A Cut Above the Rest

by C B Barrie

  ‘What about Holden’s state of mind, his relationship with others here in the foundry?’

  Leach gave an indifferent shake of his head, ‘Holden was a loner, he wasn’t particularly friendly to people but he stayed out of every ones way and did his job. He was a good cranes man and knew his job backwards; we’re having a difficult time without him. Until we can recruit another equally skilled man I have to rely on one of the team to take Holden’s place. It’s really a problem, we’ve already had two rejections from the test lab regarding some alloys and I suspect it’s because we aren’t getting the timing or the alloying metal transfers right with the smelters.’

  Felton looked at Leach, ‘All this because Holden isn’t working the gantry?’

  ‘Oh yes, he could tell when he was required to add essential constituents to the molten smelt – and he would then upturn the ingredient buckets. That way we got the alloys properly blended.’

  ‘What happened to the batches that were rejected?’ Felton asked.

  Leach gave a puzzled expression, ‘The second lot was rejected for poor alloying, we know about that because one of the induction heater power supplies failed half way through. However, the first one, an iron copper smelt was in process last Monday morning, the day Holden failed to appear, and the test results were very strange. The alloy was contaminated with calcium, phosphorous and some organic proteins. It’s happened before if a bird, a rat or a rabbit gets loose in here and ends up in a smelter. However, fortunately it’s rare for that to happen. Anyway, we had to ditch the batch and start again.’

  Meredith let Leach’s words sink in but nothing that had been said so far gave him any clue as to where Holden had disappeared to. There was nothing for it but to follow the trail until there wasn’t anything else to follow.

  ‘You say that Holden worked constantly in the gantry cab Mr. Leach – can you show me please?’

  Leach nodded, ‘Not much to see I’m afraid –come on, I’ll show you.’

  The three of them walked back though the din and heat of the workshop until Leach stopped beneath the overhead cab of the horizontal gantry carrying the mobile crane.

  ‘Up there,’ Leach pointed to the top of the steel ladder giving access to the gantry operator’s cab, ‘Climb up if you wish but be careful, it’s not the safest climb in the world.’

  Meredith looked up; he didn’t want to risk it, but he was no coward and he had to be able to say he had investigated everything.

  He started to climb, finding the ladder rungs awkward and hard to get the rung to fit into his shoe instep. He climbed slowly and when at last he could see the opening into the cab he realised how dangerous the access was. The ladder extended above the cab doorway and it meant having to climb the ladder keeping his hands tight on the outer vertical grips until the rungs stopped and he could look down onto the cab’s floor. He didn’t like it, it wasn’t in any way risk free. He stopped climbing at the point where he could see into the cab. There was the operators chair and the controls to the front – nothing else stood out except for a CD player, some earphones and a battery pack with lose wires attached to it, all of it pushed up against one wall of the cab.

  It meant nothing other than the fact that the missing man liked listening to music while working – not surprising given the noise he had to tolerate. No doubt, even without music coming through them, the earphones deadened the thunderous noise coming from the workshop below. He gave up the examination of the cab and was about to climb down when his eye caught sight of something wrapped around two brackets on each side of the ladders overhanging framework.

  He climbed a little higher to examine the marks he could see. They puzzled him; there seemed to be scorch marks on the steel and a black, carbon like residue that almost masked what appeared to be deep grooves in the steel. He ran a finger over some of the black deposit and it looked, and felt, like candle or tallow black. He was mystified, but could make nothing of it. Defeated he began his descent to the ground, taking his time to ensure he wasn’t a casualty through being too confident of the steps.

  As he reached the bottom he gave a final look above him taking in the underside of the cab. He could just make out two dangling wires hanging from the cab doorway, the same colour as those attached to the battery. There was, he concluded, nothing suspicious about that. He turned to Felton, ‘Car next I suppose, no point in ignoring it. I take it you haven’t got the keys.’

  Felton wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, ‘No, and we were reluctant to break in.’

  ‘Quiet right, but if these enquiries lead nowhere you will need a car locksmith to open it up. Just for now I’ll give it the once over.’

