Layers of Deceit, page 17
‘Yes, we should mention it to him,’ I replied. ‘Actually, there’s something else I wanted to mention about Cyril. Something I noticed this afternoon when we helped him. But I don’t want you to accuse me of being nosy!’ I said, prodding Craig in the ribs. ‘So, when I was looking for a piece of paper to write a note for Nathan, one of Cyril’s bank statements fell on the floor.’
‘And you picked it up and had a good read!’ laughed Craig.
‘I did not have a good read, as you so delightfully put it. However, I did notice that Cyril has over five thousand pounds in his current account.’
‘Jeez, that’s a lot. I’m jealous,’ said Craig.
‘That’s not the point. Don’t you think it’s a bit risky keeping so much in his current account?’Particularly if Cyril is losing his memory, it could make him vulnerable.’ I paused. ‘I suppose what I’m getting at is, can we trust Nathan?’
Craig shrugged. ‘Well, Nathan might try to scam his uncle, but he does seem to be caring for Cyril.’
‘Yes, but Cyril was OK until Nathan moved in. It’s only recently he’s had a problem with his memory. Don’t you think it’s a bit suspicious that the two events have coincided?’
Craig considered my suggestion before adding, ‘Well, coincidences do happen. But didn’t Cyril ask Nathan to move in?’
‘He did, but perhaps he felt obliged to, and what if Nathan sees an opportunity to exploit his uncle’s failing mental capacity? It does happen, and Nathan isn’t very well off from what Cyril said. Otherwise, why would he be living here?’
‘Not well off apart from his ostentatious car, you mean,’ replied Craig.
‘Well, yes, that’s probably why he’s not well off. He’s spent it all on luxuries, which makes it worse. What if he’s a spendthrift and has decided he’s going to help himself to Cyril’s savings?’
‘OK, OK, I take your point. Perhaps it is cause for concern, but what can we do about it?’
‘Well, that’s the million-dollar question. Just at this moment, I don’t know.’
Chapter 42
On Monday morning, Craig once again dropped me off in front of the visitor reception at QexChem. Sunday had passed without incident, and we spent the day catching up with things we had planned to do the previous day. My new plants were now in the flower beds. We hadn’t seen or heard Cyril all day, so we assumed that he had been resting up indoors. Nor had we seen Nathan popping in or out, so we hadn’t managed to engage him in conversation.
‘I can pick you up anytime,’ said Craig. ‘Just phone me. Oops, someone wants to pull in, I’d better move.’
‘I don’t expect to finish before lunch, but hopefully, it won’t be a long day. Call you later!’ I said, climbing out of the car.
As I signed in at the reception and waited for Harry to collect me, I hoped this would be my last visit to QexChem as an investigator.
‘How was your weekend?’ I asked Harry as we walked over to the research building.
‘Oh, fairly standard. Just jobs at the house and shopping. We had some friends around for lunch on Sunday. It was nice, thanks. How about you?’
I related what had happened to Cyril, and Harry agreed that an emergency call system was advisable. He also told me that his grandmother had one and promised to find out which system it was as it had been very reliable.
‘I’ve collected your data,’ said Harry. ‘Let me know if you want any other samples running.’
‘Thanks. Hopefully not, but I’ll come and find you.’
‘Is Katy coming in again today?’
‘Not as far as I know. I’ll be speaking to her either this evening or tomorrow.’
‘OK. Well, good luck. Shall I see you for lunch?’
‘Yes, that would be nice.’
‘OK. I’ll see whether a few of the gang want to join us,’ said Harry as he left me at my desk.
I unlocked my desk, switched on Hanson’s laptop, took out my reading glasses and prepared to examine the data in detail.
**
The morning flew by. I had taken a short break around ten-thirty when Harry stopped by my desk and suggested we went to grab a coffee, but apart from that, I had worked solidly. I had been so engrossed that a posse of Harry, Amy Crump, and Martin Latham arriving at my desk to take me for lunch, took me by surprise.
