The Devil's Landscape

Sixteen

‘Dare I ask?’

The length of time taken by John Macmillan to respond suggested to Steven that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

‘The Home Secretary and I spoke for half an hour. She did not tell me why Five had blocked funding for Professor Lindstrom and said that she was unable to tell me where Barrowman was being held. She asked that I trust her.’

‘And you said?’

‘I sort of agreed.’

Steven was openly shocked. ‘A politician said, “trust me” and you said yes? That’s not the John Macmillan I know.’

‘She is the Home Secretary.’

‘We also have a shadow home secretary,’ said Steven.

The implicit suggestion that the threat of informing Her Majesty’s Opposition of a government refusal to cooperate might elicit a change of heart was not lost on Macmillan, but he said, ‘It wasn’t a complete blank. She didn’t deny that Lindstrom’s research grant funding was blocked by MI5.’

‘Which we already knew.’

‘True, but we didn’t know that Five carried out the hijack on Barrowman on the way to the hospital. She confirmed that.’

‘I’d already reduced the possibilities to a short list of one,’ said Steven, bristling at the thought of Sci-Med having given in to a politician. He respected Macmillan more than any man on earth and here he was backing off at government request.

Macmillan conceded the point with a slight raise of his hand. ‘Be that as it may,’ he said, ‘but one thing we didn’t know... is that Five have lost him.’

Steven was lost for words.

‘The hijack was carried out by intelligence officers, but something went badly wrong. The officer charged with delivering Barrowman on the final leg of the hijack was found with his neck broken in a ditch by the side of the road; the vehicle was later discovered as a burnt-out shell.’

Steven shook his head in disbelief. ‘So, Barrowman could be anywhere. Do we have any details of his last known whereabouts?’

‘She didn’t have any to hand.’

Steven’s look expressed doubt, prompting Macmillan to add, ‘She wasn’t expecting to be quizzed by me. She wouldn’t normally request such details in a situation like this.’

‘Fair point.’

‘She did tell me however that the agent had been armed. His weapon wasn’t found on his body. His ID and wallet were also missing.’

‘It just gets better.’

Both men sat in silence, mulling over the awfulness of the situation until Steven said, ‘If the Home Secretary asked you to trust her, she must have given you some reason for doing that... otherwise you would have suggested she take a hike — if not in so many words?’

‘She made a plea for my — our patience, for the time being. The Intelligence services have been involved in a study for some time, which they believe will have a profound effect on the lives of people, not just in our country but across the entire world.’

‘A profound effect?’

‘The possibility of a complete breakdown in society, an end to law and order, complete and utter chaos across the globe.’

Steven thought for a moment before saying with some resignation, ‘If I hadn’t heard what I did from Dorothy Lindstrom’s post-doc Jane Lincoln earlier today, I think I would have taken all that with a pinch of salt, but now I can’t. Things are coming together.’

Macmillan managed to look pleased and surprised at the same time. ‘You can make sense of this?’ he exclaimed ‘To coin a phrase, make my day.’

Steven told Macmillan what he’d learned from Jane Lincoln about the work of her former colleagues who had died in the fire and their conclusions which had been questioned — perhaps desperately — by Dorothy herself, who, after what must have been a period of deep anxiety, was now resolved to uncover the truth.

‘I think they’ve all been working on aspects of the same thing,’ he said — ‘the Lindstrom group, our intelligence services, Owen Barrowman... they’ve all been working on the genetic basis of human behaviour — the Lindstrom group are interested in all aspects while Barrowman had focused on psychotic behaviour as I suspect MI5 has.’

‘But something has gone awfully wrong for all of them,’ said Macmillan.

‘Dorothy’s people came up with a very unpalatable truth... if their results stand up to scrutiny.’

‘And Barrowman came up with something which has cost him his sanity. but somehow ties in to what our intelligence services have been up to,’ said Macmillan. ‘Two dead researchers and one off his head. Don’t put your daughter in a lab, Mrs Worthington.’

