Layers of Deceit, page 13
Chapter 31
Jenna finished the third run-through of her talk for the careers evening. I’d made some suggestions, and we had changed her PowerPoint slides accordingly. It was factual, engaging and amusing, with some witty anecdotes. Jenna was a great ambassador for QexChem, and with her striking good looks, I could imagine a lot of sixth-formers would be keen to ask her questions after her talk.
‘Excellent, Jenna. It’s really great.’
‘Oh, thanks, Sarah. I hope people will be interested in it.’
‘I’m sure they will. So, if you email your slides to me the day before the careers evening, I’ll send them to the school and make sure they are on the laptop for you.’
‘OK, thanks,’ she replied.
I was keen to escape from the rather stuffy, small meeting room and gathered up my things.
‘Right, I’ll go back and see what’s happening in my lab,’ said Jenna. ‘The atmosphere wasn’t very nice earlier.’
‘Surely Harry’s not causing trouble?’ I joked.
Jenna hesitated for a few seconds. ‘Oh, no, he’s at a meeting all afternoon. Hugo moved in recently, and he’s finding it hard as the glassware and equipment are organised in different cupboards and so on. It’s silly really. I don’t know why each lab isn’t the same.’
‘Oh, dear. I hope he settles in soon.’
‘So do I. He’s been swearing and so arsey with us all today. He should have come to lunch with us, but he stormed off as he was having a bit of a meltdown.’
‘I hear he was keen to take over Joshua’s work,’ I said.
‘Oh, really? I don’t know about that,’ replied Jenna.
‘Well, perhaps things will seem better in the morning?’ I said positively.
Jenna appeared unconvinced. ‘I’m not sure. Someone told me that Hugo can be a bit impatient at times, but that might just be gossip.’ Jenna glanced at her watch. ‘If Harry doesn’t come out of his meeting before you are ready to leave, come and find me, and I’ll see you off-site,’ she said.
I returned to my desk and sat down, closing my eyes and holding my head in my hands for a few moments. Craig had sent a few texts, so I replied that I was hoping to be back home by half-past five. Katy had also texted to apologise for rushing off and saying that she would phone me at home this evening. Inwardly I groaned. The prospect of my day stretching long into the evening discussing matters with Katy did not appeal in the slightest, but how could I refuse to speak to her? I thrust my phone in my bag, hoping that I would be able to concentrate for the remainder of the day.
I tried to keep in mind the pointers Craig had flagged up for me. The problem was that Joshua had been a clever guy, and if he had been involved in anything underhand, he would have doubtless covered his tracks. At least I had managed to reach the point in his notebook where he had started to work on his improved reaction conditions which led to his publication. If there was a mystery to solve, the answer was somewhere in the most recent hundred and fifty experiments.
The numbers and peaks began to swim before my eyes as I was feeling so tired. My powers of concentration were rapidly fading. The fuel in my tank was in the red and heading towards “empty.”
Joshua’s laptop froze, and I realised I had too many windows open. Even the laptop was signalling it had reached the end of its tether for the day. Finally, it responded, and I brought up the relevant entries. Next, I found the relevant hard-copy data in Joshua’s folders. It was slightly easier to see the A3 sized printouts.
As I looked at them, a few things caught my eye. Perhaps if the data was stored on the system, Harry could enlarge some of the traces. I tried to do the same on the screen, but staring at it was giving me a headache. I felt I was beginning to make progress, and this realisation gave me a few joules of energy.
It was too late in the day to pursue my suspicions, but if I could make a list for tomorrow, I could get a good start in the morning. Hopefully, there would soon be some samples of the experiments in Joshua’s tray in the lab as I planned to ask Harry for some specialist analyses.
I relaxed back in my chair. Perhaps I was making progress in discovering what Joshua had been doing. Although, that threw up another question. Why had he decided to do it, and if my suspicions were correct, how had he envisaged he would get away with it?
