Chapter 3

A Shock to the System

They were silent in the van and Ironside watched Ed as he stared out of the side window. The sergeant was lost in his own thoughts, he had barely responded when the Chief spoke and, for the time being, Ironside was content to leave it like that.

Mark drove steadily through the city, and out towards the remains of the Kingston Building. It was away from the main campus, set back in its own small grounds. Once it had been a fine structure, modern and eye-catching, with a steel and glass frontage. Now, it was still eye-catching, but for the wrong reasons; most of the front was missing and a thin line of white smoke rose into the clear blue, Californian sky.

There was still a fire crew there, and one or two police officers, and the main part of the damaged area had been cordoned off. At one side, in the rumble-strewn parking lot, Ironside could see a black Ford police car, presumably belonging to Ed, half-crushed beneath a large block of masonry. The Chief saw his sergeant give a tiny shiver.

Ironside remained quiet as they parked, looking at Ed, and at the sling, and the small cuts on his face. The Chief gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. Having Brown here was a bad idea, he knew it by instinct. The man had almost died in there, and only a few hours before as well.

But then, the Commissioner had given them a job to do, and Ed was the only one who had seen what had happened. He was an invaluable source of information. But seeing the state of the building now was not going to be easy, even for someone as focused as Ed Brown.

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the people mill about, until Ironside judged that enough was enough.

'Ok Ed,' Ironside said. 'You're going to have to tell us what happened.'

The atmosphere grew more tense, making even Ironside uncomfortable. He had never seen Ed so uncomfortable before.

'I can't remember that much,' the sergeant admitted at last. 'The girl's face, the smell… I'm not sure.'

Ironside nodded slowly.

'It's ok, Ed. Just think carefully. Start at the beginning. You were coming in to work, and you heard the call on your radio…'

'Yeah,' he said slowly. 'I heard the call come in through the radio on my way in. A two-eleven, in progress. I thought I'd stop to take a look around.'

'Backup?' asked Ironside.

'A couple of cars were on their way. I called in too, and said I would take a look. I was just a few blocks away.'

'Hmm,' grunted Ironside. That was just typical of the man, he didn't know when to let well alone. 'And then?'

'I stopped and parked,' Ed replied, his voice more confident. 'There was no sign of anyone around, but the lights were on in the foyer. I waited for a few minutes then I went to check, and the door was unlocked. I went inside, it was quiet, and there was an odd smell, like oil, y'know, cooking oil, and plastic. I went to the desk...'

His face suddenly changed to one of shock and revulsion and he stalled at the next word. Then there was a short but very unpleasant silence.

'There was blood,' Ed said quietly. 'And... and half of someone's hand.'

'What?' said Ironside, the worried feeling that he'd had suddenly changing into something else, something very unpleasant. 'What the blazes do you mean?'

Ed was breathing hard and he put his hand up to cover his mouth. For a few moments he said nothing. The Chief, though needing more explanation but he waited for his sergeant to regain control. There was no question in Ironside's mind that Ed believed what he'd seen, whatever it was. The look on his face left very little room for doubt.

'I know what I saw,' Ed said eventually. 'Near the desk. How could I have forgotten? Oh God, how…?'

He stopped, a look of horror on his face.

'Ed? Ed!' said Ironside sharply.

Brown looked around to Ironside with a sudden jerk of his head.

'I didn't imagine it Chief, if that's what you think!' Ed replied, his voice strained.

'But the first crews and the police didn't find any sign of anyone else,' said the Chief gently. 'There's nothing in their report that…'

'I didn't imagine it!' he insisted.

'You're sure?' Ironside asked carefully. 'Did you check th...?'

'You think I'd make this up?' snapped Ed, interrupting. 'And how was I supposed to check!'

Ironside was silent for a few moments, thinking that it was better to let the matter pass at the moment. He nodded.

'Ok, Ed. So that's what you saw. What happened next? What about the girl? Try and remember. Where was she? What was she doing?'

'I'm not sure…'

'Try and remember. What did you do next? You were at the desk.'

Ed's face darkened, and when he continued, he spoke very slowly and quietly.

'The phone was dead when I tried to call in. So I stopped. I was going to turn back and go outside, and call in from the phone in the car and get an ambulance. But I thought there might be other people in the building. I was going to check when the girl appeared behind me. From one of the doors in the left hand wall, I think. I heard a noise. I turned to look. And she was just standing there.'

'Did you recognise her?' Ed shook his head. 'What was she like?'

Ed screwed up his face, shutting his eyes as he tried to remember.

'Young, early twenties, maybe five-six. Slim, pretty, long brown hair. I though she was a student at first, but…' Ed stopped for a few seconds. 'Her arm, it was missing below the elbow.'

'Missing?' Ironside's bad feeling suddenly grew more acute. Just how much worse was this going to get?

