Resident Fear

by Hylton Smith

  “Yes, and that was before Doyle let slip that only when Banks had handed the £65 million authorisation to the German bank, would the transfer process begin. I think you’re right, there must be a separate agreement to adjust things during the due diligence period. There was a clause which mentioned delayed registration of certain shares but it was all above my head. Maybe we have to get an expert of our own to look it over or find a way of getting Doyle to enlighten us. He definitely wants to keep out of the picture – we need to know why.”

  Renton agreed to talk to Hepworth again, this time off the record, and then leave for Nice. Adams would feel out the situation with Forster before deciding whether he was going to be allowed to pursue Doyle, and if not, run a hypothetical scenario past a business lawyer.

  Chapter 6

  Bradstock had departed and left Cousins and Forster to iron the wrinkles out of their respective reporting relationships to him. Now that Renton had been used as a scapegoat, Cousins was feeling exposed. He had not been able to draw Forster any further on the Cologne situation, and all of a sudden realised that he was going to have an uncomfortable two weeks until Renton returned.

  The ripples of Renton’s suspension had found their way around the Three Rivers force very quickly and it provoked Gregory Watson to call his friend.

  “Jack, I must be missing something in the message. Is there anything I shouldn’t ask about?” When Renton explained everything to Watson the follow-up revelation intrigued him.

  “I’ve had a call from a colleague who shall be nameless. By tomorrow this will be known to everyone, but it might affect your plans as you have described them to me. In London this evening a body was found and I was informed simply and only because of the identity and the probable cause of death. The identification on him suggests his name is Bowman, or if you prefer, Baumann. It was thought that I may be interested in this, and I thought of you, only to discover you were going to take time off. After a lot of consideration, and the fact that I had not been officially informed of your immediate agenda, I concluded it was only correct procedure to apprise you of relevant information. Enjoy the sun, and make sure you try a café-au-lait in Cannes.” This had the effect of turning everything in Renton’s compartmentalised brain upside down and inside out.

  “Wait Greg, was there a briefcase?”

  “It wasn’t mentioned, but I honestly don’t know. It sounds important.”

  “Very important,” said Renton, “it could make my trip much more or less important too.”

  “Ok, I will try to diplomatically find out one way or another.” The line went dead. He could not imagine Baumann planning to come back so soon, except for Banks’ funeral, and if he knew his boss had been murdered, that it was likely to be for what was in the briefcase. So if Baumann did have it, why would he bring it with him? He could of course have been threatened into returning if the murderer had found Banks’ ticket to Cologne on his person, but not the briefcase, then assuming Baumann had it. It was all speculation but he could not leave it alone. He decided it was urgent to speak to Hepworth, who was at a bar in town and did not want to leave, suggesting he could spare some time between noon and 1pm. the next day. When Renton suggested he could come to the bar immediately, the prospect did not appeal, so he excused himself for half an hour and they met in the Pitcher and Piano on the Quayside.

  “I need to know more about the briefcase, and how you helped Banks with its design.”

  “Oh, well I suppose I played a small part. Alistair’s brainchild needed some chemical intervention and I was someone he could trust. What I do know is that there was the usual combination locking device, but if an attempt was made to open the case without the correct input, a self-destruct sequence kicked in. All my part consisted of was to trigger a special membrane, which was keeping two substances apart, to dissolve and allow them to mix, after which they would produce tremendous heat very quickly and obliterate all documentation inside. Alistair always insisted that thermal paper was used for these documents. He had backup copies, but when travelling he wanted to be sure they would not fall into the wrong hands. Half of the considerable weight of the case was a huge battery. I don’t know the mechanism of producing the heat so quickly, Alistair was the engineer. I made a plastic which stiffened and cracked with modest heat increase. His battery got it to shatter in milliseconds.” Renton was not keeping up completely.

  “Thermal paper?”

  “Yes you probably know it from supermarket barcoding. The pattern of black lines is instantly caused by applying heat to a chemical coating on the paper. That’s why it is so flexible in coding and checkout pricing.”

