Resident Fear

by Hylton Smith

  They managed to convince the crew to find them a private area and Renton asked the Dutch officer to take a well-deserved coffee break.

  “Ok then Martin, it looks like you’re going to get your fifteen minutes of fame. What’s it all about?”

  “Not fame Inspector, can I call you Jack?”

  “Call me whatever you like, just get it off your chest.” Renton’s phone rang. “Hello Dad, you are all over the internet and now the news, it’s fantastic. Where is the killer?”

  “Thanks for the call Daniel. I’m sitting next to him, so I’ll call you and your Mum later.”

  “Sitting right next to him; wow that’s awesome. Please don’t forget to call.”

  Renton turned to Parrish. “That was my son Martin, it’s started already. So where do you want to begin? How about we pick up the story after the football match?”

  “It goes back a long way further than that Jack, but fair enough, we can always have flashbacks. You never seemed to be too sure about where Alistair met his fate. If only you could have found the limo driver sooner. My Mercedes was pivotal in the plan. You see, when I realised Alistair was selling a lot of our population down the river, I had some modifications made. The crucial one was the microphones. They were absolutely undetectable and installed in the rear Bose speakers. Whenever Alistair pushed the button to raise the glass divider, so that he could have a private conversation, I recorded it and listened to it later. He had many such conversations with many shady people. He was a lifelong friend who deserted his high ideals and many people who loved him. Let’s rewind for a moment. My mother suffered terribly with the onset of motor neurone disease. Alistair’s company was founded because of government hypocrisy over a cure for genetic defects. He had a vision and a determination to embarrass them. When he knew of my mother’s condition it seemed to spur him on. However, when she deteriorated badly, and he had a successful product submitted for clinical approval, I asked him to give her a fighting chance. I understood the problem he would have if the authorities discovered he had up-scaled the trials without clearance. I asked Harry Bowman if this could be done in Germany, and he said it was possible through certain secure channels. I agreed to pay the fee, and deny any involvement of Alistair’s company. I even said I would say I’d taken advantage of my position with the company and stolen the product. If she died, then we had at least given her a chance. It was thought at the time that an excess of Glutamate (the nervous system chemical messenger) could cause overstimulation of the muscle enabling movement regime, especially in the brain and spinal cord. This eventually and inexorably causes the mechanism to ‘die.’ Awareness of what is happening is probably the worst part of the disease, and it was always fatal at that time.

  “I begged him to help me as she had nothing to lose; it was her last throw of the dice. He would not budge and even Harry tried, by saying he would take responsibility for any treatment in Germany. I was bitter, but worse was to come. My mother was referred to Younis Khan for therapy as her last few months approached. He decided to put her on an experimental medication regime. I asked how that was possible, and he said it was either that or let her continue to suffer. I began to compare the two contrasting approaches of Khan and Alistair. When she became really violent and I knew she was hallucinating, I asked him to stop. He told me to go away and leave her to the experts. It got worse and worse. I then said I was taking her home. After she had been back three days she was calm again but she passed away on the fifth day. I went to see Khan and he refused to meet with me. A couple of months later it was on the news that there had been many other people affected by his treatment. The hospital closed ranks and he left. I suppose you know that I filed a civil case against him for exceeding his regulatory remit with respect to over-prescription. He didn’t know my mother had died at home. Within a month Alistair called me and asked if I wanted to celebrate the conditional approval of his product. I accepted only because I wanted to ask him about Khan. He began by defending the guy, saying that the government was to blame for not acting quicker on recommendations. He said that in Khan’s position he would have done the same. Then he said I should lighten up because he had come out to celebrate. I bought him a drink and made an excuse to leave. I was raging inside. I sat night after night trying to understand my friend’s volte-face. It never came, so I buried it. I hadn’t told him of my mother’s death and yet he never asked if we should treat her.

  “When he began to talk to the Germans about closer ties, I recorded the next level of duplicity. He was ready to sell his soul for personal recognition. He structured the scheme to basically piss in the government’s face, and punish them by restricting the distribution of this and other products to Germany. All of the people he had made promises to became invisible. I could understand his frustration at the clinical approval process, but to abandon his lifelong pledge to the British sufferers was disgraceful. He still never said that my mother could now be treated. But she could have been if he had let Harry take her to Germany. I realised then that even if she had still been alive, he would not have helped her. I began to hate him. I vowed never to tell him that my mother had passed away.

