Palindrome Read online

  “Do you know exactly what work she was doing there?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll never get anywhere at this rate,” Brook said in frustration.

  “Palmer has always had an interest in palindromes,” Gabriel offered. “It’s likely that she was working on something to do with them.”

  “What are they when they’re at home?”

  “They’re sequences of DNA that read the same forwards as backwards. He’s always believed they play a role in cancer cell proliferation.”

  “And is he right?”

  “He might be but his hypothesis is somewhat controversial and not proven,” Gabriel replied carefully. “That doesn’t mean to say he isn’t right. Most people believe that cancer is a multistep process and that it’s not caused by one specific factor.”

  “Do you know what Dr Taylor thought about palindromes?”

  “No.”

  “It seems to me that’s the sort of thing I need to know if I’m to discover what happened to her. I need to know exactly what she was doing at Nebotec, whether she had problems, whether she fitted in there. But I’ve no hope of understanding all this scientific talk about cancer.”

  “I appreciate your difficulty,” Gabriel said, somewhat relieved to be no longer the focus of the inspector’s suspicions. “I’m happy to help you in any way I can on that score. Perhaps you could fill me in a little more about what actually happened.” He smiled a little apologetically before adding, “I used to do some forensic work in London, mostly coroner’s autopsies, when I was younger and needed the cash. I even considered it as a career.”

  “Why didn’t you pursue it?”

  “I decided there wasn’t enough room for Nick Grant and me in the same game. I presume you know him?”

  Brook nodded.

  “I spoke to Nick before telephoning you today. Anyway, what I remember from those days is that it helps to know all the details of the case before giving an opinion.” Brook remained silent and Gabriel smiled. “I can see why you might not want to tell me but I’ll probably find out what I want to know from Nick anyway. He’s bound to discuss the case with me.”

  Brook nodded again ever so slightly. He seemed to take a moment to consider his options before, taking Gabriel somewhat by surprise, he replied in a cold detached voice.

  “Anna Taylor was murdered in her office at the Nebotec research laboratories between 5.00 and 6.00 on the evening of Tuesday the sixteenth. Her throat was cut from behind while she was sitting in front of her microscope. The murderer must have struck suddenly or been known to her as there are no signs of a struggle. We’ve no clues as to the identity of the murderer. There are no fingerprints and we guess the murderer must have worn gloves.”

  “Was there anyone else in the building?”

  “I’ll come to that later,” he answered, pausing a second before continuing, “There was a broken window in a store room located down the corridor from where the victim was found. It’s assumed that’s how the murderer entered the building. The window was open but no blood was found in Dr Taylor’s office or outside, in the corridor leading to it. None at all.”

  “Was anything taken?”

  “Dr Taylor’s purse was found — empty — outside the lab, near the cycle track. A thin gold necklace and Dr Taylor’s wedding ring are missing as well.”

  Brook paused.

  “From what you’re saying it sounds as if robbery was the most likely motive,” Gabriel said.

  “I agree. On the face of it that seems likely, but I’m trying to keep an open mind. There have been previous reports of breaking and entering at other premises on that business park but not at Nebotec. The Animal Rights brigade has written threatening letters to Nebotec. They deny any involvement but we haven’t ruled them out, just as we haven’t ruled out plain robbery. From what we understand, Dr Taylor wasn’t in the habit of carrying large amounts of money around with her. Of course, the murderer wouldn’t have known that. Some druggie from Oxford might have suddenly thought it a good idea to try and rob her. Made her turn round and then cut her throat. They don’t think straight these people and their attempted thefts can go wrong. The taking of Dr Taylor’s purse and necklace would go along with that. But I’m not sure it’s that simple.”

  “Why is that?”

  Brook ignored Gabriel’s question. “Of course, common things occur commonly, and theft and murder often go together. I need hardly tell you we’ve had reports from all round the country about known villains who fit this sort of crime. We’re checking them out now.”

  Brook paused while Gabriel’s secretary brought in two mugs of coffee on a tray which she put on the desk. The Inspector looked pleased to be treated as a guest. He added his own milk and two sugars. The two men drank for a moment in silence.

  Gabriel was impressed by Brook. The plain way he described what happened and his initial doubts about an easy explanation identified him as someone whose judgement he could respect.

