The Russian Lieutenant

by Peter Marshall

  “It appears that she was opening her accumulated pile of mail from several weeks away when she opened an envelope which must have contained some kind of poison,” he continued. “She had the good sense to dial 999 at once, and when the paramedics arrived, they had to break into her flat and found her unconscious on the floor. They quickly recognised that she had a white powder on her face and hands, and with the Salisbury spy story still fresh in their minds, they decided not to touch her without protective clothing. They had the good sense to first call CID and then to contact the hospital for back-up by someone who understood this type of thing.”

  “What do they think it is?” asked the Chief Constable. “They are certainly doing the right things.”

  Maggs went on with his report and explained how one of the paramedics went back to their ambulance and found the protective plastic overalls, mask and gloves that they always carried, and he got close enough to ascertain that the patient was still breathing, though deeply unconscious. They made her as comfortable as possible until the emergency team arrived from the Police Station, followed by a specialist from the hospital.

  “Our fellows then called me again to report the situation and said the doctor’s first reaction was suspected Ricin poisoning,” continued Maggs. “Well, we’ve all had some training on this sort of thing – and given the woman’s recent history, I realised that this was probably another security situation. Then I remembered those two Russian agents we talked to a few weeks back who were apparently looking for her. If you remember, we took their pictures, and MI5 recognised them as known agents based at the Russian Embassy in London. We have their names and we know they located the woman’s address.

  “This is all circumstantial and guesswork at the moment, sir, but it has all the signs of an attempted murder, and I decided it was urgent enough to phone our contact at MI5. After I had briefed him, he agreed that we should take precautions to prevent any contamination from the spread of the material from the envelope and that we should get the woman to hospital quickly for a proper diagnosis – which, of course, we were already doing. He also suggested that we probably had enough information to issue an arrest warrant naming the two Russians on suspicion of attempted murder. Do you agree?”

  “Absolutely,” replied Terence Hardy. “Who’s in charge at the scene at the moment?”

  Superintendent Maggs told his chief that Detective Sergeant Bullock was there with a couple of DCs, and they were being very careful but also putting together as much evidence as they could find. It was agreed to set the wheels in motion for an arrest warrant right away and to follow up with Scotland Yard to get the Russian couple on the international wanted list at the airports and ferry ports.

  Taking charge of the situation, the Chief Constable replied, “Let me know when the woman gets to hospital and also make sure we get the doctors to check out all the others who went to the scene in case they have also been infected by the Ricin, or whatever it is. And get our decontamination team on the job quickly to work on the flat and any other areas that might be affected. This is a block of flats, isn’t it, so maybe they should all be evacuated while the work is being done. I think I’ll call my opposite number in Salisbury to see if there is anything we haven’t thought of – and I’ll also let the Navy people know what’s going on before they hear it from anyone else. The press are bound to be on this once we evacuate the flats, so can you get one of your people to draft a statement and let me see it before it is released.”

  “OK, chief. I’ve got all that and will stay in touch. I think I had better go to see what’s happening at the flat as soon as I can.”

  The Chief Constable then remembered that it was his Navy friend, Commander Robert Gaffney, who was expected for dinner that evening with his wife. Simultaneously, he came to the conclusion that this was a fast-moving situation and his place was really at his office, coordinating the police operation. He made the call quickly.

  “Robert, so glad I have caught you before you left home, but we have a bit of a crisis this evening. I’ve only just been briefed, and I was going to call you anyway. I am sure you remember the woman from your communications office who was caught up with this Russian spy business. We thought it was all done and dusted when they announced the spy swap last week, but now she has come back to her place in Southsea and has just been found unconscious – and probably poisoned.”

  “My God,” replied Gaffney. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, I can’t tell you much more at the moment, but I’m afraid I have to go back to the office, and we’ll have to rearrange our dinner date – so sorry about that.”

  “Of course, I understand – but please let me know how the woman gets on. She was called Peters, so far as I can remember.”

