by E. J. Kay
“A present from Anna. Well, from all of us, but mainly from Anna. You know.” He put the box down on the table at the end of the bed.
Mike grinned. “Thanks. Please tell Anna thanks too.”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Not too bad, considering.” He motioned Joseph over to where Sophie and her parents were sitting. “You’ll need to sit on this side of the bed. Can’t hear on the other side too well.” Joseph shuffled round to where Sophie, Cliff and Doreen were sitting. “They’ve still got me lightly sedated so I’m a bit knackered, but otherwise, just feeling very lucky.”
Joseph looked at Sophie’s parents. The body language said it all. Cliff Sumner was sitting close to Mike, leaning forward and smiling. Doreen Sumner couldn’t have looked more different. She sat behind her husband and daughter, making no attempt to talk to Mike and avoiding looking at him. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your visit just now. I can come back later.”
Doreen stood up. “No, we were just going. Sophie has an ante-natal appointment upstairs in a few minutes. We’ll go up with her. Please, do stay and talk to Mike.”
Sophie got up and hugged Joseph. “Hey, put him down woman,” said Mike. Joseph grinned at him over Sophie’s shoulder, playing up the hug with a wink.
As Sophie and her parents left the ward, Joseph sat on one of the chairs at the side of the bed. “I’m glad to see you awake and looking on the mend.”
“”Yeah, a visit from Sophie’s mum is just what I need to cheer me up!”
“A bit difficult, is she?”
“I’m too dark for her taste.” Mike smiled. “She’s probably disappointed I wasn’t killed in the accident.”
“Oh, surely not!”
“OK, no, I’m not being fair. But chocolate isn’t her favourite treat, that’s for sure.”
Joseph smiled sympathetically at his friend and moved his chair closer to the bed. He could see bruising beginning to develop around Mike’s right eye. “Can you remember what happened?”
“Quite clearly. Gary Mason had brought in this fantastic Winchester and I was shooting it on the range. I shot it a few times, and others had a go too. Then I was shooting a set of repeaters, pulled the trigger one time and blam! I remember the flash and the noise and the pain as the bolt hit me, then nothing until the ambulance crew was getting me onto the stretcher. Bloody guns, eh?”
“Do they know why it exploded?”
“I haven’t heard yet, but my guess would be a blockage in the barrel. It might have been a slightly over-sized bullet or something like that. Accidents like this do happen sometimes, particularly with old guns.”
“Has he been to see you?” asked Joseph.
“Who, Gary?”
“Yeah.”
“No, probably too embarrassed. And there’ll be an accident investigation, so he’ll be nervous about that, I expect.”
Joseph looked behind him to check that no one was in hearing distance, and then leaned a little closer to Mike. “Look, this is going to sound odd, but bear with me. I was chatting with Raman yesterday and he mentioned that he’s supervising Egraine Mountford now.”
Mike nodded.
“He also said that she’d started to come onto him. Did she do anything like that with you? She looked a bit dolled up when she came to see you last week.”
Mike looked momentarily shocked, and then put his head in his hands. Joseph waited for him to speak, with a growing sense of dread. “You didn’t, did you?” he asked at last.
Mike nodded, still cradling his bandaged head.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Joseph hissed.
“I wasn’t. It all happened so quickly. She asked me round to her flat to see the notes and models she’d been working on.” He looked up. Joseph gave him an unsympathetic look. “I know, I shouldn’t have gone, but she was so persistent. I tell you man, at the time I wanted her so bad. Now I feel sick when I think about her. I emailed her as soon as I got back to the office and told her I couldn’t supervise her. I’ve got no intention of doing anything like that again. I’ll see her as little as possible while we finish the work on Nimue.” Then realisation dawned. “Oh god, I’ve lost that chance, haven’t I?”
Joseph put his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “One step at a time, mate. One step at a time. Just concentrate on getting well for now. Opportunities have a habit of coming round again to those that deserve them.”
They sat in silence for a moment, then Mike said, “Did you say she’s been coming on to Raman?”
