Watermark

by E. J. Kay

  “Had he fallen out with anyone in particular just recently?”

  “Not really,” said Joseph. “Not especially. I suppose.”

  “You seem hesitant, Dr Connor. I need to press you to give me straight answers.”

  “Well, Alec upset a lot of people. That’s how he was. But nothing very out of the ordinary just lately,” he lied. OK, so Alec and Juliet had fallen out badly over this find, but not to the point of murder. That was ridiculous.

  “How was his relationship with Professor Bailey?” Kelly’s head tilted slightly as she asked the question.

  Joseph jumped. That’s weird; can she read my mind? “Erm, well, they didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but just academic cut and thrust, you know. Why?”

  Kelly’s demeanour suddenly hardened. “Because Professor Bailey’s ID card was used to access room G0 twelve at nine twenty-five last night. No one can verify her whereabouts at the time and she’s currently accompanying one of my officers to the station. That’s why. So if you know anything about their relationship, Dr Connor, you’d better tell me now.”

  Chapter 7

  Juliet sat in the interview room, staring absently at the red light on the recording machine as it burned a steady red.

  “Professor Bailey?” No response. “Professor Bailey?” Kelly was louder this time.

  Juliet looked startled. “Yes, sorry.”

  “Do you wish to have a legal representative with you?”

  Juliet shook her head.

  “OK, for the record the time is five thirty-five pm on the eleventh of April. DI Kelly and DS Robson interviewing Professor Juliet Bailey. Professor Bailey has declined legal representation at this time.”

  Juliet sat with her right leg wrapped around her left, her arms folded tight against her chest. She looked like a coiled spring, and seemed to be concentrating very hard on the top of the table in front of her.

  Kelly recited the obligatory caution and then asked, “Professor Bailey, could you give us an account of your movements yesterday evening please?”

  “I left the university around six thirty and went straight home. I was there for the remainder of the evening,” Juliet replied, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on one of the coffee mug rings on the grimy table top.

  “Can anyone vouch for your movements after you left the university?”

  “No, I live alone. I was working on a paper. I had some supper when I got in at about seven and then worked on the paper until gone eleven. Then I went to bed.”

  “If that is the case, can you explain how your ID card was used to open the laboratory door at nine twenty-five pm yesterday?” asked Kelly

  “No, I can’t,” replied Juliet wretchedly. “I have no idea how that could have happened.”

  “Did you have your ID card with you last night?” asked Kelly

  “Yes, I did.” Still no eye contact.

  “Did you kill Alec Whickham?” asked Robson, straight to the point.

  “No, of course not. I would never kill anyone.” Juliet began to shake as tears welled in her eyes.

  “We understand that you’ve been having a disagreement with Dr Whickham over his work.” Kelly again. “Quite a strong disagreement, according to some witnesses who heard your argument yesterday morning. You were pretty agitated, by all accounts. What was that disagreement about?”

  Juliet looked up suddenly and began to become excited, seeming to lose some of her earlier meekness. “Alec had been making claims about what his find proves in relation to human evolution and the role played by water. I feel very strongly that those claims are premature, and could leave the university in a vulnerable position regarding future research funding. I had repeatedly asked Alec to be more measured and to tone down his claims. I don’t believe he really understood the wider picture.”

  “And did his work threaten your reputation?” asked Robson

  “Of course not! That’s an outrageous accusation! My work has a solid, evidential base of more than twenty years research. What are you suggesting? That I killed Alec because I thought he might be right and I might be wrong? I’m a career academic, for God’s sake! If academics went around killing colleagues who disagreed with them or challenged their work the universities in this country would be depopulated in a matter of months.” Juliet’s face was very red as she leaned forward across the desk.

  Kelly had a more soothing voice than Jack Robson. Hell, everyone has a more soothing voice than Jack. “Please try to calm down, Professor Bailey. Let’s go back to yesterday evening. Did you call anyone, or did anyone call you? Anyone at all who could corroborate your claim to be at home all evening?”

