Lethal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  ‘I don’t know, I hope so. They won’t let me see him. Told me to stay at the flat and they would phone later.’

  ‘OK, well listen. When they do phone, you must find out whether he’s got a solicitor. If not let me know straight away. I’ll give you my mobile number. My wife Emma is a solicitor and she works for a very good firm, they will send someone over there if you need them. I’ll phone Emma now to put her in the picture.’

  ‘Oh thanks, Matt, that’s such a comfort, I’ll let you know what they say when they phone. I’ll find some paper and write your numbers down. Thank you so much.’

  Matt ended the call and rejoined Toby in the lounge. Someone had set Nick up for this and he was determined that the truth would be discovered. He almost felt like phoning the police now, but he would speak to Emma first, she was the lawyer, she would know what was the best approach.

  Chapter 49

  ‘Interview with Mr Nick Thomas resumes at 18.45 p.m., present Detective Sergeant Andy Walters, Detective Inspector Chris Mills and Mr Philip Chamberlain.’

  Philip Chamberlain was the duty solicitor who had arrived to represent Nick. They had been allowed a short time together to discuss the charges and Nick’s response to the accusations.

  ‘Mr Thomas, how do you explain the fact that a library account was opened using your identification documents?’

  ‘I remember taking all my documents into work one day as I needed to photocopy them so I could send them off to the building society to support my mortgage application. I was very busy that day and I must have left them on my desk at one point. Zac must have taken them without my knowledge.’ Nick had been able to think about things more clearly now and he felt he could now counter the accusations which confronted him.

  ‘Did you actually see anyone taking papers from your desk?’

  ‘Of course not, otherwise I’d have told you earlier,’ snapped Nick. The solicitor whispered in Nick’s ear and Nick apologised.

  ‘Well that’s an interesting theory,’ replied Andy Walters.

  ‘I want to see those printouts you had about the computer use in the library,’ said Nick, ‘I want to see the times they were used.’

  ‘OK, here they are. For the tape, I am passing over documents pertaining to the use of the public computers in Persford library,’ stated Detective Walters.

  Nick studied them carefully.

  ‘These sites were accessed on Saturday when I was visiting a National Trust property with my girlfriend,’ stated Nick triumphantly.

  ‘I see,’ replied Andy, starting to look slightly less confident.

  ‘Can you prove that?’

  ‘We paid by credit card, it will be on my statement. We were there most of the day.’

  ‘Oh we will check certainly, but your girlfriend might have gone alone.’

  ‘It was a two for one offer, the price will show that. You can check, Lulfenworth House, it’s on their website.’

  ‘She could have taken someone else and had the two for one offer,’ added Andy.

  ‘Oh for goodness sake,’ shouted Nick, and banged the table.

  His solicitor looked concerned and again whispered in Nick’s ear trying to calm him.

  ‘We will check what you said, now let’s move on to the issue of the data you obtained. For the tape, I am showing Mr Thomas the printouts of the data he obtained. The time and date are shown clearly at the top of the page. The data ran in the middle of the night, between Wednesday and Thursday this week, so that’s between the 17th and 18th May. Do you agree this is the date, Mr Thomas?’

  Nick nodded glumly. His mind was racing, he knew that he would have to tell the full story.

  ‘Mr Thomas is indicating his agreement by nodding. However one thing we don’t understand is how that data found itself in your flat when you have not been in work since Wednesday evening.’ Nick’s face showed concern, he remained silent. ‘Well Mr Thomas, an explanation please.’

  ‘I want to speak to my solicitor in private,’ replied Nick.

