Callintree added: ‘It will be up to the parents and the hospital whether anything is said publicly about the little girl’s condition when she passed.’
The reporters were all about to ask questions, and Callintree held up a hand as the live camera nosed closer to his face. ‘We do need to check on the welfare of others who were at the pizza parlour. There may have been as many as five families in there, along with one or two individual customers. We need to speak to them all, and I urge anyone watching who was there or knows anyone who was there to contact the police right away.’
‘Why?’
The question turned out not to be from a reporter, but a patient who had come out of the hospital attached to a drip and was smoking. The camera found him and panned quickly away.
‘He hasn’t got any more to say,’ Edward murmured. Barbara shut the TV down. Kim shot her mother a reproachful glance as if to say,Edward didn’t mean he wanted you to turn it off completely.
Stevie suddenly said, ‘I know a lot about this.’
They all turned to her.
‘I was at the hospital yesterday. I saw Jordan, went to speak to him, up comes the mum. Just furious. She’d just put out the “pray for Nina” post. He said it could be terrorism by Russia.’
Edward jumped up, head spinning. ‘Why didn’t you mention this sooner? Anything else?’
‘She ate a capsule that she picked up at the scene,’ said Stevie.
‘Who?’ asked Barbara.
‘The dead girl. She ate a capsule of some sort, something that had fallen out of the motorbike’s pannier. That’s all I know. Her mum was proper raging, shouting “Do you know what was in those capsules?” to Jordan.’
‘Did she now?’ Barbara was fascinated.
‘Mum …’ Kim started, but desisted. She could hardly tell Barbara to be less involved.
‘You didn’t think of telling me this earlier?’ asked Edward.
‘“Can it wait?”’
‘Sorry?’
‘That’s what you said when I tried to tell you, mister. And Kim, you just said “Later” when I mentioned it.’
‘Oops,’ said Kim.
‘Anyway, Jordan wanted it secret, so I respected that.’ Stevie went on: ‘He was there because of the capsules, the hospital had called him in, and it was right before they made the statement about the biker being Russian, so he must have made some kind of connection there because the last thing he said to me was about the Salisbury poisoning. Like he was worried it was another similar attack. He looked as if the life had gone out of him, poor fucking sausage.’
Barbara put in, ‘We’ll have less effing sausages in this house, please.’
Edward gripped his hair and pulled in frustration. The biggest scoop yet and he’d brushed Stevie off hours ago! ‘Come with me to the radio station now, Stevie.’
‘In whose car?’ Kim asked Edward.
‘Oh God, Kim, do you mind driving?’ Edward asked. But then he stopped. ‘I need to ring Callintree.’
He punched the contact into his smartphone. They all fell silent.
‘Voicemail?’ asked Kim, hearing the merest squeak of the taped message.
‘Stands to reason,’ said Edward. ‘What a bloody day he’s having. Okay, then I have to ring Aspinall.’
They all fell silent again. This time the phone rang out.
‘Nobody’s in,’ said Barbara unnecessarily. ‘Except me. I’m always in.’
‘To the radio station now?’ Stevie said.
