by C B Barrie
The laptop computer was first and he booted it up looking for the patent that Caplin said would be amended. There were two files, one had both names as inventors, the other had just Caplin’s. It was clear that the second was the version Ellis had originally seen, but why had it not been deleted? It was puzzling yes, but in no way incriminating.
Was there anything else that would point a finger at Caplin’s deceit?
He carefully scrutinised the contents of the desk drawers and then the filing cabinets. One desk drawer had been locked but he knew where the key was, having come across it when he had first encountered Caplin after delivering his thesis. He had been severely reprimanded for entering Caplin’s office without permission. Strange it was that he was repeating his offence, but for a far more serious reason.
The drawer came open without any problem and he extracted a small pile of laboratory notebooks. These he scanned in quick succession only to find that they recorded Caplin’s work on super hard materials up to the point where Ellis had been introduced to the experimental work. There was nothing incriminating in them or anything alluding to Ellis’ suspicions. It only reported work that Caplin had not disclosed to M.I.M.C. and this Ellis was not only was aware of, but was a willing co-conspirator.
He gave the office one more survey, but could see no other place where evidence could be concealed. He shut down the laptop and ensured it was in the same position he had found it. Without further delay he made his way down the foyer side stair and crept into the widely glazed laboratory access corridor, making sure that Rowe was still installed in his little retreat.
He really needed the lights on for his stopover in the laboratory, the light wasn’t good even with the corridor daylight leaking through. He decided it was worth the risk for just a few minutes duration and switched in the fluorescents to illuminate everything. He found Caplin’s lab’ coat folded and left on the workbench nearer the door. He went though the pockets having been surprised the night before by the weight of the garment as he picked it up. It was only as he went through the last pocket that he found the 50-centimetre spool. From its weight and appearance he concluded that it was either genuine Stellite, or one of Caplin’s experimental super hard alloys. Whatever the case, it had no value as evidence of murder. He folded and replaced the lab’ coat and then went to the small lab office. Trying to keep the noise of his activities down, he carefully examined the contents of each drawer.
Nothing came to hand and as he closed up the last drawer he felt a surge of relief – there was nothing to show that Caplin had managed the deaths of all the victims that Ellis knew about. Indeed, it was only when Caplin had spoken of the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ of the two cars that had collided that it provoked suspicion. But now Ellis had to conclude that Caplin’s knowledge of the crash could well be an innocent acquisition – even a guess. There was no doubt; so far the preliminary investigation was devoid of anything incriminating. Indeed, so far nothing indicated that Caplin was a killer.
And yet, he was far from done. There were two other places where evidence might be concealed, Caplin’s car and his home.
Ellis retreated to his office and spent a short time arranging his library. His estimation of Caplin’s typical movements in the morning meant that Caplin would arrive some fifteen to twenty minutes before nine a.m.
It gave him approximately fifteen minutes before he could make his own way out of Metlab. He needed to ensure he wasn’t seen by Caplin, that was crucial.
Caplin parked his BMW in the next parking bay to Ellis’ MX5, in no way surprised to find that Nathaniel was already in the centre.
He knew that Nathaniel was probably intent on completing the final version of the second experimental paper and it made him conscious of the fact that he was committed to finalising the patent specification, which had to be filed well before any paper was submitted to the journals.
He decided to bypass the laboratory for the moment, Caplin’s appearance in the lab’ would interrupt Ellis’ work on the keyboard, and it was a sure bet they would both lose time as they engaged in spurious chit chat. Instead he decided to make for his office and continue with the patent; he would catch up with Nathaniel later.
Caplin climbed the foyer staircase and entered his office just as two other colleagues virtually arrived at the same time. His greeting to them was reciprocated and he closed the office door behind him smiling at the deference he got always got from colleagues. It was strange he mused to himself; would they have been so polite had they known about the blood he had on his hands. Doubtful, but it was a purely academic question, they would never know - nor why he had taken the risks he had.
After hanging up his topcoat he went to his desk and lifted the screen lid of his laptop. He fired it up and decided to get a coffee while it booted. He made his way to the over-bright vending machine and returned with a black coffee, intended to stimulate his intellect during the forthcoming attempt at a devious patent composition.
He took his desk seat and looked at the ‘Word’ file headings listed on screen. He found the last two, each entitled ‘Patent’ 1 and 2; both files he had closed the day before. But now he was suddenly puzzled. The dates and times on the two files, showing when they had last been opened, had to be wrong! He checked his watch face, which gave date and month, and what he saw confirmed it. Someone had opened the files today, this morning – indeed, very early this morning.
For a short time he wondered who the culprit might be, and he could only form one conclusion – it had to be Ellis.
When Ellis heard the vending machine operate, his office was close enough for the user to be reflected in the glazing on the corridor walls.
It was a fluke of optics he had noticed some time back. By keeping his office unlit he was able to observe the reflection in reasonable detail. He knew Michael Caplin was already in the centre, he had seen his car arrive. Now that Caplin had used the vending machine, he knew that it was probable he was working in his office.