  **

  Polly phoned Matt to tell him that the police had told her that a duty solicitor was representing Nick. He was still being questioned and was cooperating. Her mother had arrived shortly after 7 p.m. Polly was so pleased to see her and for the first few minutes they just stood hugging each other, her mother stroking Polly’s back comfortingly. Polly tried to update her mother about Nick’s arrest and the background leading up to it as far as she understood. It was difficult as her mother kept interrupting her and as she had no scientific background it was doubly hard. Polly told her about Matt’s offer of a solicitor but they didn’t know whether once Nick had accepted representation it could be changed. They both started googling the procedure for questioning, holding and representing a suspect. Though worrying, it gave them something to focus on whilst they were waiting for news.

  **

  Brett was now at home treating himself to a glass of Glenlivet, a large one. He and his three colleagues had thrashed out their response to Nick’s arrest, the ramifications for the company and the damage limitation steps they could take. Billie had offered useful suggestions as to how the chemistry teams could proceed with their usual lab out of action. Fortunately, they weren’t at full capacity so although it would be a squeeze they could manage. They had a smaller lab which they had designated for particularly hazardous reactions but that could be used as a general purpose lab in the meantime. As for the work which had been started, that would probably have to be binned if it sat around too long and there was no way of knowing when the police would release the lab back to them.

  ‘What a fuck awful day,’ said Brett to himself, switching on the TV. He would phone for a takeaway and watch some sport tonight. He had a dreadful headache. Perhaps whisky wasn’t the best thing for that but he didn’t care, he needed something to numb the shock. It was already on the local news website about the police presence at BioQex, God knows what tomorrow will be like he thought. No doubt they would have to fight their way through loads of reporters. They’d contacted security and asked them to make sure their regular guard, Mark had some help tomorrow morning, and they would need security all day not just out of hours cover.

  He wondered what this would do to their share price tomorrow. He checked the price. Strangely, it hadn’t had any effect today, tomorrow would be the test though once the markets opened. Investors were very sensitive to even small items of bad publicity for companies, small start-ups were particularly vulnerable once sentiment turned against them. It was interesting that BioQex’s share price had actually risen a lot today, even though the wider market was down. He opened up the website where you could see volumes traded in each share and clicked on the symbol for his company. Much larger than average volumes had changed hands today and the vast majority were purchases. Well someone had confidence in BioQex he thought, let’s hope it continues and all this fuss of today blows over quickly.

  **

  Whilst Andy Walters and his colleague were out of the room giving Nick a chance to consult with his solicitor. DC Shani Patel spotted them and hurried over to them.

  ‘Sirs, we’ve had a message from the IT guys, they’ve had a look at Mr Thomas’ laptop and he’s been looking at sites concerning street drugs. He’s looked at street drugs in general, not just PCP, although for PCP there are web pages which talk about its synthesis.’

  ‘Thanks Shani, good to have that information.’

  He turned to his colleague. ‘Well that’s a bit strange Chris, why would he use the library’s computers as well as his own? Doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘Unless he’s telling the truth and he was on to someone at work. Thinks he’s nothing to hide so looks it up at home on his laptop because he knows he’s got evidence?’

  ‘Yes, could be the reason, but we need to check out his alibi for the Saturday when that big block of time was spent on the computer in the library and we also need to know how he got the data out of the company.’

  ‘Well, maybe it�
��s time to see what he’s got to say,’ suggested Chris Mills. ‘Before we go in, do you think we should have a look at this Zac Milburn chap he keeps talking about, see if there’s anything on record about him?’

  ‘Good idea, it won’t hurt, let’s get one of the team to run him through the system, anything on record that sort of thing. I’ll go and tell someone to do that whilst you go into the interview room, I’ll be along in a minute.’

  **

  Shani went to get herself a large coffee, it was going to be a very long evening, and night possibly. She had all the CCTV footage to go through from the last week. Her boss had told her to start with Wednesday evening onwards as the data wasn’t run till then and that was what they were focussing on at the moment. She was going to do half hour sessions then take a break otherwise she would start to nod off. She took a stroll around the building, then psyched herself up for the job. She unwrapped a chocolate bar, set her coffee down and started to sift through the dark and shady footage of the entrance and car park of BioQex. Please let there be something significant she thought, this could really help her promotion prospects if she could help the team make a breakthrough.

