David Trevellyan 03 -More Harm Than Good

by Andrew Grant

  “So all the containers had barcodes on them?”

  “Yes. The code identified the container, and also what was inside it. The system was very good. It meant no one could send too few containers. And they couldn’t lie about what was inside.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Yes. It was very well thought out. A copy of the e-mail went to my boss. The barcode reader automatically copied its results to him, too, so no one could hide anything. Once the containers were safely inside, the technicians would check them, as well. If anything was wrong, they would flag it up. And there were outside technicians who we could call in if we were worried about anything.”

  “That sounds pretty thorough. But tell me something. What if someone wanted to sneak an extra container into the vault. How could they do that?”

  “They couldn’t. It would be impossible. The delivery scan wouldn’t match the e-mail. The system would pick that up automatically, even if I didn’t notice there were the wrong number.”

  “But what if you accidentally forgot to scan one of the containers? Couldn’t it be missed?”

  “No. Once again, the scan would not match the e-mail. And the e-mail is known about by the original hospital, and my boss. You see, that’s the strength of the system. At no time does it depend on only one person. If something was done wrong, by accident or on purpose, two other people would see. As well as the computer. It’s as they told us on the training. Impossible to fiddle.”

  “It does sound like a strong system, Amany,” Melissa said, shooting me a disappointed glance in the mirror. “Thank you for explaining it to us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “It does sound pretty watertight,” I said. “Do you mind if I just ask one thing, though?”

  The woman shook her head.

  “You said you scan the barcodes,” I said. “That sounds complicated. How do you do it?”

  “Complicated?” she said. “It’s the easiest thing in the world. You take the scanner and point it at the barcode. That’s all there is to do. And you can tell you’re pointing it in the right place, because it shines a red light.”

  “So the scanners are portable?”

  “Of course. You would need a crazy long wire, otherwise.”

  “And what powers them? Batteries?”

  “They are rechargeable. You never have to change the batteries.”

  “What if you forget to plug then in? What if the batteries go flat?”

  “They last for weeks. And we have spare ones. And the truck brings a spare one of its own, which is charged up by the engine. We’ve never had a problem, and I doubt there could be one.”

  “What if they break down?”

  “Then we’d use a spare one. We have several, like I said. But I can’t ever remember that happening.”

  “OK. Forget about the handsets for a minute. What if the system went wrong? The computer system itself, I mean. The place where the scanners send the information to be matched with the e-mail?”

  “It is very well designed. It never goes wrong.”

  “Never? It never throws a fit? Melissa, have you ever heard of a computer system like that?”

  “No,” Melissa said. “I’ve never heard of a computer that’s not constantly falling over, in fact.”

  The woman stayed silent, but turned her head to look out the opposite window.

  “Seriously,” I said. “You’re saying this system never crashes?”

  “I don’t recall that ever happening,” the woman said.

  “Okay. Let’s just go with the idea that this thing is bullet proof. We’ll take your word for it. But let me ask you something else. There must have been an emergency procedure for you to follow, just in case there ever was a crash?”

  “The hospital is very thorough. There are processes and procedures and roadmaps and guidelines for more or less everything.”

  “Including what to do if the barcode scanner system wasn’t working?”

  The woman said nothing.

  “Amany?” Melissa said. “What’s your answer? This is all part of keeping you out of trouble, you know. Don’t dry up on us now, or you’ll only be hurting yourself.”

  “OK then, yes,” she said. “There was a procedure. But it was just for emergencies.”

  “About this procedure,” Melissa said. “How did it work? What did you have to do?”

  “It was easy,” she said. “The barcodes have little numbers underneath them. You just had to write them down and then key them in to a special form on the intranet. But like I told you, the scanners never went down so that’s not important.”

  “There’s something we should, perhaps, have explained at the start,” I said. We’re not the regular police. We have access to things that most people can’t get their hands on. For example, we could get a copy of the maintenance file for every system in that hospital as easily as you could buy a morning paper. Do you follow me?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I do. And I bet you could get my attendance record, too. And if you did, and you checked, you would find no scanner breakdowns for any days I was working.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. But here’s my real question. How many times would the records show you’d entered the details manually, anyway, even though the system was working?”

  “The system never broke down. The backup method was only for emergencies.”

  “How many times?”

  “It wasn’t necessary. The scanner has always worked.”

  “Amany,” Melissa said. “We can only help you if you tell us the truth. If you keep lying to us, I’m sorry, but the deal’s off.”

  She said nothing.

  I pulled over to the side of the road, took out my phone, and held it up so the woman could see it.

  “I’m going to call one of my people,” I said. “I’m going to have them compare the maintenance log for the scanners with the method of entry for the information. And when I do, how many times will it say you used the backup?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Do you know why I picked this exact spot to stop?” I said.

  She shrugged.