He gave Caplin time to return to his office and, waiting out of sight at the corner of the two corridors, listened in the silence of the corridor for Caplin’s door to shut.
Not wanting to risk exposure by passing Caplin’s office he returned back past his own office and took the emergency stairs leading down from the upper corridor fire exit. It led to a ground floor exit that ordinarily was not to be used except in an emergency, but the interlock bars for the door could be overridden. Ellis gently applied a downward force on the bars and rapidly found himself outside. As he closed the doors behind him he looked to see if he was under observation, but there was no one near the paved area bordering the fire doors; neither was there anyone around the back of the centre nor on the grass lawn that abutted it.
He took the footpath leading from the paved area and made his way around the laboratory block and onto the parking area. To his surprise Caplin had parked his car in the parking bay directly adjacent to the one where his own car was parked. It was a high risk but he was out of sight of most areas where the car park was overlooked and, finding the driver’s door of Caplin’s car open, he dared to look in. He scanned everything and managed to get the glove compartment open. Nothing – nothing to raise suspicions. The boot? It was the last place likely to furnish anything so it had to be viewed. It took time finding the button that overrode the boot lock but it opened eventually. Inside it was clean, only the bits and pieces that found their way into nearly all cars eventually - so as before, nothing incriminating.
He slammed down the boot lid and took his seat in the MX5, he had no idea if Caplin was going to see him leave Metlab but truth to tell he didn’t care – Caplin’s house was his next port of call and he guaranteed he could arrive there before Caplin could. After all, where would Caplin think he was going, certainly not to where Caplin lived.
As it was, Caplin was suppressing a deep anger.
If he was right about Ellis he had been betrayed. True, Ellis had no idea what extreme risks and ruthlessness he h
ad been made to involve himself in to defend Ellis, but even so, he could not believe that the man he had taken a liking to, and had patronised and stood by, would be so devious and disloyal. It had taken many deaths and a great deal of planning to ensure Ellis would not be compromised. He thought back to the small collection of trophies he had collected after eliminating all the potential threats to Ellis. There was the beautifully cut and polished cylinder head from Meredith’s car, the wing mirror from Gregson’s Jaguar and, as he now knew, the Volvo badge from Neilson’s SUV. He even had an exact duplication of the battery, CD player and earphones he had used to divert the investigation into Holden’s death.
Yes, he’d been tempted to steal all the glory for himself and had mistakenly allowed Ellis to become aware of it – but that did not excuse Ellis being cunning, and trying to gain something he was not fully entitled to.
He stood at his office widow looking out and attempting to determine what advantage Ellis could ultimately possess by knowing all that he might about Caplin’s tendencies. But regardless, all he would come to know was that Caplin had no real interest in sharing the promised fame their work would assure, and that he was pathologically reluctant to allow it to happen. But Ellis stood very little chance of revealing how far Caplin had gone in protecting himself and Ellis from the chance of any disruption to their work. So, it came down to this, if Ellis was recklessly intending, directly or indirectly, to rob him of his ambitions it was not going to happen. If he had once again to remove a hindrance to his expectations then so be it – he had no qualms about terminating one last impediment to his plans.
It was as he decided there was no choice in the matter that his eyes picked up movement, and his attention was taken by a car leaving the parking area and taking the exit lane towards the security barrier. It was an MX5, a blue MX5, and although there were other MX5s owned by Metlab staff, there was only one blue one.
Ellis, it seemed, was leaving.
21
He slowed on the 3306 leading up to the Gurnard’s Head roadside pub and turned left; thankful to be close to completing his journey.
The narrow lane that led to Treen was awkward but soon he was passing the few houses and farm buildings that made up the isolated hamlet.
Caplin’s house was a white detached structure dating from the nineteenth century and had at one time been the accommodation for a coastguard officer and his family. It stood angled back against the oncoming north westerly Atlantic weather with its front facing south. The rear of the property faced open moor land and was free of any neighbourly observation. He parked the Mazda close to the house front and gave his surroundings a careful perusal – he wanted no one to see him attempting to occupy the premises. Caplin had once shown him a photograph of the house and its splendid isolation, but it was wiser to look first; better safe than sorry.
He made his way to the rear of the house across a patch of a previously dug over and tended vegetable plot. The back door had been recently painted a gloss white and was in good repair. To the left and right of the door there were wide Georgian style double glazed windows, each allowing visual access to the inside of the house. The one on the left illuminated the kitchen; the one on the right gave access to what appeared to be a small study. As he studied both, his attention was finally caught by a small group of objects mounted on a four-drawer chest standing against a wall in the study. It was a strange collection, each object entirely dissimilar to the next.
For a moment he waited outside the window, trying to work out what the objects represented. He could not tell, and without getting closer they remained a mystery. He decided to do what he had intended to do on first arrival and that was to break in. It was not just to establish what the objects he had just seen signified, but also to search the house for any other evidence against Caplin.
