Lethal Reaction Read online

  They heard sirens approaching and seconds later the ambulance pulled up, two paramedics alighting carrying their green rucksacks. They placed a temporary dressing on Wayne’s head and helped him up off the pavement and into a wheelchair. PC Martin told Stef he would accompany Wayne in the ambulance and she should follow in the squad car to Persford General Hospital. If he was discharged later that night they would take him in for questioning. It had been a few months since they’d picked up Wayne and Dave Martin had begun to hope that he had decided to change his ways. He wasn’t one of the bigger players but the trouble was that drug-related crime was on the increase in Persford. Being a university town it meant that there was a higher proportion of the younger age group which meant they could be a target for the drug pushers and viewed as easy pickings. Also, there were lots of bars and nightclubs which could provide sites for dealing. Currently, they were able to keep on top of the narcotics scene but it was always possible that this could escalate at any time, should a big player suddenly start to ramp up their business in Persford.

  They would see what Wayne had to say for himself, perhaps a willingness to name drop would gain him some leniency in the eyes of the judge if they could build a case to prosecute him. Traffic seemed to be light so they would soon be at the hospital. Dave Martin hoped that a nice nurse would make him a cup of tea as it was going to be a long night ahead.

  **

  At his flat, Zac realised he could be facing some headwinds courtesy of nosy Nick. Therefore he had worked late on Monday evening, his excuse being he had lost some time due to the lecture that afternoon. Fortunately, Nick hadn’t stayed late, he must have been tired of keeping up the pretence of having a cough thought Zac. He needed to remove the evidence from the lab so that if Nick did spill the beans he would look stupid. The material in the amber glass jar was all dried and ready to be passed on. He had some other flasks containing more material but that wasn’t quite ready, it contained some residual solvent. So he devoted his efforts to scraping the solid out and transferring it to dishes so he could put it in the vacuum oven to dry. Normally he left things overnight in the oven to dry but there wasn’t time. It would have to have a couple of hours and that would hopefully be enough, he cranked up the thermostat a bit higher than he normally would have done to be on the safe side. He would have to hope that would be enough, he didn’t have time to re-analyse it and get more data. Besides which, the stuff would be adulterated before it was supplied, and mixed with some crap to make it less potent. It seemed a waste of time to purify it further. He washed up the flasks, removed the marker pen identifiers, and left them to dry on the drainers.

  He kept an eye on the time as he didn’t want a repeat performance of having to be practically evicted from the premises by the security guard. That would just be drawing attention to himself. He transferred the powder from the glass jar into some plastic bags, then bagged them again and found some envelopes to put them in. It was easier to walk out with the material like that than in a bottle in his bag. Besides, he didn’t want to be handing over jars when he got rid of the stuff, or to be bagging it up in his kitchen at home.

  Whilst the material in the lab was drying he went out to his desk and checked that he’d not left any sheets of data pertaining to his illicit compounds. He couldn’t find any, he’d been careful to take home any data as soon as he’d run it, then he’d destroyed it by burning it in the sink. He was lucky that BioQex was a relatively small organisation as the data he’d obtained was printed out using local printers adjacent to the machines. In larger companies, all data would be held on central servers and would, of course, be recoverable. For a few minutes, he just sat and racked his brains that he’d not missed anything.

  He thought of the scenario which might play out. He knew Nick had taken a sample of the drug. But it could be anywhere in the lab. Where better to hide something than amongst loads of similar items. He might even have taken the small sample home. It was probably hidden in amongst those small vials on Nick’s bench, but there were hundreds of them and Nick had no doubt given it an identifier to make it look like one of his own, marked up in a way which was known only to Nick. So without destroying the whole lot of samples, there wasn’t much he could do about that. But say Nick worked out what he’d been doing, without the evidence of samples in Zac’s fume-hood what could he do about it? He needed evidence. After this evening, the only person with a sample of illegal PCP would be Nick. Zac sat at his desk and smiled.

