Bryant & May - London's Glory: (Short Stories) (Bryant & May Collection) Read Online Free PDF

a state of distress. His mother was nowhere in sight. You get an instinct about trouble.’ He touched a plucked eyebrow as if securing it in place. ‘I started walking towards him and suddenly he threw the box across the china hall. Luckily, nothing broke. I went after him but by this time he had reached the escalator. I got there as quickly as I could, but it was hard to see him, being so small. He ran between the make-up counters and out into the road.’
    ‘Where he was hit by a number 53 bus,’ said May, checking his notes.
    ‘He went straight under the wheels,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘He never regained consciousness. The doctor reckoned he didn’t feel anything.’
    ‘We interviewed Carroll-Williams’s mother,’ said May. ‘She went running after him but the store was very crowded and she lost sight of him.’
    ‘So the boy was fine when he left you and got back into the sleigh,’ said Bryant.
    ‘Yeah, it only goes halfway round a bit of track. He could barely wait for it to stop.’
    ‘But when he emerged from the tunnel he was distraught. Was there anyone else in the tunnel with him?’ May asked.
    ‘No, we were finishing for the evening. There were just the six of us: Mickey, me, the photographer, the kid, the kid’s mother and the other Father Christmas. We were all still here in Wonderland when the boy left.’
    ‘Wait, I’m confused,’ said Bryant. ‘
You’re
Father Christmas.’
    ‘No, I’m
a
Father Christmas,’ said Father Christmas. ‘There’s two of us, working in rotation. It would be too knackering otherwise.’
    ‘Wait, so you saw everything from where you were backstage but it was the
other
Santa who asked Sebastian what he wanted for Christmas?’
    ‘You’ve grasped it,’ said Santa. ‘I’m Edwin, he’s – What was his name, Mickey?’
    ‘God knows,’ said Mickey. ‘We get through them at a rate of knots.’
    ‘I’m embarrassed to say I’m not sure either,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘He was only here a few days. The incident probably upset him. It must have done because he didn’t come in yesterday.’
    ‘But you have a contact number for him?’ May asked with a sinking feeling.
    ‘Certainly,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘Our Santas are vetted very carefully.’
    ‘You need to find it for us as soon as you can,’ said May.
    Bryant was thinking. The loss of one Father Christmas didn’t seem to bother him. ‘So the boy must have opened his gift as he walked out through the tunnel.’
    ‘It looks that way.’
    ‘What on earth did he find inside the box to upset him so much that he would run out into the street without watching for traffic?’
    ‘That’s the oddest part about it,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘He threw it away just after opening it. It was completely empty.’
    ‘He wasn’t carrying the gift? It wasn’t on his person?’
    ‘No, there was nothing inside the box or on him at the accident site,’ said Santa.
    ‘If it was empty, it must have felt lighter than the usual gift packages,’ said Bryant.
    ‘No, because some of them just have vouchers inside that you can take to the electronics department.’
    ‘You didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary about this particular box?’
    ‘It was just like all the others. You can see the CCTV footage if you want,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘There’s nothing on it that’s remotely unusual or different from any other Santa experience.’
    ‘Do you still have the box?’ asked Bryant.
    ‘Yes, I had one of my girls put it in a plastic bag for you,’ said Mr Carraway. ‘It’s in my office.’
    The detectives examined the box and found nothing unusual about it. Then they watched the CCTV footage of the other Father Christmas with Sebastian Carroll-Williams. In terms of identification, it didn’t help that Santa wore a wig, a hat and a beard. The footage had no sound, but the actions of both made everything pretty clear. Santa told his joke, helped the boy into his polar-bear outfit, posed with him for the