  Juliet took a deep breath and sat back. “No, I always put my answerphone on when I’m working, and don’t usually have my mobile switched on as a matter of course. I like to be left alone to work.”

  “What did you have for supper?”

  Juliet paused, surprised at the sudden change of tack. “Er, salad, a little cheese and some bread, I think.”

  “Have you prepared any meat at home over the past couple of days?

  Juliet’s brow wrinkled. “No. I’m a vegetarian. What a strange question.”

  “Have you cut yourself at all over the past couple of days?”

  “What? No!”

  “So, how do you explain the blood-stained absorbent paper that my SOCO team have just found in your dustbin?”

  Juliet uncrossed her legs and sat up straight, suddenly regaining her customary composure. “I’ve changed my mind. I do not wish to answer any further questions until I have legal representation.”

  Chapter 8

  The following morning Joseph and Mike were the only two customers in the Java Man[3] coffee bar, just down the corridor from their office. They sat by the window, looking out at the trees being bent by a blustery breeze. The university was eerily quiet over the Easter break; most of the undergraduates had gone home for the holidays and only some overseas students and the keener postgraduates were still around.

  “I simply do not believe it,” said Joseph. “It just doesn’t add up. They didn’t like each other but she’s got no motive to kill him. And anyway, Alec was a strong guy; surely she doesn’t have the strength to hit him hard enough to kill him? And she’s nowhere near strong enough to heave him onto a trolley. And anyway, this is Juliet we’re talking about!”

  “But, to play devil’s advocate for a minute,” replied Mike, half wincing as he knew this would be unpopular with Joseph, “she was very upset with him a couple of days ago, shouting at him in the corridor. I’ve never seen her do that before. And it isn’t so much how hard you hit someone as where, for it to be most effective. By going in low at the base of the skull the spinal cord is severed where it enters the cranial cavity. And Juliet has an excellent understanding of human anatomy. And she’s over an inch taller than Alec, I’d say. And lastly, the trolleys wind down so she wouldn’t have to lift him up to waist height, just roll him onto the trolley at ground level. Sorry, for all those ‘counter-ands’, but for the sake of balance you should consider them.”

  Joseph stared into his coffee. “OK, so it is physically possible, but I still can’t credit that Juliet would do such a thing. And leave a trail a mile wide behind her.”

  “Mm,” agreed Mike. “Actually that is one of the things that makes it seem unlikely to me. She’s smarter than that. Although I guess the police are thinking crime of passion, spur of the moment stuff. There are questions to answer though, so I guess that’s why she’s been kept in overnight.”

  Joseph’s mobile rang at that moment. “Oh, Inspector Kelly. Hello.” Pause. “Yes, sure, I can be down there in about fifteen minutes. Bye”

  Mike raised his eyebrows. “The police want to see you again?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Be careful Joseph. That loyalty of yours can be a positive attribute, but it is possible for it to be misplaced sometimes. Just don’t get yourself involved in this any further.”

  Josep
h smiled at his colleague. “Don’t worry, I won’t,” he lied. I seem to be lying more than usual these days, he thought to himself.

  ----------

  Kelly sat down on the other side of the table in the interview room.

  “Thanks for coming, Dr Connor. It’s just to clear up one or two things that have come to light during our questioning of Professor Bailey.”

  “Sure.”

  “Yesterday Professor Bailey claimed to have remembered that she lost her ID card for a brief period a few weeks ago. She says that she had to phone you on her mobile from the front door of the building so you could come down to let her in one morning. Her PA wasn’t answering her phone, apparently, and yours was the only other extension number she had listed on her mobile. Do you remember this?”

  Joseph thought for a moment. “Actually, yes, I do.”

  “Could you describe to me what happened?”

