‘That wouldn’t be advisable. They seem to think that they have enough evidence to arrest you for murder.’
‘What evidence?’
Frederick didn’t answer.
‘What evidence, Frederick?’ Tom repeated more slowly.
‘It’s possible that you’ve been framed.’ Frederick held up the palms of both hands to stop Tom asking any more questions. ‘What’s important now is to get you to a safe place until we can sort this out with the authorities. If they arrest you now, there’s no guarantee they will listen to reason.’
Tom was bewildered. ‘But I don’t understand…’
‘I’ll explain later,’ replied Frederick. ‘But at the moment, I’m not sure the Inspector believed my story about the security guard, so we really should get out of here.’
‘Nothing.’ Sergeant Lavelle had just finished reviewing the tapes, which focussed on the entrance to the building the security guard had entered.
‘Is there a back way out?’ Inspector Gervaux asked the Chief Security Officer without taking his eyes off the screen.
‘Not to my knowledge.’
‘Then he must still be in there.’ Inspector Gervaux’s usually Germanic composure was giving way to his French temperament, which Sergeant Lavelle had witnessed only on a handful of occasions and knew to stay out of his way until balance was restored. Unfortunately, this time he had no option but to ride it out.
‘Not any more.’ Sergeant Lavelle was pointing to the screen, which was showing Herr Volker leaving the building accompanied by the security guard.
All three men watched intently as the two people got into a black car and drove off down the main boulevard.
‘Can you track them?’ It was more of a demand from Gervaux than a question.
‘Of course. We have one hundred per cent coverage of the entire complex,’ the Chief Security Officer said with pride. He was a little uncomfortable sitting in front of the large monitor with two policemen hunched over either side of him. He was used to the confines of his office but, with three fully-grown adults occupying the space, it was feeling decidedly claustrophobic. To make matters worse, somebody had been eating garlic and he knew it wasn’t him. He moved the mouse over the vehicle’s number plate and right-clicked. A red box appeared which stated that LPR (licence plate recognition) was activated.
‘We should be able to monitor the car wherever it goes now,’ he said. ‘The cameras will automatically pick it up when it passes by.’
The car was driving off into the distance and it was just a speck now. Lavelle looked over the shoulders of the seated man at his superior and rolled his eyes.
‘Any second now another camera should pick it up…’ continued the Chief Security Officer, his top lip beginning to sweat. ‘Wait… wait… wait.’ The car had disappeared entirely from view. Just as he was starting to lose faith in the technology, the monitor flickered to show the vehicle filling up the whole screen again. ‘There!’ he said with a sigh of relief.
‘Wait. Go back,’ Gervaux demanded. He had seen a white object appear in the bottom right-hand corner, just before the image changed.
The security officer pressed some buttons on the keyboard and the picture reverted to the previous scene. The white golf buggy being driven by Serena had immerged from the alley and was following the black Mercedes.
‘Can we track both vehicles at the same time?’ asked the inspector.
‘Yes, I can toggle between the two.’ The Chief Security Officer demonstrated by pressing the forwards and backwards keys with his forefinger — the Mercedes, golf buggy, Mercedes, golf buggy.
‘Okay, keep the camera on the buggy,’ Gervaux instructed.
The vehicle was moving much slower than the Mercedes but, because the boulevard was straight, the inspector assumed Serena was able to maintain line-of-sight contact. As the cart approached the top of the screen it was joined by yet another from the bottom.
‘Looks like we got ourselves a convoy,’ Lavelle said in the worst American accent Gervaux had ever heard.
‘Can we track that one as well?’ the inspector asked.
‘Sorry. We can only alternate between two cameras at the same time,’ the security officer replied, apologetically.
‘Okay, go to the lead vehicle.’
He pressed the back button to see the Mercedes disappearing into an underground car park. The two policemen waited patiently for the cameras to pick it up again. The seconds ticked by and the security officer shifted uncomfortable in his seat.
‘Why have we lost sight of the vehicle?’ demanded Gervaux. ‘Can we switch to inside the building?’
‘We don’t have any cameras in there,’ the security guard mumbled sheepishly.
‘I thought you said you had a hundred per cent coverage of the complex?’ Gervaux retorted angrily.
‘We did have, but Herr Volker ordered us to remove the CCTV from the car park shortly after the site was commissioned.’
‘Why would he do that?’ Lavelle chipped in.
‘I… I’m not sure,’ came the stuttered response.
‘Didn’t you think to ask, at the time?’ the sergeant pressed.
‘But Herr Volker is head of CERN Council. It wasn’t our position to question his authority,’ the security officer protested indignantly.
‘How can you secure the complex if you can’t see what’s going on?’ Lavelle countered.
‘What’s that building being used for?’ Gervaux asked calmly, trying to diffuse the spat.
‘It’s not,’ replied the security officer. ‘I mean, it’s vacant. From what I understand, it was sub-let to another company because it was surplus to requirements, but they have never occupied the building. They even have their own security check-point on the far side of the compound.’
‘So you’ll be able to tell us if anybody’s been coming and going over the last few weeks?’
The security officer shook his head. ‘We don’t operate that gate. They have their own people.’
‘Isn’t that a little odd?’ the inspector queried.
‘It’s not unusual for sub-contractors to be used in the security business. Besides, Herr Volker authorised it.’
Inspector Gervaux fell silent, trying to make some sense out of it all. Their prime suspect, Anjit Bose, had gone missing, but he was a known associate of Halligan, whom they had subsequently discovered was implicated in the bombing. Herr Volker, who just happened to be their prime suspect’s parental guardian and the person responsible for recruiting Halligan, was, from what they had seen today, capable of harbouring a fugitive. Ergo: Volker had to be the ringleader. But why would he want to destroy the Collider? He didn’t have all the answers, but the one thing he was certain about was that they needed to have a serious conversation with Herr Volker about his involvement.
‘Can you go back to the buggies?’ Gevaux requested.
One cart had stopped just outside the entrance to the car park and was now abandoned. There was no sign of the other.
‘I think it’s time we joined the party,’ the inspector gestured to his sergeant, who followed him out of the door.
CHAPTER 25
Tom had been filled in on the way to the Bunker as to why Volker suspected he had been framed by Deiter to act as scapegoat for the bombing.
‘But why me?’ he asked as they turned into the underground car park.
‘Nothing personal, but you were the ideal candidate.’
‘Thanks,’ Tom replied sarcastically and then had a thought. ‘Is that why you recruited me in the first place?’
Frederick looked hurt. ‘Not at all. None of this was planned. The idea was simply to disable the Collider as we had done in the past. It was supposed to look like an accident and nobody was supposed to get hurt. Unfortunately, Deiter miscalculated the amount of explosive required, which resulted in the deaths of those poor maintenance workers and brought the police to our doorstep. The last thing SHIVA needs is this kind of attention.’