Captive Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  ‘Well, just remember without Brett I might not be sitting here,’ said Nick solemnly as he remembered the harrowing episode when he was at BioQex.

  ‘Right, well, we’re here now,’ said Polly. ‘Back to the grindstone for me.’

  **

  The mood at Persford Police Station was a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. They now had positive identifications for all three victims in the burnt out van. The inquests were scheduled for the following week. All three would doubtless be given verdicts of unlawful killing. Once the inquest was opened and adjourned, Karolina’s relatives would be able to make arrangements for her remains to be repatriated to her home country.

  Andy Walters was due to meet with Lee Percival’s mother today. It was going to be a difficult meeting and she would be demanding to know who had killed him. So far they had been unable to trace his killer. It had been a professional job and no clues had been left behind. He would have loved to tell her who he believed to be the prime suspect but that would mean an end to his police career.

  DNA comparison of items seized from Erin Jones’ flat had also proved that her boyfriend Scott Briggs had also perished in the van. Attempts to trace his next of kin had so far proved fruitless. He had been taken into care at the age of ten after his mother became an alcoholic. She had probably moved from the area and they were still in the process of trying to trace her.

  The biggest surprise for the team had come the previous day when Shirley Radford was found dead in her swimming pool. The police who attended the scene had found a suicide note written in a shaky hand. It described her devastation at her step-daughter’s death and her inability to face the future. A post-mortem had shown high levels of alcohol in her blood along with a high dose of sleeping tablets which she’d been prescribed when Natasha was first diagnosed with a brain tumour. Ron Radford was now reportedly a broken man and had needed sedation when he was told of his wife’s death.

  Mike Harris came over to Andy’s desk and sat down.

  ‘So, how’s the paperwork going?’

  ‘Oh, not bad. Shani is trying to find Scott Briggs’ relatives. But apart from that, there’s not much we can do apart from getting everything completed for the inquest.’

  ‘Well, it’s finished now I guess. We have to accept we may never find Erin Jones, it’s sad but...’ and he shrugged. ‘It looks like she was the person leaking information about the university and I guess she became too much of a liability.’

  ‘I’m so angry though,’ said Andy, ‘that bastard Radford has got away literally with murder, I’m sure of it. He deserves to be in gaol.’

  ‘You know that, I know that, but there’s nothing we can do. He’s a professional. He obviously doesn’t make mistakes. You have to leave it, forget it. It’s tough but it’s not worth upsetting people.’

  ‘The Chief Superintendent has asked to speak to me this morning. I’m probably going to get a bollocking about harassing Radford.’

  ‘You’ll be OK, just make sure you watch what you say,’ advised Mike.

  **

  Dan and Jessica had checked out of the hotel and had decided to go and stay at her parents who lived in Bromley near London. They had given notice on their rented flat and had decided to move from the area. Jessica would be able to continue as normal with her job in London and now had a much shorter commute. Dan however had felt unable to face going back to his postdoctoral work at Persford as he no longer felt safe. The police had told them that they could give no assurances as to their continued safety and so it would be best to make a fresh start. Jessica’s parents had agreed to come down to help transport some of their smaller items up to Bromley and their furniture would have to remain in storage until they found alternative rented accommodation. Dan would have to look for some temporary work before he decided on the next stage of his career.

  A uniformed officer was stationed outside their flat whilst they returned to pack up their belongings. Ruth had agreed to let in the removal men the following week to take away the furniture.

  ‘I’m so sorry about this,’ said Dan to Jessica as they were hurriedly packing up their clothes. ‘I’m surprised you still want to be with me.’

  ‘Well, if I’d had any sense I’d have intervened sooner and then you wouldn’t have got into this mess.’

  ‘Will you be sorry to leave Persford?’

  ‘Yes and no. To be honest the commute was getting a bit tough. I don’t know. I need to get my head around things, so much has happened. We might not be able to settle in London due to the cost of living. We’ll just have to see how things look in a few weeks.’

  Dan hugged Jessica.

  She heard her parents call her from the kitchen. They were being brilliant about all this, she was so grateful to them. Her mother had cleared out all the food and was giving the kitchen a good clean. They hadn’t got long though, the police couldn’t spend all day watching over them.

  ‘Come on, let’s get this finished and get out of here,’ said Jessica.

  ‘New start for us. We need to try to be positive.’

  **

  ‘Nick! Come in, have a seat,’ said Matt as he and Brett got up from their chairs in a small meeting room in the chemistry department at the university.

  ‘How are you feeling now?’ asked Brett, looking over his friend carefully.

  ‘Oh, on the mend now. I need to take things easy of course.’

  ‘You certainly will be taking things easy. No chemistry for you for a while,’ said Matt sternly.

  Nick laughed then clutched at this ribs. ‘Ouch, not too much laughing either.’