  “What puzzles me,” Brook said, between sips, “is that it’s not exactly clear that the murderer got in and out of the building through the store room. Let alone managed it without being spotted. Some big shards and a lot of smaller pieces of glass were found inside the store room. But forensics found a few tiny fragments outside as well; so we haven’t ruled out the possibility that the window was broken deliberately from the inside to make it look as if that was how someone got in. The ground is concrete outside the window so there are no footprints leading up to or away from it.”

  “Surely, there must have been a security system in operation.”

  “Yes, of course. There’s a swipe card system which allows entry into and exit from the research laboratory building. During office hours there is a receptionist at the door. A private security firm provides cover after that time for the whole business park, including the Nebotec labs. Dr Taylor, like a lot of people who work in buildings where they use swipe cards, wore hers around her neck. The murderer used it to leave the building. It was missing when we found her body.”

  “Were there any other people present in the Nebotec building at the time Dr Taylor was murdered?”

  “We’re not sure because we can’t exactly say when she was murdered. Most of the staff say they left before 5.00. We’re busy corroborating their statements.”

  “What about Taylor and Palmer?”

  “Palmer wasn’t there. He left by car before 4.00 to return to his college before catching the bus to Heathrow from Gloucester Green. He caught a 7.30 pm flight to Edinburgh where he attended a cancer conference the following day.”

  “And Taylor?”

  “Dr Taylor says he last saw his wife alive in her office just before 4.30. He spent the time between then and 5.30 entering experimental data on a computer in the lab before walking over to the office of a Mr Hewitt — he’s the CEO of the firm — to give him some papers. The management is in a separate building at Nebotec. Hewitt has confirmed that Taylor arrived at his office around 5.30. He handed him some papers, spent about a quarter of an hour or so explaining some details in them, and then left. After that he walked over to the animal house where he checked on the condition of some lab animals. He can’t be sure whether he saw anyone in the car park. These business parks are quite big; although they’re lit along the main roads, there’s hardly any lighting beyond that. It was a dark night, misty too, and you couldn’t see much. It’s almost as if the murderer knew that.

  “Taylor re-entered the research lab through a security door that links it with the animal house. He says he got back at about 6.00 and that all the lights were switched on there. He walked round to his wife’s office and that’s where he found her slumped over the microscope. He touched her and his hands were covered in blood. That’s when he realised what had happened.

  “He doesn’t remember much after that. He said he wasn’t sure what to do. He went outside to see if anyone was there. He says he saw nothing. Then he ran over to Hewitt’s office. Hewitt said that there
was blood on his hands and he seemed to be out of his mind. He rang the police and our men got there about a quarter of an hour later.”

  “Were there any fingerprints or useful DNA traces?” Gabriel asked.

  “I haven’t got a DNA report back from forensics yet, but as for fingerprints, there were plenty of Taylor’s. On the door, the furniture, on the body itself. But there were also smudges of blood that were probably made with a gloved hand.”

  “And they were the murderer’s?”

  “Almost certainly. They’d been made before Taylor made his as Taylor’s prints were superimposed over some of the gloved prints.”

  Gabriel was silent for a moment before he spoke again. “The papers Taylor delivered to Hewitt. What exactly were they?”

  “They contained results that had to be included in a presentation to a meeting of the firm’s backers in the US over the weekend.”

  “And the swipe card system used?”

  “It doesn’t identify individuals. It just permits general access to the research building, although apparently some cards that open the door to the animal facility were only given to selected research staff.”

  Gabriel remained silent.

  Brook shrugged his great shoulders. “The thing is it’s not clear cut. It doesn’t seem to add up to either one thing or another. It could be a robbery that went wrong — that’s what it looks like on the surface — but some details don’t square with that. I told you that that there were no bloody footprints outside Dr Taylor’s office. The murderer actually had the foresight to wear size 12 boots in the office then take them off outside before making his getaway. That kind of elaborate preparation would go more with murder than just plain robbery.”

  “Do you have any idea what kind of knife was used as the murder weapon?” Gabriel asked.

  Brook hesitated a little before replying. “What good questions you ask. No, we don’t. It must have been very sharp, looking at the wound. It took just a single slash to kill Dr Taylor. Most ordinary kitchen knives aren’t that sharp. That’s what Grant says anyway.”

  Gabriel nodded.

  “Was anything else found?”

  “Nothing apart from Dr Taylor’s purse. We found it just outside the Nebotec site, near a dirt cycle track that leads to Oxford.”

  “Nothing else?”

