by Alex Caan
‘How did they respond?’
‘A cold formal letter telling me they would not involve themselves in any further communication on the subject of me and Julian. Harsh and heartless. So then I started emailing Julian, telling him I was going to break it to his wife, to the press. He ignored me, and so I did. I wrote to his wife, I called her. She put the phone down on me. And next thing I know, your lot are at my door telling me to stay away or else.’
‘Hang on, so his wife knew about your allegations?’
‘Oh hell yes, she did. She didn’t put that phone down until I’d told her that much at least. And unless he was tampering with her post, she got my letter as well.’
Anya’s cool reaction was beginning to make a lot more sense to Zain now. Although Julian had been reckless to have an affair with someone on his staff, Natalie wasn’t the first, and probably not the last, so it stood to reason that, if Anya knew about Natalie, she must have suspected others. Why did she put up with it? Or maybe she hadn’t in the end?
‘And I never got my life back. He was fine, kept his job, his perfect little wife and his fantastic life. Teflon Leakey, that’s what people call him. And now I know why. And me? I just fell and I crashed, and the pieces can’t ever be put back together again. So that’s why I’m happy he’s dead, and I hope it fucking hurt whatever happened to him.’
No alibi, plenty of motive and clearly enough pathology to be a credible perpetrator. But looking at the dishevelled woman, her life so badly damaged, Zain just couldn’t figure out how she could possibly gain access to a deadly virus.
His phone buzzed. It was Michelle. Minutes later he was rushing to the Royal Free.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kate was in a familiar nightmare. She was in a New England forest, running through the changing seasons, leaves mulching underfoot. Her breath was caught in her throat, her heart beating so fast she thought it would punch through her ribcage. And fire. Everything was on fire, burning up around her. That was different, new; she hadn’t experienced that before. And there he was, the man, out of nowhere. She saw the blade, and then felt the pain.
There was something else then. Another place, another time. It was her mother, she was lying still, sleeping. No, not sleeping, there was something wrong with the picture. She wasn’t in bed, she was lying at the bottom of the stairs. Her face, it was covered in red, in blood, so was her body. Was she dead? No. Kate had found her like this, had dialled 911. And she had lived, she had survived.
Only she hadn’t survived fully, not the same as before. She had lived, but there were parts missing. Her mother would never be the same again. And then there he was, the man who had caused it all, waiting in the background, getting closer.
Kate knew who he was, as he crept towards her slowly, weapon outstretched. Kate looked down, and saw her mother’s face was covered in pustules. One of them burst, blood splattered over her face, she tasted the iron tang.
And then he was there, the man, standing right above her. He raised the blade and as it came down she looked into the man’s eyes. Into her father’s eyes.
*
Kate opened her eyes, and tried to move her body, but she couldn’t. She thought the dream might be real, or was she still caught up in it? Unable to stop the past coming through, she let it engulf her.
Then slowly she heard the machines nearby, monitoring her, heard voices, muffled as though coming through a barrier of some sort. Her eyes focused, and she saw she was in a plastic bubble. There was a figure standing to her right on the other side of the pod, with her arms inside built-in sleeves and gloves that allowed her to touch Kate through the pod’s wall.
She felt bile in her throat, but her mouth was too dry, she couldn’t swallow it. She tried to move again, and felt herself able to. What was happening? Had she been infected, after all? She only remembered vomiting, and then she must have blacked out. She couldn’t recall that part though, but somehow she must have been brought in to the hospital’s isolation ward.
‘Welcome back, DCI Riley.’ It was Professor Gerard. ‘You had us worried there for a while, as did Dr Kapoor. You are both OK, however. You started to show symptoms which caused us some concern, but they have subsided. Your temperature is lower, and there are still no antibodies or antigens in your blood.’
Kate wanted to speak, but her lips wouldn’t move.
‘Dr Kapoor has already been given the all clear, and I will be happy to do the same for you. It’s good news DCI Riley, you aren’t in danger.’