  He was enormously grateful to be out of the foundry, but began to feel cold as the sweat on his face and body began to evaporate. Wanting to get back to his car as soon as possible he hurried Felton to where a new looking Ford Mondeo was parked. And yes it was fully locked, and no, there was nothing visible to indicate anything untoward. For a few seconds Meredith tried to see what could not be seen and when he uncovered nothing of note he turned on his heel and marched back to the reception doors.

  Felton followed on silently and entered the foyer on Meredith’s heels.

  ‘Anything else you want to see Mr. Meredith?’ Felton asked somewhat breathlessly as they paused in the foyer.

  Meredith appeared to brood over his options for a few seconds.

  ‘No, I don’t think so. It’s beyond me at the moment but I would like to see inside the car. Can you call out a locksmith and get the doors open. If you can please call me and I’ll pop back for a look-see. I don’t expect we’ll discover anything definite but we have to know for sure. That said, many thanks for your assistance – I have to ponder on this case a bit, I’ll call you if I uncover anything.’

  He shook hands with Felton and left him in the Foyer. Outside he made for his car, all the time thinking he had overlooked something; but for the life of him could not determine what it was.

  It was only when he had cleared Morvah by some ten miles along the B3066 that he realised what he had neglected, and what he had missed.

  10

  He got back to the police station to find Sergeant Nichols looking decidedly peaky.

  He knew his return from Metlab was overdue but he had no intention of making a report that indicated he’d failed to make a truly investigative and professional enquiry.

  However, his somewhat unwell senior seemed unable to follow what he was saying let alone make any comment about the investigation. He grunted occasionally and at times raised an eyebrow, but as Meredith came to the end of his verbal report Nichols gave him an inquisitive look.

  ‘What about his background, have you had a chance to check on his bank account, domestic bills, his neighbours. You can’t fold the investigation until you have covered all possibilities. You might find this man Holden has cleared his bank accounts, his neighbours might have seen suitcases or furniture being collected; perhaps he’s gone off with a woman – very likely the bank manager’s wife. Okay, it’s a joke, but you’ve got to check, it’s what makes you a good detective.’

  He smiled, but he discounted it all; he was convinced he already knew the missing man’s whereabouts. He nodded his supposed compliance and went to his desk in the admin area of the station. He picked up a phone and took Felton’s card from his jacket top pocket. It was a direct number and Felton acknowledged almost immediately.

  ‘Mr. Felton, this is DC Meredith, we met a few hours ago about Holden, your missing employee.’

  ‘Yes of course, how can I help?’

  ‘Can I ask that you get your foundry assay laboratory to send me a sample of the alloy they tested from last Mondays’ rejected batch, the one that Mr. Leach in the foundry mentioned had been rejected because of contamination. I’m probably taking a last resort approach but I would like the county forensic laboratory to have a look at it. It’s a hunch I have and it may be a waste of time, but I want to eliminate the possibility.’
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  Felton paused, ‘What possibility?’

  ‘Don’t know at the moment – just a process of making certain that we don’t miss anything.’

  Felton gave a short snigger, ‘Okay Mr. Meredith, I understand. I’ll get your sample to you as soon as possible. I look forward to finding out what it is you are eliminating. Take care, goodbye.’

  Meredith dropped the phone back into its cradle and leaned back in his chair. He recalled all the ground he had covered during his morning visit to Metlab. Everything seemed inexplicable; there were no clues that made sense. Only one thing did make sense, and the sample assay Leach had mentioned was the key – it had to be, he couldn’t think of anything else.

  Michael Caplin found Nathaniel Ellis already in the laboratory when he arrived on the Monday after a subjectively long weekend.

  He felt refreshed; as things stood there were no immediate problems and as far as the experimental work was concerned there was little else to do except write up the patent and the three research reports. Taken as a whole he felt excited, they would give him the recognition he craved.

  Ellis was in the back office of the lab’ already composing and rapidly striking keys on the keyboard of the PC.