“Yeah. And he made another point too. He said he hoped it was third time lucky for him, as she seems to be jinxed. First Alec, now you. He made out he was joking, but something about what he said has left me wondering.”
“But Egraine had nothing to do with my accident, and she’s not in the frame for Alec’s death.” Mike lay back on his pillows, suddenly looking tired. “I think the sedative’s beginning to kick in again. I can’t take all this in.”
“Look, I’m sorry to ask you about it. It’s none of my business, but it just seems ... I don’t know ... fishy somehow.”
Mike started to drift. “It was a stupid mistake. Don’t tell Sophie.”
“Of course not! Hey, you look shattered. I’ll let you get some rest and see you again soon. ” He patted Mike on the arm, got up and turned to go, knowing that he would have to tell Kelly about Mike and Egraine. That might be as bad as telling Sophie in the long run. The police would have to investigate it, and then it would all come out. And what if he was wrong? Then Mike and Sophie would suffer all that pain for nothing.
“Joe.”
He turned back and leaned over Mike’s bed.
“What mate?”
Mike could hardly keep his eyes open. “Gary and Egraine.”
“Gary?”
“Something he said. What I think ...” His eyes fluttered as he slid into a sedated sleep.
Joseph walked out of the hospital quickly and almost ran over to his car. He took out his mobile phone and called the lab. Lily answered. “Hi Lily, it’s Joseph Connor here. I’ve just been to see Mike and I wondered if you and Ben would be free for a coffee at, say, three o’clock? Great. I’ll see you in the Java Man.”
If he was going to get the police to take his next suspicion seriously, he’d need to do some background work first, and Lily and Ben would be a good place to start.
Chapter 27
A light rain pattered against the window as they sat on uncomfortable 'comfy chairs' at a low table.
“Thanks for coming,” said Joseph. “I just wanted to catch up with progress on Nimue. Alec had been so excited by her and I wondered if you’d got any further in the past few weeks? I know Egraine is getting on with sorting out another supervisor. She’s asked Raman Sharples, so I know she’ll be well looked after. I didn’t want you two to feel unsupported, with Mike now being out of circulation.”
Ben slurped his coffee and looked over the top of the foam with his eyebrows raised.
“What?” asked Joseph.
“Knowing Egraine I think she’ll work her way through the male members of staff here one by one. You’d better watch out Dr Connor.”
“Ben!” Lily gave him a dirty look.
“It’s true. I know you don’t want to hear it about your friend, but take it from a man. I know a prick teaser when I see one.”
“I’m sorry Dr Connor, you’ll have to excuse Ben. He can’t help it, he’s a twat.” She sipped her coffee. “Egraine does like older men, it’s true, but she’s not as bad as Ben makes out.”
Joseph laughed. “OK, I didn’t mean to set you both off on one. I just wanted to make sure you were OK, I guess. This is the first research post for both of you after getting your PhDs. It must have been a terrible shock to lose Alec, and now Mike’s out of commission. I don’t suppose this is what you expected.”
“No,” agreed Ben. “Alec was a bit of a cold fish, but I actually liked the guy. I know some people didn’t, but he was always
pretty straight with me. Mike seems like a good guy too.”
“I liked Alec too, once I got used to him,” agreed Lily. “We didn’t know Mike very well, but he seems to be a decent guy and a gifted palaeontologist. Did you know his mother worked for the National Museums of Kenya with the Leakeys! I was so impressed when I found that out.”
Joseph was wondering how he could get the subject of Egraine back into the conversation. “It’s a run of really bad luck to lose both your project directors to violent acts so close together. You must be feeling pretty unsettled about it all.”
“To tell you the truth, I’m beginning to get a weird feeling when I look at Nimue now,” said Lily, pulling her fleece around herself tightly.
“What, you think it’s cursed or something?” asked Ben sarcastically.
“She, not it.” Lily shot him another dirty look, but didn’t deny it.
Joseph smiled at them. “Well, I’m sure Alec didn’t think she’s cursed. He had no time for anything psychic or spiritual.”
“No, for all his faults you did get a stable feeling working with Alec. I liked him for that,” agreed Lily.