Kate closed her eyes, her body needed to sleep. She jerked awake again, remembering. Julian Leakey, the virus, the investigation. She didn’t have time to sleep.
‘Well if I’m not infectious, then get me the hell outta here.’
Chapter Thirty
The four hours were up, as the early afternoon hit London. There was no infection, not from a virus anyway. And definitely not from something they knew about. Kate called PCC Hope to inform him.
‘You can let Public Health England and the Department for Communicable Diseases know that we aren’t dealing with a Category A virus here, sir.’
‘Then what the hell killed Leakey?’
What about, ‘Are you OK?’ or ‘Well done?’ At least half of London isn’t infected with a virus that causes violent haemorrhaging.
‘I’m just going into a conference with the medical team here to find out,’ she told him.
Kate was allowed time to shower and change into clothes Stevie had picked up for her from outside the hospital. She was dressed in a maroon skirt and white blouse, with flowers and embroidery worthy of a woman in her eighties.
Stevie was waiting for her outside the conference room, and cracked up when she saw the outfit’s effect on Kate.
‘It seemed OK in the shop, boss, not much choice around here. So fucking good to see you’re OK.’
Kate let her embarrassment at the outfit go; it was more schoolteacher than DCI. Stevie was wearing all black, including her mid-length leather jacket. She looked refreshed, signs of the explosion from the night before completely gone.
‘How did you end up with shopping duty?’
‘We couldn’t get hold of you, and the tyrants on the switchboard wouldn’t put us through. Literally no one was telling us anything.’
‘I passed out, after vomiting. They thought they had misjudged the situation, their tests were mistaken, and we were about to start displaying some serious symptoms of a Category A. They panicked, rushed us into their isolation ward and started emergency procedures.’
‘Yes, I got a sense of that when I got here. Security basically hauled me away and asked me to wait in a locked room. They had no idea why. No reception in there at all either. Until a nurse pops her head in saying you’re OK and might need some clothes. Apparently they burnt the ones you came in with as a precaution.’
Kate could barely remember what she was wearing.
‘I hope they kept the contents in an evidence bag.’
Stevie searched in one of her pockets and pulled out Kate’s phone along with an eyeliner pencil, chewing gum, and a small card holder.
‘That’s all they saved.’
‘That’s all there was.’
Kate checked her phone but the battery was dead.
‘So what do they think made you so ill?’
‘I think that’s what we’re about to learn in there. What about back at HQ? What’s the latest?’
‘Zain is on his way here. I alerted him to what had happened and that you were about to leave quarantine. He’s been interviewing the wife and an ex-lover, all a bit weird. We didn’t think they could be involved when we thought it was a Cat A. Now though, depending what they tell us in there, both have some pretty legit reasons to bump off Leakey.’
Kate processed the information she was being given, but Stevie was right. Until they could determine a cause of death, they really couldn’t even begin to identify who might be behind it.
‘His DNA was fast tracked thro
ugh, so we have a confirmation of that at least. They worked it up based on a unified number of genetic markers, but we should have full confirmation in another couple of hours at the most.’
‘I thought it was a Cat A, you look like you need Gok Wan more than a doctor,’ said Zain marching up to them, coffee in one hand. Kate looked at the scratches and scorch marks on his face, and the tears to his jacket. He had probably been rushing around all night. His eyes were bright though, blue against his olive skin.
‘Here he is, no sleep and a near death experience, and still got attitude on him. I picked that out, so don’t start,’ said Stevie.
‘For you,’ he said, handing Kate the coffee. She had already had two cups along with some M&S croissants Stevie had also brought, but she took it anyway.
Professor Gerard asked them to step into the conference room, and the three of them filed in. Zain stopped her, letting Stevie go on ahead.
‘Everything OK, DS Harris?’