Compared with the previous week, Amy was positively cheerful, and I felt somewhat guilty about the description of her I’d given Katy. Even Martin was less pessimistic in his outlook than he had been on Friday afternoon. It seemed as though the weekend had improved their moods considerably.
I chose a salad for lunch, followed by fresh fruit, although the hot meals looked tempting, and we managed to find an empty table all to ourselves. I wished I had Amy’s physique as she seemed to be able to eat a huge number of calories and remain rake thin.
‘I’m starving,’ said Amy finishing her bowl of sponge pudding and custard. ‘Yesterday, I forgot it was Sunday and didn’t go shopping in time! I only had cereal for my dinner last night.’
‘Poor planning,’ joked Harry, but Amy didn’t appear to notice as she was gazing at someone in the distance. ‘She’s spotted her heart-throb!’
‘Oh, look, Amy is blushing,’ said Martin.
Amy didn’t appear to notice, and I turned around to see where she was looking.
‘It’s Julian Ashworth,’ Harry whispered to me. ‘Amy has such a crush on him. It’s embarrassing.’
‘Oh, yes, Julian,’ I said. ‘Abigail’s husband.’
‘So, Amy, how’s it going with Julian, then?’ said Harry smiling at me.
‘Very funny,’ said Amy. ‘He’s a brilliant chemist. I reckon he will soon be part of the senior team.’
‘He gets your vote, obviously,’ said Harry. ‘Unfortunately, I doubt they will ask you to sit in on the promotion board.’
‘I’ve heard he’s going to be running a series of tutorials next month. I’m definitely going to them,’ Amy continued to enthuse.
‘Not because you fancy him?’ said Harry.
‘Well, whether I fancy him or not, I’ve not much chance, have I? Abigail got there first,’ said Amy, sounding more like her previous self.
‘I’ve just remembered!’ said Harry. ‘You went up to London with him for that one-day meeting, didn’t you? How did that go?’
‘OK. Julian gave a brilliant talk on some stuff he did before he moved here. New drugs for Alzheimer's disease. The meeting was at the Francis Crick Institute. That’s such an amazing building.’
‘Oh, yes, I remember seeing that advertised,’ I added. ‘I went to a meeting there a few months ago.’
Harry hadn’t finished ribbing Amy. ‘So, did you get to travel up together? Did you hold hands on the train?’
I was enjoying the banter, which took me back to my time working at QexChem. It was one of the things I missed most about the job. There was a lot of teasing as you spent long hours working together, and most of it was good-natured and amusing. Although, at times it could go too far. Perhaps that was what had happened in Hanson’s case.
‘Well, I got to spend more time with him than I’d anticipated,’ said Amy. ‘The train was delayed on the way back, so we didn’t arrive back until about eight. I offered to share a taxi with him, but he said he wanted to walk to get some exercise.’
‘So, when are you seeing him again?’ asked Harry.
‘I’ve just seen him!’ said Amy. ‘He’s over there!’
We all laughed. It was a good response, and I was beginning to warm to Amy even though I probably wouldn’t see her for much longer.
‘I mean just the two of you together. Come on, I bet you’ve got a date with him!’ teased Harry.
‘You are such a funny guy,’ replied Amy. ‘A bit repetitive, though. Don’t give up your day job, as they say.’
After that exchange, we lingered for another ten minutes before returning to work. For me, it was time to compile my report for Katy. I took photocopies of all the data, then put the originals together in a sealed folder, and asked one of the secretarial staff to lock it away. By mid-afternoon, I had finished my report. I was tired but satisfied that the final pieces of data backed up my theory. However, I knew that once I shared my results, the company would not receive them with pleasure, and I would damage Hanson’s reputation beyond repair.
Progress indeed, however, one question remained, and that might well be harder to fathom an answer. Did my discovery have a bearing on the circumstances surrounding Hanson’s death?
Chapter 43
Craig picked me up from QexChem around 4 p.m., and Katy phoned me as we were on our way back to Broadstairs. She was at the scene of an armed robbery at a bookmaker’s shop but predicted that she would be free by early evening. I was quite pleased that it gave me some time before she came around, as I wanted to have a shower and collect my thoughts. Craig suggested that we have an early meal, which suited me. After only a salad and fruit at lunchtime, I was starting to feel peckish.