Macmillan’s parody of an old music hall song jogged Steven’s memory of what Tyler had said about the misfortune of Dorothy’s people. It was a thought that just refused to go away.

‘Where does that leave us?’ said Macmillan.

‘With big problems,’ said Steven. ‘Barrowman is an unstable murderer and he’s out there with a gun.’

‘And we don’t know what his intentions are.’

‘At least we won’t be the ones looking for him,’ said Steven. ‘The police and Five will be pulling out all the stops. With one agent already dead I don’t give much for his chances of making it to a courtroom.’

‘Normally, I might agree,’ said Macmillan, ‘but they want him alive. They’ve gone to quite a lot of trouble to get him for their own purposes.’

‘True,’ Steven agreed, ‘whatever they might be.’

Macmillan offered his theory. ‘How about, the intelligence community, or more likely their colleagues at Porton Down, have been working on much the same thing as Barrowman and that’s why they blocked funding for Lindstrom’s research. They didn’t want competition?’

‘That works for me,’ Steven agreed. ‘I think Dorothy Lindstrom was only seen as a problem when she took Barrowman on board. Up until then none of her work had been connected with criminal behaviour let alone convicted psychopaths.’

‘I think we’re getting there,’ said Macmillan.

‘But we still have to find out who did fund her and why.’

‘I don’t think the police will be too interested in that, but Five will,’ said Macmillan.

Steven thought for a moment before saying, ‘You know, I think we know much more than the Home Secretary gave us credit for, which accounts for her reluctance to confide in you. Five probably told her much the same thing as Jane Lincoln told me and she appreciated the enormity of their discovery. If you were to go back to her and bring her up to speed on what we know, perhaps we could all work together?’

‘That’s a thought,’ agreed Macmillan, ‘but if what you say is true and Five have come up with the same findings as Dorothy’s late colleagues...’

‘It means they were right,’ said Steven. ‘It would be confirmation.’

‘And if Five or the Home Secretary had any doubts...’

‘They would be dispelled the moment you tell her and she would be faced with wondering what to do about it.’

‘Better her than me,’ murmured Steven.

‘I take it the police will have put the guard back on Lucy Barrowman.’

‘Yes,’ said Macmillan, ‘although it’s hard to see why he’d want to cause her further harm.’

‘It’s hard to see why he’d want to do anything he’s done,’ said Steven. ‘God knows what’s going on in his head.’

Macmillan looked over his glasses to question Steven’s choice of phrase and Steven saw the irony. ‘Point taken,’ he said. ‘God’s not been playing much of a roll in these proceedings.’

‘Unlike the roll his priesthood will be taking when rumours of this gets out,’ said Macmillan. ‘To continue with inappropriate comments... all hell will be let loose.’

‘Maybe you shouldn’t tell the Home Secretary after all,’ Steven suggested.

‘Why not?’

‘At the moment both parties have doubts about their findings. We should leave these doubts in place. It gives them an excuse for saying and doing nothing until confirmation appears.’

‘Good thought... devious but good. Plans for tomorrow?’

‘I’ll go talk to Lukas, see what he’s come up with from Barrowman’s computer, but I’m not expecting much. I’m also going to ask Jean if she can come up with anything else on the Yale fire.’

Macmillan seemed surprised. ‘I thought you’d checked that out.’

‘I have, but it’s like an itch, I’ve scratched it but it keeps coming back.’

‘Your instincts have always paid off in the past.’

‘What exactly am I looking for?’ asked Jean.

‘Can you see if you can get your hands on the fire investigators’ report and maybe the police one if it was separate.’

‘I’ll do my best, anything else?’

After a slight hesitation Steven said, ‘Yes... see what you can come up with on a Roman Catholic priest named Father Liam Crossan. He came to see Dorothy Lindstrom in her lab at Yale after the fire, no further information I’m afraid, but he could have been Dorothy Lindstrom’s parish priest, if they have such a thing in the states, or maybe he’s attached to Yale in some pastoral capacity.’

‘You think he’s a baddie?’

‘Dorothy told one of her colleagues he was a great comfort to her, but this was just after the same colleague had heard them having a shouting match.’