His eyes looked into her, but she couldn’t read the expression in them. He stared at her, making her uncomfortable. Had the events of the night triggered something in him? Was this how he would begin to breakdown on her?
‘I’m just glad you made it,’ he said, and then walked into the conference room.
Kate watched him for a beat. Was Zain someone else who had come to rely on her? She pushed the thought aside and followed him.
Dr Kapoor was waiting for them. They had managed to find her scrubs and a white medical coat, so she at least looked professional. Kate took a seat next to her. Stevie and Zain sat opposite them, with Professor Gerard seated at the head of the table. Once they were settled, he began explaining exactly what had happened to Julian Leakey.
Chapter Thirty-One
Kate listened patiently as Professor Gerard explained to Zain and Stevie how Cat A viruses worked, and how the symptoms Julian Leakey had displayed were synonymous with them. Then he explained about their contraction, through infected bodily fluids primarily, and their incubation and manifestation periods.
‘So, not being funny, but could you be infected and it just not show up on blood tests?’ said Zain. His blue eyes burned into hers as he spoke, and then he flushed. Guilt at the insinuation that she might be infected and not know?
‘Yes. What wouldn’t happen though, and to put your mind at ease, is that Julian Leakey’s blood wouldn’t show up as negative for antibodies if he had been infected. His bloods are clear of all known Cat A’s, and there are no signs that there is any other sort of virus working in his system. Our bodies are trained to fight invasion; if there was the slightest hint of something untoward, his body would have begun that battle. The scars would be there in the tests we ran.’
‘So if he’s clear, then there’s no chance anyone he came into contact with might be infected?’
‘Precisely.’
‘His body though, and I’m not questioning you here Professor Gerard, but it was an absolute mess. Was the 3D autopsy thorough enough?’
‘It was probably more detailed and thorough than a physical one. The human eye, like anything that relies on people, is prone to error. We are all fallible. The 3D scan goes deep, and goes into great detail. It picks up things a pathologist couldn’t.’
‘Yes, it’s true,’ said Dr Kapoor. ‘If there was scope for it in law, I would recommend its use on a common basis. Unfortunately, we don’t have the test cases yet to back up any sort of evidence-based trial. Lawyers would have a picnic.’
‘And then there’s always hacking,’ said Zain. ‘Once a record or system relies on computers, it can be breached.’
‘We have adequate security measures, DS Harris. These aren’t things we take lightly, patient confidentiality is a priority.’
Zain didn’t respond, and Kate could tell what was going on in his mind. The precariousness of modern technology and the idea that computer systems were safe. Even after some of the world’s biggest firms had been hacked. She closed her mind to it; she didn’t want to dwell on that as well.
‘Ok fine I get it, it’s not a virus, but then what did that to him? I mean we all saw it. His body was fucked up.’
‘Pleasant turn of phrase,’ said Professor Gerard. Kate immediately saw Zain’s hackles rise at the patronising tone.
‘If it wasn’t a virus, then what are we looking at?’ asked Stevie.
‘Neurotoxins,’ said Professor Gerard.
‘What the what?’
Professor Gerard and Dr Kapoor gave Stevie the same background they had given Kate earlier about how neurotoxins worked.
‘Our tests have come back, and we found high doses of neurotoxins in the blood taken from Julian Leakey’s brain matter.’
‘What does that mean?’ said Stevie.
‘His bloodstream was infected to lower levels, much lower levels, with the poisons we found in his brain.’
‘Poisons?’
‘That’s essentially what neurotoxins are. They are poisons, most of them natural. In this case they breached the blood brain barrier, and entered the deceased’s bloodstream directly into his brain tissue. That’s where they remained, and did most of the damage.’
‘I don’t understand, how could something be so localised?’ said Kate.
‘The infection would have taken place via a nasal spray, or needle point, something very precise that would immediately attack the nervous system.’
‘So it was deliberate?’ confirmed Zain.