  ‘Oh Nick,’ he said to the empty office area, ‘you have no idea what a can of worms you are about to open.’

  Chapter 23

  Over at Persford Hospital, the nursing staff were busy patching up Wayne. They’d put a couple of stitches in his head wound and he was waiting for an X-ray to check his ribs. Once that had been done he would be taken to Bank Street police station for questioning. PC Stef Billings was waiting with PC Dave Martin so that Wayne would not be left alone. They were aware that Wayne might try to scarper and order a taxi to pick him up. A welcome cup of tea had been brought to them by a young nurse in the A & E department. It was now 2 a.m. and both officers were looking tired and starting to fidget.

  ‘Hopefully not long now,’ said Dave to his colleague.

  ‘Good,’ she replied, ‘I find hospitals so depressing and it’s so hot in here with all our gear on.’

  Wayne appeared to have dozed off to sleep now, presumably the painkillers were having an effect. What a waste of a life, thought Dave, looking over to the sleeping dishevelled figure on the trolley next to him. He’d had a life of petty crime which started at school and resulted in him being expelled. Then had followed some car crime and dealing in stolen goods and a few years ago he had branched into drug dealing. Wayne had dabbled in drugs some years ago but remarkably he seemed to have got his habit under control now. However, he’d moved up the pecking order to the next rung and had allowed himself to become a pawn in some drug dealer’s empire. They were the real bastards they needed to catch, take them out of the equation and Wayne’s empire would also collapse. However, Wayne was an enterprising criminal and he would no doubt move on to some other nefarious enterprise.

  An orderly arrived with a wheelchair and Wayne’s dreams were interrupted as he was needed in X-ray. PC Martin offered to go along, leaving Stef to relax, as much as the upright plastic chair would allow. Dave felt like stretching his legs, hopefully, it would dispel the feeling of lethargy which was starting to overwhelm him. Then once the doctor had seen Wayne they would hopefully be on their way back to the station. Suddenly the lights along the corridor dipped and there was a huge crash of thunder. The storm which had been threatening all evening had broken. PC Burns was glad it had held off whilst they were picking up Wayne otherwise they would have been drenched. He was surprised the storm had held off so long, the air had seemed so heavy and oppressive. Perhaps it would feel fresher when they did emerge into the outside world. He remembered the rule about counting the number of seconds between the flash and the thunder, it was an indication of how near the centre of the storm was and whether it was approaching or receding. As they walked down the corridor he could see the flashes lighting up the night sky through the windows. He counted up to seven then there was an almighty thunderclap, that indicated the centre of the storm was a distance away, possibly over towards the centre of Persford. PC Martin just hoped the roads wouldn’t be flooded on the way back to the station.

  **

  Zac was having a sleepless night. The thunderstorm had awoken him several times and even when it passed over his mind was churning through recent events making sleep almost impossible. He’d tried contacting the person he knew only as Cole but there was no response. He’d bought a pay as you go mobile for his extra work as he didn’t want any calls associated with his registered mobile. At some point in the future when this business was at an end, this phone and SIM card would be ditched. Zac thought that this might have to be his last synthesis at BioQex, after all, he might not need any
more money. When he got payment it should pay off the credit card bill for work on his car. It was all becoming too stressful, whatever happened he would make sure he had a break for a while. Cole would just have to accept that.

  He was just getting ready for work when his mobile rang. Fortunately, he was in his bedroom so his brother didn’t hear. This additional mobile was unknown to his brother, he knew his normal ringtone on his smartphone. He answered keeping his voice down.

  ‘Zac, my boy, you’ve been trying to get hold of me,’ said Cole, his voice oozing confidence and charm.

  ‘Yes, why didn’t you answer last night?’ asked Zac moodily.

  ‘Well I’m a busy man, got lots of people to see, you know how it is,’ he replied completely unconcerned.

  ‘Well I’ve had a sleepless night, and I’m not feeling in the best of moods,’ snapped Zac.

  ‘I hope it was a lovely lady giving you a sleepless night,’ chuckled Cole.

