Terminal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  ‘Alright there? You don’t seem very well?’

  Ez slowly raised his head and the figure came into focus. Standing before him was a middle-aged man with thinning hair, wearing metal-rimmed glasses. He was dressed in an old polo shirt made from synthetic material and jeans which had seen better days.

  ‘Oh, yes, I’m OK, just felt a bit dizzy after cycling,’ replied Ez, ‘I’ll be OK in a moment.’

  ‘Have you brought any water with you,’ asked the man, casting his eyes over Ez’s bike.

  ‘Er, no, I forgot.,’ replied Ez defensively.

  ‘Bit silly wasn’t it, in view of the hot day?’ he asked raising an eyebrow.

  Normally Ez would have told this bloke where to go but something about his tone and manner pricked his interest. He’d appeared out of nowhere and very quickly, Ez couldn’t imagine he’d been sitting for very long with his head between his knees. Could this be the bloke from number twelve?

  ‘I’ll be OK, I’m visiting someone so they’ll be able to give me a drink,’ he smiled.

  ‘Oh, which house, not seen you around here before, I’m the neighbourhood watch representative, number twelve, see the sticker in my window?’

  ‘Oh, yes, well that’s good that you keep an eye on things,’ said Ez hardly able to curb his excitement. This was Kevin, the busybody neighbour who worked at BioQex, how typical that he would enjoy keeping an eye on things. Ez was now fully conscious and eager to make the most of the opportunity which had now presented itself. ‘I’m actually visiting number fourteen, Gary and Sylvie, house-warming, are you going by any chance?’ Ez knew this was a bit cruel but he was thinking on his feet metaphorically and he wanted to keep the conversation going.

  Kevin sniffed slightly, and replied, ‘No, I’m not going, got something else arranged actually.’

  Ez started to panic, he didn’t want to upset Kevin, not while he wanted to find out about BioQex. ‘Your house looks very smart from here, lovely garden,’ said Ez trying to butter him up a bit.

  ‘Oh, thanks, I do my best, the wife likes lots of flowers in the garden.’

  ‘Must cost you a bit, got a good job have you?’

  Ez noticed a noticeable improvement in Kevin’s demeanour, his chest appeared to puff out slightly.

  ‘I’m head of stock control at a company on the science park,’ said Kevin proudly.

  ‘Wow, that’s a responsible job, they must pay you well for that,’ continued Ez. Kevin’s jaw stiffened slightly at that comment and Ez was worried that he’d said the wrong thing again. ‘Science park, you say, my brother used to work there, at BioQex in fact.’

  Kevin’s face froze. ‘He used to work at BioQex? That’s where I work,’ Kevin was now studying Ez’s face in detail. He and Zac weren’t very alike but there had been a resemblance. ‘Zac Milburn was my brother,’ said Ez quietly.

  Kevin sat down next to Ez. He was having a bit of trouble taking all this in. One minute he thought he was checking up on a passer-by and the next he was talking to the brother of the chemist who’d been abusing his position in the company. He was strangely lost for words. He really didn’t know how to play this one. ‘Oh,’ was all he could manage.

  ‘I know my brother was up to no good and he paid with his life,’ said Ez morosely, ‘but he wasn’t all bad, I’m the reason we got into debt and he was trying to help me out. He just wanted to earn a few extra pounds, he wouldn’t have carried on with it. It was just a temporary thing. Anyway, the company shouldn’t have allowed it.’

  They both sat in silence for a minute or so. Kevin’s mind was working overtime trying to decide what to say next.

  ‘Wasn’t there some confusion on the part of the police? They told me they arrested the wrong bloke first,’ continued Ez.

  ‘Yes, they arrested Nick Thomas, he was on to your brother it seems but your brother had been clever and had covered his tracks.’

  ‘Oh, I see, and this Nick Thomas, did you say?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right.’

  ‘This Nick, he started his own investigation did he?’

