Terminal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  He approached the first roundabout and followed Kevin, allowing a couple of cars to filter in between them. They then proceeded steadily keeping to the speed limit without any more vehicles adding to the line making it quite easy for Nick to remain in contact. Kevin took a left at the next roundabout and then they were on the approach to the city centre. Now it would become more difficult as there were more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings to contend with. Annoyingly one of the cars in between himself and Kevin turned off leaving only one small car between them. Nick reached towards the footwell of the passenger seat to retrieve a baseball hat and put it on to act as a disguise. At the next set of traffic lights he rummaged in the glove box and found a pair of sunglasses, Polly’s unfortunately but they would have to do, although he did look a bit strange in them. The lights changed and they set off only to hit slower moving traffic. Nick spotted a car trying to turn right out of a side road and flashed it so that it would join the convoy and again give two cars between him and Kevin. He was actually enjoying himself, he felt it was a release and switched on the radio to find some upbeat music to boost his mood. Nick drove along tapping his hand against the wheel enjoying his new role of private detective.

  Ahead, Kevin signalled right as they approached the next roundabout. He was heading out of the town now leaving Persford behind heading towards Mertheham, a less salubrious suburb of Persford unfamiliar to Nick. They continued along a B road and after a while, there was a sign for an industrial estate. Traffic had started to thin out now and Nick was beginning to feel more exposed. If necessary he would have to abandon his quarry and work his way back to his flat. He might have to stop and use his phone’s navigation as he wasn’t familiar at all with the roads around here. Up ahead Nick saw Kevin turn right into the industrial estate which was by now quiet and virtually free from traffic. Nick now had a dilemma, should he abandon his mission or continue and risk discovery. He reduced his speed thus lengthening the distance between himself and Kevin and made a sudden decision as he had spotted a lay-by at the entrance to the estate in which was parked a caravan with a Snack Bar sign. Nick turned right and pulled into the lay-by where he was partially shielded by the closed refreshment trailer. He pulled down the sun visor in the car and watched Kevin’s vehicle travel to the top of the road and then turn left into another side road which looked like it contained a few businesses. Everything appeared closed now as it was after 7 p.m. so Kevin was presumably conducting his illicit enterprise. There was no way Nick was going to risk a confrontation but he was now determined to find out Kevin’s final destination. He noticed up ahead there was a mini roundabout so he decided to drive up to the top of the access road then do a U-turn round the roundabout and look to his right to see whether he could spot Kevin. Nick felt his pulse racing now and with adrenalin coursing through his veins he started his engine and drove the two hundred yards or so up to the mini roundabout. Glancing to the left he spotted Kevin’s car and there also seemed to be a couple of other vehicles. Driving around the roundabout he would get a second chance to observe. Approaching the side road he slowed down slightly and peered to his right just in time to see Kevin unloading some boxes from his boot into the waiting cars outside a small vehicle repair business with a sign which looked like Sidz Garage.

  Having observed the transfer of booty Nick accelerated and left the industrial estate. He’d discovered what he’d suspected for a while. Kevin the friendly if annoying storeman was blatantly stealing from BioQex and selling his goods on to at least one and possibly more small businesses. What a cheeky sod he was thought Nick. No wonder stock levels of gloves, tissues and cloths to name a few items had recently been so low. It was a pity he didn’t have any photographic evidence though. That was impossible with nobody else in the car tonight but perhaps that could be remedied. Although the evidence from his phone call to the supplier was somewhat ambiguous he needed to capture Kevin on camera then he would be banged to rights as was the saying. Nick had no idea how often Kevin made one of his delivery runs but presumably this wouldn’t be the last. Nick needed an accomplice and he’d an idea of just the person to ask. Whether that person would be willing to get involved was another matter.