  “Yes, Marina Peters – and I’ll keep you in the picture, but I’ll appreciate that you don’t pass this on until I find out more facts.”

  They ended the call, and Hardy went to find his wife to tell her that the dinner party was cancelled and that he had to return to the office to deal with a crisis situation. She tried to find out more details from him, but he was now in a hurry and drove away to the Police HQ as quickly as possible.

  Meanwhile, the doctor on the scene had decided that the paramedics should carefully move Marina to the Portsmouth hospital as soon as possible; he then called his specialist colleagues at the hospital about what to expect. The team carefully wrapped the patient in protective sheeting brought by the police decontamination squad and carried her out to the ambulance, watched now by the very concerned neighbours who had been evacuated from their flats. Also, there were several of the local press watching and shouting questions, and two police constables who made sure they all kept their distance. Sergeant Bullock simply confirmed to the reporters that it was, indeed, Marina Peters who was being taken to hospital and that the Chief Constable’s office would provide a statement as soon as possible.

  While the ambulance was on its way, the Portsmouth doctors spoke to their opposite numbers in Salisbury, and they agreed that although the Ricin powder was a poison unlike the nerve agent Novichok, there were enough similarities in the treatment regimes to compare notes regarding the approach to such a serious and potentially dangerous procedure. Once she was in the isolation section of the hospital, the trauma team, also in protective gear, began attempting to clear Marina’s airways and lungs of the white poison – but her condition was deteriorating rapidly.

  Meanwhile, the police officers at the Southsea flats told the anxious residents that the emergency had been created by the discovery of a dangerous substance in Miss Peters’ flat on the second floor. They said there was no confirmation yet of the precise nature of the substance, but that as a precaution, it was necessary to vacate their properties while a decontamination process was carried out.

  The specialists from the police emergencies unit arrived and carried out detailed checks around Marina’s flat and the adjoining areas to assess the extent of the problem. The chatter among the residents and the reporters immediately made comparisons with the activity in Salisbury a few months earlier, and within an hour, the Chief Constable’s office issued a brief statement to the press:

  “This is to confirm that Miss Marina Peters has been discovered seriously ill at her flat in Southsea. It is Miss Peters who was involved in the recent investigations regarding a Russian agent who arrived in Portsmouth on board the RSS Admiral Essen. She has been taken to Portsmouth hospital where she is receiving specialist attention for probable poisoning. We are currently investigating all the circumstances and have taken the precaution of evacuating the adjacent flats while tests are carried out.”

  Then Chief Constable Hardy had a phone call from Tom Spencer at MI5. “The birds have flown,” he said. “The Border Control at Heathrow have just told us that those two Russians you saw in Portsmouth actually flew out to Moscow on the scheduled Aeroflot flight this morning. I suspect that it was the woman’s phone call to her father yesterday that was picked up, a
nd so they knew she was on her way to Portsmouth and would find the nasty surprise they had left in her flat. I think you have a case of suspected murder on your hands.”

  29.

  WHO POISONED MARINA?

  Early the next morning, the Chief Constable had a call from the hospital to confirm that yes, it was a case of Ricin poisoning and that despite their best efforts, Marina had died. Her parents had arrived at the hospital during the night but had not been able to speak to their daughter. The hospital had also carried out tests on the two ambulance crew members who had brought her in, and they were both taking antidotes and would be off duty for a few days. The police officers who went to the scene would also be checked by the hospital as soon as possible.

  A very saddened Terence Hardy had quite a few calls to make to follow up this news, and he set about it right away – informing the Navy, MI5, the Coroner’s office and his own officers. Then he decided he needed to call a news conference for 9 am, which was set up by his PR department.

  There were half a dozen local reporters there to hear his news.

