‘I do indeed,’ she replied. ‘My family home throughout my childhood was in Plumpton — only a few miles from Brighton, I’m sure you know it. I have great affection for the county. Are you from Sussex?’
‘Born and bred,’ Grace said.
‘And me,’ Branson added.
‘It’s a beautiful county.’ The Queen smiled briefly, then stiffened, signalling small talk was over and stared directly at Grace. ‘Detective Superintendent, I had been under the impression that someone had taken a pot-shot at me and missed, hitting poor Perry instead — which is just... simply dreadful — but I’m informed you have a different opinion, is this the case?’
‘I am considering all options, but I do have a different opinion, Ma’am,’ he said. ‘And I will explain my reasons to you fully. I would like to start at the beginning before we get to them, if I may?’
‘Please do.’
‘I appreciate this may be distressing, but it is important for the investigation that we go into detail. If you can cast your mind back to Monday morning, can you tell us in your own words exactly what happened?’
‘Yes, of course — from what point?’
‘Starting from the moment you boarded the train. Did everything seem normal to you?’
‘A bit too normal,’ she said. ‘To be honest, I didn’t notice much, I was making some amendments to a speech I was planning to deliver last night — which I did. It wasn’t until the train suddenly began slowing down really quite sharply, and then the carriage started shaking and people — including me — were being flung out of their seats, that I realized obviously something was seriously wrong.’ She paused to reflect for a moment then continued.
‘It was all happening so quickly. In a flash it was over and we were stationary, and I heard screaming. I was lying on the floor and smelled something burning — like an electrical fire. I got onto my feet — with some difficulty as the carriage was at an angle, and one of my shoes had come off. The driver and Peregrine as well as my Protection Officer were urging everyone to get off the train. I felt I had to make sure everyone was all right. Tiny and Elena — my two Queen’s Companions — were a bit shaken but fine, as was my dresser and dear Jayne, here.’ She looked across at Jayne, who nodded reassuringly. ‘The Train Manager looked as if he might be in shock, and I saw the Director of Comms had blood running from his nose. It was all very traumatic.’
She paused for a moment and interlocked the fingers of both hands. ‘Is this enough detail for you?’
‘It’s very helpful, Your Majesty,’ Grace said.
‘Did you have any observations at the time or in the immediate aftermath, Your Majesty?’ Branson asked. ‘One thing we need to do is to rule out any members of your Household staff being involved in whatever was really going on. After the derailment, did you notice anything unusual in the behaviour of any of them?’
‘Anything unusual? What exactly do you mean by that, Detective Inspector? To be frank, it was an unusual event and the normality of people’s behaviour at that moment was the very last thing on my mind. We were all very shaken. I wanted to see if everyone was all right, and the driver was extremely anxious to get us off the train.’
‘Ma’am, what I mean is,’ Branson explained, ‘like, for instance, one of your members of staff not being as shocked as you might have expected?’
The Queen gave him a look that stopped short of being totally withering. ‘How shocked, exactly, do you mean?’ She gave a fleeting smile as if trying to signal she wasn’t beating up on him, she just wanted to understand. ‘Do you have a slide-rule, marked one to ten, Detective Inspector, like some kind of Richter scale that you use to test victims of train derailments?’
Grace, seeing his colleague struggling in deep water, waded to his rescue. ‘Ma’am, what DI Branson is asking is if Your Majesty felt anyone’s behaviour indicated, in any way at all, that they might have known the derailment was going to happen? Perhaps someone looking unusually anxious during the journey, anything of that nature?’
‘Absolutely not!’ she said, emphatically. ‘One moment everything was absolutely normal, and the next, everyone was in a state of total shock and bewilderment, as I was. The driver seemed to be very distressed, poor man. He was concerned about an express train coming towards the tunnel and wanted us to get out as quickly as we could. It was quite horrid in there, and trying to walk across those stones — ballast, I think they call it — in court shoes, was something I wouldn’t recommend.’
32
Wednesday 22 November 2023
Grace responded. ‘I’m afraid we do have to be rather pedantic with our questions, Ma’am.’
The Queen nodded and smiled warmly. ‘I understand, Detective Superintendent. I read a lot of crime fiction so I do have some idea how your lines of enquiry all work. I just wish I could give you some brilliantly sharp observation, perhaps a Miss Marple moment, that could give you a lead but, to be honest, throughout that train journey south from London towards Brighton, everything and everyone could not have seemed more normal.’
Grace smiled back, starting to feel a tiny bit more relaxed in her presence now. He glanced at Branson before turning back to her. ‘Your Majesty, today I just wanted to have a very informal chat with you about the events, but it may be helpful to our enquiries at some point soon to do what we call a formal cognitive witness interview, in a controlled environment. I appreciate that you are extremely busy, though.’
She frowned. ‘Cognitive witness interview?’
Branson explained. ‘It’s a very structured technique for helping a witness to remember key details — some of which are often buried in their subconscious. If I can give you an example, there are questions we put to witnesses of a car crash. In the first we ask, “Did you see much glass on the road after the collision?” In the second we ask, “Did you see much glass on the road after the smash?”’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘And the answer to the second will always be much more glass. So you are going to hypnotize me, are you?’
‘Not remotely, Ma’am,’ Branson replied. ‘But it would take about two hours of your time.’
‘I’ll do whatever you need me to do,’ she said. ‘Of course.’ She frowned again. ‘One thing I want to ask you, which no one has told me yet, is how the train was derailed. Assuming you — we all — are very clear it wasn’t an accident.’
‘It was derailed by a piece of rail, Your Majesty,’ Grace said. ‘A length of spare rail laid across the track. I understand that Network Rail, who are responsible for the track, keep varying lengths of these at intervals along all the main routes, so they can do a quick repair if ever needed. One of our primary lines of enquiry is around any persons seen entering either the north or south portals of Clayton railway tunnel in the preceding days, or on Monday.’
‘Maybe Queen Victoria was quite sensible getting out of the train and going by horse-drawn carriage across the Downs to Brighton,’ she said drily and shot a glance at her watch. Then she looked at each detective in turn. ‘Do you think you are going to find these people quickly?’
‘I wish I could say yes, Ma’am,’ Grace replied. ‘It is helpful in many ways that we are looking for more than one offender — from what we understand it is probably two people at least, rather than just a lone wolf.’
‘One of them who is either a very good shot or a very bad one.’ She raised her eyebrows at him.
‘I believe the person was a very good shot, Ma’am.’
‘Otherwise I might not be here — is that what you are implying?’