  ‘Very funny, we need to talk business and I need to get to work and do my proper job.’

  ‘Go ahead, as I said I’m a busy man myself. I hope you have some good news for me.’

  ‘I certainly do. The material you want is all ready for you. In fact, I’ve got a bit more than I anticipated, so we need to negotiate my payment,’ said Zac.

  ‘Well you are indeed efficient, my boy,’ enthused Cole, ‘how much extra are we talking about?’

  Zac’s additional material was the extra batch he’d dried quickly on Monday evening. He’d given it two hours in the oven at slightly higher temperature than normal but he’d not had time to recheck the purity. He was just assuming it would be OK and all the solvent should have been removed. When he’d examined it after the drying process it looked fine, just a bit more crunchy than the free-flowing powder of the first batch, but he’d bagged it up and when compared with the other batch it looked virtually identical.

  ‘I’ve got approximately thirty percent more than we agreed. So I expect pro-rata payment.’

  ‘Well, I think we can manage that, no problem. You’ve done a very good job with this, I must say I’m impressed. Will you be ready to do another batch in about a month do you think?’

  ‘Er, well this is something we need to discuss, there might be a slight issue.’ All had gone quiet down the other end of the phone, Zac started to feel nervous. ‘Are you still there,’ he asked.

  ‘I’m still here,’ replied Cole ‘but I can feel my cheerful mood dissipating, I don’t like issues as you call them.’

  Zac could feel his palms starting to sweat.

  ‘I don’t think it’s too serious, but I’m going to need your help.’

  ‘I’m not liking the sound of this, you are supposed to be helping me, not the other way round. I hope you’ve not been careless?’

  Cole’s voice had changed from the cheerful charming smooth talking businessman to someone radiating menace.

  ‘I think someone suspects me and he needs to be taken out of the equation,’ said Zac with a slight tremble in his voice.

  ‘I told you to be careful!’ spat Cole, ‘now you sound like a fucking amateur!’

  ‘I have been careful but I can’t pick my colleagues and I just happen to have been lumbered with a particularly nosy one. I’ve made sure there’s nothing to find, so if he does go to the senior people he’ll just make a fool of himself, but I would prefer it if we don’t get to that stage. He needs to be silenced before he can shop me.’

  ‘Well I hope you are right, there’s no point in arguing this with you I suppose, we need to sort this guy out before he makes matters very difficult for both of us. I assume you need me to contact my boys?’

  ‘Yes, and we need to make sure it’s not suspicious. He’s Mr Goody Goody, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink that much from what I can tell, steady girlfriend doesn’t do drugs. I think he lives in quite a smart area so it’s unlikely he’d be mugged on the way home.’

  ‘What do you suggest?’ asked Cole.

  ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about this. I’m sure he’d be keen to know more about me, he keeps asking questions about my private life. So I thought I’d arrange to have a drink with him one evening, what about Wednesday? I’ll choose somewhere he’s not likely to have been. On the way back I’ll lead him down an alleyway and we will both be victims of a mugging. I will also get beaten up, but not seriously. But Nick will receive the full force of your boys and you must make sure he’s robbed at the same time.’

  ‘You’ve certainly been giving this some thought. I think I know just the chaps to help you out.’ Cole seemed to have calmed down now that they had worked out a solution. ‘When you get your colleague to agree to drinks, text me to let me know where and what time you are likely to be leaving the pub and the route you are taking etc., and leave the rest up to Pinky and Perky shall we call them?’ and Cole chuckled down the line.

  ‘OK, I’ll be in touch,’ said Zac, ‘and we need to arrange transfer of the material. I assume you want to collect it yourself sometime?’

  ‘Of course, don’t give it to my boys, it needs to be handed directly to me, I’ll arrange a time and a date and get back to you,’ and with that, he was gone.

