‘With a what? A polar bear, a prostitute, an orchestra? Were you underground with a team of coal miners? A pot-holing club? Is that why your phone didn’t work? You are walking on thin ice, sir!’
‘I had to look at something in North Devon. It doesn’t matter.’
‘But—’
‘I know, I know.’ Edward heard a note of desperation in his voice. Aplease-don’t-sack-menote he had never deployed before.
‘This pizza thing has kicked off big-time. Are you back in Sidmouth?’
‘Walking along the … well, not the promenade, it’s closed. Walking The Backs, to the radio station.’
‘Jesus. Who are you? What are you? You make a … a shifty promise to those old dears, you say we’ll pay them scam damages when we can’t … and now your show isn’t even present when a bonkers story breaks on your doorstep. I’m aghast!’ He seemed to be doing deep breaths to calm himself. ‘Come in now, if you like. But we definitely need you later. I know it’s the weekend, but I want you to do your show tonight.’
A sliver of hesitation. He had wanted to see Kim. ‘Of course.’
‘Melody has some info from the police.’
‘Did someone die? I thought just the biker. I thought everyone inside got out okay? My friend Stevie Mason was—’
Aspinall exploded. ‘If you hadn’t been MIA, we might know what was going on!’ He sounded as if he was trying to get control of himself. ‘I know you have police contacts—’
‘Not really, I—’
‘You have more of them than any of the flibbertigibbets.’ Aspinall’s word for the under-thirties, the new generation who were supposed to be in the wings ready to take over when the ashes of older careers were finally scattered across the sea, usually made Edward smile.
Edward’s only contact with the police was Callintree. He could try the officer, but he needed to use the connection sparingly. They barely knew each other. And – goddammit – he wanted to ring Callintree about the forest area he had just visited with Wendy Wrigley, because before he told Wendy what he thought he had discovered there, he must at least check they had been at the right location. The police would have photos.
He told Aspinall firmly, ‘Okay, I can call him.’ Wendy would have to wait a little.
‘Let me make this clear. We have a story on our patch that’s big enough for them to close off the seaside. You are the news guy on the station. If you can’t lead this, I’ll bring in Tessa K and we’ll put you on weather.’
‘I’m on it, I’m on it.’
‘When is your contract up?’
There it was – the most definite threat a presenter could ever hear, not even disguised.
‘I think next February.’
‘Okay. This is how maths works. I want some better figures on your show to bring in more ads to raise the money you promised all those scam victims. Can you make sense of that?’
‘Perfect sense.’
‘So ask your cop why they aren’t just clearing up the mess in Toppings. They removed the body, very sad and all that, and then you’d expect men in white suits to crawl through the place for an hour and reopen the promenade. Instead they’ve locked down half the seafront like we’re in Covid or something.’
‘The plates on the bike were false.’ As soon as Edward said it, he wished he hadn’t.
‘How do you know that?’
‘Can’t say.’
‘But why don’t we know that – why haven’t you put that out?’
‘I was told to keep it under my hat.’
‘What?’ screamed Aspinall. ‘No one has the right to hide this stuff from our audience. I run a radio station, not a railway station! This is the biggest story in Sidmouth since the fatberg and I need you on it, not disappearing upcountry with things under your hat.’
The Sidmouth fatberg had been international news. A lump of congealed fat, wet wipes and assorted non-flushables had got caught in the sewers, increasing in volume until it was the size of six double-decker buses. The sewage operative who found the fatberg was treated like David Attenborough. A team of engineers had to suck it out using what was described as a reverse hosing system. It was considered to be such an embarrassment to the town, the mayor had made a public statement saying, without foundation, that the engineers had evidence that much of the waste had originated in Exmouth.
