The Cassandra Complex - Brian Stableford [15]
Lisa suppressed a curse and managed to sound completely neutral as she said: “Which was?”
“The abduction of Dr. Morgan Miller,” the chief inspector informed her.
FOUR
You might have done better to go to that crime scene rather than this one, given that you’re familiar with his house,” the chief inspector went on while Lisa struggled to absorb the news. “As I said, DI Grundy seems to have acted rather recklessly in bringing you here without waiting to get a better view of the whole picture. You might still be able to advise the investigating officers as to what has been taken from Dr. Miller’s house, but it’s too late now to think of sending you over there before the MOD team arrives. The intruders destroyed his main homestation, just as they smashed yours, but they seem to have removed at least one obsolete machine. They haven’t taken all his sequins, wafers, and diskettes—but that’s probably because they’d have needed a van to transport them in.”
“Abduction?” Lisa echoed, still fixated on the first sentence of Kenna’s little speech. “Morgan’s been kidnapped?”
“I very much doubt that they intend to hold him for ransom,” the younger woman replied insouciantly. “I think it’s far more likely that they want him to tell them something before they kill him, don’t you? I don’t suppose that by any chance you have any idea of what it is they want to know?”
“No,” said Lisa shortly, then realized she’d been wrong-footed again.
“Well,” Kenna said, relishing the carefully hoarded line, “you obviously didn’t know him quite as well as you thought you did. And he evidently didn’t confide in you quite as much as the people who went after him thought he did. Mr. Smith will be disappointed.”
“Who’s Mr. Smith?” was the only counter Lisa could improvise.
“Peter Grimmett Smith is the MOD man who’ll be taking charge of the investigation. He’ll be working closely with us, of course. I daresay he’ll find plenty for DI Grundy to do. I’m not so sure that we’ll need much more from you once you’ve been debriefed, though—unless you can exercise your memory sufficiently to remember some little secret you and Dr. Miller might have kept between you. One that might help to explain four firebombs, two burglaries, two cases of malicious wounding, and an abduction.” The professional smile had vanished now.
It hadn’t occurred to Lisa until the conversation reached that pitch of sarcasm that Judith Kenna might honestly believe that she was concealing something. Nor had it occurred to her that the dislike Kenna had never tried to conceal might run deeper than mere irritation and ageism prejudice—but she considered the hypothesis now.
Twenty years ago, Judith Kenna had served a brief term as one of Mike Grundy’s sergeants, and now she was his boss. Kenna had guessed, of course, that Mike must have told Lisa that he had screwed her way back when, but however embarrassed the chief inspector might be about that particular little secret, it surely wasn’t grounds for a serious hate campaign. Kenna had doubtless also guessed that while Mike had been sleeping on Lisa’s couch following the breakup of his marriage, he hadn’t always stayed on the couch—but what difference did that make? Lisa couldn’t believe that mere jealousy was a factor—but if not jealousy, what? Was it just that Lisa wouldn’t play ball when Kenna had begun trying to hasten her toward retirement? Or was it just that Kenna’s ego was so insecure that she didn’t want to have anyone around who was older, wiser, and independent-minded?
Knowing that she had to say something, Lisa eventually said: “If there was any secret, it was between Morgan and Ed Burdillon. Are you sure he’s been abducted?”
“Of course not,” the chief inspector replied. “There are signs of a struggle, but that would be easy enough to fake. Are you suggesting that Morgan Miller might be the man behind all this—the one who sent bombers to the university and burglars