But the diminutive DC did not hear. She was already running across the concourse, weaving a path between the performers. The song could be heard bleeding from hundreds of earpieces as the entire station danced. The tune hit its chorus—they tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no—and the choreography grew more complex. Colin could no longer see who Meera was chasing. Even the transport police were standing back and watching the dancers with smiles on their faces.
As the song reached its conclusion there was a concerted burst of leaping and twirling. Then, just as if the music had never played, everyone went back to the business of the day, catching trains and heading to the office. Meera was glaring at Colin through the crowds, furious to find that her target had disappeared. But just as Meera started walking toward Colin, someone grabbed at his shoulder.
Colin turned to find himself facing a portly, florid-faced businessman who was slapping the pockets of his jacket and shouting incoherently. ‘Hey, calm down, tell me the problem,’ Bimsley advised.
‘You are police, yes?’ screeched the man. ‘I have been robbed. Just now. I was crossing station and this stupid dancing begins, and I stop to watch because I cannot cross, you know, and my bag is taken right from my hand.’
‘Do we look like police?’ Colin asked Meera via his headset.
Her derisive snort crackled back. ‘What else could you be?’
‘Did you see who took it?’ Bimsley asked the businessman. ‘What was the bag like?’
‘Of course I did not see! You think I talk to you if I see? I would stop him! Is bag, black leather bag, is all. I am Turkish Cypriot, on my way to Paris. The receipts are in my bag.’
‘What receipts?’
‘My restaurants! Six restaurants! All the money is in cash.’
‘How much?’
‘You think I have time to count it? This is not my job. Maybe sixty thousand, maybe seventy thousand pounds.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Bimsley, ‘you’re telling me you were carrying over sixty thousand on you—in cash?’
‘Of course is cash. I always do this on same Monday every month.’
‘Always the same day?’ Bimsley was incredulous. How could anyone be so stupid?
‘Yes, and is perfectly safe because no-one knows I carry this money, how could they?’
‘Well, what about somebody from one of your restaurants?’
‘You tell me I should not trust my own countrymen? My own flesh and blood? Is always safe and I have no trouble, is routine, is what I always do. But today the music start up and everybody dance and someone snatch the bag from me. Look.’ The irate businessman held up his left wrist. Dangling from it was a length of plastic cable, snipped neatly through. ‘I want to know what you will do about this,’ the man shouted, waving his hairy wrist in Bimsley’s perplexed face. ‘You must get me back my money!’
Meera came back to his side. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ Colin said, sighing. ‘Just another bloody Monday morning in King’s Cross.’
Bryant & May on the Loose is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Christopher Fowler
Excerpt from Bryant & May off the Rails copyright 2010 by Christopher Fowler.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book Bryant & May off the Rails. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
Fowler, Christopher.
Bryant & May on the loose: a Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery /
Christopher Fowler.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90715-5
1. Bryant, Arthur (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. May, John (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Police—England—London—Fiction. I. Title.
II. Title: Bryant and May on the loose.
PR6056.O846B77 2009
823′.914—dc22
2009024227
www.bantamdell.com
v3.0_r1
On the Loose Page 31