  ‘Are you OK, do you need a glass of water?’

  ‘No, I’m fine. I just forget sometimes. Anyway, what’s the news here?’

  ‘Well, the team has made good progress using those conditions you worked out. In a week or so we should have a replacement batch of UP-627. I’m sure Pat will be able to fill you in on the details later. Sadly Dan has decided to leave Persford.’

  ‘Yes, I asked Pat where he was and he told me that I’d have to phone him rather than see him today,’ and Nick paused. ‘One thing I wanted to ask... did you ever find out why he was forced to hand over the material to that drug dealer?’

  ‘Well we know his girlfriend was kidnapped, did you know that?’

  ‘Shit, really? What in Persford? God, I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Well, she was lucky, she managed to escape. But I don’t know any other details. In fact, I don’t think Dan wants that to be common knowledge. He told Phil and well, he told me, so please don’t say anything.’

  ‘OK, but what did they want it for?’

  Both men shrugged. Nick looked dissatisfied, so Matt felt it was time to change the subject. He looked over at Brett who nodded discretely.

  ‘Nick, there’s something we want to discuss with you. No, it’s OK, don’t look so worried.’

  Nick relaxed slightly.

  ‘As you know, we set up PerzSolve as a sort of consultancy business. This is the second contract we’ve obtained and it’s gone reasonably well so far.’

  ‘It’s certainly been eventful,’ added Brett.

  ‘Yes, but it does look as though PersCure will go on to bigger and better things. It looks as though we will get a lot of interest from various parties to invest through a venture capital vehicle, so we should have enough funding for at least a couple of years. You never know it may even go public and be listed on the Alternative Investment Market.’

  ‘Wow, that’s awesome,’ added Nick.

  ‘Yes, well we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and tempt fate, I guess,’ said Matt. ‘The thing is there does seem to be a niche for companies like ours to offer advice to research groups like this. Pharma companies are increasingly using academia to do specialised research so we hope we can get some more contracts.’

  ‘I hope you do,’ said Nick.

  ‘So, given that we want to continue with PerzSolve, we would like you to join us on a more form
al basis.’

  ‘Me, what really?’ said Nick, unable to take in what he was being told.

  ‘Yes, we would like you to be a junior partner alongside us both. You would have a salary and also get bonuses and commission for business you brought in, etc. We’ll draw up s proper contract in the near future,’ Matt paused. Nick was looking rather shell-shocked at this news.

  ‘How does that sound?’ asked Brett who up until now had allowed Matt to do most of the talking.

  ‘It sounds, well, shit, oh sorry, well, I’m flattered, it’s amazing,’ said Nick. ‘I never expected this.’

  ‘It’s not going to happen straight away but you still have your six-month contract here.’

  ‘Yes, but I wondered about that with me being injured and so on, it might be a while before I can do any lab work.’

  ‘That’s what we thought. So, you remember I said we were going to employ someone to write up the patents for the front-runner compound?’

  ‘I think so, yes, I remember you posted some job adverts.’

  ‘I’ve withdrawn them, we want you to do it. Also, we want you to continue to problem-solve for the team. You can make such a contribution.’

  ‘Wow, well, thank you. Well, I just, I need to let it all settle in my head.’

  ‘Discuss it with Polly and talk to us again. OK?’

  ‘OK, she’ll be thrilled. I’ll tell her at lunchtime!’

  They all shook hands and Nick went off to catch up with Pat. He almost wondered whether he was dreaming. He texted Polly to tell her to make sure she was free for lunch, he had some exciting news.

  Chapter 60

  A week later...

  The inquests into the deaths of Lee Percival, Scott Briggs and Karolina Dabrowski were opened and adjourned. Verdicts of unlawful killing were returned on all three victims. The coroner directed that a second post-mortem should be carried out on each victim by an independent examiner and then the bodies would be released for burial. The police gave statements that they still had some lines of enquiries to follow up regarding the deaths.

  At a separate inquest, a verdict of suicide was returned on the death of Shirley Radford and the inquest closed. A death certificate would be issued and her body released to the family for burial.

  Mike Harris and Andy Walters attended both inquests and returned to the station for a meeting with Chief Superintendent Leighton.

  ‘Sir,’ they both said upon entering the superintendent’s office. They stood until they were asked to sit down.

  ‘I won’t keep you long. I trust everything was as expected at the inquests?’

  ‘Yes, sir, expected but not entirely satisfactory. We know the victims in the van were murdered. We all know who was behind it,’ said Andy petulantly.

  ‘We know no such thing. We don’t know what business those three had been involved in. We have no evidence. I do not want you to waste another moment on those cases. I have already had a complaint of harassment from Ron Radford.’

  ‘I did not harass him, we had testimony from Jessica Howard that she was held there.’

  ‘But there is no evidence and that is what we deal with. Hard evidence.’

