The Silver Knot (Forest of Dean Investigations Book 1)

by T J Harris

  “There’s loads of this stuff and he also has a few full length bondage and fetish films. Looks like he bought them on DVD then copied them to his computer.” He tapped the stylus on his touchpad to play a few seconds of the top video in the list. The scene showed a heavily made up girl dressed in leather webbing. She was bound with black rope in a spread-eagled position to an elaborate harness while three men wearing leather masks took her in each available orifice. She was looking directly into the camera, her expression wanton, almost as if she was upset that there were not more men available to satisfy her.

  “Bloody hell! Is this stuff legal?” he asked as Hunter paused the film.

  “It’s R18 certificated, I checked. As long as it was sold in a licensed sex shop, then it’s perfectly legal. The only thing he has done wrong is rip the DVD, strictly speaking that’s against the copyright terms, but I don’t suppose we’ll be charging him with that. We didn’t find anything physical in the house though did we?”

  “No.” agreed Carver after a while. “You’d think living alone, and if he was into this shit, he would have kept a few mags or DVDs in the closet, rather than just on the PC.” He stroked the bristles on his chin thinking.

  “True, but we do see it sometimes. It’s like they feel guilty with anything physical. If it’s tucked away on the computer in a little directory nobody would find, it’s easier for them, somehow deniable. But what do I know.” He looked across at Carver again. “Didn’t you say his wife used to live in the house before she died.”

  “Yes, they bought it together ten years ago, and he still keeps it clean and tidy. It didn’t look like he’d changed much of the furniture, although all her cloths are gone.” He paused, thinking back to what Hunter had said previously. “What did you mean - tucked away?”

  “These videos were in a directory called ‘old insurance’ in a folder called ‘house’. Not even a suspicious lover would bother looking in there! I only found it because I know what I’m looking for, let’s say I have a nose for this stuff.”

  “Lucky you.” Carver laughed. “Anything else?”

  “Yes, we’re missing a computer.”

  Carver looked at the man in alarm. “What do you mean?”

  “The WiFi router keeps a log of the machines that have used its connection. There are two MAC addresses that use the connection and we only found the desktop here. It could be a neighbour of course, cadging in on the connection if theirs is down, or too busy streaming stuff to the kids, but it’s more likely to be his. Maybe it’s at his office.”

  “I’ll check the evidence list. Goldberg went through his office last night. If he found one, I’m sure he would have brought it back for you.” Carver’s phone beeped once. He glanced at it, “10 already. Come on, briefing time.” On the way out of the door he turned. “You can just show the list of sites and give a general description OK Steve, we don’t want show-and-tell to get too carried away.” Hunter nodded and followed him out.

  The briefing started with a summary of the findings at the Williams house. In addition to the computer evidence that matched this Sean Williams to the man having an affair with the victim, hair was found in the shower drain. It was clearly not Williams’ as it was long and brunette. It had been sent for DNA analysis.

  Goldberg reported on his visit to the physiotherapy clinic. He had managed to get there before the assistant closed up for the day. He reported that she had worked there a little over eight months. “She did say something interesting.” Goldberg looked at his notes to confirm the wording. “She said ‘I’ve lasted longer than most, according to the personnel and pay-role records, I’m the third assistant in three years.’ I looked into the accounts and she was right. The previous two got generous redundancy and glowing references but there is no record of any resignation letters or comments on the file as to why they left. She was obviously nervous but she hinted that he liked to practice massage on the staff as well as the patients if you see what I mean.” He checked his notes once more. “We also have a complaint on file made by a Mrs Whitaker. It’s from two years ago, but she complained that on one occasion Williams became a bit too handy. She claimed he tried to grope her during a massage session. He denied doing anything wrong, claimed it was a normal massage technique and was very apologetic for the distress. She dropped the complaint in the end. It was suspected that he paid her off. It’s all hearsay but it does suggest a pattern. Maybe he tried the same tricks on Helen Brooks but got lucky?”