Now was Joseph’s chance. “What about Egraine. Do you think she liked him?”
She nodded. “Yes, she did. Actually, I think she had a little crush on him. She’s coped with his death very well, considering.”
“And what about Alec. Do you think he reciprocated?” asked Joseph.
“I think they were working on something together,” said Ben. “I got a bit pissed off ‘cos I’m sure we, Lily and me, were being cut out. I don’t know what it was, but they kept going off together when we were in Africa and having long and intense conversations. I thought they were shagging, but Lily reckoned not.” He turned and looked at her. “Didn’t you?”
“Nicely put, as ever. No, actually, I don’t think they were ‘shagging’. It was something about Alec’s behaviour. It didn’t seem like he was in that kind of relationship with Egraine. And anyway, he was her supervisor, so I didn’t see anything unusual in them having private meetings. I think ‘going off together’ is making too much of it.”
Ben took a last large gulp of his remaining coffee and picked up his rucksack. “Sorry Dr Connor, but I have to go. I’m teaching a research student tutor group in about twenty minutes, and it’s conveniently in a room about as far away from this end of the campus as you can get. Thanks for thinking about us. And for the coffee.”
“No problem Ben. I need to be getting on with things too. If either of you need any help, well, you know where I am.”
Lily looked for a moment as if she wanted to say something, but then changed her mind.
“Anything bothering you Lily?” asked Joseph.
She hesitated again, just for a microsecond, then said “No, no. Everything’s fine.” She stood up. “Thanks Dr Connor. I feel I could talk to you if I ever needed to.”
She followed Ben out of the Java Man, her fleece still pulled tightly around her.
Chapter 28
It was late Monday afternoon as Kelly and Robson drove to Juliet’s house. They had both had time to think about the Panolbion revelations over the weekend, and to try to make some sense out of what might be going on. Kelly in particular had wanted a couple of days to think. She had no intention of repeating the embarrassing mistake she had made with Thackray. No rushing in this time. If any of the Thackray family were involved in Whickham’s death she would have to be careful. And clever. They all seemed to have inherited fierce intellects, whatever their mental states.
Juliet opened the front door and smiled at them weakly. “Please, come in.” Kelly felt sympathy for Juliet, but she wasn’t sure why. Thackray irritated her enormously, and although she still felt sure that he was implicated in Alec Whickham’s death, she couldn’t help feeling more positively inclined towards Juliet. “Would you like some tea? Or coffee?” They both shook their heads. Juliet motioned them to sit.
Kelly started in a measured voice. “There are some things we’d like to talk to you about regarding your uncle, Luke Thackray.” She watched closely for the reaction, but Juliet was hard to read.
“Uncle Luke? Why?”
“Have you spoken to your uncle since Alec Whickham’s death?”
“No. I haven’t had any contact with him for over a year. We occasionally meet at family gatherings, but that’s all.”
“Well, some creationist comments appeared on Dr. Whickham’s blog a couple of weeks before he died. They’ve been traced back to a computer that appears to have been used by your uncle at the times all four of those comments were made. The last comment has, well, I guess you could call it a bit threatening. And now we’ve discovered that some of the comments are quotes from a pamphlet call Panolbion. The same name as your uncle’s house.”
“Quotations. Quote is more correctly used as a verb. The terms are somewhat interchangeable, but it is generally better to use the correct noun to avoid ambiguity.” Juliet seemed to be in a sort of trance.
“What?” Kelly looked baffled for a moment. Of all the reactions she expected, correcting her grammar wasn’t one of them.
Juliet jumped slightly. “Oh, I’m sorry. Just a reflex.” She smiled weakly again. “I’ve been doing some thesis marking and I seem to have got into grammar correction mode.” She leaned back in her chair wearily. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’m not sleeping well, despite some quite powerful sleeping tablets from my doctor. I seem to find concentration difficult.” She rubbed her face with the palms of her hands, dislodging her glasses.
Kelly couldn’t shake the sense of sympathy she felt for Juliet, but she had a job to do and she was going to do it. “Do you know anything about the blog comments, Professor Bailey?”