  “So you are sure that it worked?”

  “Oh yes Inspector, it worked perfectly. Alistair didn’t do failure.” Renton nodded.

  “Thanks, I’m sorry to have intruded on your evening. Go back and join your friends. When can you spare the time to give me a more complete lecture on the nature of Alistair’s business?”

  “As I said when you called me, I have an hour or so at noon tomorrow, shall we meet here?” It was agreed.

  *

  There had been an unusual development with the blue car. Having drawn blanks at car crushers and scrapyards, the call had bemused the local police. Stephanie took the call.

  “Hello, I’m the desk sergeant at the Consett station. I’ve been asked to inform you that the owner of the missing Alfa Romeo has now reported that he found it parked outside his house this morning, and I assume you will want to take it away for testing.” D.C. Baker could not suppress the astonishment in her voice.

  “Is this a wind-up?” The desk sergeant seemed a little put out by this response and his tone became decidedly trite.

  “We don’t make things up Detective Constable. Just tell me when you want to come for the vehicle.” Stephanie half-apologised and said someone would be there as soon as possible and she would ring ahead with the name of the person authorised for the collection.

  “Are you able to put me in contact with the owner, as we need to speak to him?” The reply was quite frosty.

  “I think you already have his contact details, but I’ll give you his number again and you can make the request yourself.”

  When Stephanie spoke to the man, she knew from the name that he was probably from Pakistan, but nothing of his background. He was quite happy to come to the Newcastle office and she sent a car for him. When he arrived she vaguely recognised his face from somewhere.

  “I asked for you to come and speak to us Mr Pitafi because there seems to be some very strange circumstances surrounding the whereabouts of your car over the last few days. As it appears to have been at a crime scene amongst other places, I’d like you to tell me how long you have had the car, where you bought it, and as exactly as you can when it disappeared and reappeared.” He looked confused.

  “Well, I bought it a very long time ago. It was during the personal computer boom, when there were many venues to sell PC components direct to the public. I think it was in the mid-nineties, yes I am sure. I made a little bit of money in that time and always wanted this car. After the big companies like PC World drove the price of new computers down, the component market slumped and all the fun of building and customising your PC went with it. I decided to use my savings to study for a Law Degree, and had just enough left over to bid for the car at an auction. It was in a mess so it became my hobby to restore it, beginning with the colour, I had to have sapphire blue. I would never sell this car, and that is why I was so upset when it was stolen. That was on Thursday the 1st – last week. I had it in the garage and I only knew it was gone when I went to work that morning about 8.30 am. You see, I keep it alongside my normal car which I use for work. I only use the Alfa at weekends, but not so often now. The same thing happened this morning, I opened the garage door and got just as big a shock when I got in my car and saw the Alfa parked down the street a little way. The keys were in it. I am flabbergasted but very happy. In fact I was so happy I ra
n in to tell my wife and forgot to inform the police until just before lunch. I am afraid I drove it back into the garage before I went to the office.”

  “I’m sorry to digress Mr Pitafi, but I can’t help thinking I’ve seen your face somewhere.”

  “That could be possible. I have been on radio and local TV news a few times recently. I am afraid my outspoken efforts on behalf of Muslims have caused me some notoriety.”

  “That’s it, of course. When you say notoriety do you mean because of the unrest of recent times?”

  “Yes, but it goes further back than recent times. I have always been outspoken about condemnation of extremism and radicalisation of our young people. When I first thought about Law as a career, it had a dual purpose. It could give me a good living, and give me a platform to help others with the nuances and reasons behind our laws. I suppose I must have been successful because it put me at odds with the Muslim Shield.”

  “At odds, do you mean threats?”

  “Oh yes, many times, but so far none have been carried out. It does worry my wife though, as we now have a small son. The problem is worse for those I am trying to help. They have had threats which have been carried out. When that happens and it can’t be proved against anyone, the victims won’t talk anymore, for fear of further reprisal.” Stephanie decided not to reveal the involvement of the Briggs recovery service just yet and asked him to be available for further interviews as and when they had more to go on. He was happy to oblige.

