The Devil's Landscape

Nineteen

Steven’s final call was to John Macmillan who heard him out before saying, ‘Interesting.’

‘Not exactly what Tally said,’ said Steven, feeling a bit nonplussed at Macmillan’s response.

‘I can imagine.’ said Macmillan. ‘She must have been very upset.’

‘Try bloody angry,’ said Steven, adding what sounded like an afterthought but wasn’t, ‘Why did you say you found it “interesting”?’

‘Man on the run... wanted for murder... hunted by police and security services, but takes time out to come into central London and do something like that. I think we can learn from that.’

‘I put it down to the arrogant single-mindedness of the psychopath,’ said Steven. ‘They’re known for showing off how smart they are and are always keen to expose the foolishness of the authorities.’

‘A reasonable hypothesis,’ agreed Macmillan.

‘But not shared by you?’

‘I see someone who has found safety and security. I don’t think he’s on the run any more. If he feels confident enough to take risks playing silly games, he’s doing it from a secure base and he probably has support. He’s not alone.’

‘Respect,’ Steven murmured after a long pause. ‘I read the text book, you read the man.’

‘I take it you’ve arranged to have police protection for Dr Simmons and your flat?’

Steven confirmed that he had and asked about progress with the PO box number. The short silence that ensued suggested that more bad news was on the way.

‘I’ll be seeing the Home Secretary in the morning.’

‘The Royal Mail didn’t play ball?’

‘The box has something called private security status. No one I spoke to could tell me anything about it because they maintained that they personally didn’t know. They don’t have a list of these numbers.’

‘This is crazy,’ said Steven. ‘Royal Mail security doesn’t know where their PO box is, but Barrowman does. He gets someone in Edinburgh to put a package in the post with a number on it and obviously expects it to reach him. How in God’s name does that happen? Does he have some kind of diplomatic immunity? A personal courier?’

‘I’m looking forward to the Home Secretary telling me,’ said Macmillan.

Steven flopped down in his favourite chair feeling exhausted. He swung his feet up on the windowsill and closed his eyes, intent on escaping the windmills of his mind for a few minutes, but Macmillan’s theory about Barrowman’s circumstances put a stop to that. What kind of friend would still be a friend after hearing what Barrowman had done. How could anyone bring themselves to offer him shelter knowing that? At least, if Macmillan was right, earlier suspicions that Barrowman might not be on the run at all but was being held by security services could be discounted; they would hardly be letting him out to roam around central London.

Steven was interrupted by Tally’s hand on his shoulder. She handed him a glass of malt whisky and said, ‘I’m going to bed, don’t stay up too late.’

Steven took the whisky and kissed her hand.

The welcome fire in his throat helped him find momentary distraction and allowed him to concede that he wasn’t going to get anywhere wondering about Barrowman or who might have helped him. He turned his attention to the reports Jean had obtained from the U.S.

After forty-five minutes of concentrated reading Steven put the papers down on the floor by his side and put his head back on the chair to look out at the night sky. Both reports were detailed and well presented. Any question he might have asked had been answered and the conclusions that foul play could be ruled out and the fire had been the result of a tragic accident seemed sound.

This in itself was a relief, something he knew he should feel pleased about as just about every other aspect of his investigation was clouded in uncertainty... and yet something was wrong. He tried telling himself it might just be his natural suspicion and the knowledge that people compiling reports often tended to see what they and everyone else expected them to see before reporting accordingly. This wasn’t conscious bias, it was human nature and had to be guarded against, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Coffee might help.

A double espresso did the trick. It was the bodies; the position of the bodies was telling him something. A gas leak from a main supply pipe had been the cause of the fire but there had been no mention of an explosion so why had there been no sign of the victims fighting the fire or attempting to escape? Much mention had been made of the flammable substances in the lab like ether and ethanol, which no doubt had contributed to the ferocity of the fire, but still... if the pair had been drunk, shocked, confused... fair enough, but they weren’t. They were young, alert and wide awake, working on something exciting and of huge importance to them.

The position of the bodies, or what was left of them after the fire, suggested that they had been overcome by smoke and fumes at the bench where they were working. The question nagging away at him was simple. Had they been conscious when the fire broke out? If they hadn’t...

