Lethal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  The door opened and Inspector Mills entered and sat down on the sofa opposite Zac’s brother. ‘Mr Milburn, we have something to tell you about your brother.’

  ‘What’s happened, has there been an accident?’ asked Ez, his voice breaking with emotion.

  ‘We are very sorry to inform you that your brother has been killed, his body was found about an hour ago,’ said Chris Mills quietly.

  ‘What? Zac? There must be some mistake. He was going to work this morning, did he crash his car? Or was there an accident at work? Oh God, oh God!’ and he started rocking back and forth his arms folded across his chest hugging himself.

  ‘We need you to identify him unless there is another family member. Although we understand that sadly your parents are no longer alive.’

  ‘I’ll do it, where is he? Take me to him, I want to see him,’ Ez was crying now, wiping tears and snot down his work uniform.

  ‘They aren’t quite ready for us down at the mortuary. So I need to ask you some questions.’

  ‘What questions? He was my brother, worked at BioQex, was very good at his job. He looks after me, he let me share his flat, no way could I afford somewhere nice to live in Persford, not on what I get paid.’

  ‘Have you ever had any idea that your brother was indulging in any illegal activities?’

  ‘What, you’re joking, he just went in and did his job. He worked long hours for that company, he wouldn’t have had time for anything dodgy he was always there,’ scoffed Ez shaking his head.

  ‘Mr Milburn, we have reason to believe that your brother was using his company premises to synthesise street drugs in order to earn extra cash. We think he also might have been dealing some of those drugs himself.’

  ‘This is ridiculous, I’ve never heard such bullshit, you’ve got it all wrong,’ and he buried his head in his hands, continuing to weep.

  ‘We have evidence that he took the drugs to your flat at one point, the sniffer dogs have detected some minute traces in an old shoe box in your brother’s wardrobe.’

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ continued Ez.

  ‘When we discovered your brother’s body he had two small packets of drugs on him,’ added the inspector.

  ‘This is a stitch-up, my brother can’t speak for himself now so you’re pinning it on him.’

  The police officers listened in silence. They were quite used to relatives behaving like this when they were shocked, they just had to keep to the facts and be understanding.

  ‘You’ve not said yet how he died. Did he crash his car?’ asked Ez.

  ‘He was murdered Mr Milburn, he was savagely murdered, we presume by the drugs gang. Exactly why we don’t know and possibly never will know. Perhaps he stopped cooperating, perhaps he demanded more money. We found a quantity of cash in your flat, about three hundred pounds in twenty-pound notes. Did he normally have that amount of cash?’

  ‘He usually had hardly any cash, always used his card,’ replied Ez.

  ‘We need to complete our investigations then you will be kept informed. Meanwhile, you will be assigned a family liaison officer, Jill, here, who will be able to answer any subsequent questions. I’m afraid you won’t be able to go back to your flat tonight. We can arrange somewhere for you to stay if you would like.’

  ‘I need to think about that, sorry, I just can’t take it all in. Just take me to see my brother,’ asked Ez.

  ‘I’ll just make some phone calls then we will take you over,’ and Chris Mills left the room leaving Jill, and Ez sitting in silence. Ez was whimpering and rocking back and forth, struggling to take in the full horror of the information which had been relayed to him.

  Chapter 58

  Nick and Polly sat down to discuss the recent events. It was a tearful discussion for both of them. In view the gravity of Nick’s ordeal Polly wasn’t as harsh on him as she might have been. She felt he had been foolish and reckless but she also felt he’d been extremely brave to continue to investigate Zac. If Nick hadn’t been so keenly observant Zac might have been able to continue supplying drugs to the evil network which destroys so many lives she thought. Being so close to losing Nick had taken its toll though and she worried whether there would be any long-term effects on his health particularly his mental health. She broached the episode of hallucinations and paranoia which had manifested itself on Sunday evening and told Nick how frightened she was that there could be a repeat episode. Nick was dismissive.

  ‘But Nick, what if that beating you took on the head causes a repeat incident and you start having those nightmares like on Sunday evening,’ she asked.

  ‘I’ve had time to think whilst I was in custody,’ replied Nick. ‘I now think it’s more than likely that I either inhaled or absorbed some of the PCP, and that’s why I was behaving so strangely. You don’t need to worry, that was my only experiment with drugs, apart from the odd painkiller,’ he joked.

  They had held hands throughout their discussion, Polly was so relieved to have him back with her. Just then their landline rang. Polly got up to answer it.

  ‘Detective Sergeant Walters here, can I speak to Mr Thomas please?’

  ‘Hang on I’ll just pass you over,’ replied Polly. Police she mouthed to Nick, who rolled his eyes, suddenly starting to worry again.

  ‘Hello, Nick Thomas here.’

  ‘Mr Thomas, I’ve some news for you. Firstly we don’t need you to report in each day to the police station.’

  ‘Oh, I see, I’m pleased obviously, can you tell me what’s happened to change your mind?’

  Polly was mouthing things at Nick, trying to find out what the police were saying. Nick flapped his hand at her to be quiet so he could concentrate on what the detective was telling him.