  “It is with great regret that I have to tell you that Miss Marina Peters died this morning in Portsmouth hospital”, he began. “She was taken there yesterday afternoon after collapsing at her flat in Southsea. I am sure I do not have to tell you about the circumstances during the recent weeks relating to Miss Peters. But I can confirm that she died as a result of Ricin poisoning, and we are treating this as a murder inquiry. We evacuated the neighbouring flats to ensure that there is no contamination as a result of the Ricin which was discovered in Miss Peters’ flat. As I am sure you know, Ricin is an extremely dangerous poison. Our CID officers are carrying out investigations in conjunction with Scotland Yard and MI5, and I will give you more information in due course. Meanwhile, the Coroner has been informed, and an inquest will be opened in the next few days.”

  The Chief Constable took questions, but he could add very little at this stage. No, he could not yet say how the Ricin had come to be in the flat. Yes, her parents had come down from London during the night to be at her bedside. No, Miss Peters was not the subject of any further police inquiries relating to her association with the Russian spy. And finally: “Are the Russians suspected of carrying out this murder, and is there any connection between this incident and the recent Salisbury Novichok incidents?”

  He replied, “It is too early to talk about suspects, but I can tell you that the doctors at Portsmouth hospital did talk to their counterparts in Salisbury last night in case there were some common elements in the treatment regime.”

  The next morning, the Portsmouth City Coroner, Robert Leveson QC, opened an inquest at the Guildhall and adjourned it for three weeks.

  Following the brief inquest and the police statement, the Russian spy story came alive in Portsmouth again and over the following days, it was fully covered in the press and on radio and TV. Speculation inevitably pointed fingers at Russian involvement in Marina’s death, but facts were hard to come by. Who had poisoned Marina, how and why? The story of Marina’s interlude with the CIA in Florida was leaked in London and led to further inquiries and interviews in the States. In Moscow, reporters tried to discover more about the GRU agent who had posed as a Russian naval officer, but since the dramatic spy swap, he was being kept out of sight.

  It was still a news story that had everything – a murder victim, Russian spies, the CIA – everything, that is, but facts.

  It was the last week of November before the inquest into the death of Marina Peters was resumed. The first witness to appear before the Coroner was Victor Peters, who confirmed that he was the father of Marina Peters and that he had seen her frequently since she moved from London to work in Portsmouth three years ago. She had visited him and his wife in Putney on the day she died, before catching a train to Portsmouth. She had appeared to be in good health after a holiday in Canada. The Coroner thanked him and offered condolences to the family.

  Next, Dr. Michael Greenslade, the senior medical officer from Portsmouth Hospital, was called, and he described how Marina had been admitted in an unconscious condition with a suspicion of Ricin poisoning.

  He continued: “We immediately admitted her to our special isolated area for unusual cases and took all the necessary precautions. Although this is a very uncommon problem, our tests quickly confirmed that it was, indeed, the effects of Ricin, which is a very potent poison, and antidotes are rarely effective. We took advice from medical experts in London, but we were quite unable to reverse the deterioration in her condition, and sadly she passed away some 12 hours after her admission.”

  The Coroner asked Dr. Greenslade if he or his colleagues had any previous experience of Ricin poisoning.

  “Fortunately, no” came the reply. “This is something which has only occurred rarely in Europe or the USA, usually connected with some sort of political assassination attempt. We have had training in all types of extreme problems, including Ricin poisining, and there is a wealth of information available to us in the unlikely event of needing to deal with it. Bear in mind that we also had to protect our own team and to ensure that others who came into contact with the patient during the day were also tested for any possible contamination.”

  Mr. Leveson then asked, “Can you comment on the likely quantity of this poison which had infected the patient?”

  “Not specifically, sir,” replied the doctor. “There was still evidence of the white granules around her mouth and nose when she was admitted, but it takes only a very small amount of Ricin to prove fatal.”

  The next witness was Detective Sergeant Bullock, who described what he’d found when he and other officers arrived at the flat in response to the call from the ambulance team which had answered the original 999 call from Miss Peters.