  “It’s a possibility. It would make sense.” Carver agreed.

  “Did you find a laptop?” Hunter butted in.

  “Nope, there were just the two desktop machines, one in reception and one in the treatment room. How do you know your missing computer is a laptop?”

  “I’ve run a MAC address search. Because it’s a global registration system, the IEEE assigns prefixes to all the different computer manufacturers world wide. In this case it was assigned to a Korean company that makes cheap laptops and sells them in the UK through an exclusive supply deal with Currys. Given when the device first connected, I’d say were looking for one of these.” He flicked up a page from the Currys website onto the projector. It showed a Dime Intellibook 310 on sale for £549.99 with free delivery. “The red colour is quite distinctive don’t you think?”

  Carver was about to move on, when Hunter’s laptop beeped. “That’s interesting.” He said. “Someone has just visited the email account.” He tapped away at his keyboard for a few minutes then looked back up. “They’ve deleted all the draft messages.”

  “We’ve got Williams’ computer though, how did he do that? Or did someone else delete it?”

  “Impossible to say. If they had viewed my pixel message we would have seen but unfortunately they didn’t. It could still be Williams, using the missing laptop of course, or perhaps a phone or something like that.”

  “I think we need another chat with him.” Carver followed up. “We know Williams was having an affair with her, let’s confront him with that and see where that leads us.”

  “His story about the car breaking down is bull as well.” Moss interjected, “CSI found no trace of WD40 in the engine bay and it started fine when we tried it last night. Even if it is true, we know he left earlier than he’s admitted. But we can’t place him at the scene yet.”

  “We also need to find out what the husband knew about the affair. We can’t corroborate what time he left for work and if he knew about the affair, then he’s right there on your motive board.” she nodded across to the set of squares drawn on the wall.

  “You’re right.” Carver admitted. “Let’s bring Williams in again this morning, if he doesn’t break, we’ll interview Brooks under caution this afternoon. We need to bring him up to date and tell him about the affair anyway. Better he hears it from us than read about it in the press.”

  He looked back at the board. The industrial conspiracy theory still bothered him, even though the case was developing nicely on the sex and anger fronts. “I’m going to talk to her boss again, do we have a home contact for him.” Reid nodded and passed him a business card with the home details hand written on the back. “Thanks. Steve, can you come with me? I know it’s a bit unorthodox but things may get technical and I could use your input?”

  Hunter grinned.

  Back at his desk, Carver called Dr Philips using the number on the card. He picked up almost immediately. He suggested that Carver could visit him at home. It being Saturday, the man was watching the kids while his wife was shopping. Carver agreed and the two of them set off straight away.

  On the way, Carver impressed on Hunter that he was to try and keep quiet and let Carver do the talking. He was to listen and if asked, translate or elaborate on what was being said. Hunter had agreed, but Carver placed very long odds on him being able to contain himself.

  Chapter 9

  Guy Philips sat in his garden watching his twin boys play on the trampoline. His wife had taken their daughter into Gloucester Quays fo
r a girls shopping trip. It had become a little ritual that they both looked forward to, and it kept them close. Now their little girl had become a teenager, his wife was concerned that they would grow apart. If all it took was a little retail bribery once a month to keep them close, then that was fine by her.

  He was trying to read the paper but was too distracted. The death of his Research Director had shocked him. Since luring her into the firm just five years earlier, her fast growing reputation had single-handedly doubled their business. His shareholders were delighted and his business plans were becoming more and more centred on her team’s activities. Her untimely death would put a strain on them all and would have a serious impact on their bottom line. He had not told his backers yet and was not looking forward to doing so.

  He thought back to the strange questions the detectives had asked him the previous day. It seemed as though Helen had been somehow claiming to be away on business when he had no record of her doing so. He had no idea why that would be. The only logical conclusion he could think of was that she was working behind the scenes for someone else. He had checked her timesheets and noticed that she had not taken any long holidays in a while, but had used her leave for odd days and apparent long weekends.