  ‘Morning Nathaniel, winning?’

  He looked up. ‘I sketched out the preliminary part of the first paper over the weekend and I’m just tidying things up. Here, you might like to see the initial draft, I hope you approve.’

  Ellis handed him a sheaf of papers and waited.

  The first sheet was the introductory presentation:- title, authors and authors address, abstract, background and references to previous well cited publications. The title hit him immediately, “Use Of Co, Cr and Ni Based Mercury Amalgams To Form Critically Aligned Dendritic Complexes.” Next came the two authors, his name first (that pleased him), and then the abstract. As he scanned the rest of the draft it all read extremely well; very pithy, but in fact giving very little away as to why the amalgams were tried and even less in terms of what the results predicted. It was logically consistent, but with enough caveats and cul de sacs not to offer anyone in the same field a pathway to where the research might lead.

  He finished what had been composed so far with a pleasurable grunt; all that was missing was the papers conclusion, and given what Ellis had written so far that was likely to be excellent.

  ‘Well, Nathaniel, I have to admit it, I couldn’t have done better; it really is well structured and deflects anything that might attract another research team attempting to follow us. I’m looking forward to the conclusion, let me know when you’ve finished. As you know, I have to get on with the patent and get it filed before we submit the first of our research reports. When you’ve completed your use of the PC please let me know and I’ll get on with my side of things.’

  Ellis acknowledged with a quick nod of his head and let out a small sigh.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  Ellis gave a slight movement of his shoulders, inwardly reflective, ‘I’d rather not mention it.’

  ‘Your not still worried about Holden are you – I told you, it’s not something you need concern yourself with anymore. He won’t trouble you, nor will anyone else.’

  Ellis stayed silent, and gave no indication that he was persuaded.

  ‘Look, Nathaniel, Holden has gone, He jumped ship a while ago – he’s nowhere to be found. Until, and if, he ever reappears we will face the problem then, but until then we must not allow his intimidation to affect our work, certainly not the research papers you are writing. I assure you, you have nothing to fear.’

  At first, Ellis seemed to resist the optimism but then lifted his hands from the keyboard and showed his palms in deflection and resignation. ‘Okay Michael, as you say, we cross the bridge when we get to it.’

  He smiled down at Ellis, unable to tell him that they had, in fact, already crossed the bridge. Only when Holden’s disappearance was old news would Ellis sincerely believe that his nemesis was no longer a threat. By then, it wouldn’t matter.

  ‘Fancy a coffee Nathaniel, I’m parched.’

  Ellis stood up and gave a thankful smile, ‘My turn I think.’

  With Ellis gone for a few minutes Caplin gave thought to how he intended to structure the patent he was about to formulate. It had to be good enough to constitute a defendable invention but not so comprehensive as to invalidate or pre-empt what was to appear in their research publications. There was no doubt that M.I.M.C would want as broad a specification as possible, if not a complete series of patents covering every conceivable way of utilising the essential technology. In short they would want a ‘ring of thorns’ around the basic idea. It was not to be, he was only allowing a patent to be filed in order to obstruct any claim by M.I.M.C that he and Ellis had usurped their intellectual property.

  He sat down at the PC desk and began to map out the structure he would have to adhere to in order to make the patent valid. Just as he was about to start composing, the lab door opened. He assumed it was Ellis returning with the coffee. Instead the figure that appeared at the office door was Leslie Downton, a lab assistant in the foundry assay laboratory.

  He looked up and gave her a welcoming smile. Leslie was very attractive, in her middle thirties and distinctly voluptuous. He’d occasionally had a short conversation with her at some of ‘Metlab’s infrequent social gatherings.

  ‘Hello Leslie, what can I do for you?’

  ‘Hello Michael, I understand you have a metallurgical microtome hidden away somewhere, Jerry Fox, my boss, asks if we can borrow it for a while?

  He gave it a second’s thought - yes there was one gathering dust in the store cupboard. He stood up and indicated the cupboard to the right of the office.