Though Ed nodded, his expression grew more concerned.

'Was there blood?' Ironside asked. 'Had it just happened?'

Ed looked out of the van window and Ironside waited, trying hard not to let his impatience show to a man who was obviously struggling to keep control of himself.

'I don't know,' replied Ed eventually. 'I'm really sorry, Chief, I can't be sure. I didn't see her for more than a few seconds, and I was looking at her face, not her arm. I don't remember any blood. But I won't ever forget her face.'

Ironside nodded.

'And then?'

'And then there was a scream.' Ed closed his eyes for a few moments, turning even paler than before. 'And a roar. And the next thing I know I'm lying on the ground, covered in dust and the wall in front of me was just gone, there was sky when there should have been walls and a roof. I couldn't believe it.'

Mark looked from Ed to Ironside, and back again.

'That's one hell of a story, man,' he said.

With a long sigh, Ed leaned forward, covering his eyes. Ironside couldn't be sure, but he thought Ed was shaking slightly.

'You're telling me!' the sergeant said. 'I'm not sure that I would believe it myself!'

Ironside gently patted Ed on the shoulder and he looked up, tired and drained.

'Do you believe me, Chief?' Ed asked.

Ironside nodded. Ed was an excellent witness, he always had been. He had trained himself to have a near photographic memory when it came to investigating, and even in such difficult circumstances he could be relied on to not embellish the facts with ill-considered speculation.

'Yes, Ed. I do believe you.'

Ed gave a sigh of relief as Ironside turned to his aide.

'Mark, I want you to call Frank for me, from the Police Lab, get him and his colleagues down here. I want that building gone over again, this time looking for human remains as well.'

Mark nodded.

'What about me?' asked Ed. 'Do I get to stay and help?'

Ironside wasn't surprised at the request, but Ed was going to find it a tough assignment. However, it was also clear that it was something that he felt he needed to do.

'I think you can stay for a while longer,' said Ironside.

Ed smiled for the first time in the whole conversation.

'Oh, no, not like that sergeant,' he said. 'If Dennis found out I had let you back to work, he would not be pleased! You can concentrate on identifying your mystery girl. I can reasonably let you get on with that, and the Commissioner can't complain.'

'Sure Chief.' He made as if to get out of the van.

'Just a moment, Ed,' said Ironside. 'Though I know what you're answer is going to be already, I have to ask. Are you ok with doing this? Here? Now?'

Ed frowned, taking a glance at the building and then looking down to the floor of the van. Ironside saw his shoulders rise, then fall. While Ed was silent, he kept watching.

The Chief was an excellent judge of character, a skill honed over twenty-five years on the force. Ed wasn't about to give up without any answers. But this wasn't the same as anything they'd ever done before. Ed was personally involved in this one, in a way that no cop should ever be. That could cause them problems later.

At last Ed looked up to his boss. He nodded.

'I'm sure. I've got to do this now, while the details are still fresh.'

'And to Hell with doctor's orders?'

Ed gave a thin smile and nodded.

'You're keeping the wrong kind of company,' Ironside said. For the first time since Ed had walked through the office doorway that morning, he gave a genuine smile.

'I've had a good teacher,' he said.

'Whatever you do, don't say that to Dennis, or I'll never hear the end of it!'

'Agreed.'

'Then let's go.'

As Mark spoke on the van's phone, Ed helped Ironside out of the side door, and together they walked across the car park towards the fire officers.

Ironside watched Ed as he looked around amazed, his expression would have been funny if the situation wasn't so serious. The whole of the front part of the building was gone. The fireball that had blasted its way out of the building had twisted the metal of the doors into fantastic shapes.

But amazingly, the picture on the back wall of the foyer was virtually untouched, only very slightly askew. Further back, down the corridor, there was nothing to show that this wasn't a normal building.

As they stood there, Mark came up to join them, shaking his head slowly.

'That is unbelievable,' murmured he. 'How…?'

'That is an excellent question,' said a terse voice from close by.

Ironside recognised the voice immediately as belonging to Gordon Kingston, the owner of the whole suite of buildings. Slowly, Ironside glanced around. Kingston was about forty, his dark hair very slightly streaked with grey. He had a long face a little like a greyhound, and he never seemed to smile very much.

Beside him was an intense-looking woman, a few years younger than Kingston, with light brown hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a light coloured jumper and brown trousers. She stood with her arms crossed, her gaze constantly flicking between Kingston, the Chief and Ed.

'Chief Robert Ironside, it's a pleasure to see you here,' Kingston said, giving the Chief's hand a hearty shake.

Ironside nodded.

'Hello again, Gordon. This is Mark Sanger, my aide, and this is Sergeant Ed Brown.'

After a moment of impolite staring, Kingston firmly shook Ed's hand, looking him up and down at the same time.

'So you really are still among the living!' he said. 'When my secretary told me someone had walked away from the blast, I didn't believe her.'