  ‘That’s what I heard, he’d been watching him and compiling evidence for the police. But then the police found the evidence and thought it was him, it was all very confusing. We had police tramping all over the place.’

  ‘Poor bloke, must have been awful for him,’ added Ez, unable to believe how well this was going.

  ‘Hmm, well he enjoys it,’ said Kevin sneeringly.

  ‘Sorry, enjoys what?’

  ‘Enjoys poking his nose into other people’s business, ‘it’s about time he concentrated on his job and left others to do theirs.’

  Ez was rather shocked at the direction the conversation was taking. Kevin seemed to be now directing his bile towards Nick Thomas for some reason. Ez now had a name for the person who had been bent on unmasking his brother. He felt his anger rising. Things were starting to get confused again in his head, he hated the fact that someone had been trying to catch his brother out. He wanted to have it out with this Nick Thomas, he needed to know how he’d destroyed Ez’s life. Suddenly Kevin stood up, he looked thoughtful.

  ‘Well I’ll be on my way,’ he said, ‘glad you’re feeling better.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you know where this Nick Thomas lives do you? I’d like to have a chat with him.’

  Kevin suddenly stopped in his tracks. ‘You’d like to meet him?’

  ‘Yes,’ replied Ez.

  ‘He lives at a block of flats on Edge End Road, Marlowe Court, although I don’t know what flat number.’

  ‘Oh, thanks, er well that’s great. Nice chatting with you.’

  ‘You too, better get over to your barbecue now, get a drink of water and rescue that poor plant,’ said Kevin pointing at the bike. Ez smiled and prepared to wander over to Gary’s house. He had lots to think about, he was starting to calm down now. He couldn’t think about it all now, he needed to get through this barbecue first.

  Kevin walked back to his house thinking about the recent encounter. It was one of those chance events which always surprised him. Once he’d stopped at a motorway services and bumped into someone he’d known twenty years previously. The odds of doing that must be akin to winning a major prize on the lottery. He had mixed feelings about Zac’s brother. It was sad that he’s lost someone dear to him but if he’d been reckless and got them into debt then he was partly responsible for Zac getting tempted down the path of illegal earnings. As they’d sat there he’d been thinking very much on the spur of the moment responding to the conversation as it unfolded. At one point it seemed as though Zac’s brother resented Nick’s detective work. At present Nick Thomas was no friend of Kevin’s, quite the opposite, he was becoming a real nuisance and he needed to be taught a lesson. To that end, Kevin had followed Nick home from work on Thursday evening to see where he lived. The traffic had been busy so he’d had enough cover not to be spotted. He knew that Nick lived quite near the town centre so if by any chance Nick mentioned that he’d noticed him he would just say he’d needed to do some errands in town.

  Now it seemed that he wasn’t the only person who bore a grudge against Nick. If something unpleasant were to befall Nick Thomas then perhaps suspicion could be steered towards someone else. The whole idea needed some further thought. He would spend some time in his greenhouse, he found he did some of his most productive thinking there. Whistling merrily he walked up to his driveway and around to the back of his house. His neighbours looked to be lighting their barbecue now. Hopefully, the greenhouse would give some protection from the awful smoke.

  Chapter 22

  Brett was woken by his alarm at 6.30 a.m. on Monday morning. He had stayed over at Annabelle’s for the last two nights. She stirred next to him in the bed mumbling about the time and then fell back to sleep. They’d had a nice weekend together even though Brett had been troubled after his meeting with Matt. Over lunch on Saturday he’d related their conversation the evening before and Annabelle had listened with due concern. Howe
ver, she had reminded him that he had nothing to fear if he was innocent, which sparked a few angry words when Brett accused her of not trusting him. All animosity was forgotten when Annabelle led him up to bed for an afternoon of love-making which had been the best of their brief relationship. Whether it was the tension of the last week or just the fact that they were now more relaxed in each others company he wasn’t sure but it had been sex like he’d never before experienced. Just thinking back to that afternoon he felt himself becoming aroused as he stepped into the shower cubicle and closed the doors quietly so as not to disturb the love of his life.