  He then continued: “They had done all they could in these circumstances and when the doctor arrived a few minutes later, he told me he suspected that it might be a case of Ricin poisoning. I recognised that this was very serious and that the flat was now a crime scene. The medical team was able to use protective coverings to get the patient down to the ambulance and then to the hospital. We also put on protective overalls and began searching for evidence, and what soon became clear was that Miss Peters had been opening a pile of incoming mail. She had been sitting on a sofa, probably with all the mail on her lap, and she had obviously been ripping the envelopes open by hand, judging from those we saw on the sofa and the floor. It appears that she tore open a large brown envelope and the contents were a quantity of white powder which spilled out. We could see that the powder had been in the air and over her face, hands and arms. There was clearly more of it in the brown envelope which lay among the other envelopes on the floor, with more signs of the powder on the carpet. We took photographs before carefully collecting as much evidence as possible for further examination. Then our decontamination team arrived from Head Office and took over control of the area.

  “Next I spoke to neighbours who said that Miss Peters had been away for over three weeks, and they showed me the individually named mailboxes in the lobby where she would have found her incoming letters. The postman is usually admitted by one of the ground floor residents to deliver mail each morning, but it seems that although the main door is normally kept locked, they agreed that it is sometimes left open for deliveries and for cleaning staff, so it would not be difficult for a stranger to enter and put an envelope into a specific mailbox.”

  The Coroner thanked the sergeant for his full report and then called Detective Superintendent Maggs. He asked him, “What has been the result of your investigations and do you have any idea of who might be involved in this case?”

  “As I am sure you know, sir, Miss Peters was involved in the situation which arose with the Russian agent who was arrested when he arrived in Portsmouth on board a Russian warship two months ago,” he began. “Since then, she has been looked after by MI5 in London while they prepared their case against the detained Russian, who turned out to be an a
gent with the Russian Intelligence Service. She would have been a material witness in the case, but as I am sure you know, there will no longer be a court hearing because the Russian was sent back home as part of an exchange arrangement.

  “During the days after our arrest of the Russian, we became aware of a couple who were posing as relatives of Miss Peters and attempting to find her. We took surreptitious pictures of them and Scotland Yard was able to confirm that they were both known to be intelligence officers based at the Russian Embassy in London. We discovered the B&B where they had been staying for two nights and obtained some DNA evidence from their bathroom.

  “There is little doubt that as members of the Russian Security Service, known as the GRU, they would have had access to substances such as Ricin. These two individuals did not find her because she had been relocated from her flat at the request of MI5, but it is a strong possibility that the Russian agents could have found a way to place the envelope in her mailbox. We put out an international search warrant for the couple, but it has now been confirmed to us that they flew back to Moscow on the same day that Miss Peters returned to Portsmouth. The whole matter is now in the hands of Scotland Yard and MI5.”

  “I don’t suppose you had any reason to check Miss Peters’ flat or her mailbox while she was away?” asked the Coroner. “And do you think the suspicious envelope was properly sealed so that it could not have been a danger to anyone else?”

  “I think that is correct,” said DS Maggs. “And bear in mind that Miss Peters had not committed any offence by corresponding with the Russian and had only been questioned by us and MI5 because of her importance as a potential witness.”

  Robert Leveson decided that he had heard enough to reach the conclusion that the death of Miss Peters had been a case of murder by person or persons unknown. He also suggested that there was another criminal offence which the police might pursue, that of causing danger to the public by carrying an illegal deadly poison and then depositing it in a public area. He was therefore in a position to authorize the issue of a death certificate to the family. However, he had decided not to close the file, pending further inquiries and the possible apprehension of the perpetrators of the crimes in due course, and he would accordingly send his report to the Chief Constable, the Home Office and all the authorities involved. He extended his sympathy to the family and to Miss Peters’ friends and work colleagues in Portsmouth.