  “I have my precious car back which is only worth a few pounds, but priceless to me, and I would really like to see the thief caught. Here is my card so that you can reach my home, office and mobile.” She thanked him and noticed the card. ‘Purdil U. Pitafi, Solicitor.’ She smiled as she recalled the PUP part of the registration.

  “What does the middle part ‘U’ stand for?”

  He smiled and said, “It was my grandmother’s choice and I never tell anyone. I sometimes wish I had never bought the private licence plate, but boys will be boys.”

  *

  When Gregory Watson called back he was on a public phone. “I am doing this because something is definitely bothering my source in London. He was quite evasive, in contrast to his voluntary call earlier. There was no briefcase at the scene, which was in a derelict former mental health hospital. It has been locked up for years waiting to have asbestos extracted and the building made safe. I had to fish this out of him and then I remembered you telling me that Clive Donoghue had found debris containing asbestos on Banks’ body. As always I have to leave the speculation to you, but we had better not talk about this directly any more. I’ll keep Adams informed unless I’m prevented by this new chap Forster. That is all I could get out of my friend. When I asked about time of death he said it hadn’t been established and wouldn’t guess.”

  Renton decided to postpone his intention to visit Cologne. If the London body was that of Bowman, and he had been killed at the same time as Banks, he could not see what he would get out of Mrs Bowman, if indeed he could find her. The burning question in his mind could only be asked if the body was confirmed to be Harry Bowman. Who then had flown to Germany, and maybe sat next to his wife? One thing of which he was pretty certain was that he would not sleep much that night.

  The Home Secretary had received a cautiously encouraging response from H.M. Intelligence. It would not have been such a difficult sell if the P.M. had made the request, but it had to be done in a way which Patrick Carlyle had deniability, and both Morton and Intelligence knew that. The Home office analyst was to be briefed and sworn to silence so that he could explain his assertions to the duo from Intelligence. Wah Chen’s body language could best be described as a mixture of fear and total orgasm when it was all explained to him. He could not wait. This was exactly the type of project he had coveted when applying for the post. His decision to leave the employ of Donald Price and Gladstone-Klein had finally borne fruit.

  Chapter 7

  Thursday November 8th 2018

  Forster wasted no time in setting out the new way of tackling the case. The entire team was left in no doubt that deviations would not be tolerated. The discovery of the second body had been on the news and assisted his task of questioning the jurisdiction priorities. He made no further reference to Renton’s situation and declined to answer questions about it.

  “You will appreciate that this is also an inconvenience for me, as I have a high enough caseload in the Midwest. However, the sooner we can resolve the issue of Alistair Banks’ death, even if that means we have to concede to handing it over to London, the sooner I’ll be out of here. As far as I know we have still not been advised of time of death of the new body found in the Capital, and until we are, we must accept that we have no direct authorisation to treat the two as having been committed by the same person or persons. If the timeline and corroborating evidence shows that Banks was killed in London, we’ll be asked to hand the current files over. It may yet take some time for this conclusion to be reached, so I want all manpower to be concentrated on what direct evidence emerges from forensics and further medical analysis, including toxicology. There are to be no forays into speculative stuff unless I say so. We now have to put this into practice quickly, and if we’re told to hand over the Banks case, it will only include material which characterises an evidence-led enquiry. Thank you, now let’s get to it. D.S. Adams, I need to talk to you in my office.”

  Adams could guess what was coming, but the implied intimidation was a surprise.

