Lethal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  After returning by taxi last evening he’d had time to examine the data sheets and they fitted for PCP exactly. They were in an envelope in the wardrobe along with a summary of the synthesis he’d written down from his research and other details. The samples were in an old shoe box on the shelf in the wardrobe. He was going to phone the police and tell them he knew who the illicit chemist was, he had a full package of evidence. Zac, you are going down for a long time for this he thought.

  **

  Andy Walters had consumed multiple cups of coffee to help him work through his tedious paperwork. The effect of the coffee and waiting for the phone call was making him extremely jittery. At about 11.30 a.m. his phone rang showing an unknown number. He snatched at it and answered.

  ‘Oh, hello, this is Clive Alnwick, I’m the IT manager responsible for Persford library, you spoke to my colleague Jim Barford last week.’

  ‘Mr Alnwick, hello, DS Andy Walters. Thanks for getting back to me.’

  ‘Well I’ve been able to spend some time on your request and I’ve some news for you.’

  ‘That’s great, thank you,’ Andy was so excited he could hardly speak. He was twirling a pen round and round to try to combat the stress.

  ‘We’ve found some searches related to street drugs and PCP in particular that started about two weeks ago. Until then in the last three months there was hardly any activity related to this subject, well one isolated case, but as I said starting two weeks ago and then on a couple of subsequent occasions there were several periods of time, I mean blocks of an hour or more spent searching for sites which look like syntheses of PCP, phencyclidine.’

  Andy was silently cheering, thank you, thank you, he was offering to the heavens. This was it, the breakthrough they wanted. His hunch had been right all along. The chemist had used the terminals in the library thinking it conferred anonymity.

  ‘Thank you so much for your efforts in this, any chance we know the name of the person searching?’ asked Andy eagerly.

  ‘I was just about to say, only one library account was used for all the searches, in the name of Nick Thomas, address Flat 5, Marlowe Court, Edge End Road, Persford.’

  Andy scribbled the name and address down furiously.

  ‘Thank you so much, Mr Alnwick, this helps enormously, thank you, thank you,’

  ‘Happy to help, anything else just give me a call, you got my direct number?’

  ‘Yes, it’s here on my phone, bye for now and thank you!’

  Andy punched the air with excitement. He rushed off to speak to the Superintendent simultaneously phoning the drug squad. This was better than he could have hoped for. They needed to speak to Mr Thomas as a matter of urgency. They also needed to get a warrant and sniffer dogs arranged. This piece of information could not be underestimated.

  Chapter 45

  At lunchtime, Brett was staring out of his office window admiring the view when his mobile rang. He sauntered over to his desk, then snatched up the phone when he saw who was calling. He fumbled with it and almost dropped it as he swiped across to answer the call.

  ‘Hi Annabelle!,’ he said excitedly, then realised he sounded like some love-struck teenager and needed to cool it slightly.

  ‘Brett, hi, hope I’m not disturbing you?’

  ‘No, not at all,’ replied Brett, then realised it sounded as though he had nothing to do, ‘well, you caught me between meetings actually.’

  ‘Oh, good, I just wondered if you fancied meeting up before the social event I told you about?’

  ‘That sounds good,’ replied Brett, skipping silently over to the window again, his heart racing.

  ‘Are you doing anything on Wednesday evening?’ she asked.

  ‘Wednesday, just a minute while I check my diary,’ replied Brett, knowing full well there was nothing apart from perhaps a trip to the gym scheduled for Wednesday evening, much like every evening in fact.

  ‘No, just checked, Wednesday should be fine, where would you like to meet?’

  ‘We could have a meal, how does that sound?’

  ‘Sounds great, anywhere in mind?’

  ‘How about an Italian, something casual, there’s a nice place in town, Chappellis, have you been there?’

  ‘No, but sounds great, what time shall we meet, shall I pick you up?’

  ‘Let’s meet for a drink beforehand, say 7 p.m., I’ll come straight from work, do you know Barista Nuovo?’

  ‘Certainly do, we had a work evening there recently, it’s quite upmarket.’