  ‘What has she been up to?’ he mused to himself. He knew the industry was fairly tight-knit, so he thought that if she had been moonlighting or courting a rival firm, he would have heard about it. Besides, he paid her very well and doubted whether she would be able to find a better offer elsewhere. Her recent arguments with energy policy makers had not made her particularly popular in some areas of the sector either. He wondered whether she was looking to start her own firm, but she seemed more interested in the science rather than running a business.

  He was still deep in thought when Carver and Hunter pulled onto the drive. There was no answer from the doorbell but they could hear children playing at the back of the house and made their way round through the garden, following the noise. Philips apologised for not hearing them and ushered them to a large teak patio table where a jug of squash and glasses was waiting. The three men settled down to talk while the two young boys continued to play happily, if noisily, on the trampoline.

  “Thank you for seeing us Dr Philips, especially on a Saturday.”

  “Not at all, we were horrified to hear what had happened to Helen. Obviously we want to help in any way we can. And please, call me Guy.”

  “We were interested in some of the data on her work laptop.” Carver started.

  “Her work laptop?” Philips looked confused.

  “The MacBook Pro.” Carver said. “The machine we found in her briefcase. Her husband was under the impression it was a company machine.”

  “No, That’s not one of ours. We only use PCs for the office stuff. She did ask for a Mac last year but I told her it was against company policy. She must have bought her own. I’d like to know what was on it.” He added looking concerned, his mind racing again.

  “There were only a few work related files.” Hunter chipped in. “There were a couple of data files with stress and fatigue data on it and then there was the presentation she was working on for the conference next month.”

  Carver gave his colleague a look. He mouthed an apology and let Carver continue with the questions.

  “That’s all right then. She would know better than to put client files on an unprotected machine.”

  “This conference paper she was working on. Is that a work project?”

  “Oh yes. It’s quite a high profile event actually. There will be lots of industry people there as well as policy people. She was wanting to make an impression.”

  “We got that from the presentation. Were you happy that she was wanting to make such a dramatic statement?”

  “I was a little concerned.” he admitted, thinking back to the discussion, well argument, he had had with his Chairman on the subject. “I didn’t want her to damage our reputation at all, but she was sure of her work. We still had time to tone it down if necessary.” He didn’t add that his Chairman had told him to ‘keep the bitch quiet!’

  “It sounds dramatic though. What’s your take on her findings?”

  “It’s scary but she is absolutely right.” He poured them all a glass of orange squash and started to explain.

  “Her work was mainly looking into the rate at which metals lose their strength over time when subjected to high temperatures and pressures. You might be surprised to learn that some engineering steels can lose half their strength in only a matter of years if you work them hard enough.”

  Carver nodded, recalling being told something similar by the victim’s husband.

  Philips continued. “Obviously this has been understood for years and so industrial plant designers take this into account when specifying their requirements. If you design a steam pipe to have a working life of twenty years, then you specify the pipe thickness for the strength the steel will still have after working at high temperature for that amount of time. The problem comes when economics says ‘let’s run it for an extra ten years.’ Very often that means extensive re-fitting to replace the worn-out components. Anyway, her scientific work was looking at ex-service materials to actually measure the remaining strength. Using this new data she has been able to create a much more accurate model of remaining strength and so more accurately predict the remaining life of different components and plants.”

  “So how does that relate to the electricity industry?”

  “At the moment, the UK has an electricity generating capacity of just under one hundred gigawatts. That’s not quite all we need so we also import electricity from places like France and Holland. Of what we do generate, about twenty percent comes from our nuclear power stations, about thirty percent from coal-powered stations and the rest is a mix of gas, wind, solar and hydro stations. We know that of those, all the coal-powered stations will be closed by 2025. The government confirmed that earlier in the year as part of the plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. On top of that, all the current nuclear stations will also be closed by 2030 at the very latest.”