  “Look, whether I’m here for two weeks or two years, Renton will not be coming back in his old capacity on this case. He is still a D.C.I. but he will be assigned to other enquiries. I understand that there has been a very close working relationship between you and him, but it would be better for everyone if you make sure this no longer applies to the Banks case. If I have any suspicion that information exchange occurs between the two of you, I will come down very hard. Renton at least had no real idea of what he was walking into when he made contact with Cologne, and that much went in his favour. Neither of you can now claim you haven’t been warned. I expect you, as my right hand, to get this message across to the rest of the officers on the case. Flouting this edict could become a career-ending misjudgement. Sometimes we just have to expect that there are things we can’t know at a particular time. It is why a chain of command is necessary. Do you understand?”

  “Yes of course I do. I’m not about to prejudice my future or anyone else’s here, but I must say Sir, as much as we do understand the way you want to proceed, and will do exactly that, we must be allowed to show our loyalty to D.C.I. Renton in terms of his error. The suspension seems very harsh, and it will be difficult for you to convince me that it is justified. He has an unblemished record and has given selfless service to this force. He could still have been of great help if directed the way you have just done with the rest of us.” Forster acknowledged the honesty and nodded.

  *

  When Julian Hepworth turned up he was carrying a briefcase.

  “This is a mock-up of our final design, and if you examine it, you can better appreciate the intricacies I explained yesterday.”

  Renton looked it over and asked, “Who would have the combination for these things?”

  The reply was almost sarcastic. “Only one person Inspector, you would not have asked the question if you had known Alistair. He was honest about his obsession with confining information only to those who really needed to have it. The combination to his briefcase – I am afraid not.”

  “In that case why would Bowman have had one?”

  “Well, firstly he would be carrying sensitive information which was to be shared with a third party. There would be some which was for Bowman’s eyes too, in which event he would have his own combination re-programmed into the case. There were other instances where Bowman was only a courier and upon meeting with the third party, would hand over the case. The third party would then call Alistair and be given the temporary co
mbination, remove the papers and return the case to Bowman. It would only be used in this way when Alistair had conflicting arrangements of more importance.”

  “I see. Right, can we talk about his products and technology?”

  “Of course, the group company name as you may know, is Bio-Cure Industries, and comprises three divisions, which are – Bio-Chem, Bio-Engineering, and Bio-Gene. He used to work for one of the big pharmaceutical companies and had the notion that they had become completely driven by cost-effectiveness, ignoring promising research avenues if they didn’t hit the investment/return target. He realised that trying to go it alone was a total non-starter in this industry. When he met Vivienne, the impossible became slightly more realistic, through her father. He had a certain kind of influence and was able to help revive a failing, small, but potentially viable minnow in this industry. Beresford bankrolled a rescue of a core part of the company and decimated the non-profitable sections of the organisation. This was all tailored to Alistair’s plan, and a foundation was laid. Slowly the re-branded products turned the financial situation around and restored the previously good reputation. He began to drip-feed some of his new product ideas into the chemical formulation and processing side, some were made exclusively by Bio-Chem and others depended on outsourced intermediates. He felt that this bridgehead was necessary in order to be taken seriously by the various medical and clinical groups he would encounter.

  “This is where my knowledge of the financial structure peters out. I know that the vast majority of the original investors, both individual and institutional, were herded into the venture by Beresford. When the time came to found Bio-Engineering, there was some change, some of the initial shareholders were bought out, and I guess replaced by certain banks with a different type of share. The ideas Alistair had for engineering more complex products impinged on the available knowledge of the relationships between certain ‘incurable conditions’ and a ‘genetic explanation’. He decided to take on challenges which did not have much interest for the big boys, almost regardless of the financial equation. The synergy of chemistry and molecular engineering gave him the platform of a ‘treatment’ for sufferers of the condition. The fact that these conditions were extremely rare was a big factor in getting over the cost/benefit immorality, and yet it had incredible headline impact. When he was able to access more specific, but protected genetic research, he set up Bio-Gene. It was difficult to get the best people, but again, his father-in-law was not without influence. At last he had the dots joined up, and could embark upon cures for some conditions. This has all been achieved in less than fifteen years, and although Bio-Cure is still a small player in the grand scheme, it has its niche, and does attract predatory attention.”