  ‘See you there then, Wednesday at seven,’ and she ended the call.

  Brett felt like jumping up and down he was so excited. This was a new experience for him, normally he was the one doing the chasing, now he was being pursued by an extremely attractive huntress. This was a great start to the week and it was due to get even better.

  **

  Nick had finally woken around lunchtime and was now showered and dressed. He was still off his food but managed some soup and a piece of toast. He’d not yet had a chance to broach the subject of contacting the police, Polly would be shocked and he’d have to explain clearly to her that he needed to be taken to the police station after lunch to present his evidence. As he’d not shared his suspicions with Polly up to now the story was going to come as a hammer blow. He wished she had gone to work but as he’d been so ill during the night she refused to leave him. He also needed her to accompany him to the station as he felt slightly unsteady on his feet.

  Polly cleared up the lunch things and came to sit alongside Nick on the sofa.

  ‘Polly, can you put that magazine down, I’ve something I need to discuss with you?’ asked Nick.

  ‘Sure, sounds ominous,’ replied Polly, ‘I’m all ears.’

  ‘I need you to take me to the police station this afternoon,’ continued Nick.

  ‘Why?’ asked Polly frowning, ‘they will contact us if they have any news, or we can phone if you’ve remembered anything.’

  ‘It’s not about my assault, well it is indirectly I suppose, it’s about something else.’

  Polly was really frowning now, Nick sensed she was starting to get irritated.

  ‘Nick, what on earth are you worrying about, are you feeling OK?’ she asked.

  ‘Just listen, it’s a long story but I’ll start right at the beginning.’

  ‘OK, carry on,’ said Polly wearily.

  ‘It concerns Zac. He’s been making illicit street drugs.’

  Polly gasped. ‘Nick, are you losing your mind?’ and she got up from the sofa and stood to face him. She had her hands on her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. Surely this was Nick’s overactive imagination? Or was it worse he was suffering from some sort of psychosis or was he delusional. She was breathing hard, pacing around the room, lifting her arms up and down and slapping them against her sides.

  ‘Calm down Polly, you must listen to the whole story, I’ve got evidence, look I’ll show you,’ and he struggled to get up off the sofa.

  Just at that moment, the entrance intercom buzzed. Polly sighed and went to hear who it was. Nick thought he heard the word police, followed by rapid questioning from Polly, then she pressed the button to release the door.

  ‘It’s the police!’ she screamed, ‘they want to speak to you, I don’t know what is happening anymore! It’s a complete nightmare!’

  Seconds later she heard a knock at the door and the words ‘police open up!’

  She opened the door and stood aside.

  The sight that greeted her shocked her. There were uniformed police, a couple of plain-clothes officers and an excitable springer spaniel straining at the leash. She was totally aghast. All sorts of questions were rapidly racing through her mind. Why were the police here, what did they want with Nick? It was Nick who wanted to see them. Why was there a dog with them?

  The first plain-clothes officer introduced himself but his name simply bypassed her, she couldn’t take it in. He held up a search warrant and handed it to her. The do
g handler stepped into the flat and the dog began sniffing around. It headed in the direction of the bedroom, its excitement mounting to fever pitch. To Polly’s horror, it jumped all over the bed, then to the chair in the corner and then took the handler over to the wardrobe and started barking and clawing at the door. The handler patted the dog, gave it a treat and pressed down on his back to encourage it to sit.

  ‘In here gov!’ shouted the dog handler.

  Two more policemen donned disposable gloves and opened the door to the wardrobe and started to search through.

  ‘What’s going on?’ screamed Polly, ‘why are you here, I don’t understand.’

  Nick’s face was ashen, ‘I need to speak to you about someone, Zac Milburn, I was going to contact you, why are you here?’

  ‘Mr Thomas, and sorry, I don’t know your name Miss,’ said Detective Sergeant Andy Walters.

  ‘Polly Sharp.’

  ‘Mr Thomas and Miss Sharp, let’s all sit down and discuss this in a civilised manner.’

