Christopher Fowler - Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery 2 Bryant & May off the Rails

PECULIAR CRIMES UNIT MYSTERIES BY CHRISTOPHER FOWLER

Full Dark House

The Water Room

Seventy-Seven Clocks

Ten Second Staircase

White Corridor

The Victoria Vanishes

Bryant&May on the Loose

Bryant & May off the Rails is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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.

B ANTAM B OOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of The Random House Group Ltd., London.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fowler, Christopher.
Bryant & May off the rails : a Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery / Christopher Fowler.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90789-6
1. May, John (Fictitious character)Fiction. 2. Bryant, Arthur (Fictitious character)Fiction. 3. PoliceEnglandLondonFiction. 4. Murder InvestigationFiction. 5. SubwaysEnglandLondonFiction. 6. London (England)Fiction. I. Title. II. Title: Bryant and May off the rails.
PR6056.O846B76 2010
823.914dc22
2010009334

www.bantamdell.com

v3.1

For Sally Chapman, practically perfect

Youths green and happy in first love,

So thankful for illusion;

And men caught out in what the world

Calls guilt, in first confusion;

And almost everyone when age,

Disease or sorrows strike him,

Inclines to think there is a God,

Or something very like him.

A RTHUR H UGH C LOUGH

Every Bryant & May novel is self-contained, and each is a separate pleasure to write. This latest volume reflects my world of crowded city life, chaos, and the happiness of chance meetings, but its also about the underground, so some information has been changed for security purposes. Id like to thank the London Underground staff who found the time to answer my questions while patiently helping the millions of commuters who use the system every day. I dont know how you remain so calm and clear-headed. My editor Kate Miciak obviously knows the secret, because she has a talent for making books better, so my thanks and admiration go to her and the rest of the Bantam team. My U.S. agent Howard Morhaim is in there, toodid you guys all take a class together?

A salute to everyone who has posted suggestions on my website about Bryant & May (and all my other books), a number of which usually find their way into print. Join us at www.christopherfowler.co.uk and add your thoughts. Getting feedback is half the fun.

The Old Warehouse
231 Caledonian Road
London N1 9RC

THIS BUILDING IS NOW OCCUPIED BY THE PECULIAR CRIMES UNIT UNTIL FURTHER NOTIFICATION FROM THE HOME OFFICE

STAFF ROSTER: MONDAY

Raymond Land, Acting Temporary Unit Chief
Arthur Bryant, Senior Detective
John May, Senior Detective
Janice Longbright, Detective Sergeant
Dan Banbury, Crime Scene Manager/InfoTech
Jack Renfield, Desk Sergeant
Meera Mangeshkar, Detective Constable
Colin Bimsley, Detective Constable
Giles Kershaw, Forensic Pathology
Crippen, staff cat

STAFF BULLETIN BOARD

Clipping from the Police Review:

Kings Cross Executioner kills PC, escapes custody

A hired killer who left his beheaded victims on building sites in the Kings Cross area would have fatally undermined public confidence in the multimillion-pound project to re-invigorate the former red-light area if he had not been identified, said an official Home Office report last week.

However, the report went on to castigate the Unit bosses for failing to provide adequate security checks at its temporary headquarters, an oversight that resulted in the escape of the suspect.

The investigation had been conducted by Londons Peculiar Crimes Unit, a little-known police division created in 1940 to handle serious crimes that could be considered a threat to public order and confidence. As a secret wartime department, the PCU was allowed to develop many innovative (and questionable) investigative techniques. In the 1950s the Unit fell under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police. Later, it was absorbed into the British Military Intelligence department MI7 to handle cases involving domestic and foreign propaganda. In the last few months, the PCU has found itself increasingly mired in controversy after being placed under Home Office jurisdiction, and the principles upon which it was founded have been called into question.

Ministers accused the management team of failing to follow accepted procedural guidelines. But the PCUs senior detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, remained determined to operate on the London streets using investigation techniques that had been refused approval by present-day government officials. As a result, they successfully brought in a suspect known only as Mr Fox, a hired killer who admitted carrying out the Kings Cross murders for financial gain.

However, what should have been a cause for celebration turned to tragedy after Mr Fox succeeded in breaking out of the Units holding cell and stabbing the officer on duty to death. PC Liberty DuCaine lost his life after being attacked by the accused, who then escaped police custody. To date, the killer has not been recaptured.

Despite their exoneration by an independent judicial body, the PCUs future is looking less secure than ever before in its contentious history.

From the Desk of Raymond Land:

Is it necessary to remind staff NOT to provide the press with information about the escape of the so-called Kings Cross Executioner? We dont want to give tabloid hacks a reason to go through our dustbins for the next six months. DONT SPEAK TO ANYONE . If youre in any doubt, talk to me first.

A word of warning about PC Liberty DuCaines funeral; his family dont want any of you lot going anywhere near them this morning. They already had the mayor creeping round for a photo op, and sent him away with a flea in his ear. Send flowers if you want, but stay away from the service.

Further, the resignation of our Liaison Officer, April May, from the Unit is effective immediately, for health reasons. Following the recurrence of her agoraphobia, April is planning to spend some time with her uncle in Toronto. Im sure you all join me in wishing her well for the future. I thought we should have a whip-round and collect enough money to get her something nice. By the way, when April said shed like a gift voucher for a couple of hours in a flotation tank, she was, in fact, joking.

As of this morning we now have fully functional computers and phones. You have John May to thank for this. I dont know how he did it. No-one tells me anything.

Older members of the PCU will recall a pair of utterly useless workmen who sat in our former offices at Mornington Crescent for months, brewing endless pots of tea instead of getting on with their work. Youll be thrilled to know that another pair of layabouts, two Turkish gentlemen both called Dave, will be arriving today to restore the electrics, woodwork and plumbing, while no doubt offering unsought-for advice on the policing of the capital. Dont complain; their estimate for the repairs came in a lot lower than anyone elses. I daresay well find out why in due course.