  “Because of that junction,” I said, pointing towards the roundabout that was a couple of hundred yards ahead. “If I go left, there’s a police station within a quarter of a mile. If I go right, we can be back at your house inside twenty minutes.”

  I saw a scowl begin to spread across her face.

  “Keep lying, and I’ll turn left,” I said. “Start telling the truth, and I’ll turn right.”

  “Two,” she said, after another few seconds. “Turn right. The answer’s two. I used the backup system two times, even though scanners were working.”

  “Thank you,” I said, pulling back out into the traffic but joining the queue in the centre lane. “Now, tell me who asked you to do it.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “We’re moving again,” I said. “We’ll be at the roundabout in a moment. The way things are going, I’m turning left. To the police station. Is that where you want to go?”

  “No one asked me to do it,” she said. “I was just curious. I did it as an experiment. To see how it would work. I know that was wrong. I apologise. But I didn’t think it would do any harm. I never thought anyone would find out.”

  I pulled into the left hand lane.

  “No,” she said. “Wait. Please. I am confused. I need more time. English is not my first language. I do not understand what you’re asking me.”

  “Keep going straight please, David,” Melissa said. “I think I know what’s going on here. Amany, I understand that in life, people sometimes do things they’re ashamed of. Things they never want their families to hear about. But here’s the problem. We are going to find out why you did what you did with those records. And if you tell us now, while there’s time for us to make sure no one else gets hurt, we can keep your secret hidden. No one in Egypt will ever know. But if you don’t...”

  The woman’s left hand started
to shake, and I saw her draw it onto her lap and hold it still with her right.

  “It was a man who asked you to, wasn’t it?” Melissa said.

  The woman gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

  “Were you involved with him?” Melissa said.

  The woman said nothing.

  “I think you were,” Melissa said. “You might as well come clean. You’ll feel better if you admit it. Trust me.”

  “How did you know?” she said.

  “A sudden divorce. Falling out with co-workers. Public fights in the hospital canteen. I know the signs.”

  “It’s so shameful. I don’t know how to explain.”

  Melissa gave her a second to catch her breath.

  “My husband, Mark, and I,” she said, when her breathing was almost back under control. “We were having terrible problems. He’s an artist. He doesn’t earn much, but he thought we’d be OK, with me as a teacher. Only I wasn’t allowed to teach.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Melissa said.

  “I know. But he was still mad with me. He thought I could get a better job if I tried harder. He said I was lazy. That I was a liar. That I was disrespectful to him. His temper was so awful, any little thing would set him off and he’d scream at me, right in my face, for hours and hours. He’d use such horrible language. And he was so much bigger than me. I was terrified. I had no friends. My mother, my sisters, they were on a different continent...”

  “And then you met someone? Who was nice to you?”

  “Yes. Stewart.”

  “Stewart?”

  “Stewart Sole. My boss. The first man from Scotland I ever met. It’s funny. At first I could hardly understand what he said, and soon he was the only person I could talk to.”

  “And Stewart asked you to enter some numbers manually one day, when a delivery came? To act as if the scanners weren’t working?”

  “Yes. He came to me, that morning. I could tell something was wrong. At first he didn’t want to tell me what, but I pressed him. He said he was in trouble. He’d made a mistake, something to do with the delivery, and he was going to get fired. I was scared. I needed him. I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing him every day. I told him I’d do anything I could to help him.”

  “The numbers he gave you. They didn’t match what was on the containers?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I thought it would be better if I didn’t look. But...”

  “But?”

  “They can’t have been the same, can they? Or what difference would it have made, me entering them?”

  “Good point.”

  “The same thing happened once more, but they were the only times I ever did anything against the rules, you must believe me. And it was only to save Stewart. He’s a good man, and all he’d done was make a couple of honest mistakes.”

  “I understand. And I believe you. But there’s one other thing I need to know. When did this happen?”

  The woman reeled off two dates, both in mid August.

  “You’re sure?” Melissa said.

  “I’m certain,” she said. “It’s been heavy on my conscience ever since. I’ll never forget them.”

  “And which hospital did the deliveries come from?”

  “I can’t remember. But there was only one delivery on each of the days. It should be easy enough to find out. I can check for you first thing in the morning.”

  “Thank you. Please do.”

  Neither woman spoke for the next couple of minutes, and I pulled over to the side of the road without waiting to be asked.

  “I have told you truthfully,” the woman said. “I have told you things I have never spoken of before, to anyone. Please. Will you keep your promise not to let word spread back to Egypt?”

  “Are you still seeing Stewart?” Melissa said.

  The woman looked away.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Melissa said. “He’s married, isn’t he?”

  The woman didn’t speak any words, but a short, strangled moan told us what we needed to know.

  “OK,” Melissa said. “Here’s where we stand. We need to talk to Stewart. We need to talk to him today. And it’s vitally important that he doesn’t know we’re coming. So, if you keep your mouth shut, and promise not to warn him, your secret won’t leave these shores. Understand?”