  Being a solicitor, Annabelle started work later than Brett and he felt guilty for waking her. He needed to be in early today as it was the day of the appointed visit from the FCA. He felt slightly sick with anxiety even though he knew he was innocent. Someone had leaked some information which had caused movement in the share price and Matt, as well as the FCA, had been alert enough to spot it. He decided to go into work clean shaven today as it might create a better impression of being trustworthy. Normally he shaved every three days or so, having become accustomed to a few millimetres of stubble.

  He returned to the bedroom to find the bed empty. Annabelle must have gone downstairs to make some coffee. He dressed in his smartest suit, chose a striking tie which he furled and put in his jacket pocket and went down to collect his shoes and briefcase which were in the hallway.

  ‘Coffee?’ shouted Annabelle.

  ‘Yes, please,’ replied Brett and walked into the kitchen heading straight for Annabelle, wrapping her in his arms and sliding his hand inside her dressing gown feeling for her breast. She wriggled from his embrace, smiling.

  ‘You need to save your energy for your meeting. Keep a cool head,’ she teased. ‘Here’s your coffee.’

  ‘I miss you so much when we’re not together,’ said Brett, stroking her back.

  ‘Give me a call to tell me how it went as soon as you can, please?’

  ‘Well I’ll try but we might have loads of senior team meetings today and I’ll have to step outside to phone you, don’t want Amanda overhearing, or anyone else. But I will try.’

  ‘Chin up, you’ll be fine. Come back here tonight and we can chat properly.’

  ‘OK, will do,’ and he kissed her lingeringly before heading out to his car.

  **

  Nick Thomas arrived at work an hour later than usual just after 9.30 a.m. He’d got up at the usual time but upon approaching his car had annoyingly had found one of his front tyres completely flat. He’d spotted a screw in the top of the tyre between the treads so had spent half an hour jacking up the car and changing the wheel. He’d then had to go back inside to his flat to change his shirt as he found himself hot and sweaty and to give his hands a good scrub. As he logged onto his computer that morning he noticed his hands still bore traces of ingrained dirt and grease. No wonder mechanics in garages wore disposable gloves these days he thought, you only needed to touch something on a car’s engine or bodywork and you ended up coated in dirt. Yes, he thought to himself, no doubt some of those gloves come from BioQex. It hadn’t been the best start to the week and at lunchtime, he would need to run round to one of the garages nearby to see whether they could repair the tyre. If not he would be looking at a bill of upwards of sixty pounds. Annoyingly it was one of the new ones he’d had fitted in a recent service.

  He looked at his list of tasks for the day. As well as his own research he needed to submit a quote for a large-scale synthesis of one of their intermediates to the finance department. He would let Billie check the request and then send it off to the Finance Officer’s assistant for approval. Last week he’d received the quote from the company they usually used at the same science park. The company called Garsdale had provided excellent service so far but he’d noticed recently their quotes starting to creep up in cost. He’d phoned his friend Gio who worked there and he said that they’d had some large capital outlay recently, some new analytical equipment and the company needed to recoup the costs. Nick fully expected to be asked to get some more quotes from other companies, perhaps over in the Far East, however, he’d read that those companies were no longer as cheap as they used to be due to increasing wage costs. He drafted an email to Billie and attached the quote and would wait for her response before sending it off for approval.

  Although he’d not done a great deal that morning he felt ready for a coffee. His interrupted start to the day with having to change his wheel had dampened his normal enthusiasm. Picking up his mug he walked down to the little kitchen at the end of the office area and saw Brett Chandler striding into the gents’ toilets. Nick only got a fleeting glimpse but he looked extremely smart this morning and also extremely stressed. He was wearing his suit jacket which was unusual as he would normally have taken that off during the day. Perhaps an important visitor, a potential investor maybe was due today and the senior team had a key meeting. Hadn’t Amanda mentioned something to that effect when they’d chatted last week?