  ‘This morning we found the body of your colleague Mr Zac Milburn,’ said Andy levelly.

  ‘His body, god, I mean, he’s dead, well obviously. Sorry, I’m just a bit shocked.’

  Polly’s eyes were by now like saucers she wondered what on earth Nick was being told but someone had died and she hoped it was the person who had got Nick into all this trouble.

  ‘What happened, I mean how did he die?’

  ‘We can’t release too many details at the moment except to say he was murdered.’

  ‘Shit,’ said Nick, then, ‘oh sorry, I’m just shocked.’

  ‘We’ll be in touch again soon sir, I just wanted to put you in the picture. Please don’t contact your company for the moment, we will be letting them know about Mr Milburn,’ and Andy ended the call.

  Nick put down his phone, he was speechless.

  ‘What’s happened Nick, what did he say? Zac’s dead, is that it?’ demanded Polly, tugging at Nick’s arm unable to contain her interest.

  Nick told Polly as much as he knew. It was a struggle because all the time he was relaying the information he realised that could have been him and not Zac and Polly could be the one receiving the dreaded call not Zac’s relatives.

  **

  The atmosphere at Persford station was still electric and the team were busy tying up all the loose ends. They had just ascertained that the car containing Zac’s body had matched the description of the car which was seen speeding away from the alleyway shortly after Nick Thomas was beaten up. This added further credence to the fact that the drug gang had been responsible for the attempted silencing of Nick, and the murder of Zac. It was a professional hit and there would be little chance of any prints or DNA on the car. These types of criminals didn’t make silly mistakes, they were professionals. They would test the samples of drugs found on Zac’s body but they were certain that they would match the recent batches seized on the streets recently. Sadly they wouldn’t be able to find the head man running this drug ring. The good thing was they had closed down one of his pawns who could have carried on for some while supplying the PCP, had Nick Thomas not intervened.

  Inspector Chris Mills offered to phone BioQex and relay the news about the demise of their employee. Brett had been on tenterhooks all day wo
ndering what had happened to Zac and whether Nick had been released, there was no way he could concentrate on doing any work. He texted Annabelle a couple of times and told her he might have to cancel their meal tomorrow. He just didn’t know what was happening and whether the police would be visiting again. She was understanding but naturally, she would be disappointed if he couldn’t see her. Their first encounter had seemed so positive and he just felt it had good omens. He was disturbed from thoughts about his potential love life when Amanda put through a call saying it was the police. Finally, I might get some answers he thought to himself.

  ‘Brett Chandler,’ he said.

  ‘Dr Chandler, Inspector Mills, Persford CID.’

  ‘Inspector, please tell me what’s happening, has Zac Milburn turned up yet?’

  ‘He has indeed sir.’

  ‘And what did he have to say for himself?’ interrupted Brett.

  ‘Not much sir, Mr Milburn was found dead at about 10.30 a.m. this morning.’

  ‘What? Dead? What happened?’ stammered Brett, was this for real he thought. He held his brow with his free hand, he felt faint.

  ‘He was murdered sir, and we found evidence of PCP about his person and at his flat. So we are certain we have the chemist who was using your labs for illegal purposes.’

  ‘Who murdered him?’ asked Brett quietly.

  ‘We don’t know for sure but we suspect it was the people whom he was supplying. Sadly it looks as though we won’t be able to identify them from the evidence we have at the moment.’

  ‘Oh, I see, well that’s a pity,’ and Brett paused, trying to let his brain catch up with this shocking news. ‘Am I able to tell my staff?’

  ‘Yes you can, but just stick to the information I told you that we found the body of Zac Milburn and he’d been murdered. Mr Thomas is of course in the clear. It was good he was so vigilant in spotting what was going on despite his methods being somewhat high-risk. Hopefully, your company might think of giving him a small reward?’

  ‘Oh, yes, well we’ll have to think about that,’ replied Brett.

  ‘Well that’s up to you sir, I must go now, hopefully we will be in touch again about when we can release the lab back to you.’

  ‘Thank you, inspector, bye for now,’ said Brett.

  He sat back in his chair and wished he had a bottle of whisky with him. It was bad enough thinking an employee was doing a bit of work on the side but the fact that he’d ended up murdered as a consequence was truly shocking. He needed to get out of his office so instead of phoning Piers he walked round to see him to update him on the devastating news.

  **

  Mark Jameson was released without charge however he had some other matters to face when he went home to his wife Tanya. She gave him a complete dressing down about how he’d risked everything, his job, his family and so on. He might still get the sack, he wouldn’t know until he next went on shift. He had to promise never to get involved in a stunt as she called it, ever again. Mark realised he would have to put some distance between himself and Nick, even though Nick had been exonerated. His wife just saw him as bad news at the moment and viewed her husband as weak for being dragged into Nick’s campaign against Zac. Currently, they were unaware of Zac’s demise. Mark had received one carpeting from his wife and he wondered what would be in store for him when he returned to work. There had clearly been a breach of trust in the way he’d taken the keys and assisted Nick in gaining access to BioQex, even though he’d helped break a major drug ring. It wasn’t clear at the moment just how the axe would fall. For the moment Mark didn’t care, he just wanted a bath and some sleep. His wife agreed it was best if he went upstairs out of her sight. He would take advantage of being able to sleep in their bed that afternoon, he wasn’t sure whether when tonight came he would be in their bed or on the sofa.