Chapter 32
Such was my exhaustion after a full day back at QexChem that I drove the eight miles home on autopilot. As I turned into my road, I realised I had no recollection of the journey. Would I have been alert enough to spot a hazard and avoid an accident? Perhaps I shouldn’t be driving on my own if I had such a tiring day ahead of me. I had wanted to prove to myself that I was still capable and to restore my self-confidence. Now, I felt that decision was doing the exact opposite.
Craig must have heard me pull on to the driveway as he opened the front door for me, and I practically fell through into the hallway, kicking off my shoes as I threw off my raincoat and dropped my bag on the floor.
‘God, Sarah, are you alright?’ said Craig, taking hold of my arm, in case I wobbled over.
‘I’m shattered. I’m not ill, just exhausted. What’s the expression? I’ve hit the wall?’
‘Come and sit down.’
‘Yes, I’ll sit down for five minutes, then I’m going for a quick shower. I think I’ll lie down and have a nap.’
‘OK. Can I get you anything? Tea? Water?’
‘Just some water, thanks. Katy is going to call, but I can’t speak to her at the moment. Can you explain how I am and ask her to phone later?’
‘Sure. What time?’
‘I don’t know. Much later, or tomorrow might be better. Sorry.’ My voice broke.
‘Hey, don’t get upset,’ said Craig, reaching for my hand.
‘Oh, I’m OK, it’s just tiredness. I’ve been concentrating all day since the moment I got there. It’s not just the science, but I’ve been speaking to people, and they’ve been telling me loads of stuff about Hanson, my head feels like it’s going to explode. Then I had to chat to people at lunch, so I didn’t get a moment to relax.’ I wiped a few tears away with my hand as Craig continued to stroke the other one. ‘Sorry about that. I’ll go and have my shower.’
‘Shout if you need anything,’ said Craig.
I dragged myself upstairs, each tread feeling like it was a mountain to climb. I stripped off my clothes, and unusually left them in a pile and stepped into the shower, not even waiting for it to warm up properly. My whole body felt numb. I had to stop myself from falling asleep under the spray of water. After what must have only been a couple of minutes, I emerged, quickly towelled myself down, put on my robe and climbed into bed.
**
I awoke feeling confused. The bedroom was in darkness. What time was it? My hair still felt slightly damp. I switched on my bedside lamp and took a sip of the water which Craig must have placed by my bed. The house was silent. Either Craig was still working or watching television with the sound turned very low. My bedside clock showed it was 20.15, so I must have been asleep for around two hours. Carefully, I swung my legs out of bed and put on my pyjamas, then put my robe back on top of them before going to find Craig.
‘Hi,’ I said, entering the lounge and slumping down on the sofa. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘Don’t apologise! How are you now? I was worried about you.’
‘A bit better after my nap. I was out like a light.’
‘I wasn’t sure what to do about dinner as I didn’t know what time you were going to wake up.’
‘Have you had anything?’
‘No, but there’s some fresh soup in the fridge. We could have that with some rolls. Do you fancy that?’
‘Yes, that sounds good.’
‘You sit there, and I’ll go and microwave it. Put your feet up and relax.’
My mind still felt in a muddle, and I needed to sort out all the information which had bombarded me today. As well as trying to get to grips with Joshua’s experiments, I was beginning to get to know his colleagues a little better. Whether I had merely scratched the surface, or there was more to discover, I had no idea, but as in any community, there were tensions and personality clashes. Whether those tensions were significant, I didn’t know, but they certainly warranted further consideration.
‘It’s ready!’ called Craig from the kitchen.
‘Oh, lovely,’ I said, sitting down and breaking off some of a bread roll.
‘I spent hours making this soup today!’ joked Craig. ‘I hope it’s OK for madam?’
‘It’s wonderful. Just what I needed. How’s your day been?’
‘Not too bad. I’ve been busy with my book. It’s going fine. Well, I think it is.’
‘That’s good. Any other news?’
‘Well, I had a check through the blog as you’re too busy at the moment, but there wasn’t much I needed to do. So, how did you get on?’
I sighed. ‘It was full-on. Too much. I’m feeling a bit shell-shocked with it all, and it’s another day of the same tomorrow.’
‘Ah, well, Katy phoned.’