  Chapter 50

  Once Detective Sergeant Andy Walters had returned to the interview room the solicitor reminded the police that they had now been interviewing his client for over four hours albeit with breaks, and he was requesting that they adjourned for the night and resumed tomorrow. He also requested that his client should be released, he hadn’t been charged and he would willingly help them with their enquiries after a night’s sleep.

  ‘Mr Chamberlain, I would like to continue for a maximum of another thirty minutes and then we will finish for the evening. Is that acceptable?’

  The solicitor conferred with Nick and they both nodded.

  ‘I’ve just thought of something which may be relevant,’ said Nick before the police could start with their questions.

  ‘Excellent, please go ahead Mr Thomas.’

  ‘When we were at the National Trust place, we went to the cafe, just for tea as we’d taken a picnic, and I left my sunglasses on the table. We noticed about ten minutes later while we were wandering around the herb garden so I jogged back to see if they were still there. Someone had handed them in and I asked at the till and the young girl handed them over. I’m sure they will remember it if you phone them. That proves I was there and not in the library,’ he added excitedly.

  ‘Thank you I’ve made a note of that and we will phone them tomorrow, now I’d like to ask you about the data you had in your flat. How did those printouts manage to get from BioQex to your flat?’

  Nick took a deep breath and said, ‘I went in to collect them on Sunday evening.’

  ‘How did you get there, drive yourself? Taxi?’

  ‘I got a lift,’ replied Nick.

  ‘From your girlfriend?’

  ‘No, someone else.’

  ‘Mr Thomas, the sooner we get through this the sooner we can call it a day,’ and Andy raised his eyebrows hopefully at his interviewee.

  ‘I got a lift with Mark Jameson, our security guard. He let me into the building,’ said Nick, realising that he might as well tell them the whole details. It might make them look more favourably on him.

  ‘Why did you ask him, Mr Thomas?’

  ‘Because he could get the keys and let me in and he knows the code to the alarm system.’

  ‘Interesting, well we will need to have a little chat with your accomplice.’

  ‘He’s not my accomplice, I haven’t committed a crime. I was going to retrieve my own data as I needed it as evidence against Zac Milburn. We’ve been through this so many times,’ and with that Nick put his head down on the table.

  ‘Detective Walters, my client is exhausted, he’s been very forthcoming with the information, he’s recovering from a nasty assault. He’s in pain, you are being most inconsiderate. I urge you to halt this interview now, otherwise, I will be submitting a complaint.’

  ‘Interview terminated at 20.23 p.m.’ said Andy Walters. ‘Mr Thomas you will now have a chance to rest. You will spend tonight in a cell at this police station. We cannot risk you contacting the person you have just named. We will continue this interview tomorrow morning.’

  ‘What?’ screamed Nick, ‘you can’t keep me here, I’ve done nothing wrong!’ He started to get up from the table at which point the uniformed officer who had been sitting by the door throughout the interview went over to Nick and held him by the arm. The detective opened the door to request assistance to take Nick down to a cell overnight. The formal interview was over but they had further work to do. They needed to look up this Mark Jameson’s address and details and make a decision whether to bring him in tonight or wait until tomorrow.

  **

  Polly burst into tears when she received the call to tell her that Nick was being held overnight. How could that be possible? She’d read on the web that after tomorrow afternoon they would have to charge him or apply to a magistrate for more time to question him. Surely by then, they would have realised he was innocent. Her mother was thankfully staying with her overnight. They would soon have to phone her father to tell him the bad news. She didn’t like to phone Matt so late but she felt he would want to know so she scrolled through her contacts and made the call.