Steven baulked at the thought of another layer of complexity appearing. He thought about John Macmillan’s assertion that he was running in mud and acknowledged that he was just about to add another half-ton to the mix, but, having thought of it, he’d have to give the possibility due consideration.

It was obvious from the fire department’s photos that the state of the bodies precluded any possibility of forensic examination. Proving that the pair had been drugged was a world away from thinking it. Apart from that, the remains would have been disposed of a long time ago after release to the families by the police.

It would be a long shot, but the only way he could see of making progress would lie in establishing the movements of the pair before they went back to the lab on that fateful night. That is when they must have been given some sedative compound — maybe a one to two-hour window? Where were they? Who were they with? So much time had passed that it seemed unlikely anyone connected to the Lindstrom group would remember where or when they had last seen the pair. On the other hand, people often did remember where they had been around the time of something awful happening. It would be worth talking to Jane Lincoln again.

Steven checked the door locks and turned the lights off before looking out of the window and spotting an unmarked vehicle down in the street which he decided was police protection. ‘Stay awake, gentlemen,’ he murmured. ‘Stay awake.’

Tally left for work with a discreet police presence in attendance while Steven left some time later with his 9mm Glock for company. He thought he’d take the opportunity to go see Jane Lincoln while John was having words with the Home Secretary. Protocol demanded that he approach Dorothy Lindstrom first so he did. They exchanged pleasantries and puzzlement over the continued failure of the authorities to find Barrowman.

‘I’ve been preparing his results for publication,’ said Dorothy, ‘but it’s giving me a bit of a problem...’

‘In what way?’

‘In normal circumstances, Owen’s name should go on the paper as first author, but the circumstances are far from normal and I’m not sure what I should do about that.’

Academics are truly wonderful, thought Steven, she wants to leave him off.

‘I’m not sure I can help you there, Professor.’

Dorothy gave a half smile and asked, ‘Is this a formal visit or did you just pop in to say hello?’

‘Actually, I was hoping to have a word with Jane Lincoln if that’s all right and she’s around?’

‘I’m beginning to wonder what you two are cooking up,’ said Dorothy getting up from her chair.

‘No need,’ Steven assured her, ‘just a couple of details I forgot to ask her about last time.’

‘Hello again,’ said Jane, ‘Any news of Owen?’

Steven said not.

‘I still can’t believe what happened to him and thinking about it is making me worry about the rest of us.’

‘Really?’ Steven exclaimed. ‘None of you has had any sustained contact with the sort of people Owen worked with, have you?’

‘No, it wasn’t so much that I was thinking about... we have a young group member who has been working with suicidal people and I’ve noticed her become more and more withdrawn. She says she’s fine, but I’m not so sure.’

‘Have you spoken to Dorothy?’

Jane nodded. ‘She’s keeping an eye on her.’

The look that passed between them suggested that might not be enough.

‘It’s difficult,’ said Jane. ‘Everyone has their career to think of so she won’t want to admit to having problems which might be construed as mental frailty. That sticks, no matter what people might pretend otherwise, it sticks. The situation has made me think about the whole concept of normality. If you are surrounded by ten people who see things differently from you, like it or not, you are the abnormal one. It’s all very well thinking that there are thousands of people out there who think exactly like you, it’s the people around you who will eventually get you to establish a new norm.’

Steven nodded, impressed by Jane’s analysis.

‘Anyway, I’ll keep trying to get her to open up on a personal basis,’ said Jane. ‘As they say, it’s good to talk.’

‘You’re a good woman, Charlie Brown,’ said Steven. ‘We need more of you.’

‘And what can this good woman do for you, Dr Dunbar?’

Steven took a deep breath as if concealing embarrassment to come. ‘This may sound like a crazy question, but have you any idea what Paul Leighton and Carrie Simpson might have been doing in the hours leading up to the fire?’

‘Doing in the lab?’

‘Before they went back to the lab that night’

Jane’s eyes roamed round the room as if searching for inspiration and failing. ‘I really don’t know,’ she said. ‘Is this important?’

‘Very.’

Jane took that on board and said after a moment’s thought, ‘Let me see, I was quite late in leaving myself that night so most people including Paul and Carrie had already left before I did. If they were planning to come back later — as they were — they would probably have gone to grab a bite to eat, but that’s about as far as I can take it.’

‘Any idea where?’

‘Probably Romero’s, but that’s a guess.’

‘Romero’s?’