  As he entered the kitchen he met Billie coming out carrying her drink.

  ‘Oh, morning Nick, everything OK? I wondered if you weren’t feeling so good this morning?’

  Nick frowned as he wondered momentarily why Billie had been wondering about his health then realised it was his later than usual appearance which had prompted her question.

  ‘Oh, no, I’m fine. Had a flat tyre so had to change the wheel, that’s why I was a bit late. Must have picked up a nail somewhere. Bloody annoying start to the week,’ he added.

  ‘Oh, sorry to hear that, hope they can fix it.’

  Their conversation was halted by the sight of Brett rushing back towards his office, checking his watch. Piers then rounded the corner and spoke to Brett quietly. Nick thought he’d heard him say something like five minutes or something. Then Piers headed down in the direction of reception looking like a man heading to the gallows. Billie was the first to speak, ‘Well it looks like you’re not the only one having a bad start to the week.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Nick, ‘well my flat tyre seems rather insignificant compared to their worries by the looks on their faces. Something major is definitely happening today.’

  Billie nodded and seriously hoped that after being in this job for only a few months she wouldn’t be having to up sticks and move again. Only minutes ago she’d read an email from Brett informing her that there were some revised changes in budgets and expenditure being worked on. New guidelines would be issued soon. For the moment there was a freeze on capital projects and any purchase orders over five thousand pounds were to be put under review unless project critical. If they came into that category they should be raised directly with Brett himself. Capital projects didn’t include ordering small amounts of chemicals or reagents but an expenditure such as ordering in a large supply of an intermediate from another company fell into the category of needing approval. Similarly, any expensive equipment would be regarded as a capital expense as it would have a reasonable lifespan. In Billie’s eyes, this could only mean one thing, the company was running out of money. She couldn’t understand it though, the share price was holding up well and they’d had two favourable press releases recently. There was no denying it though something big was going down today.

  Chapter 23

  Polly’s Monday morning was proving to be quite productive. She was in the middle of compiling a report summarising her findings so far about the tendering of contracts for services such as cleaning, gardening and so on. Before reporting her suspicions concerning her colleague Luke she needed to be absolutely sure she had her facts straight. So far she’d not spotted any further breaches in this financial year but she’d been appalled by the lack of rigour in the tendering process. There was a total lack of transparency in the departmental guidelines. Cut off dates for tender appeared to have been changed without proper notification resulting in promising companies failing to submit their bids on time despite registering an interest. There was no objective evaluation of the
merits of the successful company. Nor had there been any following up on references showing that the company had a good track record. She’d noticed a change in the specification of the contract after it was originally opened for tender. Thus it rendered several bids unable to comply with the requirements of the university despite their tender appearing to fulfil the original specification. In short, it was shambolic and she was amazed it hadn’t been spotted before. Perhaps that was because her predecessor had somehow been party to the fraud and had taken the rap for it. There was no point in speculating though, she needed to root out the unsavoury practices.

  Phyllis appeared to be hard at work this morning although when Polly arrived she’d clearly been involved in some non-work activity on her PC as a browser window was hastily closed as soon as she sensed Polly enter the office. Although she couldn’t swear to it Polly was sure she’d noticed an acronym something like PARG, and graphics which suggested an antivivisection lobby, could it be Persford Animal Rights Group? She intended to take a look when she got home. She’d also noticed that Phyllis seemed to be using a shiny new mobile phone this morning, quite different from the one she had been using on Friday, it had a metallic body and a much larger screen. Phyllis was someone that Polly just couldn’t warm to particularly after her comment about Nick’s place of work. This morning’s observation about her web browsing only served to compound the view that Phyllis could be funnelling her anger about BioQex towards Polly. Despite Polly’s pleasant and affable nature, she wasn’t going to be intimidated and decided to redress the balance slightly, so as she passed Phyllis’s desk on the way to the printer she took the opportunity to ask Phyllis a question.