Violet nodded. “Of sorts. It is not a bomb with explosives, however. The box contains the Ebola-infected blood. When Bakic calls the number associated with the cell phone, it will send a small charge of electricity through the edge of the box, will be strong enough to make a hole in the cardboard. The bottom will fall away, and the blood will enter the sprinkler’s water supply. We must diffuse the cell phone charge before Bakic makes that phone call,” she said. “The bottom of the box has been glued securely to the water sprinkler system, so attempting to remove it will tear the cardboard and again, the blood will enter the water system.”
“Please tell me you know how to diffuse a bomb.”
“It is like you barely know me at all. Of course I know how to diffuse a bomb like this. The easiest way would be to stick a paperclip into the side of the phone and remove the SIM card, deactivating the phone, but he has thought of that. There is a sheet of metal over the slot. No, I have to figure out the charge and cut one of the cables. Cassie, at the computer in the far corner of the room is some of the security camera footage from the ground floor. Could you please tell me how the evacuation is going?”
I went to where Violet instructed me to, trying to keep calm. We were in a room with a bomb. Not one that was going to blow us up, but one that could kill a whole bunch of people all the same. I looked at the screen. There was a much larger police presence than before, and people seemed to be acting in a relatively orderly manner, but they were filing out of the station incredibly slowly. And then, just to make matters worse, a train pulled up to one of the platforms and people began piling out. Apparently the order to evacuate the station hadn’t included stopping all the trains.
“I don’t want to say bad things about DCI Williams, but umm, I really hope you do know what you’re doing,” I told Violet.
“Is it obvious they are evacuating?”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes I do not know why I even bother. I told DCI Williams to be subtle about it. Now as soon as Bakic notices, he will set off the charge. We likely have under two minutes.”
Violet reached into her purse and took out a pair of latex gloves and slipped them on, then grabbed a Swiss Army Knife and placed it next to her.
“Wait,” I said. “Are you putting your hands in blood we know has been infected with Ebola?”
“I need to see the other end of the cables in order to be able to cut the correct cable, and there is no way to do that without moving the blood around. Stand back, Cassie, and do not worry. After all, I am wearing gloves.”
I took a step back as Violet began stirring the blood around, trying to see the bottom of the box. I knew she was being careful, and then suddenly, I glanced at the security cameras again. In the corner of the building people were rushing toward a growing wave of smoke.
“Uhhh, Violet, I think Bakic just set his fire, you’re out of time. Pick a wire and cut it.”
Violet smiled at me as she grabbed the knife, took one of the green cables and cut it. I looked into the box. The blood was still there; it wasn’t leaking into the water system. She hadn’t cut the wrong cord.
Ten seconds later, the phone began to ring. Violet and I looked at each other, and Violet smiled. I looked down into the box. Still no leakage. I began to laugh. We had done it!
Ok, ‘we’ was a strong word. I was well aware that Violet had done almost everything, but still! I was here. I had seen it all happen.
“I told you I knew how to diffuse a bomb,” Violet told me. “I cannot believe you thought I would fail against a gangster who looked up how to make a cell phone bomb on the internet. Now, let us text DCI Williams that despite his best efforts, the terrorist attack has been averted.”
Just then, the water storage system roared to life. The mechanical sound of the pump inside sending water to the sprinkler system made me jump about a foot in the air, until I realized what was happening. Bakic’s smoke had worked; the sprinkler system was set off.
Fortunately, however, the contaminated blood was still in the cardboard box on top of the water system, and not inside it. About three minutes later all the water inside the storage system had been pumped out.
We had done it. We had stopped the Ebola attack on London. Everyone was safe now. Violet pulled out her phone and sent a text quickly.
Two minutes later DCI Williams entered the room. He was soaking wet, his hair plastered to his forehead.
“You couldn’t have stopped the sprinkler system working completely, could you?” he asked with a grin on his face before rushing forward and taking Violet into a big bear hug. I grinned as she squealed.
“You are soaking wet! What kind of man hugs a woman when he looks like a half-drowned bear! If this is how you repay me I will never stop another terrorist attack for you ever again!”
DCI Williams and I laughed as he let Violet go and she flipped him the bird. It was all over. I was so happy I felt like I was floating.
Chapter 22
Over the next few hours we began to understand everything that had happened.