The back door was probably original – at least back to the early twentieth century and was loose in its locking mechanism. As he put his weight against it there was distinct movement, a gap appearing as the door moved away from the doorframe. He assumed it was because the old fashioned door lock consisted of a handle and lock mechanism fitted into a steel moulding, the lock itself sliding across into a shaped receiver when the key was turned. Both door lock and receiver were screwed to the rear of the door and doorframe, and neither was particularly secure.
He pushed hard, and as he took up the slack in the door he gave another heave; it was too much, and the lock receiver bent back, allowing the door to spring open. He was in!
The house was surprisingly large with the corridor leading from the back door to an open hallway situated to the rear of the front door. On the ground floor there were three rooms and the kitchen. The first room he wanted to see was the study and as he entered it from the corridor he was able to see it in its entirety. A bookcase filled with academic, scientific and engineering titles stood to the left of the door, a bureau containing bills and notifications stood to the right and was decorated with a few glass ornaments on its top. A four-place table was positioned in the middle of the room but was devoid of anything on its surface. The chest of drawers with the curious collection stood behind the table; for Ellis the collection carried the greater interest and it was to them that he quickly made his way.
The group of items was both fascinating and yet mysterious. He carefully inspected them, finding nothing that was common to any of them. It was as if they were part of a series of keepsakes, all having a specific story to tell for the owner, as if each represented something outstanding and worth reminding the owner about. The only item, which was seriously puzzling in terms of its appearance, was the inordinately heavy cylinder head. It faced upwards as he looked at it, showing across its whole surface a perfect mirror finish but with what appeared to be the remains of two pistons, still in the top of the combustion chamber, and cut to precisely the same level as the rest of the block. Had the block been machined and then polished? He couldn’t say. And yet something was very reminiscent about it – something known to him?
Since he could find no immediate explanation for what he saw he decided to inspect the other ground floor rooms. He passed a staircase leading up from the open hallway and turned left into what was the lounge. It was sparsely furnished with little in the way of decorations or ornaments. A large fifty inch TV dominated the area with only a three piece suit to fill the remaining space. It was clear that Caplin treated the house as temporary accommodation.
Out of curiosity he drew back the half closed curtains and looked out of the window to see what was on view, as he did so he was suddenly frozen in shock. He could see his own car, the MX5, but now it had company, a blue BMW 325i – unmistakably Caplin’s car.
He turned back to the lounge door and started to exit the room. As he did so he heard his name being called.
‘Nathaniel, it’s Michael.’
His thoughts were instantly driven by anxiety and resentment – so now he had to face up to his suspicions, there was no longer any need to establish proof or hesitate.
He exited the lounge and turned into the corridor, facing the back door where he knew the voice had come from.
‘Hello Michael, seems you found me.’
Caplin stood outside of the back door, seemingly relaxed and with a smile on his face.
‘Indeed Nathaniel, but I never expected to find you in the process of housebreaking.’
Ellis moved forward a few steps. ‘It was necessary, I needed proof - to know why you had become a murderer.’
Caplin gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders.
‘To save you, you fool, and to ensure we were able continue with our research and our ambitions. You don’t really think that all the time you were on the receiving end of CM’s clutches, and with all the police activity going on, I was simply praying that nothing would affect us. Christ Nathaniel, didn’t it occur to you just how serendipitous it all was that nothing actually touched or disrupted us. I had to do something and it had to be effective, so don’t start cryin
g about it or begin moralising to me. You stupidly signed the CM contract, had it not been for that then all I did would not have happened.’
Ellis suddenly saw Caplin’s perspective – and he had to admit he had a point. And yet…
‘You killed a number of people for what you saw was a justified reason Michael – and as I now know, Gregson was the last of a good many of your victims. But I can’t ignore it, no matter the justification, you have blood on your hands and I can’t pretend it didn’t happen. I’m sorry, but regardless of what happens to me, I have to speak out.’
‘Speak out, about what exactly. You have no proof and no evidence against me. Tell me, where do you expect to get a hearing?’
‘I’ll find a way; I don’t care how long it takes. Eventually I’m going to nail you.’
Caplin took on a grim look.
‘You hypocrite Nathaniel, you have the audacity to pretend clean hands; to stand there the beneficiary of my handiwork and yet innocent in every respect. Don’t make me laugh, you knew all the time what was going on but you were to much the coward to indulge in it.’
Ellis was now far from cowed – he felt resentment, anger and fear. He wanted no part of Caplin’s conspiracy or perverse logic; he just wanted to be free of any entanglement.
‘You think so Michael, just watch me.’
‘All I’m going to watch Nathaniel is you having your career demolished; a charge of burglary, an official complaint to Metlab management that you have been seen entering offices without authority, illicit viewing of a colleague’s computer files, your failure to keep confidential research secure and a hint of your connection with Consolidated Mines. I suspect that there would be enough there to see you summarily dismissed. Try getting anyone to listen to your allegations after that, it would just be you throwing unfounded mud against me for your dismissal; and as for getting another research post – not a chance.’