  ‘We need to question all Radford’s employees, someone must have seen something.’

  ‘DS Walters, I am warning you, the enquiry ends now. That is an order from the Assistant Chief Constable.’

  Andy sat shaking his head. He knew that the ACC was good friends with Radford or more accurately Radford had made it his business to be friendly with the upper echelons of the police. The whole thing stank. But Andy knew he was powerless.

  ‘Was there anything else, sir?’

  ‘That will be all, thank you, men,’ said Chief Superintendent Leighton.

  The two men walked back to their offices in silence. Andy was fuming.

  ‘So, that’s it then,’ said Mike.

  ‘Guess so.’

  ‘I’ll go and phone Miss Howard and tell her that unfortunately, we won’t be following up her incarceration and also that she won’t be charged with wounding anybody. Hopefully, she will be satisfied. She hasn’t any choice really.’

  ‘No, none of us have any choice,’ said Andy, sounding thoroughly depressed. ‘Sometimes I wonder why I bother.’

  ‘Look, don’t let the likes of Radford get you down. He’s not worth it.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose so. I’ll make sure missing persons keeps Erin Jones on their books, although deep down we all know what happened to her. Christ, how many folks do you think that bastard has seen off over the years?’

  ‘We will never know,’ said Mike.

  Chapter 61

  Two weeks later..

  On a cold, chilly autumn day the bodies of Natasha Radford and her step-mother Shirley Radford were committed at the crematorium in Persford. There was a huge turnout and some people were unable to fit into the chapel. Ron Radford led the tributes to his family, his voice breaking from time to time during the eulogy. Instead of floral tributes donations had been made to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Ron himself had made a large donation to the hospital where Natasha had been treated and a new scanner was to be purchased in her memory. This act of generosity had been covered widely in the local newspapers and once his wife’s estate was settled there would be further charitable donations.

  **

  Matt and Brett also featured in the local newspaper as news broke of a new company at the university called PersCure which was due to receive funding to enable it to carry on vital research into a cure for cancer.

  During a lull in trading, Jake Marsfield saw this news report on the Persford online news site. He smiled and forwarded it to his friend Theo. Very shortly their money would be invested in this promising enterprise and would be funding research in a most admirable way. Things had come full circle from that evening when they made sure that Giles Wentworth was too legless to realise what he was signing.

  Ron Radford was planning to take things easy for the next few weeks. The recent events had reminded him that he wasn’t a young man and he needed to reduce his stress levels. He knew that he would never be able to resist the temptations of making money by illegal means but maybe he needed a change in emphasis. He didn’t really need to amass huge amounts of money, he had more than enough to see him through the rest of his life. What he did need though was some excitement and the feeling of power over people. White-collar crime was what they called it nowadays in the press. Perhaps this was where his future lay, it would be a new challenge, he needed to give it some thought.

  At this instant, Jake and Theo weren’t the only people thinking about the future of PersCure. Ron Radford was considering making a one-off donation to PersCure to re-equip a laboratory at the university which would be known as the Radford laboratory. In addition, his accountant had talked him through the benefits of venture capital investment. Ron had just spotted the ideal investment and it was perfectly legal. It would be good to branch out into science, it would add further diversity to his already numerous businesses.

  THE END

  Author’s note

  Captive Reaction is entirely a work of fiction. The novel is set in the fictitious university town of Persford which I imagined to be in the south of England about an hour away from London by train. Names, characters, businesses, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Certain real institutions and places are mentioned but the events surrounding them are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

  Thanks go to family and friends who have encouraged me to pursue this venture, for their comments on the plot and for pointing out mistakes. Particular thanks go to my husband for endless discussions regarding the plot, characters and his suggestions for improvement.

  dawnmarsanne@gmail.com

  https://dawnmarsanne.wixsite.com/mysite

  Follow me on Twitter @Dawn_Marsanne

  Also by Dawn Marsanne

  The Persford Series


  Adverse Reaction

  Lethal Reaction

  Terminal Reaction

  Captive Reaction

  Radical Reaction

  About the Author

  Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry for almost twenty-five years I wanted to write a novel which explored some of the serious issues in the field. The reproducibility of scientific data is a common problem which has recently been highlighted in the news and this forms the basis of my first book Adverse Reaction.

  I particularly enjoy reading thrillers and suspense novels and I have tried to create a fast paced story which holds the reader's attention. Many of the themes of the book occur in everyday life and I have used the backdrop of research to illustrate them. There are relatively few novels which are set in the laboratory environment so I saw this as an undeveloped area but at the same time scientific details are kept to a minimum to allow the work to be accessible to readers of a non-technical background.

  As I finished the novel I became sufficiently interested in the characters I had created to develop them further and so have produced two further novels in the Persford Reaction series which I intend to release shortly.

  Follow me on twitter @dawn_marsanne