‘Without doubt. Unless it was self-inflicted, maybe by error. I find that highly unlikely. And as a method of suicide, using a neurotoxin would be ineffectual in the short term and extremely painful in the medium to long term.’
‘Murder then,’ said Stevie.
‘It’s definitely looking that way,’ Professor Gerard told her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kate felt she had done enough sitting that day, so walked around the table to stretch her legs. She drank the coffee that Zain had brought her, even though it tasted like cold milk.
‘OK, so we have a poison, a neurotoxin, and somehow Leakey is infected. That’s fine, but then why did DCI Riley and Dr Kapoor become so ill?’ asked Zain.
‘It was passive ingestion, I think. They must have had exposure to the poison during their examination of the body.’
‘The thing that burst?’ said Stevie.
‘Yes, that seems the most probable cause. Direct exposure to the compound itself is necessary before it can have an effect, and definitely an effect that might cause harm or cause you to exhibit symptoms. The levels Dr Kapoor and DCI Riley were exposed to were small; it’s why the effects were relatively slow in being realised, and why thankfully they were short lived and didn’t lead to further complications.’
Kate let those words hang in her mind. Further complications. How close had she come to becoming a victim like Leakey? She didn’t know how much life meant to her, until it was being threatened in this way. Her mother needed her, but she was also aware of the future with Eric that might have been lost. If that was her level of attachment to life, she could only begin to imagine what James Alliack had been feeling. The relief he must have felt when he was given the all clear. He hadn’t been allowed to leave the Royal Free in case he let something slip during Kate’s four-hour window. Now it was over she sent a message to Rob, to orchestrate his being allowed to go home to his family.
‘Why was there so much confusion over the symptoms Leakey had? Aren’t there obvious signs of neurotoxin being present in his body?’ asked Zain.
Professor Gerard rubbed his eyes, his temples and then his neck. He looked across to Dr Kapoor. She smiled thinly, before taking up the explanation.
‘Far from it. They cause internal damage mainly, paralysis, organ failure. Possibly haemorrhaging. Very rare though, and nothing to the severity that Julian Leakey exhibited. As for the skin lesions, nearly unheard of.’
‘What are you saying then? That it wasn’t a neurotoxin?’
‘What I am saying is that
this neurotoxin, whatever it is, was manifesting itself in a manner that is simply undocumented. It got into the brain, and aggressively attacked the nerves and the tissue, causing a complete breakdown in cell structure. In turn, it also panicked the brain and made it send signals to the skin, the largest organ in the body, and it ended up sending an alarm via the skin abnormalities we saw.’
‘I’ve been looking at the chemical structure of the elements we have and there isn’t a clear match, although it is closely related to a number of existing ones,’ said Professor Gerard. ‘My team aren’t really experts on neurotoxins and we are using basic computer algorithms at the moment to do our match. We need specialist help, which we have resourced and we should be able to gain some more understanding about this substance.’
‘It’s just not something we’ve come across, and it’s not matching anything we know might be available readily in this country at least,’ Dr Kapoor said.
‘What are you suggesting Dr Kapoor? That this was imported through some means from overseas?’
She nodded. ‘I think it certainly appears that way. From initial investigation, I can’t see how else it could have got into the country. It just doesn’t tie up with any of the known substances we have available in the UK, or that have been used or manufactured here.’
‘And the symptoms?’
‘Again, nothing documented here. We are carrying out a wider search. Professor Gerard’s team and my own back at UCH are trying to contact any institutions that might hold samples similar to this, and we are getting advice from leading experts from around the world.’
‘Let me be clear on this,’ said Kate. ‘We are looking at an unknown neurotoxin, that is behaving and reacting in a way that is also undocumented? Doesn’t it sound too elaborate a weapon to source to attack only one individual? Why go to so much effort?’
‘Depends how much hatred was driving the person involved,’ said Zain. ‘When you’re fucked off, you can pretty much stretch yourself to do anything.’
