a start to see his date standing next to him. Pierre was shadowing her. They were both peering at the same reflection of Frederick he had been studying.
‘No. I was just… er… I was just…’
‘Snooping?’
Tom laughed. ‘Busted! You caught me red-handed.’
She slipped onto the leather banquette opposite him and put her tan-coloured briefcase on the floor.
She was wearing a black, off-the-shoulder cocktail dress with high heels and carried a matching clutch bag. Her hair was tied back in a loose, messy bun with long, angular bangs at the front which showcased the diamond and pearl dangle earrings and matching drop pendant necklace. She wore just enough make-up to accentuate her green eyes and high cheek bones, with a hint of cinnamon-coloured lipstick to complement her olive skin. The overall effect? Tom thought she looked stunning, confident in her own skin, unlike he, who was feeling rather self-conscious about the fact that he hadn’t had time to change out of his work clothes.
The investigation by the police had gone on all day and Tom felt obliged to oversee the proceedings. They had only managed to get through about a tenth of the workforce by the time he’d left the office at seven that evening. Inspector Gervaux had assigned six of his men to conduct the interviews allocating thirty minutes per employee. They had started with the maintenance team and then moved on to those present in the control room when the explosion happened. Tom realised that he would be seeing quite a lot of Inspector Gervaux over the next few weeks, which he didn’t relish the thought of.
‘Aperitif, Madam?’ Pierre handed Serena a menu.
‘Yes, I’ll have what he’s having.’
‘And will that also be a triple, Madam?’
Serena gave Tom a knowing smile. ‘Why not?’
‘Busted again!’ Tom said with mock guilt written all over his face.
The evening went better than Tom had hoped. The food was excellent, the wine was flowing and so was the conversation. He found they had much more in common than attending the same university; keep-fit, theatre, food, travel, families and friends were just a few of the topics they covered. They both managed to avoid mentioning ‘the elephant in the room’, until after they’d enjoyed their dessert, when Serena brought up the subject.
‘So, any news on the two injured maintenance crew?’
‘I phoned the hospital, just before I came out,’ replied Tom. ‘One’s still in intensive care and the other one they said was stable. That’s all the information they were prepared to give me because I wasn’t family.’
‘Talking of which, did you have to inform the relatives of the deceased?’
‘Thankfully not. I was dreading it all day. I really wouldn’t have known what to say. But when I spoke to Frederick about it, he kindly offered to take over that responsibility, as he said he knew them.’
‘It really is terrible. Did the police give you any indication what caused the explosion?’
Tom gave a derisory snort. ‘I don’t think Inspector Gervaux likes me very much. The last thing he’d do is confide in me. Did they mention anything to you during questioning?’
‘Nothing. They just seemed to be gathering information — what I did, how long I’d worked for CERN, where I was at the time of the explosion, if I’d seen anything, that sort of thing.’
‘I was talking to one of the technicians during the experiment, who told me that there’d been an incident about two years ago when a disaster was narrowly averted. Do you know anything about that?’