They’re just standing there. Not one of them looks down at the commotion and intrigue beneath them. A woman in her twenties with an oversized scarf wrapped around her neck starts to film, panning across from left to right. Her hand is shaking. Artaud wonders whether anybody would notice if he pushed her over the edge into the river.

He can hear a siren in the distance.

130

‘My God, you fucking idiot, get out of the way,’ Pace shouts to himself as some fuckwit in a BMW tries to pull onto the kerb but seems to care more about his wheels than he does about a policeman heading to a possible emergency.

Pace slams his horn, angrily. He shouldn’t do that. But this detective often does things that he should not do.

Speeding across Southwark Bridge, he looked down the river at the majesty of Tower Bridge, so iconic. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He could see that the traffic was flowing, the lights were ready to come on. He could do this.

The BMW driver eventually pulls across far enough for Pace to pass. He looks over at the driver as he starts to move and the guy is texting on his phone. Detective Sergeant Pace deliberately scrapes his piece-of-shit car down the side of the idiot’s perfectly polished paintwork then speeds off towards the tower.

He turns right and can see Tower Bridge. Oddly, it looks smaller the closer you get.

The traffic is backed up and immobile. Some have turned off their engines completely. Pace can see that people are not walking across the bridge but have stopped.

He gets out of his car and runs. Those eighteen steps up to Artaud’s office got the detective out of breath but he is running on fear and passion, now.

By the time he arrives at the entrance to the bridge, he is so out of breath that he has to take a moment to place a hand on his knee and collect himself. He stops behind a crowd of nine people, who are all looking up. They are all somehow hugging one another.

Detective Sergeant Pace straightens up.

Detective Sergeant Pace breathes. In. One, two, three. Out.

Detective Sergeant Pace sees Dr Artaud.

131

And Artaud sees the detective.

He screws his face as if to say, That’s odd, shouldn’t you be up there? Then he smiles again. He can’t stop himself. Artaud can see how much this reaction annoys Pace. He hasn’t counted how many people have walked out onto the walkways so has no idea that one is missing.

Artaud spots some movement from the corner of his eye. Another person has joined the others on the front walkway. She makes her way to the centre. Everybody is facing forwards, but she turns her back to the crowd.

Dr Artaud looks Pace dead in the eyes to hold his attention then lifts up one finger as though telling him to wait for it…