  “Yes, it’d be about two weeks ago. I got a call from Juliet just after I’d come into the office one morning, so it’d be around eight thirty. She said she’d got to the door that morning and couldn’t find her ID card in her bag. She seemed a bit puzzled as she was sure that she’d put it back in there the previous day. I let her in and then we checked her office, but we couldn’t find it.”

  “Did it turn up?”

  “Yes, it did. Later that day she told me that she’d found the card under some of the papers on her desk. She thought she must have left it there the previous day and forgotten that she hadn’t put it in her bag. That was it really. She didn’t seem to think anything else of it.”

  “Do you think it was taken or that Professor Bailey mislaid it?”

  “I don’t know. Could be either, I suppose. My guess was that she’d probably left it on her desk when she thought she’d put it back in her bag. Easily done.”

  A young officer put her head around the interview room door. “Excuse me Ma’am, the CCTV footage is ready.”

  “OK, thanks Sharon. Well, thanks for coming in Dr Connor. If anything else comes up I may need to speak to you again.” Kelly stood up. Joseph didn’t.

  “There’s just one thing I wanted to mention to you. It struck me after our interview yesterday.”

  “Go on,” said Kelly, sitting down again.

  “Well, it may be nothing, but Alec did tell me a couple of weeks ago that he’d been getting strange comments left on his blog. Not the sort of stuff he usually got, but a bit, well, odd. A sort of warning about his work.”

  “What sort of thing?”

  “Well, creationist and biblical references.”

  “Are you a good friend of Professor Bailey, Dr Connor?” asked Kelly, with a slightly weary expression.

  “A friend and colleague. I’ve known Juliet for ten years. Since I first started at UNWE.”

  “I know it can be hard to accept sometimes that we don’t know people as well as we think we do,” said Kelly, pushing her chair back with a grinding squeak that set Joseph’s teeth on edge. “But I come across all kinds of people in this job. I can just about believe anything about anybody. Excuse me, I must go.”

  She opened the door for Joseph and ushered him out to the front desk. “Thanks again, Dr Connor.”

  Kelly went back along the corridor to another room and sat down next to Robson. “What does the CCTV tell us then?” she asked.

  “Not a lot really,” he replied. “The only coverage is outside the front of the science building and the lighting isn’t too good. Take a look.”

  He pressed the remote button to play the first video clip. The screen flickered into life, showing a fuzzy image of the front of the science building and the date and time stamp of tenth of April at twenty-one twenty-five. A figure appeared, walking across to the front of the building and carrying a small bag. Dressed in dark trousers and a raincoat with the hood up, the figure walked to the front door, swiped an ID card and then entered. He or she was about five feet eight inches tall, medium build. The second clip was time stamped twenty-two sixteen and showed what looked like the same person walking out of the front door, head down and carrying the same bag.

  “Could be anyone,” said Robson. “Doesn’t prove it’s her, but it certainly doesn’t rule her out either. What did Dr Connor have to say about her missing ID card story?”

  “Well, it checks out with him. Although I rather think our Dr Connor is very keen to support her however he can. Would you talk to her PA and see if she heard anything about it?”

  “Yeah, sure” said Robson, getting up to leave.

  Kelly leaned back in the chair. “You know, I’d be happier if we could find the weapon. It can’t be that easy to dispose of something covered in that much blood. And why would she be daft enough to put the blood stained paper in her own bin? She’s a professor, for Christ’s sake!”

  Robson turned around. “True. But, it’s still looking like there’s too much evidence against her.”

  “Yes, there is,” said Kelly thoughtfully. “Far too much.”

  Chapter 9

  Joseph walked back into his office to see Mike standing at the window again. He turned around. “What was all that about?”

  “Juliet told them about mislaying her ID card a few weeks ago and they just wanted me to corroborate it.”

  “And did you?”

  “Yes, of course. It happened exactly as they said Juliet had described it,” replied Joseph, walking over to the kettle and clicking it on.

  “Yeah, actually, I remember that too,” said Mike. “But what’s that got to do with her card being used yesterday? She didn’t claim to have lost it again did she?”