‘Oh, no, I’d forgotten,’ I groaned.
‘So, as your personal assistant, I took some decisions on your behalf,’ said Craig.
‘You told her to find someone else to help,’ I joked.
‘Not quite, but I told her how tired you are and I thought that a full day tomorrow would be too much for you.’
I put my spoon down. ‘Really? How did she take that?’
‘Let me explain. So, I told Katy that you needed to speak to her, but were too tired tonight. Although you didn’t tell me, I assume you will need some time to sort things out in your own mind before you speak to Katy. Correct?’
I nodded.
‘So, with that in mind, I asked Katy to come here tomorrow morning so you can have a proper chat. She’s coming about ten-ish. So, you will have some time to make notes and think things through in the morning after a night’s sleep.’
A wave of relief washed over me. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘I’m great, aren’t I?’
‘Quite good,’ I replied. ‘Oh, no! I’ve just thought of something. Harry said he would collect me from the reception at nine.’
‘Katy is going to let him know you won’t be there until after lunch. It’s all in hand.’
‘You think of everything.’
‘I try. And one final thing, I am going to chauffeur you tomorrow. I’m worried about you driving yourself.’
Whereas I would usually have argued, I smiled and reached across the table for Craig’s hand, realising how lucky I was to be with him.
Chapter 33
After a disturbed night, with periods of sleep interspersed with dreams about QexChem, I managed to drag myself out of bed at half-past seven. Twenty minutes later, I was dressed and drinking my second cup of coffee as I made some notes in preparation for Katy’s visit. I ran through my thoughts with Craig, and so far, I felt his theory was holding up. I felt so grateful to Craig for intervening and making the necessary arrangements with Katy. I was in no state for a full day at QexChem today. I just hoped that by the end of today, I would have finished my stint in the laboratory.
At fifteen minutes after ten, I heard a car pull up outside and went to the front door. I thought Katy looked more tired than usual as she climbed out of her car, but her expression lifted as she saw me standing in the open doorway.
‘Hi, Sarah! How are you feeling today?’
‘A lot better than last evening. I’m such a wimp. One full day working and I’m a complete wreck!’
‘I felt a bit guilty after speaking to Craig,’ she replied. ‘I should have suggested you spend half days there. It was inconsiderate of me.’
‘It’s OK. Don’t worry. Coffee?’
‘Thanks. I mean it, you must tell me if it’s getting too much for you. After all, it’s not that long since....,’ Katy paused, ‘well, since you weren’t well.’
‘Go through, I’ll get the coffees,’ I replied.
It was nice of Katy to acknowledge that my role might be rather demanding for me, and I hoped that my spell at QexChem wouldn’t last too long.
‘Oh, that’s nice,’ said Katy, taking a sip of coffee. ‘Better than that bilge water at the station!’
I laughed. ‘You’ll have to stop off when you are passing, and I’ll make you a coffee.’
‘I might take you up on that,’ said Katy. ‘So, who is going to go first?’
‘Go ahead,’ I said.
‘Well, at one today, I’m speaking to the psychologist that Hanson was seeing,’ Katy checked her notepad. ‘A Dr Helen Whittard.’
‘Like the coffee,’ I replied.
‘Oh, yes. I’d forgotten about that coffee chain,’ said Katy.
The business card which had prevented Hanson’s drawer from opening fully was for a Dr Whittard, and on the back, there was a list of dates, the last one the week before Hanson died. People sought help for all manner of reasons, relationships, a bereavement, stress at home or work, as I had done in the past. Whilst I had no idea what had been troubling Hanson, it could be something else to consider in building up a complete picture of the recently deceased chemist, and I was pleased that Katy thought it was worth following up.
‘Well, from what Abigail Jarvis said, it does seem that there was another side to Joshua Hanson, apart from the model employee persona,’ I said. ‘We’ve got the hidden box of chemicals and the tension between him and Martin Latham. He certainly didn’t get on with everyone.’
‘None of us gets on with all our colleagues. It just depends on whether his clashes were enough to give anyone a motive for arguing with him and possibly pushing him.’