  **

  Brett agreed with Piers that all the staff should be gathered together and Brett would make a brief statement regarding Zac. He asked Amanda to schedule it for 3 p.m. God, thought Brett to himself, this must be one of the most unusual occurrences to happen in the pharmaceutical industry and it had landed on his plate, what were the odds of that he thought to himself. The press would be all over this story like a rash once it broke. The company would need to expect a hit to its share price. He quickly clicked on the link to the company share price and saw that it had gone up even more today, nearly another one percent. That made about a three percent increase over the last two days. Well, some people must have confidence in the company he concluded and they’d not yet made their announcement regarding their next promising compound. He just had time for a coffee to fortify himself and whilst doing that he would jot down a few sentences to relay to the staff. He would encourage the workforce to leave early today because once the police made a statement about finding Zac’s body there would probably be reporters descending on the company. They had been lucky that none had been hanging around so far today. Brett remembered that when they made their official statement about Zac they should state that they would offer support to his family despite the way he’d abused his position. It didn’t do any harm to engage in a spot of good public relations, after all, they would need to do all they could to bolster the image of the company after this shameful event.

  Chapter 59

  Ez had been taken to a local hotel. They hoped he would be able to return to his flat the following day once it had been made secure and they had completed their searches. He had so much to organise, but Jill the liaison officer said she would help him with the paperwork. He had no idea about officialdom, Zac had always handled that side of things. He needed to phone his grandparents they would be devastated. Before he could do anything he needed a drink. He left his hotel room and went down the road to a local 7-Eleven shop and bought a half bottle of whisky to numb the pain. He had no idea how long he would be able to stay in the flat, probably not long, he would have to move to some shared accommodation where he just rented a room. How on earth would he manage?

  **

  Piers and Brett walked into the office area where the staff, both chemistry and biology, plus support staff were assembled. They knew something grave was going to be announced. The tone would be so different to that of the last gathering when Brett was formally introduced to the company. Brett arrived carrying a small piece of paper. The room fell silent. Piers stood slightly behind Brett, giving him the floor.

  ‘Thank you, everyone, for interrupting your work,’ said Brett his face betraying signs of the gravity of the upcoming announcement. ‘I have something to tell you regarding our colleague Zac Milburn. I was today informed by the police that Zac’s body was found and that he had been murdered.’

  The audience gasped, he could hear whispered comments such as “what”, “can’t be”, “shit”, “fuck,” and people started to shift from foot to foot nervously. A couple of people started to ask questions but he waved them down and asked to continue.

  ‘It appears that Zac had been using these premises to synthesise street drugs, phencyclidine, PCP, to be precise. Drugs were found on his body and traces at his flat. The police are working on the theory that it was the drug gang he’d been supplying which murdered him.’

  This statement prompted no further questions, the staff were too shocked, they were still trying to take it all in. Piers stood stony-faced staring into the distance.

  ‘As this will soon be made known to the media we are encouraging all staff to finish early today so as to avoid any reporters which may arrive on site. I have asked security to maintain a presence so that staff are not harassed. Hopefully, we will soon have the lab returned to us and we will be able to carry on business as usual,’ at this point Brett consulted his piece of paper to check that he’d not forgotten anything. As it looked like Brett had completed his short speech Piers stepped forward and asked if he could add something.

  ‘Thank you, Brett, I would just like to say something regarding another employee, namely Nick Thomas,’ this produced murmur
ing amongst the assembled staff. ‘As you know the other day Nick was unfortunately arrested on suspicion of being the chemist operating an illegal drug factory. Of course, he was entirely innocent and I would just like to say that it was Nick’s sharp observations and diligence which ultimately led to the unravelling of this mystery, and Nick sadly suffered a severe assault. Whilst we commend Nick’s actions we would like to point out that we wish that Nick could have alerted the senior team to his suspicions rather than mounting a single-handed campaign. Personally. I cannot understand why Nick did not report his concerns to our CSO here.’

  At that point he looked over to Brett who looked extremely uncomfortable, a noticeable reddening spreading up from his collar over his whole neck. He shuffled nervously on his feet.

  ‘No, Piers, that is a bit of a mystery to me as well. I would like to emphasise to everyone my door is always open if people have concerns.’ He looked over to Bob McKewan, did he detect a smirk on his face, or was that a bit of eye rolling.

  ‘Well I think that’s about all now, anything else Piers?’ added Brett.

  ‘No nothing thank you, oh just to say we don’t expect Nick to be back for a couple of weeks, but I’m sure some of you might like to make contact with him and show your support.’

  So the meeting was over and the staff started to drift back to their desks still in a state of shock. Brett realised that Piers was right but it was still galling to him that busybody Nick received such glowing praise. Now it was time to wait for the news about Zac to be made public and wait for the fallout.