  “No. I don’t really know why they thought it was significant. Just checking what Juliet had told them, I guess.”

  “So, it’s still looking grim for her, is it?” asked Mike.

  “Yes, I think it is. I did tell them about those weird blog postings Alec had been getting though.”

  “What weird blog postings?”

  “Oh, didn’t he tell you? Someone has been writing creationist and biblical stuff in the comments section of his blog, apparently. He didn’t authorise them so they never showed up publicly, but he did keep copies of them, so he said.”

  “What kinds of things had they been writing?” asked Mike.

  “Well, a bit out of the ordinary. At first he didn’t worry about them, but he said the last one sounded threatening.”

  “And what did the police think when you told them?” asked Mike.

  “Kelly didn’t take it seriously at all,” replied Joseph.

  “Well maybe you ought to give them to Kelly so she can see for herself.”

  “Alec didn’t give me a copy of them. They’ll be on his computer so we can’t get at them.”

  “Wanna bet?” asked Mike, with a twinkle.

  “Whoa, hacking into someone else’s computer is a serious thing to do Mike.” He paused for a moment. “Anyway, how would you do it? The place is crawling with police, the labs and Alec’s office are cordoned off and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve taken his computer away.”

  “We don’t need his computer,” said Mike. “All we need is access to his network drives. I bet we can guess Alec’s password if we try hard enough. We know his username, that’s no secret.”

  “I guess it would be helping Juliet out,” Joseph rationalised.

  “I just hope he didn’t save the document to his local drive,” said Mike. “If he did, we’re stuffed. I guess the police may have got the IT department to restrict access to his network drives too. So it’s a long shot anyway.” He looked at Joseph with an almost adolescent grin. “Let’s do it!”

  Mike sat down in front of his computer and logged off from his account. “OK, we’ll try logging in as Alec. We know that Alec’s username was ar-whickham. No secret there.” Mike typed it into the username box. “So, here we start guessing passwords. Any ideas?”

  “Well,” said Joseph, “no. Oh, what about aquatic ape allusions. Try ‘aquaticape’.”
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  Mike tried it and hit return. “Nope, invalid password. What else?”

  “We could try mixes of ‘aquatic’, ‘ape’, ‘water’ and ‘hypothesis’ I guess,” Joseph suggested.

  They tried two or three combinations of words, but all came back as invalid.

  “We’re going to get locked out of trying here soon. Come on Joe, let’s have one of your blinding flashes of inspiration!”

  Joseph thought. What really mattered to Alec? What would always be important, defining, to him?

  “Try ‘scarsofevolution’.”

  “What?”

  Joseph spelled it out for him. Mike hit the return key and the screen showed the university generic background and login dialogue box.

  “Yes! It’ll take a minute or two to get in. Then we need to find the document with the blog postings.”

  “You know we could get fired for this, don’t you? The university has very strict rules about security and identity.”

  “Look,” replied Mike, “we just print out a copy of the document here and then you say that Alec gave you a copy of the blog postings. Simple. This could be really important for Juliet.”

  “Yes, I know. OK, what have we got then?”

  “Let’s have a look at his files. Alec was one tidy man, that’s for sure. Ah, there’s a folder called blog. Sounds like a good starting point.” Mike opened the folder and a list of documents appeared.

  “There’s one here called ‘creationist postings”. Let’s try that.”

  The Word document opened and Mike and Joseph read the text.

  February 28th 14:30

  1. You leave a significant gap in possible explanations for this poor creature’s death. The Bible tells us of the Flood, of water coming from the earth and from the sky. Recent scientific enquiry has shown that there is enough water in the earth’s mantle to fill the seas many times over, and rain could fall from the sky for 40 days and 40 nights for a number of reasons, such as:

  Collapse of a thick water-vapour canopy which surrounded the pre-Flood earth high in the atmosphere. Calculations indicate this could not have held much water, but it may explain some.