  “My plan began to emerge. At that time I only had Alistair and Khan in my sights. Then I remembered my ‘loyal’ girlfriend who complained that I should just forget about my mother. She told me to put mother in a home and concentrate on her, Nisha. She couldn’t resist saying that I should stop seeing her. I never told her that mother was dead either. Nisha left for London and my head stopped hurting for a while. It was hard, but I never let anyone know about mother’s death, as she had never had anyone visit her after she first became ill. It was just the two of us. The funeral was a good example; I knew she would want it that way. As I spent restless nights thinking about when and how to begin to make amends, the pressure to inform people of the corrupt system we depended upon, became intense. Khan made her suffer for no good reason other than to lubricate his ego, and Nisha was so dismissive of stricken elderly people, but prattled on about the falseness of Christianity and the delusion of the Infidel. At the same time her parents extracted as much state benefit as they could, and regularly bleated out the message that Britain would become a morally failed state. She couldn’t wait for it to happen. I began to see some of what she said becoming true, as the government could not expel proven terrorists. My plan developed to take in my rejection of anything associated with Sharia law. I had never felt negative about immigrants who embraced the culture, and tried to integrate, even if they were receiving benefits. However, when mother was let down, first by denial of drug treatment, and then denial of the cure by Alistair, I could not accept that extremists were raping the country while planning to kill us. Nisha was no advocate of terrorism but she convinced me that we are sleepwalking into an Islamic state. I began to hear others complaining about the same things, and because of the lack of condemnation of extremism by moderate Muslims, apart from people like Pitafi, I gravitated to my Muslim agenda. First, Mohammed Barek and then a traitorous convert, Andrew Todd. Barek was the one who turned Nisha against me, when they both worked for Northumbrian water. He also bullied her into refraining from criticising extremists, so as I had attended to her, I could not let him survive. She was merely a disciple, he was the Devil, and his was a pernicious form of apathy.

  “The conversations in the limousine between Alistair and Doyle were sickening. Richard was a slimy weasel, and during one session when they discussed Alistair’s will, he began his grooming of the plot to fleece the hand which had fed Alistair’s fledgling business. One of those who would be disenfranchised was Peter Beresford. I couldn’t understand how a lily-livered specimen like Doyle could so easily mesmerise my former friend, until the final details revealed the extent of the chicanery. It was about screwing everyone, including the Germans. I almost snapped when Doyle promised to ‘handle’ Vivienne after the move to Germany. I know she thinks that her husband was going to ask her to join him, but that wasn’t true, I have pr
oof recorded. She was the only one to ask about mother, and I told her just a few days ago that she had passed away, she was genuinely sad. Now let us move to my piece de resistance. Donald never struck me as anything but a parasite. His complete disregard for our nation always irritated me, and reached new heights when he said the government deserved to be shafted for wasting money on compiling the Genetic Profile Directory. He described it as a bible of geriatric uselessness – expensive yet without national value, saying that the last thing we needed was more walking dead. Here he was, trashing one of the founding reasons for Alistair’s business. He quickly added that it did have value to others. When it dawned on Alistair that this could become his insurance against future government interference, Price began the sales pitch. I could not believe that Alistair Banks would descend to such immorality. Price was hired to procure the Directory, and again I have the arrangements of the deal on record. It occurred to me that mother would be on that Directory, and here were two of my so-called friends being prepared to use the hope and cooperation of sick, elderly citizens trying to help future generations, to multiply their already obscene wealth. I did have some remorse over what I did to Khan, Nisha, Barek and Todd, but not Doyle and particularly not Price. You can’t imagine what I felt about Banks.”

  Renton noticed that Parrish had drifted from saying ‘my mother’ to simply ‘mother.’ He had also mentioned several times that he deliberately pretended that she was still alive. Vivienne was the only exception, and that was after his killing spree was underway. He looked Parrish straight in the eyes. “That covers the why, so what about the how?”

  “Of course, I was getting to that Jack. I had benefitted from Alistair’s connections in my own business. One of those was, as I referred to earlier, Peter Beresford. I frequently took him and Alistair to Bio-Cure’s customers. Beresford always struck me as trying to do the right thing, and Alistair always resisted. That’s when the threats emerged. When I would run Beresford back to his boat he would chat, and he gradually opened up to me, as he knew of our boyhood friendship. He said he wished Alistair was more like me. I became an easy listener and slowly let him understand how disappointed I had become with some of his son-in-law’s loyalties. This is what he wanted to hear. A little reluctantly I let him drag out of me what I had overheard Price say in the back of the car about the Directory. Beresford latched on to this immediately and sensed I might be willing to help him, ‘as a fellow patriot.’ I agreed to keep my ears open and began feeding him snippets by phone. I told him about the football match being a diversion for the German project, and agreed to lease him my ‘Manor Limousines’ vehicle, with new plates, to pick us up at Stansted. I gave Alistair the booking slip, and said this company could be trusted, so it would probably be better to leave his expensive briefcase with them and get the driver to pick us up after the game. I knew he would object to that, but he wouldn’t say where he was going to leave it, and this could have worried me because of the tight schedule. I also knew that he and Harry were to briefly split so that Alistair could meet with a government official, who insisted that he could help him defuse the rift with the Department of Health. Alistair could hardly wait to tell this official that any future discussions would have to be in Troisdorf. The official was of course an impostor, being yours truly, and I had set this up a few days before, knowing that the new, arrogant Alistair Banks would relish giving two fingers to the government in person. He was now so cocksure of himself, and his impending evaporation to Cologne. I gave the venue to Beresford and also where Alistair was to re-join Harry. It went perfectly; Beresford’s people arrived at the room in the Covent Garden hotel a few minutes after I had finally made my treacherous friend feel the way I did years ago, and the insulin had done its job. I watched from the street as they shuffled the body into the back alley and into the limo, then onwards to pick up Harry. I didn’t expect them to end up at the old hospital, but that was even better than leaving him in the hotel. The hospital had initially been suggested by Beresford as a safe meeting point, because they often used it, and he said only kids ever frequented the place. I told him that Banks had to meet with a government official in the city and there was no time for anything else, otherwise he would begin to suspect something. The poor guy who went to collect the briefcase turned my little prank into a work of art when he dumped Alistair at the Angel. It gave me and the others a cast iron alibi. You know the rest Jack.”