‘Could have been telling a porky pie,’ said Jean with a smile.

‘Could have been,’ agreed Steven with an even bigger one.

Tally was in the flat when Steven got home. She had just got in and smiles and hugs took priority over anything else. ‘So good to have you back,’ said Steven.

‘So good to be back, you look tired.’

‘So do you,’ said Steven, ‘you’ve been under a lot of strain. I take it your mum’s okay?’

‘She’s had a real shock, but there were no complications and the break should mend given enough time and good behaviour.’ Tally yawned and said, ‘You know, I think an early night could be on the cards.’

‘What a lovely thought,’ said Steven, holding her close. ‘Hungry?’

‘What do you have in the fridge?’

‘Cheese.’

‘And?’

The silence was broken by, ‘There’s some bread in the cupboard... or we could go out?’

Tally put her finger on Steven’s lips. ‘Cheese on toast sounds just fine. I’m going to shower.’

‘Tea or wine?’

‘Silly question.’

As they lay in the darkness, Tally with her head resting on Steven’s shoulder, Steven tracing patterns lightly on her skin with his fingertips, Tally murmured, ‘That was nice.’

‘Yep,’ Steven replied, ‘when it comes to cheese on toast... I’m your man.’

Tally slapped the palm of her hand on Steven’s thigh. ‘Why must you always play the fool?’ she demanded through giggles.

‘It’s a gift.’

Another slap.

‘I love you.’

‘I love you too.’

Steven drove over to the Lundborg labs in the morning and accepted Lukas’ offer of coffee. ‘Espresso?’

Steven took a sip and murmured his appreciation before asking about progress.

‘It’s a good, solid piece of work,’ Lukas replied. ‘I expected a hard time after what you said about the guy, but his entire project was laid out in such a clear way that even a lay person could get the gist of it. He found significant differences between certain areas of the genomes of convicted killers in his study and what we would regard as normal among the general population.’

‘Publishable work?’

‘Absolutely.’

Steven nodded but remained silent until Lukas said, ‘You don’t seem happy. Something wrong?’

‘Your findings match those of his group leader who’s been examining what’s on his work computer.’

‘Oh, good...’ said Lukas, softening the sarcasm with a smile.

‘She was delighted because publication of Barrowman’s work should ensure continued funding for her group.’

‘Group leaders have to think that way.’

‘Okay, I’ll level with you, There’s something missing.’

‘It seemed pretty complete to me.’

‘It was meant to,’ said Steven. ‘When Barrowman wrote this up he was already totally paranoid; he thought everyone in the world was hell bent on stealing his work. Everyone, including me, feared he would go to enormous lengths to conceal his findings and were prepared to find nothing on his computers. Instead we find what you’ve just seen for yourself, the results of a successful project perfectly presented.’

‘He’s thrown a sop to what he sees as the chasing pack... so there must be a reason?’

‘I’m certain there is. He deliberately left one patient off the list, Malcolm Lawler, the Moorlock Hall prisoner he thought was special. He told me that when we first met and said much the same to his wife who watched him fall further and further under Lawler’s spell. She said he claimed to loathe the man but was still mesmerised by him. The more time he spent with Lawler the more distant he became to those around him until he lost all reason and became a killer himself. I take it you didn’t find any mention of Lawler on Barrowman’s computer or in his notes?’

‘None at all.’

‘Neither did Professor Lindstrom, but it didn’t worry her greatly, for her it was just a matter of having one fewer subject in the study than there might have been. Not a problem, there were already enough in terms of numbers to make the study significant.’

‘She didn’t know anything about this Lawler being special?’

‘Barrowman didn’t confide in her.’

‘So, what happens now?’

‘Unless we can find out what he’s done with the data he collected on Lawler we may never know what he discovered.’

‘He didn’t confide in his wife before he lost his mind?’ asked Lukas.

Steven shook his head. ‘He saw her as one of the enemy.’

‘If they take him alive, the intelligence services will interrogate him.’

‘Like I say, we may never know what he discovered.’