‘Oh, did you put some white wine in the fridge in case Katy wants some?’ I said.
‘I have done as you requested, madam. I hope she does, then I can have some!’ said Craig.
‘Right, let’s clear these things away, so we are ready for Katy. She should be here in ten minutes.’
At the appointed time, I heard a car pull up outside. The weather had turned nasty, and it was now lashing down with rain, so I opened the door ready for Katy who ran up the driveway and dived for cover in the porch.
‘God, it’s dreadful now. The roads are starting to flood in places,’ said Katy, unzipping her boots and shrugging off her raincoat.
‘Come in! Let me take your coat, and you go through to the lounge.’
‘Hi. Can I get you anything to drink? Wine? Tea, coffee?’ said Craig.
‘Er, oh, tea, please. Actually, can I change my mind and have some wine? It’s been a long day.’
I could see Craig smiling at Katy’s request for wine, and he went to the kitchen to get the drinks. Katy had slipped off her suit jacket and now looked a little less tense than when she had arrived. In front of her on the coffee table was the file on Hanson, a lined pad and a pencil.
We all took some sips of our wine then I explained my theory. ‘So, from what I can tell, Hanson was working on a set of compounds which began to look very promising for the project. They have a method for making them, which is OK, but not brilliant. I think there would be problems with scaling it up to larger batches. The cost could be an issue too.’
Katy was concentrating hard, and a slight frown was visible across her forehead.
‘Now, we need to bear in mind that Hanson is very ambitious and is also having some mental health issues whilst he’s doing this work. So, he’s tasked with finding a better way of making these compounds, in particular, one step in the route needs improvement. So, he finds a new procedure for that step, and claims it works well.’
‘Claims it works well?’ queried Katy.
‘Well, from what I can see, it’s OK, but by no means as good as he claims. He covered his tracks, but there were a few original hard-copy printouts he’d left in his drawer which show that it’s not such a good reaction.’
‘I think I can see where this is heading,’ said Katy.
‘So, what I think happened, is that Hanson says it works better than it does to make him look good and everyone seizes on this. Abigail thinks it’s a great step forward and encourages him to publish his work. Or Hanson himself has publishing in mind all along. From speaking to people the company has had a big push on publishing stuff.’
‘So, he gets himself in a fix,’ said Katy. ‘He made a rod for his own back.’
‘That’s what I’ve concluded. Hanson enjoys the glory of developing an improved method, but when it comes down to it, he finds it’s just as flawed. As I looked through his experiments, it seems that he was asked to scale it up a bit, and this is where I think he decides to be sneaky. He makes some extra material by the original method but does it in secret. That’s why he hid the box of chemicals in his cupboard.’
‘Can you prove he made the batches in different ways?’ said Katy.
‘Only by looking at the trace impurities. That’s why I asked for some high-resolution spectra.’
‘Excellent,’ said Katy. ‘It seems convincing to me. Do you agree, Craig?’
‘I do. Hanson was a sneaky bugger. I’m sure he would have been found out soon, though. Once the project passed into the development phase, it was bound to come out.’
‘It all fits with what Dr Whittard said about Hanson’s change in personality. He was worried about his career stalling and decided to do something to give it a boost. But surely he must have realised he couldn’t have carried on with it forever. Once others tried to repeat it, he would have been found out, wouldn’t he?’ said Katy.
‘Yes, but I suppose pride or the thought that he could somehow dig himself out of the hole prevented him from coming clean about it. So, currently, Hugo Smythe is wasting his time trying to repeat Hanson’s work. Poor Hugo has been so stressed by it all. He’s lost all confidence in his ability. He’s not sleeping, he’s asked for help and suggestions from others, and still no luck. There are going to be some red faces when we put this to the management at QexChem.’
Katy sighed and leant back in her chair. I finished the rest of my glass of wine whilst she collected her thoughts. ‘But aren’t papers reviewed before they are published? I mean wouldn’t they have been able to check?’