  “You mentioned remorse. What about Harry, didn’t he try to help you?”

  “Yes, that was very sad. I wasn’t to know that Beresford’s people would transport the body and collect Harry. Presumably they thought he could be carrying valuable information. Beresford wanted to stop the merger and get his hands on the Directory. I only gave him the time and place of Alistair’s meeting point with Harry to make sure they knew how tight the schedule was. I said if Alistair was late, then Harry would ring the alarm bells. Of course they did not know my friend would be dead when they arrived. I was sure they would just take the case and get the hell out of there. Do you know if Harry is still alive?”

  “No, I don’t know. Why don’t you know if you had contact with the Colony?”

  “I only had contact with Beresford. He told me Harry was helping them with the briefcase. That’s when I decided to place Khan’s body in the hospital Beresford had mentioned. It seemed to be an appropriate link to his previous malpractice, and by putting Harry’s ID on him, a link to Banks as well. It was also less risky than dumping him at the hospital he was fired from, as it was still in use. Of course I didn’t mention this to Beresford. I suppose I didn’t need to when I had placed Harry’s ID on Khan. I didn’t think your people would be initially fooled by the items of ID, as they were just his business cards, forged dental appointment cards, fictitious golf club memberships and stuff like that. They were only intended to guide you to me, so I continued to use them, until the final Muslim, Andrew Todd, he did not merit being linked in that way. When I heard of Beresford’s death, I feared for my friend Harry. It struck me that my remorse over some of the victims but not others was divided in another sense. All but the last two involved some tension in getting them to the place of discovery. I had to convince Alistair of the veracity of the government official who wanted to meet with him. I have always had an ability to do impressions of people and I rang him as Roderick Penrose, a minion serving the head of Clinical Approval – Sir Douglas Kirkland. I was only the messenger, and if indeed Alistair was impressed he would meet the boss, as until then the department had to have denial. His ego was my ally; the tricky part was getting it to dawn on him that this could be done after the match. It took four calls before he did so. Then my plea to meet with Khan was not without risk, but he was convinced of my guilt over the civil case I had brought against him. He agreed to meet in a restaurant for lunch, and passed out as I drove him toward his home, then diverted to the old hospital. Nisha was a challenge, but again, after so many years she accepted my apology and we met for a drink. I had prepared the cord and harness the previous night and attached it out of sight under a ledge on the bridge. My Mercedes was plastered with decals from Highway Maintenance, and the hazards were flashing. In my orange overalls all I had to do was act nonchalantly and pull the cord into the car, fasten the harness to her and throw her over the side of the bridge. A few taxis passed me but paid no heed to me at three in the morning. Barek was easier as the reservoir was more remote, but I still had to take the boat on a trailer and find a spot from which to launch it. It wasn’t easy to find one which could not be seen from the road. Todd was very nervous and I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t try to run before we reached the ruin. By contrast Doyle and Price were simple. I told both of them that I had found something which Alistair had accidently left on the rear seat of the car and it had slid under the upholstery; it was a memory chip. As I said I did not have a computer, I was wondering if I should hand it to the police. They each in turn bit, Doyle told me to bring it to his office on a Saturday nig
ht when there would be no one around. Price asked me to pick him up four hours before he was due to fly to America via Amsterdam. I told him I had borrowed my brother’s computer. We came to my house and he never suspected anything after drinking the beer with the sedative. The direct freight flight from Newcastle to New York was at least going to get part of him there for his meeting, before the rest of him was expected. All in all it seemed as if there was some justice, insofar as Doyle and Price were despatched without a trace of emotion.

  “Now you haven’t asked me about the magic briefcases, and they had you fooled for some time. I overheard Alistair speaking to Ridgeley Securities in London from my car the day before the flight. He had an account with them and arranged for them to collect his briefcase at Stansted before he met the Limo driver. That was very clever indeed, because it fooled Price and Hepworth. He did not want Harry to copy him and take his jacket out of a briefcase or we would have suspected they were going on somewhere else. Alistair could get away with it as he was a total poser. He was to pick it up again at Ridgeley Vaults in Covent Garden after the match, and Harry would then wait there for Alistair, until after his meeting in the hotel, which was only two minutes walking distance away.”

  “But the case was empty, so why the elaborate precautions?”

  “No, it was not empty Jack, it contained Harry’s case. Alistair’s was over twice the size. You have heard of the Russian Doll trick haven’t you? It was a neat idea, unless someone knew exactly what the plan was. Harry had taken his case from Alistair before the surprise meeting with me in the hotel. I enjoyed telling him that I knew of this, as I injected the insulin.”