As soon as DCI Williams came up he apologized. “I honestly did try to make the evacuation as subtle as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as everyone realized what was going on, they all formed an orderly queue to leave the station, which made what we were doing incredibly obvious.”
I hid my smile at those words; since moving to London I’d learned that the British really love their line-ups, or queues as they call them. In America everyone would have run toward the doors in a mad rush to be the first ones out; here everyone lined up in an orderly manner and awaited their turn patiently. It was just all too civilized.
Sasha Bakic had been arrested; as soon as DCI Williams saw the smoke he knew what the man was trying to do. He arrested Bakic, but not before enough smoke had been generated to trigger the sprinkler system. About two hundred people still left inside the train station had been sprayed with the water, and while they were all upset, at least none of them had any risk of being infected with Ebola.
The police managed to keep the details out of the press as well, although it was leaked that the police did stop a potential terrorist attack. For the next few weeks, at least, the Metropolitan Police were considered heroes, and at one point Violet told me she heard from “her sources” that DCI Williams was being considered for a promotion.
Sasha Bakic, Filip Petkovic and Dragan all admitted to everything once their lawyers learned what kind of evidence we had against them. Violet and I were allowed to observe as DCI Williams took their statements before they made their agreements with the Crown Prosecutor. They had all agreed to deals that would involve them spending the next forty years of their lives in prison. The pizza shop around the corner from Dragan’s home had definitely lost a regular customer.
“Is this the first terrorist attack you’ve stopped?” I asked Violet as we watched DCI Williams asking Petkovic questions about how he came into contact with Anthony Roman.
“No,” Violet replied. “It is, however, the most creative, and certainly the one that came closest to succeeding. However, you say that I am the one who stopped it. You are technically incorrect. It was just as much you as it was I.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Violet?” I asked. “Not only are you being humble, but you’re also wrong. You figured the whole thing out. I’d still be staring at the hospital camera footage, wondering who the man who killed Anita Turner was if it was all up to me.”
Violet gave me one of those small smiles of hers. “I am not often humble, but I cannot deny the facts. It is true. Had you not come to my home, and had you not made the comment about terrorist attacks not occurring due to money, I would not have realized that you were wrong, discovered the true motive, and we would not have found Sasha Bakic in time.”
“There are nicer ways to phrase that than ‘you were so wrong I figured out the answer’,” I replied with a smile.
“There are, but they would be less correct. You were instrumental in solving t
his case. Do not discount your contribution because I was the one who cut the wire. Without you, we never would have found the wire to cut. There is a reason I ask you to some of my crime scenes. I have found it advantageous to speak with another human being about crimes, and most people do not like me enough to have long conversations about them with me.”
I grinned. “Gee, I wonder why that is.”
“It is because I am blunt. But I can be, because I am very good at what I do. I am glad you were here with me on this case, Cassie. Without you, the attack would have undoubtedly succeeded.”
“Thanks,” I replied, a small blush starting to creep up my neck. I had never really considered myself as having an important role in any of Violet’s investigations. I was more of a tag-along in my head; the person who watched the adventure unfold while not really being a part of it. Violet–especially Violet, who didn’t have a single humble bone in her body–telling me that I was a major reason why a terrorist attack had been avoided made me feel like I had done something good for the world.
And the warm, fuzzy feeling it gave me was something I would cherish forever.
“You see? When you drink a smoothie, with actual vitamins and minerals, good things happen,” Violet joked, and I punched her in the arm.
“The smoothie was a coincidence,” I retorted, and she laughed.
* * *
Two days later I was sitting on the couch with my iPad, nestled in the crook of Jake’s arm. Biscuit was sitting on his lap, purring.
“He’s my boyfriend, you know,” I told my cat, glaring at Biscuit as he demanded more attention from Jake than I did. Jake laughed.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, looking at the screen.
I nodded. “Yes. I don’t have to do anything with it right away, but Brianne is right. This way the option is there if I need it.”
I clicked the submit button, and a minute later a confirmation popped up on my screen. My transcript, with every class I’d ever taken at Stanford, along with the record of my residency, was going to be printed out, signed by an authority at the University and mailed to me here in England.
A warm glow passed through me. I was happy I’d ordered my transcript. When it arrived, I was going to apply to medical school.
“I now have a few weeks to decide what specialty I want to apply for,” I told Jake.