I shrugged. ‘Reviewers can’t check every piece of data. There is a certain amount of trust involved in it all. It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but it is the first time I’ve directly encountered anything like this.’
Katy was deep in thought, but accepted a drop more wine.
‘I’ll have to run this by Dr Whittard again,’ she added. ‘So, now that we know this, I’ve another question for you. Does this mean that Hanson’s death wasn’t an accident?’
‘Ah, well, that’s a more difficult question, and I’m afraid I can’t answer it,’ I replied. ‘Maybe someone did suspect what Hanson was up to and confronted him about it, but I’ve no idea who it was.’
Katy sighed. ‘I also don’t understand why someone didn’t call for assistance if it was an accident.’
‘Because there is some deep-seated hatred of him? We know he had an unpleasant side to him,’ I paused. ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry I can’t suggest anything else.’ I replied. It felt so frustrating that we were building up a picture but weren’t quite there yet, like a jigsaw with one piece missing which spoilt the whole thing.
‘No, no, don’t be sorry, I’m just thinking aloud. You have been brilliant. Wow!’ Katy paused. ‘Our forensic team would never have been able to work out what you did. It’s not their job. Whereas you with your background and knowledge, well, I’m impressed, to say the least.’
I felt embarrassed at Katy’s praise, as Craig had helped me considerably. However, it was nice to be appreciated. Despite understanding Hanson’s dishonesty, we were still no nearer to identifying the person who may have argued with Hanson.
‘Oh, I spoke to Brenda Sanders today, which was a waste of thirty minutes of my time!’ said Katy. ‘She’s a nice woman, but she kept drifting back to Stuart Prentis’ grievance with Hanson, which is irrelevant as he’s left the company. Other than that, she hadn’t much information to impart. She was keen to say how concerned they were about Hanson and his brain injury, how they had urged him to take as much time off as he needed etc. She wasn’t much use.’
Katy looked at her watch. ‘I just wish Tahir would come to his senses and tell us what he saw. I’m hoping he runs out of money and decides he wants to go back to work. Also, when I need to go to QexChem again, please will you come with me?’
‘Yes, sure. Will the company be liable to a charge of fraud?’ I asked.
‘I don’t think so. Hanson is dead, and I assume they didn’t know anything about it. Besides, there’s no financial gain, well, not so far. The embarrassment will be punishment enough.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ I replied.
‘Oh! I forgot. I went to speak to Hanson’s partner, Mia again. The poor woman is in a terrible state, not surprisingly. However, this time, she did confirm what Dr Whittard said about his personality changing. Up until recently, he’d never had a problem with his temper, but in the month before his death, he would get angry at the slightest thing. All he talked about was his publication. He was obsessed with it. She feels she should have got him to relax more as he was working such long hours, and she still maintains he was so tired that he became clumsy and tripped.’
‘It doesn’t explain the lone-worker alarm, though, does it?’ I said.
‘No. She accepts the suggestion that he spilt some water on his lab coat, changed it and forgot to put the alarm back in his pocket. Again, because he was tired.’
‘Well, it is entirely possible,’ I replied.
‘True. I just hope it’s not though, as I might get told I’ve been wasting police time. I need to wrap this up before DI Bignell comes back next Monday.’
‘How is he?’ asked Craig.
‘He’s fine now. He seems to be getting used to his new diet, and I think the pills are working to control his blood glucose. Right, I won’t take up any more of your evening.’
‘Oh, one more thing. Could I have copies of all the evidence so far? Just so that I can look through it and see if anything occurs to me,’ I said.
‘Sure. Here, take these, I can always print off more copies.’
‘Thanks. I’ll continue to mull over my time at QexChem. You never know, something might occur to me, a passing remark or some observation.’
‘Well, thanks for the wine,’ said Katy. ‘Enjoy your day tomorrow whatever you do.’
I showed Katy to the door, and she collected her coat and boots. The rain was still pelting down, so Katy made a dash for her car, calling goodbye to us as she ran.
