Free Altered Egos by Bill Kitson Page A

based on vague assertionsfrom a junior army officer.’
    ‘What was his reaction to that?’
    ‘He said he was going to ring God and tell her what he’d told me. Said he felt sure she’d be more cooperative. So I told him to go ahead, but I nipped in to see her before he had chance. My instructions from Gloria are, “Continue to pursue the investigation and don’t let anything or anybody get in your way”. I don’t think she likes being threatened any more than I do.’
    ‘That’s the best news I’ve had today, and it confirms my suspicion that there’s more to this case than meets the eye: much more.’ He went on to tell her about the message from the FBI. ‘As a result of what we’ve learned, I’m going to treat the Gorton house fire as a suspicious death, and accordingly we’ll be investigating three murders instead of one.’
    ‘Any ideas how you’re going to proceed, given that you’ve so little hard evidence?’
    ‘I’ve a couple of thoughts that I’m going to get Clara and Viv working on.’ He explained them before adding, ‘I know it’s a long shot, but that’s about all we have.’
    ‘Go to it. Keep me posted. And if you get any further attempts to obstruct your investigation I expect you to take a hard line.’
    Nash put the phone down. It seemed as if the attempt to block their inquiry had only succeeded in putting Ruth’s back up, which suited him fine. He looked up to see Pearce hovering in the doorway. ‘I’ve trawled the internet,’ Viv told him. ‘I couldn’t find anything relating to Richard North, not our Richard North anyway. There’s a Canadian novelist and a New Zealand academic whose speciality is Maori culture, but that’s all. Oh, and I’ve a message for you. Doug Curran wants a word. He said it’s about the Gorton fire.’
    ‘OK, I’ll ring him. You’d better come in. We’ll go about finding North another way.’
    Nash picked up the phone. ‘Doug, you wanted a word?’ He listened for a few moments. ‘That’s interesting, very interesting indeed. Does it mean what I think it means?’
    Nash stared at the file on his desk. He looked up. ‘Curran’s just told me their forensics people had another look at the seatof the blaze at the house near Gorton. They found several more pieces of tubular plastic on the kitchen floor, some of them melted, some of them intact. Somebody wasn’t as careful about covering their tracks as they should have been.’
    Pearce frowned. ‘What do you mean, tubular plastic?’
    ‘The outer layer that insulates electric cables. Somebody stripped down the cables, leaving the wiring exposed. Then they located it close to a collection of highly inflammable cleaning products; they’d been placed on a worktop next to the cooker. Tell me who in their right mind stacks cleaning stuff next to a heat source as powerful as an electric range cooker. All the killer had to do was switch the mains power back on and leave the building. Now, as to Dr North,’ Nash explained what he wanted. ‘Let’s hope we meet with more success doing it this way round.’ He paused and added, ‘Let’s face it, we couldn’t have any less.’

    The course of action Nash had set in motion yielded fruit next day. Pearce was first to report. ‘I found details of a Richard North, who was a student at Leeds Grammar School. He meets all our criteria regarding age. The dates he was at the school and the timing of his examination results fit our man perfectly.’ He passed Nash the information.
    Clara came in with more news. ‘Following up on what Viv found, I discovered he went on to Leeds University, was there four years, graduated with honours; then went on to do postgraduate studies. He was sponsored by an American company. He got his doctorate and went to work for them in California.’
    ‘Doing what, precisely?’
    ‘His degree and doctorate were in chemistry and microbiology. I checked the firm he worked for, the one that paid for his postgrad work.