  Chapter 28

  On Tuesday morning Brett woke before his alarm, it was only 5.30 a.m. but he knew there was no chance of any more sleep. Instinctively he felt over to the other side of the bed but then remembered where he was, alone in his flat. He had slept little last night and consequently was feeling exhausted. He’d been planning to stay over at Annabelle’s but late on Monday evening, she’d phoned him to say that she wanted to be alone that night. He’d not thought too much of it until she followed it up by saying she wasn’t free for the next few nights either. Brett had asked her outright if she was trying to distance herself from him after his revelation at lunchtime regarding the FCA. She’d denied it in the strongest possible terms but he couldn’t help feeling she didn’t trust him and perhaps she felt it would affect her career being involved with someone who was under investigation. They had both been under strain and they’d ended up sniping at each other childishly until she’d ended the call saying she would be in touch at the end of the week. She did, however, add that she’d looked into the solicitor practice where Emma Pearson worked and they had an excellent reputation in corporate and commercial law. Brett was reassured that he’d done the right thing and had an appointment with Emma this morning at 11 a.m. to discuss his situation.

  He swung his legs out of bed and stretched. His head felt woolly, probably due to drinking too much red wine last night. He’d drunk the best part of a bottle as he needed something to take the edge off the dreadful day he’d endured. Before getting showered and

  dressed he walked into his kitchen to get some water and take some paracetamol. Hopefully, they would start to work whilst he was getting ready, then he would have a strong cup of coffee to help kick-start his system. He needed to spend some time this morning going through the notes he’d made in preparation for his meeting with Emma. In particular, he needed to document the times and dates he’d become aware of his missing post and to include the credit card statement showing the fraudulent purchases. Before opening his bottle of wine last night he’d been gathering together his contract of employment showing his share allocation and share options and basically an inventory of all his finances. However he needed to go through it all again to check he’d not missed anything, he felt sure he had but something was hovering around in his subconscious and try as he did he just couldn’t provoke it to come to the surface. He felt like he needed to be hypnotised to see whether it would elucidate the final piece of the jigsaw to solve the puzzle and thereby exonerate him.

  He checked his phone in the hope that there had been some late night or middle of the night texts from Annabelle but there was nothing. The anger within him started to surge as he thought of their relationship and how it had come to an abrupt hiatus through no fault of his own. In the past, his failed relationships had been largely due to his lack of commitment and childish behaviour, getting drunk, gambling and having a roving eye towards other women. He’d been unable to learn from his mistakes and eventually women had shown their disapproval by giving him the push. Now established as Chief Scientific Officer for BioQex he had finally grown up and come to his senses. He had vowed not to take Annabelle for granted and he never did, instead, someone had managed to drive a wedge between them. He needed to use the fear of what and whom he might lose to give him the energy to clear his name and bring the perpetrator to justice.

  He found a temporary outlet for his anger in the form of his coffee pod machine as he wrestled with a pod and tried forcibly to lower the lever before he realised that the chamber of waste capsules was full and this was preventing the seating of the new one. Cursing profanely he emptied it and discarded the by now damaged new capsule and started again. He switched on the news and with the sound of the television in the background for company he checked through his paperwork for the d
ay ahead. He decided to text Annabelle to say he was missing her and that he would let her know how his meeting with Emma Pearson went. Although it was still before 7 a.m. he decided to make an early start at work, it was better to have some distraction instead of sitting alone becoming more and more fretful. Besides he had loads to do at work following Melanie’s tsunami of plans which had been adopted wholeheartedly by the smitten Piers. Somehow they needed to recruit and train up a batch of new staff as well as bringing in-house their previously contracted synthesis of intermediates. A meeting with Billie was on his list for today and he doubted that she would receive the news with a fanfare.

  **

  Bob McKewan was making a similarly early start. Eating breakfast alone was very poignant for him. His wife Joan had always risen at the same time as him even though she didn’t work. She liked to make him breakfast and spend some time with him before he headed off to work. Each morning he would sit sipping his tea and eat his cereal looking out on her beloved garden which was starting to lose its shine now that she was no longer tending to it each day. That also depressed Bob but he just couldn’t find the energy to carry on her good work, there didn’t seem any point. He would keep it tidy but as for maintaining the design or developing it, he just couldn’t face it.