‘Most of us used McDonalds or Wendy’s if we were planning to work late, but Carrie was a vegetarian; she preferred Romero’s because they made proper veggie dishes rather than put out tubs of salad.’

‘A small place?’

‘Yes.’

‘And they would go directly back to the lab from there?’

‘I think so. They were intent on getting through the repeat experiments as quickly as possible. I can’t see them being distracted by anything else.’

‘Would they be known to the staff in Romero’s?’

‘I guess there’s a good chance,’ said Jane, ‘they were working late a lot so they might even have been seen as regulars, but, in any case, I’m pretty sure the restaurant would have thought about them when they heard about two people dying in a fire that night,’ she added, seeing where Steven was going with his questions. ‘And now, are you going to tell me what you really want to know?’

Steven smiled. ‘I really want to know if they were alone and, if not, who was with them.’

‘Are you going to tell me why?’

‘You were honest when I came to see you last time when you could have blanked me so I’ll be straight with you. I think there’s a possibility that Paul and Carrie’s deaths were not the result of a tragic accident. I think they were drugged or sedated in some way so they were unconscious when the fire started.’

Jane looked as if this was a bit too much to take in. ‘Oh my God,’ she managed before shaking her head slowly. ‘How awful.’

Steven waited for more to come. He thought the flood gates might open when Jane started wondering why anyone would want to murder her colleagues and she started answering her own question. Eventually she said quietly and in trepidation, ‘Surely you don’t think Dorothy was involved, do you?’

‘Do you?’

‘No, no, no,’ said Jane in a hushed voice, ‘She’s a top scientist, a committed Christian, she may have been shaken to the core to see the results Paul and Carrie came up with and not have wanted to believe it without seeing absolute proof — maybe even to the point of delaying seeing it — but we all know that murdering the messenger never changed anything. The message stays the same.’

‘How true.’

‘The very reason that she invited me to come with her and work here in the UK was to establish the truth... whatever it turned out to be.’

Steven nodded. ‘Okay, I can’t say I like the woman, but I think I have to go along with what you say. That’s not an entirely happy conclusion however...’

‘How so?’

‘If Dorothy had nothing to do with the Paul and Carrie’s deaths, someone else did and, if it was because of their research, you and Dorothy are working on the same thing.’

Jane made a face and found an argument. ‘Not exactly the same, we may be asking the same questions, but, by changing fields to epigenetics, we’re approaching from a different angle and that means we’re a long way off being able to refute or verify Paul and Carrie’s findings.’

‘And in a different country,’ Steven added.

‘Science on the run,’ said Jane, managing a smile. ‘How about you, where do you go from here?’

‘The Romero’s lead you’ve given me is all I’ve got so I’ll have to find a way of checking it out, see if anyone remembers the couple being there that night. I take it Romero’s is close to the department where you all worked?’

Jane said that it was. ‘It’s in Kelman Boulevard, would you like me to help?’

‘In what way?’

‘I was friendly with one of the technicians in the lab at Yale; she got a job in one of the other labs when Dorothy left; we exchange emails now and again. Cindy liked Romero’s — she’s a veggie too and presumably still goes there — I could ask her to try and find out if anyone remembers Paul and Carrie being there that night and who they were with, if anyone.’

What at first sounded like music to Steven’s ears quickly became concern about putting Jane’s friend in danger. He said as much to Jane who considered for a few moments before concluding, ‘I don’t really think so; it’s all a very long time ago and no one ever imagined that any kind of crime was involved...’

Steven was happy to go along with this.

‘What did you tell Dorothy about my last visit?’ he asked.

‘I told her pretty much what you told her, that you were gathering information on the group to get a feeling for the research we were doing. I didn’t lie to her; I told her you had asked about the fire and that you’d asked me as a relative outsider at the time rather than her out of respect for her feelings.’

‘Good.’

‘I didn’t admit to telling you anything about the rift between her and Paul and Carrie or what it was about.’

Steven nodded and said, ‘That’s also good, but I don’t think I should come to the lab any more, it’s going to require too much explanation. If Dorothy asks about today, it wouldn’t be a lie to tell her that we spoke more about the changes that overcame Owen Barrowman and how you told me you were concerned about another of your colleagues.’

Jane was comfortable with this and Steven gave her a series of contact numbers to call when she had any news.