DCI Isaac Cook Box Set 1, стр. 359

Isaac knew the future for Gwen Barrow and her daughter would be troubled.

Back in the office, Isaac had no time to dwell on such matters. Malcolm Woolston had been identified by his daughter who had seen him several times as a homeless man, once in his more recent guise. Both the women needed protection. Isaac organised two uniforms to be placed close to their respective houses, and for police cars to patrol their neighbourhoods. Not that they were total protection, and if the man could change from homeless to casual respectable, he could transform yet again. His motives were still unclear, although the research department seemed to be the key location.

Isaac and Larry drove out there again. It was not the most attractive building in London, Isaac would admit that, but inside it was state of the art. Sue Christie met them on arrival, accorded them a warm welcome, showed them around. They saw where Woolston had worked years before, but as she said, back then it wasn’t as good as they saw it now.

‘What about the staff?’ Isaac asked. ‘Any from that period?’

‘There’s one or two, but Helen Toogood is probably the person to talk to.’

Ed Barrow was not in the building, which suited Isaac fine. And besides, he didn’t trust him. It was clear that Gwen Barrow relied on him heavily, and that his stepdaughter had shown a fondness for him, but the man wasn’t clean yet.

Isaac and Larry were sitting in one of the laboratories when Helen Toogood entered. The two men stood and shook her hand. She was a small woman, not up to Isaac’s shoulder, with a timid voice. She sat down; her hands were folded across her front, almost in a defensive mode.

‘Mrs Toogood, you were here when Malcolm Woolston disappeared, is that correct?’

‘Very sad, very sad,’ she said.

‘What can you tell us about him?’

‘Without him our research floundered.’

‘What were you researching?’

‘Low-cost energy. The ability to generate vast quantities of energy for minimal cost.’

‘Has that research finished?’

‘We still work on it, but we’ve not solved some fundamental problems.’

‘What problems? And please, we’re not technical people.’

‘The energy we could produce was unstable, as well as difficulties with the directional controls of the beam from the solar collectors in low-level orbit. Instead of solar panels on earth, we’d place them in space. It’s extremely complicated, and it requires men of Malcolm’s genius to solve the outstanding problems. More likely to blow up than drive a turbine.’

‘This beam, is it dangerous?’ Isaac asked.

‘Not really, it’s microwave. Laser rays from space are for science fiction. If a bird flew over the ground-based receiver, it may have been fried.’

‘Could it have become a weapon?’

‘The energy could be channelled for that purpose. That wasn’t our area of research, though.’

‘And you needed Malcolm Woolston to provide the solution to the outstanding issues?’

‘It’s always been too expensive, and then the directional control has been complex, but Malcolm had solved both issues.’

‘Complicated?’

‘It needed a genius-level intellect. The formulation, the technical expertise required was beyond me.’

‘Did it take a lot of space?’

‘For generating large-scale electricity, although a condensed version could have been put on a missile. As I said, the solution was with Malcolm. He could have completed it, but we’ve not been able to emulate his results, and we have access to much more powerful computers.’

‘Does a lot of your research produce results as dramatic?’

‘Not really, but if you can produce energy, you can produce destruction. Basic physics. It was straightforward for Malcolm; for us, it became too complicated, and then he disappeared. One day he’s here, the next he’s gone. And then, a few weeks afterwards, he’s dead.’

‘What was the reaction here when he died?’

‘We were shocked, I can tell you that.’

Isaac could see that the woman spent too much time in a laboratory. Her skin was pallid, her hair tied back in an unfashionably severe style. On her feet, she wore sensible shoes, which made sense, as he had noticed that the tiled floor was slippery, apart from the rubber mats placed at strategic points. He did not like the place; it reminded him of the science department at his old school.

‘How did it affect the project he was working on?’

‘They expected us to carry on without him, but it was not possible. Malcolm was the genius, not us. In the end, we put it to one side.’

‘The project was shelved?’

‘We’ve never been able to solve what Malcolm was working on. And now, it’s not so relevant.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Back then, it was coal and oil-fired power stations, fuel-guzzling cars.’

‘And now?’

‘Earth-based solutions have improved, although the energy from space remains viable. And besides, the budget’s not there anymore. Everything’s incredibly expensive, and without money there’s not much we can do, except theorise.’

‘Would the money have been available for Malcolm Woolston?’

‘Oh, yes. I used to see them with Ed Barrow.’

‘Who?’

‘The men with the money.’

‘Do you know who they were?’

‘I know one of them was an army man.’

‘Others?’

‘Just before Malcolm disappeared there were a few.’

‘Military?’

‘That’s what I think.’

‘Would you remember who they were?’

‘I was never introduced.’

‘I’ve a photo. Could you please look at it and tell me if you know this man?’

Isaac withdrew from his pocket two of the photos that Larry had found at Arbuthnot’s. He showed them to Helen Toogood. She studied the first, a quick reply. ‘That’s Harold Hutton,’ she said.

‘We’re aware that he was here on a regular basis.’

‘He’s dead. I read about it. Supposedly he was murdered.’

‘He was,’ Larry said.

‘And the other?’ Isaac asked.

The woman took out a magnifying glass from the pocket of her lab coat. She moved it up and down