  Late in the afternoon the previous day he’d sent his calculations for the first in man clinical trial to his colleague Pete Silvers who had promised he would look over them that evening and get back to Bob first thing in the morning with his approval or with any changes he felt necessary. Bob looked at his watch for the umpteenth time, pressed refresh on his inbox and wondered what had happened to Pete’s message. He didn’t have Pete’s mobile number so went to see whether he’d actually arrived at work. As he wandered down the corridor he saw Billie Matheson leaving Brett’s office looking rather annoyed, her face a bit flushed. Pete’s colleagues could throw no light on his whereabouts so Bob went back to find their admin assistant Amanda to ask if she’d heard anything.

  ‘Amanda, morning, just wondered whether Pete Silvers has phoned in today?’

  ‘Oh, hi, Bob, well yes he has actually, just five minutes ago. He asked me to contact you and I’ve just been down to your office but you weren’t there. Anyway, you’re here now, and Pete’s not going to be in today nor tomorrow, well in fact, he’s not sure when he’ll be back at the moment.’

  ‘Really? For goodness sake,’ muttered Bob, ‘what’s happened then?’

  ‘Well, I only spoke briefly to him as he was in a bit of a state. It’s his son Teddy, or Freddie, I couldn’t hear properly, but he’s been admitted to hospital. Seems he’s not been feeling very well for a couple of days, they think it’s Type 1 diabetes.’

  ‘Shit, poor kid,’ said Bob, ‘hope he’s going to be OK, that’s devastating for them,’ and he shook his head looking genuinely concerned.

  ‘His wife took him to the GP yesterday and his glucose was very high, off the scale so they were sent off to hospital and they are trying to get him stabilised. Hopefully, there won’t have been any long-term damage.’

  ‘Yes, sure, God, that’s awful,’ and they were both silent taking in the latest news. ‘Does Piers know?’ asked Bob.

  ‘Yes, I’ve told him, although he was rather preoccupied as he’s expecting our company solicitor again this morning, he’s not due till 11 a.m. so you might be able to get five minutes with him if you need,’ suggested Amanda.

  ‘Yes, thanks, I’ll pop along and see him now,’ replied Bob.

  Well if Pete wasn’t around Bob would have to ask Piers to cast an eye over the protocol for the clinical trial. Time was running out and they would waste quite a sum if they had to cancel the trial at short notice. As he approached Piers’ office, the door opened and Piers rushed out, straight into Bob’s path.

  ‘Oh, morning, Bob, were you looking for me?’

  ‘Yes, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be sending you the protocol for the clinical trial as Pete’s not going to be in.’

  Piers looked at Bob blankly, it was as if he’d not understood the statement.

  ‘Oh, yes, I see, great, well I’ll take a look at it, but I’m sure you’ve got everything in order, after all, I’m a chemist, not a biologist,’ he added.

  ‘Well yes, but you’re surely familiar with dosing regimes aren’t you?’ Bob was back to his blunt way of speaking and had put Piers on the spot slightly.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ replied Piers, huffily, ‘email it to me and I’ll take a look,’ and he rushed off leaving Bob to raise his eyes heavenward whilst Amanda looked on from her desk.

  **

  Nick and Billie went off to one of the small discussion rooms as she needed to discuss something urgently. He always found meetings like this rather disconcerting as his mind started to work overtime as to whether he’d made a mistake or she wasn’t happy with Kirsty’s work for which he was ultimately responsible. In the ten minutes notice he’d received about the meeting he’d had a quick scan through Kirsty’s electronic notebook, hoping that she was now completing the required safety assessments and writing things up in a detailed enough fashion. Despite a few omissions Kirsty appeared to have sharpened up her act and he could see nothing untoward.

  ‘OK, Nick?’ asked Billie as she came over to his desk.

  ‘Yes, great, I’ll just get my folder and notepad, which room are we in?’