Ironside looked to the young lady beside Kingston, making the reasonable assumption that this was the secretary in question. The young woman stared back, unamused.

Kingston laughed.

'Oh, no, Chief. This is Doctor Wright. She's not anyone secretary!'

The Chief held out his hand.

'Pleased to meet you,' he said. The woman paused for a few moments, then took his hand with a firm, almost masculine grip. She didn't smile or look in any way pleased to meet him. She didn't say anything.

'So what are you going to do?' Kingston asked the Chief. 'It seems pretty clear to me that something went wrong with the storage area. I'll have to review the safety procedures. And I'll have to get this whole place cleared up. It's going to cost a fortune to get the facia back up. Thank God there wasn't more damage. And thank God it didn't happen when the building was full of students, either! Oh, that doesn't bear thinking about!'

He gave a small shudder, as if to prove his point. Next to Ironside, Ed Brown shifted uncomfortably, clearly not paying much attention to the conversation, as he gaze was fixed on the devastated building.

'Perhaps you would show my sergeant to the campus offices, Doctor Wright,' the Chief suggested politely.

She didn't look pleased at the request.

'I'm sure your sergeant doesn't need a baby-sitter,' she said. 'And I have work to do.'

Ironside waited. The woman didn't say anything, and eventually, Kingston was obliged to step in.

'Will you please just do as the Chief asks, Doctor Wright? We are here to help with his investigation, and get this place back up and running as fast as we can.'

She gave Kingston an indifferent look, then turned and walked off without another word.

At a head jerk from Ironside, Ed went after her, having to jog to catch up. His departure left a stony silence. But when Ironside looked back to Kingston, the man had a rueful smile on his face.

'Doctor Wright doesn't seem pleased to help us out,' observed Ironside.

'Wright's not pleased about anything' Kingston said. 'Doesn't like to be sidelined, doesn't like not being involved. But I can't say I'm surprised at her attitude today, most of her work's just gone up in smoke!'

'Her work?'

'Her lab was just there.' Gordon pointed to the smoldering remains in front of them.

'What does she do?'

'Well, she trained as a chemist, but I'd hardly call that her job description.' Ironside waited for him to say more. 'Hounding students is what she usually does! Not the most popular of my staff, by a long way. But certainly one of the most brilliant.'

Ironside nodded.

'So what can you tell me, Gordon?'

Kingston looked mildly surprised as he glanced down at the Chief.

'I don't know what you expect me to say, Chief Ironside,' he replied. 'I got a call this morning from my secretary to say that half my building was missing! I thought she was joking!'

'And it as an unexpected call?'

'What is that supposed to mean?'

'Did you have storage issues? Did you have security issues? Disgruntled employees that might want to get back at you? Reasons why the building might have been targeted?'

The Chief watched with a grim fascination as his words caused increasing outrage.

'Just what are you implying, Ironside?' he snapped. 'Targeted, indeed! There was nothing wrong in, or with, my department!'

'Something certainly went wrong early this morning,' said Ironside, nodding towards the smoking shell beside them.

'That was an accident. It was just by chance.'

'How can you be so sure?'

'Just what are you implying?' asked Kingston angrily.

'I'm not implying anything,' said Ironside. 'But we have to find out the truth behind what happened here.'

'Truth?'

'We have to find out exactly what happened.'

Kingston gave the Chief a very black look.

'I don't see that there is much to question,' he said. 'There must have been a mistake with the storage. That's all.'

'A mistake?'

'Yes.'

The Chief said nothing. But Kingston's conviction only made Ironside even more convinced that there was more to this accident, and not just because of Ed's report. Buildings do not normally explode when someone makes a mistake in storage. And building certainly did not explode with such force either, unless there was something very, very wrong.

Kingston continued to glare for a few moments longer, then he looked away with a grunt.

'I suppose there's nothing I can do to change your mind,' he said sourly. 'You haven't mellowed with age.'

'Just let me do my job, and that will be help enough.'

Tight-lipped, Kingston nodded, then he turned and walked away. As he left, Ironside let out a long sigh.

'That is one stung out cat,' said Mark as soon as the man was out of earshot.

'Wouldn't you be if this happened to one of your buildings?'

Mark turned to look at Ironside, a concerned expression on his face.

'I wasn't talking about Kingston,' he replied, arching his eyebrows in a meaningful way. 'So what now, Chief?'

'We need to get some answers,' replied Ironside. 'And we need them quickly before anything else goes wrong!'

A/N - Firstly, an apology for being a week late - I was ill with flu, then a chest infection and so online-plans have vanished in a feverish haze!

Secondly, since I'm running late anyway, I want to give myself a little more time with the next part. I don't think I'll be posting it next weekend, so the next chapter will be up in a fortnight. Again, sorry about this, but I need to catch up properly.