  “Because they are passing their design life?” asked Carver. He was catching on and although he was aware of the fuss in the press over building a new nuclear station in Somerset, he hadn’t realised that all the existing ones were scheduled for closure.

  “That’s right.” Philips continued. “The industry has been working incredibly hard to extend their useful life for as long as possible, but there are limits to what can be achieved. Obviously safety is the over-riding concern. The public are worried about nuclear power, especially after Fukushima.”

  “But surely the components that are worn out can be replaced. You don’t have to close the whole thing down, especially if building new ones is so expensive and time consuming?” Carver enquired.

  We have been working with the industry on the steel components and you’re right, but the graphite reactor core is their main limiting factor.” He looked up. Carver was now looking confused but his colleague Hunter seemed to be still following him.

  He reached across the table and grabbed an abandoned child’s colouring book and a crayon. He turned to a blank page and started sketching. “OK, so a nuclear power station is not that different from a coal fired one. They both essentially boil water to generate steam. The steam is released at very high pressure through a turbine. The turbine spins a generator and the electricity is then fed into the grid. In a coal-powered station, they burn coal to create the heat necessary to create the steam. In a nuclear station, they use radioactive decay to generate the heat.” He started sketching a rudimentary nuclear reactor.

  “So they both suffer from this steel degradation in the same way?”

  “Well, yes, but the steelwork isn’t the problem. In a nuclear station the core can’t be replaced.” He pointed at his sketch. “Uranium is the fuel used in the UK stations.” he continued. “It’s held in stainless steel tubes called fuel rods. They’re quite safe and inert until
they go into the reactor. The reactor core is made of graphite, a form of carbon like the ‘lead’ in a pencil. Now this is where it gets a little complex. When a uranium atom decays it gives off a small sub-atomic particle called a neutron, which normally just flies away. It’s travelling too fast to set off any other reactions. The way the reactor core works is that the graphite has the effect of slowing down the neutron to just the right speed to set off another uranium decay and so on forming a runaway or chain reaction. The heat generated is enormous and that’s what is used to boil the water and generate the steam.”

  “Sounds dicey.” said Carver looking at the sketch. “How do they control the chain reaction?”

  “That’s where the control rods come in. It turns out that Boron is a better absorber of neutrons than Uranium and the reactor is filled with boron control rods, which are raised and lowered into the core to control the reaction at just the right rate. Anyway, the main point is that the graphite also ages over time. The constant bombardment of neutrons takes its toll. It loses its strength too and the graphite bricks start to crack and eventually the station has to be shut down. It’s not something that can be replaced you see. Once the core is worn out, that’s it for the whole power station. All the current stations undergo extensive inspections and safety cases are made for keeping them open for as long as possible, but they will all be gone by 2030.”

  “So that’s nearly fifty percent of our generating capacity, gone in less than fifteen years.” Hunter stepped in again, unable to contain himself.

  “That’s right, but Helen’s analysis of the steelwork in some of the other plant, including some of the older gas fuelled and converted biomass stations show that it’s nearer sixty percent. And when you project that against what our needs will be by 2030 you get some very interesting results. It’s not just that the population will grow by another five million people by then. Most of that increase in demand will be balanced by increases in efficiently. LED lighting that sort of stuff. However there is the drive to reduce our carbon emissions to take into account. That means more and more people will be running electric cars. There’s the rollout of more electric train routes and even policies to get houses off fossil fuel based central heating and on to more efficient electric heat exchangers and recovery systems. Helen had analysed the National Grids’ published Future Energy Scenarios and compared it with what she knew about the generating side. She took the National Grid’s projected demand and power source mix for 2030 to work out how much new build would be required to stop the lights going out. It’s not far off the same as our total capacity today. And you’re right,” he nodded at Hunter. “It all has to be built in the next ten to fifteen years.”