What he found was something quite unexpected. Mounted above the driver’s seat was the familiar CCTV monitor. Tony had never studied it before; if he’d ever given it any thought, he would have assumed it would show only the interior of the bus. But the reality was very different. The screen was split into nine sections, showing upper and lower decks, the entrance and exit doors and the rear of the bus, to make it easier for reversing, he presumed. What he hadn’t expected was how much of the outside of the bus was under surveillance. A wide-angle lens revealed the whole width of the pavement, extending as far as the plate-glass windows of the store; another showed the roadway on the far side of the bus. Tony imagined that if it was blown up on a single monitor it would be possible to read number plates. Maybe even identify drivers.

‘How often does this service run?’ he asked the driver, who was dropping pound coins one by one into his waiting hand.

The driver gave a weary sigh. ‘Every twenty minutes from seven in the morning till ten at night.’

‘Is this the only bus service that runs into the supermarket?’

‘Do I look like Google? Go and sit down so I can get moving.’

‘Can I stand here and watch the monitor?’

The driver pointed to a sign on the Perspex screen that protected him from his passengers. ‘Can you not read? No passengers beyond this point while vehicle is in motion. That means sit down and leave me alone. You can do that, or you can get off.’

Tony perched on the edge of a double seat already occupied by a large elderly woman with two bulging bags that seemed to contain only potatoes and biscuits. ‘Miserable git,’ she said. Seeing his startled face, she giggled. ‘Him, not you. There’s two other buses stop at Freshco, love. The thirty-seven runs down through Kenton to Kenton Vale then back round to Colliery End. Every half-hour, I think. And there’s a little ring-and-ride coach that serves the estate. It doesn’t have a timetable, as such.’

‘Thanks. That’s very helpful.’

She looked at him curiously. ‘It’s a funny question, though. Why are you so interested in the buses?’

‘It’s a long story,’ he said. ‘And I can’t really explain it. But it’s all about different ways of looking at things. And how you don’t always think about the things you think you know about.’ He smiled. ‘A lot of what I say doesn’t make sense. But don’t worry, I’m perfectly safe.’

She gave him an appraising look. ‘Are you sure about that?’

He shook his head, rueful. ‘Probably not.’

31

There was an air of excitement in the incident room when Paula got back to Skenfrith Street. ‘What’s up?’ she asked one of the DCs on her way to Fielding’s office.