  ‘But you’re turning our flat over!’ screamed Polly, ‘how can I sit down and be calm, what’s that dog doing?’

  ‘Please, please, listen. I need to speak to Mr Thomas. Please try to let me explain.’ Polly sat glowering at the sergeant, but tried to remain silent. ‘We have reason to believe that you have been involved in the synthesis of street drugs, in particular, phencyclidine, with the aim of supplying drugs to a dealer or dealers for distribution in Persford.’

  ‘What? Me? No, you’ve got it wrong, it’s Zac Milburn, not me, I was going to come and see the police this afternoon, I’ve got all the evidence!’

  ‘We have evidence that you used a public computer to access sites detailing the synthesis of PCP, and have used a laboratory at your place of work BioQex to manufacture a supply of the drug I have just mentioned.’

  Polly listened to this exchange with horror, her hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. What had Nick got himself involved with now?

  ‘I’ve not, what do you mean public computer, I’ve got a laptop here, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ spluttered Nick. ‘Will you listen to me, are you thick? It’s Zac Milburn you want, he works at BioQex, that’s why I suspected him, I’ve been watching him but I needed the evidence before I came to the police otherwise it would be my word against his!’

  ‘Mr Thomas, please do not be rude to me, we need to discuss this in a civilised manner, you are not helping yourself.’

  Just then there was a shout from the bedroom. A uniformed officer appeared carrying a shoebox and a large envelope. Andy Walters went over and looked in the shoe box and told them to bag it as evidence. He donned gloves and looked at the papers, nodded at the officer and he bagged those as well.

  ‘Bag the laptop over there was well,’ he instructed the search team, ‘also his phone. Mr Thomas, we believe we have found samples of drugs in your flat along with data with your name on them, which presumably is the data which accompanies the samples. There are also written papers which detail the synthesis of PCP.’

  ‘Yes,’ replied Nick, ‘it’s all ready and prepared to bring down to you to show you that Zac Milburn has been making PCP.!’ Nick was standing at this point and gesticulating.

  ‘I’ve just had a quick look at the data and it’s got your name on it, how do you explain that?’

  ‘I can explain it all but you aren’t letting me, you stupid idiot!’

  ‘Right, I’ve had enough of this,’ said Andy Walters. ‘I think we need to discuss this down at the station.’

  ‘Huh, not likely, not whilst you’re not being reasonable, you need to listen to me.’

  ‘Mr Thomas, will you come down to the station willingly for a chat about this matter?’

  ‘No I will not, you need to go an arrest Zac Milburn, I’m not going anywhere.’

  ‘Mr Thomas, I am arresting you on suspicion of synthesising controlled drugs. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Please come with me.’

  Nick refused to move as a uniformed officer tried to lead him to the door. He shrugged off the officer’s hand from his arm. The officer tried to lead him again which resulted in Nick pushing at the officer who stumbled against a chair.

  ‘Put the cuffs on him,’ directed Andy Walters.

  ‘No way, get off,’ shouted Nick, but two officers were now involved and the handcuffs were applied

  ‘Get off me, I’m innocent! Polly, they’ve got it wrong, it’s not me it’s Zac, tell them, I’m innocent I tell you!’

  Those were the words she heard as the party of police plus sniffer dog left the flat. It was like a whirlwind had blown through, leaving destruction in its wake. She collapsed onto the sofa, sobbing. She reached for her phone.

  ‘Mum, it’s me, you’ve got to come over, Nick’s been arrested.’

  Chapter 46

  Prior to Nick’s arrest, it had been frenetic at Bank Street police station. This was often the case with police work, there was a slow build up with lots of people working on separate threads of information and then it was like someone had lit the touchpaper on a firework and everything started to happen. Several teams swung into action with Andy Walters coordinating the whole project. Once they had a name and address it was easy to find out where Nick worked. The fact that it was one of the smaller biotech companies meant for Andy that it all fitted together. Somehow he thought that procedures might be less rigorous than in one of the larger companies. There were still loose ends they needed to tie up and he hoped that once Nick was in the austere environment of an interview room he would be easy to break and would give them all the information they needed. He had no previous form on the system so he was a newcomer to the scene needing to raise some useful cash, perhaps he had some debts which were becoming onerous.