“Well, I think pathology, but of course I’m biased. But pathology is where all the sexy people go, so it’s where you belong,” he told me, leaning down and planting a kiss on my lips.
I smiled at him. “Well you’re living proof of that being true.”
“Could you tell I was fishing for the compliment?”
“Just a little,” I smiled. “I’m thinking of maybe going into immunology. There wouldn’t really be much of a surgical requirement, and I like the idea of studying germs.”
“Sounds good,” Jake said. “Whatever you decide, I’m all for it. Although from what I hear, you’re pretty good at hunting terrorists, too.”
“What do you mean, from what you hear? I was going to wait until we go out to tell you all about it.”
“Violet came down to the morgue today.”
“Does she have another case?” I asked, and I noticed my stomach sinking into my stomach just a little bit. I had to admit it; the thought of Violet not asking me to join her in her cases made me a little bit sad, especially after her speech to me in the police station the day before.
“No,” Jake shook his head. “Whenever Violet has nothing to do she comes down to the morgue to look for interesting murder cases, or to watch autopsies, or to try and convince me to let her do experiments on the bodies.”
I laughed. “That does sound exactly like something she would do. Do you let her?”
Jake shook his head. “Usually not. If the person was an organ donor, or decided to give their body to science, I let her do it. For the organ donors, however, I only let her do experiments on the organs that would have otherwise been discarded for whatever reason.”
“What does she do with them?” I asked. “A part of me doesn’t want to know, but my morbid curiosity really wants to.”
Jake laughed. “Usually she just tests how long it takes for bruises to appear, and what shapes bruises take when the skin is hit with various instruments. I’ve seen her do some chemical tests on other organs though. I’m really not sure. But she came in yesterday. I didn’t have any bodies for her to work on, so she just watched me do an autopsy. She told me you were instrumental in stopping that terrorist attack.”
Once again I felt the blush crawl up my face. “She’s exaggerating,” I replied. “I honestly didn’t really do much.”
“If there’s one thing Violet Despuis doesn’t do, it’s exaggerate. I’m really proud of you. You got into a situation most people would have balked at, and you ended up being one of the reasons why the terrorist threat alert got dropped today.”
“Thanks,” I told Jake, nestling into him further. “It’s kind of you to say.”
“Now I want details!” he said. “What’s the point of dating the woman who just saved all of London if she won’t even tell you exactly how it all happened?”
I laughed. “All right, all right,” I said. “But you’re buying dinner.”
“Deal,” Jake grinned. Biscuit meowed in appreciation.
“I think his vote is that we get chicken,” I said as Jake stroked his orange fur.
As I got up and went to the kitchen to open a bottle of wine while Jake grabbed my tablet to order something from JustEat, I realized that for the first time in a long, long time, I was absolutely, perfectly content. I didn’t know where my life was going to go in the future. But I was going to do something with my life. I had the perfect boyfriend, friends who cared about me, and over the last week or so I’d actually made a difference in the world.
Yup, things were definitely looking up. I couldn’t wait to see where life was going to take me next.
Also by Samantha Silver
First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading my book. I well and truly hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it.
If you enjoyed Whacked in Whitechapel I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment and leave a review for the book on Amazon, to help other readers find the book as well.
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Want to read more of Cassie’s adventures? The fourth book in the Cassie Coburn series, Strangled in Soho, is scheduled for release in September 2017.
Cassie Coburn Mysteries:
Poison in Paddington (Cassie Coburn Mystery #1)
Bombing in Belgravia (Cassie Coburn Mystery #2)
Willow Bay Witches Mysteries:
The Purr-fect Crime (Willow Bay Witches #1)
Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)
Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches #3)
Lipstick on a Pig (Willow Bay Witches #4)
A Grizzly Discovery (Willow Bay Witches #5)
About the Author
Samantha Silver lives in Oregon with her long-time boyfriend, her Jack Russell terrier named Kilo, two cats who like to help her type by lying across the keyboard, and the occasional foster. When she’s not playing mom to all these animals, Samantha is either writing the mysteries she loves, volunteering at the local animal shelter, or watching Netflix.
You can connect with Samantha online here:
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Whacked in Whitechapel (A Cozy Mystery) (Cassie Coburn Mysteries Book 3) Page 13
