‘A head trauma doesn’t require seventy-two hours,’ said Jameson. ‘They could have done that in the ambulance. Interrogated him, beat him up a bit and dropped him at the hospital to arrive with the other bomb victims.’

Bloom nodded. ‘So why did it take so long?’

‘Because he wouldn’t talk?’ said Karene.

Jameson narrowed his eyes. ‘Maybe. Or they needed the seventy-two hours to do something more intricate.’

‘We need to find out what Harry has forgotten,’ said Bloom.

Jameson smiled. He looked at Karene. ‘What do you know about the man you love? What has he done, good and bad? Tell us everything.’

23

‘Do you think she’ll come up with anything useful?’ asked Jameson.

Karene had returned to her accommodation to spend the evening gathering together everything Harry had told her about his life and work in the past four years. She’d said she would also check in with his closest friends about the couple of years before she had met him.

‘Hard to say,’ replied Bloom. ‘But we have to try. If there are gaps, we can investigate with Harry’s colleagues and the rest of his family.’

‘Yeah, let’s hope the others are a bit more engaged than his ex-wife.’

‘Any insights on her new boyfriend?’

‘He seems clean. Nothing controversial. He’s been a doctor in the same hospital since he qualified; never in trouble, no military training or weird hobbies. I’ll keep digging but it’s not looking promising. He and Caroline were on holiday with the kids the week of the ball.’

‘I’ve had a call from one of Detective Superintendent Drummond’s team and the CCTV at the hospital drew a blank too. The hours in question had been erased or recorded over.’

‘How convenient. Cock-up or conspiracy?’

Bloom shrugged. ‘We’ll never know.’

‘No, but I’d say it’s one more thing that suggests someone sophisticated might be behind this.’

‘Not just a lone bomber or a bungling ambulance crew covering their tracks,’ said Bloom, acknowledging the point. ‘Can we get in to see Harry, do you think? We need to get some more information, and fast. We’ve got so many theories and hardly any facts.’

‘He’s not on a military base: it’s a medical facility.’

‘And have all the military personnel from the explosion been transferred there?’

Jameson shook his head. ‘Just Harry, as far as I know. But I expect the Commodore who lost a leg will end up there too.’

‘Grey told Karene it was procedure for all military staff to be moved there.’

‘Really? It’s a specialist trauma centre: limb loss, head injuries, spinal injuries. So I can’t see why other casualties would be transferred there.’

‘And he said she wouldn’t be allowed on site.’