  Andy Walters had phoned BioQex and asked to speak to the CEO or whoever was available. It was a matter of courtesy to inform the senior team that a search was going to take place, it wasn’t very likely that the board was involved in an illicit drugs factory. Nick had been taken in for questioning and they had his laptop and phone but if his girlfriend was involved she might have contact details of a possible accomplice at his workplace. They had no grounds for arresting her at the moment but they needed to get over to the science park before anyone had a chance to destroy any evidence.

  ‘Good morning, how may I help you?’ answered the receptionist Jenny.

  ‘Good morning, this is Detective Sergeant Andy Walters from Persford CID. I need to speak to your managing director or CEO as a matter of urgency.’

  ‘Hold the line and I’ll put you through,’ she replied.

  There was some annoying music and then the receptionist came back on the line.

  ‘Our CEO is off-site at the moment so I’m going to put you through to our Chief Scientific Officer Dr Chandler, he should be able to help you. Transferring you now.’

  Andy started to say thank you but realised the line had gone dead. There were a few seconds of silence then Dr Chandler came on the line.

  ‘Brett Chandler speaking, how can I help you?’

  ‘Good afternoon, Dr Chandler, I’m phoning regarding one of your employees, a Mr Nick Thomas.’

  ‘Yes, Nick Thomas, he was violently assaulted, I hope you’ve caught the perpetrator,’ replied Brett.

  ‘I am phoning regarding Mr Thomas but not about his assault, another matter entirely.’

  What on earth was this about thought Brett, he waited in silence.

  ‘We believe Mr Thomas has been using your premises to synthesise illegal street drugs. A search team is currently on its way to your company and will need to carry out their investigations. I trust you will cooperate fully with them and provide any assistance needed.’

  ‘What, I don’t believe what you are saying, is this some sort of prank?’

  Brett wondered if his friend Giles had decided to pull a stunt like this, i
t would be just his idea of a joke.

  ‘I can assure you Dr Chandler I am completely serious. Mr Thomas is currently assisting us with our enquiries down at the station and we have seized several items of evidence from his flat. We believe there may be further evidence on site, and we need to take a good look. My team should be with you in about ten minutes. I would ask you to meet them in reception and escort them to the appropriate area. This will save them time explaining to your reception staff.’

  ‘There must have been some misunderstanding!’ shouted Brett down the phone. It was true that Nick wasn’t a favourite of his but this was preposterous. Nick Thomas might be a bit of a gossip but a manufacturer of street drugs, no way. He’d worked with his predecessor Matt Pearson for years, apparently. He was one of their best chemists and had just been promoted, why on earth would he want to risk his career doing something like this. No doubt this was a case of our friends the plod getting the wrong end of the stick and making a complete hash of things. He had personal experience of their misinterpretation of events. What a bunch of idiots he thought.

  ‘Please let my team do their job and we can get out of your hair. Of course, we may need to close down one of your labs until we have completed our investigations, and depending on Mr Thomas’ and your cooperation this may take some time, I can’t put a timescale on it at the moment.’

  ‘Well, I can assure you that you won’t find anything here,’ snapped Brett, ‘but I’ll go down to reception now and meet your team,’ and he slammed down the phone, putting his head in his hands.

  **

  Nick was now being made comfortable in an interview room. He had accepted the offer of a glass of water, he couldn’t face tea or coffee. They had removed the handcuffs and Nick rubbed at his wrists where there were some red marks, the skin slightly grazed. He felt in a daze, the effects of the night time tranquillisers still in his system. He was sitting at a table in this soulless airless room wondering how he had been plunged into this dire situation. How could the police possibly suspect him.

  The door opened and in walked Detective Sergeant Andy Walters, accompanied by Detective Inspector Chris Mills from the county drug squad. Andy Walters made the necessary introductions and switched on the recorder. He gave the time and date and the names of the people present.