  The woman nodded.

  “Good,” Melissa said. “Where will we find him?”

  “In the office,” the woman said.

  “Which office?”

  “It’s in the same block as mine. One floor down. The far end of the corridor.”

  “Good. We’ll find it. Now, I need you to give me your mobile phone.”

  “Why?”

  “Amany, I like you. I want to be able to help you, and keep this under my hat. But in my experience, mobile phones are too much of a temptation for people to resist. So I want you to give me yours. Just for today. I’ll leave it in the office for you to collect in the morning.”

  The woman reached into her bag, pulled out an old Nokia, and handed it to Melissa.

  “Thank you,” Melissa said. “Can you find your way home from here? We have an appointment at the hospital.”

  The woman nodded.

  “OK,” Melissa said. “Thank you, once more, for your help. I know it wasn’t easy, telling us those things. But remember - there’s to be no communication with Stewart whatsoever. No phone calls. No texts. No emails. No IMs. No Facebook. No Twitter. Nothing. Otherwise your whole confession was a waste of time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I pulled an illegal U-turn, and watched the woman’s forlorn, stationary figure grow smaller in the rear view mirror. Then Melissa squeezed through the gap between the front seats, slid into place beside me, and switched off the camera before calling Chaston and reporting what Amany had told us about a second batch of caesium.

  “She was played from minute one,” she said, when she hung up. “Poor girl. I feel sorry for her.”

  “It was nice of you not to tell her,” I said. “Not to tarnish her white knight.”

  “She knows. She just hasn’t admitted it to herself, yet. This guy Sole is clearly an operator. I can’t wait to have a chat with him.”

  “If he needed Amany to falsify the delivery receipt at St Joseph’s, the email from the dispatching hospital must have been nobbled as well. We need to know who else was involved at that end.”

  “I think she might have given us the answer to that, too.”

  “How?”

  “Remember how adamant she was about the date? Of both occasions? August?”

  “Yes. So?”

  “What happens in August?”

  “Lots of things.”

  “OK. What doesn’t happen in August?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Kids don’t go to school,” she said. “August is in the middle of the school holidays. So I bet that’s the flaw in the whole triangular caesium monitoring system, right there. I bet that when the manager at one hospital is on holiday, the one from the other covers for him. That brings it down to two points of failure. And if one is shagging the other...”

  “I bet you’re right,” I said. “And that explains the timing, too. They stole the stuff when they had the opportunity to take it, and stored it - in the place they’d stolen it from - until they needed it. Why else keep it hanging around for so long?”

  I parked in almost exactly the same spot where we’d waited for Amany. Melissa flashed some ID at a traffic warden who had immediately tried to pounce on us. I glared a warning at two kids who were looking greedily at the Land Rover’s alloys, and we made our way to the St Joseph’s admin block as quickly as we could without actually running.

  There were two desks in Stewart Sole’s cramped corner office. The messier one was occupied, but as soon as its owner opened his mouth it was clear he wasn’t the guy we were looking for. Instead of being Scottish, he had a heavy French accent.

  “I am very sorry, but Mr
Sole has left for the afternoon,” he said. “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  I glanced at Melissa, and saw the expression on her face growing harder.

  “No thank you,” I said. “It was just a social call. We’re old friends, and happened to be in the area. You can’t remember what time Stewart left, can you? That might give us an idea which watering hole to look for him in.”

  “Oh, no, I didn’t mean Mr Sole has finished with his work for today,” he said. “He was called to a meeting, and didn’t expect to come back. I’m sorry if my words were misleading.”

  “Not at all,” I said. “What time did he leave, approximately?”

  “Immediately after lunch. He came in, sat down, and straight away his telephone was ringing. He left the second he hung up. Not later than five after one.”

  I looked at Melissa again. Her expression was softening. Amany was with us at 1.05. She hadn’t gone back on her word.

  “Thanks again,” I said. “I really appreciate you helping us out like this, after we dropped in unannounced. He didn’t mention where his meeting was going to be, by any chance?”

  “No,” he said. “He just jumped up and was through the door, as if being pulled on a rope by the person from the phone.”

  “So he could have been going to another part of the hospital?”

  “I do not think that is likely, because he paused only to put on his coat. I do not think this would have been necessary if his plan was not to leave the building.”

  “No, I guess not. Well, thank you anyway. Have a good afternoon. We’ll maybe see you another time.”

  Melissa took the car keys as we made our way back out of the hospital, and took a moment to adjust the driver’s seat before pulling away.

  “This is a problem,” she said. “The trail goes cold without Sole. What do you think? Is it just a coincidence that he suddenly goes walkabout the afternoon we come calling?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “We don’t know how often he does things like this.”

  “True. He might walk back in tomorrow, pleased as Punch. Or he might never be seen again.”