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Once Detective Sergeant Andy Walters had returned to the interview room the solicitor reminded the police that they had now been interviewing his client for over four hours albeit with breaks, and he was requesting that they adjourned for the night and resumed tomorrow. He also requested that his client should be released, he hadn’t been charged and he would willingly help them with their enquiries after a night’s sleep.
‘Mr Chamberlain, I would like to continue for a maximum of another thirty minutes and then we will finish for the evening. Is that acceptable?’
The solicitor conferred with Nick and they both nodded.
‘I’ve just thought of something which may be relevant,’ said Nick before the police could start with their questions.
‘Excellent, please go ahead Mr Thomas.’
‘When we were at the National Trust place, we went to the cafe, just for tea as we’d taken a picnic, and I left my sunglasses on the table. We noticed about ten minutes later while we were wandering around the herb garden so I jogged back to see if they were still there. Someone had handed them in and I asked at the till and the young girl handed them over. I’m sure they will remember it if you phone them. That proves I was there and not in the library,’ he added excitedly.
‘Thank you I’ve made a note of that and we will phone them tomorrow, now I’d like to ask you about the data you had in your flat. How did those printouts manage to get from BioQex to your flat?’
Nick took a deep breath and said, ‘I went in to collect them on Sunday evening.’
‘How did you get there, drive yourself? Taxi?’
‘I got a lift,’ replied Nick.
‘From your girlfriend?’
‘No, someone else.’
‘Mr Thomas, the sooner we get through this the sooner we can call it a day,’ and Andy raised his eyebrows hopefully at his interviewee.
‘I got a lift with Mark Jameson, our security guard. He let me into the building,’ said Nick, realising that he might as well tell them the whole details. It might make them look more favourably on him.
‘Why did you ask him, Mr Thomas?’
‘Because he could get the keys and let me in and he knows the code to the alarm system.’
‘Interesting, well we will need to have a little chat with your accomplice.’
‘He’s not my accomplice, I haven’t committed a crime. I was going to retrieve my own data as I needed it as evidence against Zac Milburn. We’ve been through this so many times,’ and with that Nick put his head down on the table.
‘Detective Walters, my client is exhausted, he’s been very forthcoming with the information, he’s recovering from a nasty assault. He’s in pain, you are being most inconsiderate. I urge you to halt this interview now, otherwise, I will be submitting a complaint.’
‘Interview terminated at 20.23 p.m.’ said Andy Walters. ‘Mr Thomas you will now have a chance to rest. You will spend tonight in a cell at this police station. We cannot risk you contacting the person you have just named. We will continue this interview tomorrow morning.’
‘What?’ screamed Nick, ‘you can’t keep me here, I’ve done nothing wrong!’ He started to get up from the table at which point the uniformed officer who had been sitting by the door throughout the interview went over to Nick and held him by the arm. The detective opened the door to request assistance to take Nick down to a cell overnight. The formal interview was over but they had further work to do. They needed to look up this Mark Jameson’s address and details and make a decision whether to bring him in tonight or wait until tomorrow.
**
Polly burst into tears when she received the call to tell her that Nick was being held overnight. How could that be possible? She’d read on the web that after tomorrow afternoon they would have to charge him or apply to a magistrate for more time to question him. Surely by then, they would have realised he was innocent. Her mother was thankfully staying with her overnight. They would soon have to phone her father to tell him the bad news. She didn’t like to phone Matt so late but she felt he would want to know so she scrolled through her contacts and made the call.
**
Cole had heard on the grapevine that the police had raided BioQex and it was on the local websites. It was bad news and meant that his supply from that particular source would now be curtailed. It looked as though Zac had been careless. Stupid boy he thought, he’d seemed so promising. A few weeks ago Cole imagined that he’d found a rich seam he could tap whenever he wanted. Zac had told him he was taking a break and on Thursday he’d not argued with him but he knew how to deal with people like that. They all made the same mistake of thinking they called the shots. How wrong they were, Cole was in charge and it was very dangerous to hold views to the contrary. It was late but in his line of work you didn’t go to bed early, nor did his employees. His call was answered on the second ring.
‘It’s time,’ he said quietly. ‘Tonight, we can’t risk it any longer,’ and he disconnected the call. He poured himself a large vodka. One door closes another door opens. Time to plan ahead. This was just a minor problem, he always found a solution.