  **

  Cole had heard on the grapevine that the police had raided BioQex and it was on the local websites. It was bad news and meant that his supply from that particular source would now be curtailed. It looked as though Zac had been careless. Stupid boy he thought, he’d seemed so promising. A few weeks ago Cole imagined that he’d found a rich seam he could tap whenever he wanted. Zac had told him he was taking a break and on Thursday he’d not argued with him but he knew how to deal with people like that. They all made the same mistake of thinking they called the shots. How wrong they were, Cole was in charge and it was very dangerous to hold views to the contrary. It was late but in his line of work you didn’t go to bed early, nor did his employees. His call was answered on the second ring.

  ‘It’s time,’ he said quietly. ‘Tonight, we can’t risk it any longer,’ and he disconnected the call. He poured himself a large vodka. One door closes another door opens. Time to plan ahead. This was just a minor problem, he always found a solution.

  Chapter 51

  Zac was home alone in his flat. His brother was out for the evening and he’d said he might stay over at a friend’s house that night as they were both on the early shift and his friend would take him in by car. Zac told him that if he changed his mind and came back he should be quiet as he wanted to get an early night, the stresses of the week had begun to catch up with him. He’d made his sandwiches for the next day and put an envelope of cash in his jacket which he planned to take into the bank at lunchtime. After that payment, there would only be one more and the money would all be processed. He was in the kitchen having a drink of water before bed when he heard the buzzer for the flat. He looked at his watch seeing that is was just coming up to 9 p.m. It was probably Ez having mislaid his keys again. Sighing he went to answer the buzzer, ‘hello?’ he said.

  ‘Oh, hello, I think you need to come down, I think your car’s been broken into, well one of the side windows is broken. Your neighbour said it was probably your car, we were just leaving,’ said the voice.

  ‘Oh fuck!’ shouted Zac, ‘I’ll come down, thanks, mate,’ he replied.

  That was all he needed, another repair bill, he slipped on his shoes not bothering to fasten the laces properly, grabbed jacket containing his keys and sprinted down the stairs.

  **

  Nick lay on the thin plastic mattress in his cell. He couldn’t get comfortable due to his sore ribs. His head was throbbing with a dreadful headache brought on by all the stress of the interviews and the fact that he was still suffering from his violent assault. At least he felt he’d made a bit of progress convincing the police in the last interview. They would soon realise he had an alibi for the Saturda
y when someone used the library account in his name. He felt so stupid though, he’d been so focussed on Zac’s guilt, had been so blinkered at finding the truth and compiling a complete dossier of evidence that he had failed to spot that if viewed differently he was merely incriminating himself. How he wished he’d confided in Billie. He felt sure she would have believed him, but he didn’t know her well and if she merely dismissed his theory she could have gone to Brett and there would have been no chance of getting to the heart of the matter. Brett was prejudiced against him from the episode in the wine bar, it would take a lot to change his view of him. Perhaps when he realised that Nick’s doggedness in the pursuit of Zac might just have saved his company from being dragged ever further down the road of illicit drugs his opinion towards Nick might change. There had also been the risk that any discussions with Billie or Brett might have alerted Zac. Rumours always seemed to leak even if people were sworn to secrecy. Well they had to make a decision tomorrow and either release him or charge him, he felt sure that once they’d spoken to Mark he would be exonerated. He closed his eyes willing sleep to claim him and hasten the arrival of the morning.

  **

  It was now nearly 9.30 p.m. and the CID team met to assess progress and their plans for the next day. They needed to speak to the security guard Mark Jameson. They weren’t sure whether he was at home or at work and Nick Thomas didn’t know about his shift patterns. He had no previous form, perhaps he had decided to get involved with Nick’s scheme due to financial pressures or perhaps he was merely helping Nick in his quest for the truth. They also needed to speak to Zac Milburn either to eliminate him from their enquiries or to arrest him. It was evening so he would either be at home or out somewhere, not at work. So they needed three teams, one at Mark’s house, one at the science park and one to go to Zac’s address. All teams needed to keep in close contact with each other, it was an operation requiring considerable manpower.