  ‘The one right next to the kitchen is free,’ replied Billie and they wandered down. Nick stepped back to let Billie through first then closed the door and settled himself ready to hear her news.

  ‘Firstly, thanks for all the work you did on the recent quote for the intermediate we need, sorry it was deemed too expensive,’ Billie paused.

  ‘Oh, no problem,’ replied Nick, always feeling slightly embarrassed when he was praised, ‘I’m hoping to get some cheaper ones back soon. I identified one in India which looks promising but I think it’s still going to be about six grand. It’s over the limit that been set but surely we can make a case for some flexibility. They’ve got a good reputation, I’ve been asking around.’

  ‘Nick, sorry to interrupt you, but I need to tell you something,’ said Billie holding up her hand to break Nick’s flow of information. Nick duly stopped and looked straight at Billie.

  ‘There’s been a bit of a change in policy as regards contracting out large-scale syntheses.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ said Nick, his face betraying his sense of surprise.

  ‘Yes, I’ve only heard about it this morning, Brett asked to speak to me,’ and she exhaled.

  ‘As you know we now have a new Chief Financial Officer, Melanie,’ Nick nodded. ‘Well she’s got some rather radical ideas and seems to be a new broom so to speak and rather a large broom at that,’ Nick continued to look bewildered. ‘She feels we’ve been overpaying for outsourcing intermediate syntheses and feels we aren’t making good use of all our laboratories.’

  ‘I’m not sure I understand,’ said Nick.

  ‘Well I’m not sure I understand her thinking and I’ve told Brett I don’t agree with her. Nor does Brett from what I could gather but he didn’t say so in as many words. However the rest of the senior team have fully endorsed her plans so it looks like we are stuck with them,’ she paused to take a swig from her water bottle. ‘In short, we will have to make all our intermediates and large batches in-house, and we may even start to provide a service to other companies, using the lab which is partially equipped and already has some large scale fume-hoods and equipment.’

  ‘What? Surely not, shit, oh sorry, I don’t believe this. It’s madness! It’s going to really slow us down, how can this be a good idea?’

  Billie waved her hands at Nick, trying to calm him, but inside she felt just as angry.

  ‘I know, I know, it’s a stupid idea, typical decision of a non-scientist, but there’s not much we can do about it. Perhaps in six months or so when it doesn’t work out the decision will be changed. As for impacting on productivity, we are appar
ently going to expand the workforce so that will help, although not immediately I grant you.’

  Nick sat and rubbed his forehead which by now was starting to feel rather greasy. He was annoyed as he’d wasted all that time with the quotes and now it was going to be done at BioQex. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and he asked, ‘So are we recruiting some staff to man this lab then?’

  ‘We are, although not immediately, so I’m told,’ replied Billie levelly.

  ‘But what about the batch of 896 we need to make and the intermediate for that and for other compounds?’

  ‘We’re going to make it in-house,’ said Billie looking directly at Nick.

  ‘And who’s going to make it then, in the partially equipped lab?’

  Billie remained silent continuing to look Nick directly in the eye.

  ‘Oh, no, oh no, you’re not serious?’

  ‘Nick, I tried to argue that you were best placed making compounds for biological testing, that you had experience of making libraries of compounds, that you hadn’t much experience in large scale but I was just shouted down by Brett. He told me the decision was made and that it was a good opportunity for you.’

  ‘I bet he did,’ said Nick through gritted teeth.

  ‘Sorry, what do you mean?’ asked Billie.

  ‘Nothing, nothing, I’m just shocked and annoyed,’ said Nick despondently, ‘and am I to have any help with this new enterprise or is it Nick’s one-man band, running things?’ he said sarcastically.

  ‘Kirsty,’ replied Billie.

  ‘Kirsty what?’asked Nick, hoping against hope that Billie wasn’t going to say what he most feared.

  ‘Kirsty will assist you in the large-scale facility.’

  ‘Now you really are joking,’ scoffed Nick, ‘I better make sure my life insurance is up to date. Jeez, I don’t believe what I’m hearing.’