  ‘There’s one on the floor of the cupboard over there, you’ll have to see if there are any new blades with it, I haven’t used it for ages.’

  She seemed pleased and made for the cupboard in question. As she opened the cupboard she looked down and gave a short cry of success.

  ‘Bending, she tried lifting the heavy cast metal machine but let go with a gasp of exasperation. It was clear it was virtually beyond her strength to lift it or carry it any distance.

  He intervened, ‘Put it down Leslie, I have a spare trolley you can use to transport it.’

  She smiled and silently mouthed a ‘thank you’ as he wheeled the trolley up to her. To avoid risk of an accident he lifted the machine onto the trolley for her, and gave her a last appreciative look.

  ‘Just as a matter of interest Leslie, what does Jerry want with the microtome, what are you slicing up now?’

  ‘Oh, we’ve been asked to supply some small samples for the police forensic laboratories, part of the iron/copper batch rejected over a week ago. We found calcium and phosphorous contaminates in it, and perhaps they could be suspicious. It’s something to do with that guy who disappeared from the foundry; but that, as they say, is in-house rumour and speculation. In any case, we’ve seen these contaminates before – bird probably got into the smelt. Thanks for the microtome, see you later.’

  As Leslie Downton pushed the trolley away a cold hand gripped Caplin’s spine – his recent confidence and optimism very quickly evaporated.

  Ellis stood by the vending machine idly watching it dispense two Latte coffees.

  As the machine burbled away he looked back down the corridor thinking someone else was approaching to buy some coffee. Instead the corridor was empty and there was no reason for him to be alerted. The noise he had heard appeared to originate from an adjoining laboratory. But as he looked back he was able to see part of the car park through the very large picture window that was built into the end wall and lit the staircase rising to the upper floor.

  The bottom flight of the staircase partially obscured the view, but as he started to return to the lab with the coffees, he got closer to the window and was able to see a small group of men in the car park standing around a blue coloured parked car. To one side a white tradesman’s van with
‘Penzance Auto Locksmiths’ written on the side was in front and a man in a white overall was standing at the driver’s side of the car. The small group were ‘Metlab’ admin staff, one he recognised as the assistant personnel officer.

  As he paused for a few seconds to see what was being done the man in the white overalls stepped back from the car and with a theatrical flourish opened the car’s door. Then he leaned across the driver’s seat and opened the front passenger’s door. This he followed by opening the two doors at the rear. The two spectators looked pleased and shook the locksmith’s hand; he in turn gave a wave and moved towards his van. Almost immediately the van drove off the two waiting to the side of the car stepped forward, and began to look into the car, searching it front and back and into the boot. Suddenly the one searching at the front of the car withdrew and stood up holding a small sheet of paper. He called to the other man and showed the paper it to him.

  The expression of shock and disbelief on the second man’ face as he took the paper and read it was unmistakable; and as Ellis started his return to the laboratory he knew something very significant, if not alarming, had taken place in the car park. His curiosity knew no bounds; it was thoroughly intriguing and he hoped he would eventually learn what had taken place.

  Below Ellis’ vantage point the two personnel officers, Felton the assistant, and Grieves the senior, could not believe their eyes.

  ‘It’s definitely a payslip, and there’s another in the glove box. Christ, it’s from Consolidated Mines, and look, it’s for nine hundred pounds and was issued last month. Holden must have been working for CM for some time; he’s a spy, industrial espionage. What do you suggest?’ Felton queried.

  Grieves continued to stare at the payslip, “Nigel Henderson will have to be informed - he’ll need to advise M.I.M.C’s board. As to what action can be taken is not for us to decide; it’s up to them, but you and I have got to keep quiet about this. No point in disclosing how easily CM has fooled us. Jesus, I interviewed him four years ago, never once did I think…! I’m just trying to work out exactly what damage Holden might have done to our business and research interests, though I doubt we’ll ever know for sure. In any case, he’s out, as of this moment dismissed, all privileges, including pension rights, are void. If he turns up again asking for time owed pay he can whistle for it.’