I nodded. ‘I think we need to speak to Martin Latham again.’
‘OK, well, I should be able to get to QexChem at about 3 p.m., so can you organise that meeting?’
‘Sure. Latham has some rather unorthodox views. He sounds like a bit of a square peg in a round hole.’
Katy smiled. ‘I’ve not heard that expression for a while.’
‘But Latham wasn’t on-site when Hanson had his accident, was he?’ I said.
‘No, he has a solid alibi, but I just wonder whether he might want to suggest anyone else who had a grievance with Hanson. Maybe he’s discussed Hanson with someone else who didn’t like him.’
I thought back to my lunch with Harry’s colleagues. ‘I was just thinking about Amy, oh what was her surname? Crump, that’s it. Crump the grump, as I thought of her.’
Katy laughed. ‘Oh, dear. I take it she wasn’t very cheerful.’
‘Dour is putting it lightly. Perhaps she was having a bad day,’ I shrugged. ‘She’s a weird fish. Mid-thirties but with the outlook of someone in their sixties. She reckons Hanson was thinking of moving to another company.’
‘Really? So, he wasn’t happy at QexChem?’
‘I don’t know. Harry quickly dismissed her gossip, but she was adamant. “I know what I heard” was her expression before stomping off to get a dessert. It was a bit embarrassing.’
‘Maybe we will hear the same thing from someone else,’ said Katy. ‘It all helps to build up a complete picture of Hanson. However, none of the management is likely to admit that one of their employees is looking to jump ship. Also, at some point, we need to consider what we learn from chatting to people with the data from the security passes. It’s a big job, but it’s part of the picture. So, anyone else to consider speaking to this afternoon?’
‘Hugo Smythe has replaced Hanson on the project. I’m not sure how well he knew Hanson before he died, so I think he warrants a chat.’
‘OK. So this afternoon, we will chat to Martin Latham and Hugo Smythe,’ Katy confirmed. ‘I’m also going to meet with Brenda Sanders in HR at some point, although not today.’
‘Oh, yes, I met her the other day when I spoke to her about the careers evening. She’s quite pleasant, but guarded in what she says, of course.’
‘Well, HR people are always like that. They do all the communication courses. Right, how are you getting on with the analysis?’ said Katy.
‘I’m making progress, but yesterday just flew by. It’s taking quite a time to look through Hanson’s experimental write-ups, and the afternoon was interrupted with Abigail and going through Jenna’s talk. But, I’ve got a plan, and I’m going to ask Harry to get some data for me which will hopefully add more information.’
Katy raised her eyebrows. ‘Sounds intriguing.’
‘Don’t get too excited. I may be wrong. Also, it may raise more questions than answers.’
‘How do you mean?’ asked Katy.
‘I don’t know. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that. All I mean is that I need to do more analysis, spend more time looking through Hanson’s notebook and I’ll also need to look through his tray of samples to see whether I can get more evidence to back up my theory.’
‘Well, you sound as though you are on top of it,’ said Katy. ‘I’m impressed.’
‘Don’t say that until I give you my summary. As I said, I won’t know until I’ve done some more investigations. Oh, what about Tahir?’
‘Nothing so far. I’m hoping his flatmates can persuade him to re-surface.’ Katy looked at her watch. ‘Well, I’ll see you around mid-afternoon.’
I took a deep breath. ‘OK. Could you give me a lift back afterwards? Craig is driving me there this afternoon, so it will save him picking me up.’
‘Of course.’
‘Thanks, and I’ll see you later,’ I replied, trying to sound upbeat.
Chapter 34
Katy had driven over to Canterbury to speak to Dr Helen Whittard, the psychologist who had treated Hanson. She had only just arrived in time as the traffic around the ring road had been snarled up, and Katy had inched along becoming more frustrated every second. Dr Whittard’s practice was at her home address, a large Edwardian style terraced house arranged on three floors. The property appeared in good order, with wooden sash windows, and a large brass knocker in the style of a fish on the red front door. However, Katy chose the doorbell, straining her ears for a faint hint of its ringtone.
