‘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?’