Chapters (118)
- Cover
- About the Author
- Also by Leona Deakin
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- Acknowledgements
- Reading Group Questions
- Read More
- I
- 2
- 3
- THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
‘That’s not the point. The point is these pictures are all time stamped so I can plot out where you were right before the bomb went off here.’ Jameson placed his finger on an impressive picture of the windows blowing and plumes of grey smoke escaping towards the camera. ‘According to Karene, you were standing at this window at that point,’ he said, indicating a previous image where the windows were intact.
‘So I’m first captured at 19:25 and then …’ Harry scanned the pictures. ‘I’m caught in the back of this photograph on the steps at 19:32 and then photographed here with Chris Waite at what time is that, 19:42 or 45?’
‘19:42. Do you remember being in there with him?’
‘No. I lived at Devonport for a year earlier in my career. I know it well and I’ve known Chris since initial training.’
‘Well he’s the Commodore there now. He lost a leg in the blast and his wife’s only just been discharged.’
‘Karene told me. I should call him soon.’ Harry tracked the red string. ‘I’m not photographed again. So why all these pictures?’
Jameson pointed to the image of a stocky, grey-haired man in the background of a photograph of two couples posing on the lawn. ‘This guy appears in a few photos at 19:30, 19:36, 19:45 and 19:52. He’s not in dress uniform and not with anyone else. Now, Karene said you were with a man in a white shirt when the bomb detonated.’
‘And he’s in a white shirt.’ The man wore his day uniform of black trousers, shirt with epaulettes and a white cap.
‘The only one I can find.’
‘OK, so what?’
‘So what’s he looking at … here?’ Jameson pointed at the photo showing the man on the lawn. ‘And here?’ He pointed to the guy standing on the concourse immediately outside the building, staring off to the left of the camera. ‘If I look at the other photographs, I can work out that in the first one he’s looking in the direction of where people enter and then at 19:36 he’s looking towards the wardroom steps, where you were captured just four minutes earlier.’
‘You think he’s part of it?’
‘I think he’s watching. He’s waiting.’
‘For the bomber?’