“No, nothing.” Juliet was still rubbing her eyes.
Kelly decided to try a different tack. “He’s an interesting person, your uncle. He was very keen to show us his family tree last time we saw him.”
Juliet seemed to relax a little more, and even managed a chuckle as she replaced her glasses. “Ah, yes. The seventh son of a seventh son. He’s very excited about all that. Even though one of his uncles died when just a few days old, he still feels it’s legitimate to consider himself as a seventh son squared!” Juliet gazed out of the window at the tree blossom. “He wasn’t so pleased when he found out the whole story though. I bet he didn’t tell you about that.”
Kelly took her copy of the Thackray family tree from the back of her notebook and unfolded it onto the coffee table in front of them. “Is this not the whole story then?”
Juliet leaned forward and pointed to the top of the diagram. “May Ellison. The illegitimate daughter of an African slave mother and a plantation owner, William Ellison, who was a freed slave himself. Surprisingly he wasn’t the most enlightened plantation owner, but it seems he felt a special empathy with May so it is generally presumed that he was her father. And she took his last name, although that wasn’t too uncommon so it doesn’t prove anything conclusively. Anyhow, I came across May some years ago, when I was still called Thackray. Someone in the U.S. with the same surname saw a paper I had written and contacted me. She’d been doing some genealogy and had come across the May Ellison story. She sent me a copy of a letter written in 1838 which referred to the daughter of an African female slave and a freed slave plantation owner. It turned out that this was May.” Juliet sat back again, looking exhausted by the exertion of talking.
“So you have African ancestry,” said Robson.
Juliet smiled. “Every human does, Sergeant. It’s where we all came from. That’s the real irony of Uncle Luke’s bigotry. The ancestors of everyone with a white ethnic heritage walked out of Africa about seventy thousand years ago, give or take. But Africa is where we all started. It’s where we learned to walk on two legs, speak, laugh. Do all the things that humans do. It’s a story written in our DNA.”
“So your uncle took the news of his African ancestor badly?” asked Kelly.
“Oh very!�
� Juliet’s smile broadened. “On several counts. He hates the notion that there’s illegitimacy in the family. And, as you say, he really hates the idea of African ancestors. He’s a bigoted man, which I think partly accounts for his delusions of grandeur. He’s trying to compensate for a flawed family tree! He likes order, purity, that kind of thing.” Juliet’s distaste for her uncle was clear from the look on her face.
Kelly was beginning to see through the fog. “So that’s why he doesn’t like the ‘out of Africa’ theory of human evolution?”
“Yes indeed. Creationism works for him more on personal grounds than from a religious point of view. Deep down he isn’t a very religious man. He has a thing about venerating William of Ockham, but that’s really more philosophical than religious.”
Kelly looked Juliet directly in the eyes. “Would he kill Alec Whickham?”
Juliet looked straight back. “I can see that the coincidence of my ID card being used to open G0 twelve and Uncle Luke sending sinister messages to Alec quoting religious texts might look overly coincidental, but...” She closed her eyes. “Oh God, this is a nightmare.” She opened them and looked at Kelly and Robson in despair. “What is going on? Did Uncle Luke really write those blog comments?”
“We’ll find out,” said Kelly, standing up. “You look very tired so we’ll leave you to rest. Just one last question before we go. Did Dr Whickham tell you anything about his findings as he was reconstructing Nimue’s skull?”
Juliet snorted. “No. I’d be the last person Alec would have discussed his work with, particularly in the last few weeks of his life. Communicating with him had become even more difficult for me than usual. Why? What did he find?”
“Nothing of any importance just now,” replied Kelly, watching for clues in her response again. But Juliet was so groggy with the sleeping tablets her reactions were cloaked. “Please don’t get up, we’ll let ourselves out.”
Juliet nodded, her eyes half shut, as they closed the front door behind them.
“You’ve got to feel sorry for the poor woman,” said Kelly, as they got into the car. “I mean, I’ve seen plenty of play acting in my time, but she looks like someone on the edge to me. We need to get to the bottom of this case before we have another death on our hands.”