  Zac breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on his bed. He was hot and sweaty from that stressful phone call, his armpits wet. He gave himself an extra spray of deodorant and swapped his shirt he’d only had on for a few minutes for a clean one. He looked at his watch, ‘shit’ he said to himself, that call had taken longer than he expected and now the traffic would have built up. At least it had stopped raining now, the storm last night had been extremely violent, the lights in the flat had flickered a few times, he was worried about the power going off altogether. He’d heard sirens at about 2 a.m. which sounded like fire engines, perhaps some houses or flats had started to flood and were being pumped out.

  He gathered his things for work. He was a bit worried about leaving the drugs in his bedroom but they were well hidden and hopefully, Cole would be in touch soon for the handover. Even if Nick said something, the police would need evidence at work before they decided to investigate. He would have a warning before there was any search at his flat. He was sure he was OK for at least a couple of days and by then Nick wouldn’t be on the scene. Oh how I’ll miss your beady eyes, Nick, he said to himself.

  Chapter 24

  Wayne Roberts was safely incarcerated in a cell in Bank Street police station and had just been handed breakfast. He was fast asleep when the custody sergeant took it into him. It must be that bang on the head thought the police officer.

  ‘Room service,’ he shouted to Wayne as he put the tray down. ‘Hope you give us a good review on Trip Advisor. It must be good here, it’s not your first visit is it?’ and he banged the cell door loudly as he left.

  Wayne struggled to an upright position, his head hurt like hell and his ribs weren’t much better. He hoped they would find a good solicitor for him, after all, he had form and his list of offences must be filling a thick folder by now he thought. Despite his aches and pains, he wasn’t too ill to make short work of his breakfast. He’d definitely had worse, this meal was surprisingly tasty and not costing him a penny. He felt like shouting for a refill of tea but sensibly concluded that would be pushing his luck.

  **

  Upstairs PC Dave Martin and PC Stef Billings were about to go off shift so they were updating their Sergeant, Donna Peters with the events of the evening.

  ‘So, if it isn’t our old friend Wayne Roberts,’ sighed Sergeant Peters. ‘What can we do with that guy, he’s an habitual criminal. I am sick of the sight of him.’

  ‘Yes, well he was lucky last night that he didn’t fare even worse. It seems some witnesses appeared when they heard the shouting and his assailants fled, luckily for Wayne before they had a chance to really give him a going over.’

  ‘So what was the motive for the attack?’ asked Donna.

  ‘Not completely clear from what Wayne’s said so far, he was asleep most of the time at
the hospital and made it quite clear he wasn’t going to speak without a solicitor. But it’s clearly drug related, we’ve submitted the foil squares we found at the scene. Forensics should find some prints and they can analyse what’s in the packets.’

  ‘Yes, well I guess he’s used to the system by now,’ joked Sergeant Peters. ‘I’ll get a duty solicitor organised then I’ll interview him,’ she looked at her watch. ‘Time for you two to sign off now, you can find out what our friend Wayne said when you come in this evening.’

  ‘OK, sergeant, thanks,’ and both Dave and Stef left the room.

  ‘I need my bed now,’ said Stef, ‘I think it’s that trip to the hospital last night which has tired me out, they always have that effect on me.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ added Dave, ‘at least we weren’t called up there to deal with some drunks abusing the medical staff, I’ve had a few of those visits recently.’

  He stretched and yawned, ‘OK, well get some rest and I’ll see you back here this evening. At least that will be the last evening shift for a couple of days.’

  Sergeant Peters took a call to say the duty solicitor would be here at about 10 a.m. So she had a couple of hours before having to look that awful Wayne in the face. I wonder what excuse he’ll come up with this time she said to herself.

  Chapter 25

  It was after 9 a.m. when Zac turned into the car park at BioQex. He’d had a frustrating journey to work, he was later than usual so he got caught in the schools’ traffic and general rush hour mayhem. It was all made worse by the fact that the storm last night had taken out a couple of sets of traffic lights and as they were at main junctions the traffic police had stepped in thus causing horrendous tailbacks. The car park seemed rather emptier than usual so presumably, he wasn’t the only one who was having a bad journey to work.