  Brook shook his head. “We’ve not found the murder weapon if that’s what you mean. It could have been thrown into a stream that runs by the cycle track. It’s a branch of the Cherwell. We’ve sent the divers in to see if they can find anything. Even if they do, there’s little hope that forensics will be able to trace it back to anybody”

  “How many others work in the pathology laboratory?”

  “Two laboratory technicians. They both left about 5.00 or earlier. We’ve confirmed that and we’re checking their subsequent movements.”

  “So you’ve no obvious suspect?”

  “That’s right. As far as we know, the only people who were still at Nebotec at about the time the murder was committed were Taylor and Hewitt. Of course, any member of staff who’d left the Nebotec site could have returned and committed the murder. And then there’s the possibility — possible, despite the inconsistencies — that there was an intruder and that this is just a burglary gone wrong. There’s no other obvious motive. Strictly speaking, anyone who could have got into that building between 5.00 and 6.00 could have committed the murder.”

  “You don’t suspect Matt Taylor or Hewitt then?” asked Gabriel.

  “I’ve no real case against either of them. Hewitt says he didn’t leave his office all afternoon. A record of his phone calls seems to back that up. As for the husband, he’s been consistent all along in his account of what happened that evening. He says his wife was happy working at Nebotec. Of course, your letter makes me think again about that. Even so, it’s difficult to see how he could have stabbed his wife to death then somehow managed to get rid of her ring and necklace, which were not found on him, let alone the gloves and boots he must have worn. Unless he had help, of course...” Brook leaned back in his chair and straightened his legs again. “It doesn’t add up and I’ve precious few clues to work with at the moment, Professor Gabriel.”

  There was a brief silence before Gabriel spoke.

  “It sounds as if your work is not too different from mine.”

  “Then you’ll know how frustrating it is when you don’t have all the facts or feel you can’t get at them. It really doesn’t help that I’ve no idea what goes on at Nebotec. I’m hoping that we’ll get some DNA evidence to check against our database of criminals.” Brook shifted gear. “Can you think of anyone in your department here at the hospital who would bear a grudge against Anna Taylor or who might profit from her murder?”

  Gabriel shook his head. “No one. You can ask the others here but I’m sure they’ll say the same,”

  Brook looked around Gabriel’s office. “You say your work is similar to mine?”

  “Well, not exactly,” said Gabriel, “but I often have to decide what a tumour is on the basis of certain clues — the clinical history, X-rays, other imaging, lab tests and, of course, what it looks like down here.” He pointed to the microscope on a bench behind him. “Experience helps, as I imagine it does in your game.”

  “How do you mean?” Brook asked, genuinely curious.

  “Well, as you said, common things occur commonly. The diagnosis is usually bloody obvious then. But there are times when it’s not that easy and you struggle to figure out the diagnosis. Sometimes you surprise the surgeon with it.”

  Brook raised his eyebrows. “And does he always believe you?”

  “He has to. What you see down here,” he pointed to the microscope, “doesn’t lie. You just need the experience to recognise it.”

  “And do you ever get it wrong?”

  Gabriel smiled. “Do you?”

  Brook hesitated then gave a barely perceptible nod.

  “We don’t mean to, of course. Sometimes the evidence points in the wrong direction.”

  “It’s the same for me.” Gabriel sighed. “You can only report what you see.”

  Brook stood up.

  “Goodbye, sir. I enjoyed our little chat. Ring me any time, any time at all, if you have any information.” He scribbled a telephone number on the back of a card he withdrew from his wallet and gave it to Gabriel. “That’s my mobile number. Needless to say, my chief wants a result quickly.”

  “He sounds like the surgeons I work with,” Gabriel said as he accompanied him to the door where they shook hands. Before releasing his hand, Gabriel asked, “You don’t happen to know what Anna was looking at down the microscope, do you Inspector?”

  “I’m a detective, sir. Not a pathologist. We’ve got the microscope and the slides down at the station. You can have a look at the slides when forensics are through with them. What do you hope to find there?”

  Gabriel smiled. “I don’t really know. I’m just curious as a pathologist to have a gander.”

  Chapter 3

  Never odd or even

  It was damp and drizzly when Adam Gabriel met Liz Reynolds at the porter’s lodge of her college the following evening. The two of them walked round the lawn of the front quadrangle and passed through a stone passage that led to the door of the senior common room. A log fire burned warmly on a pile of wood ash in the room. Above him Gabriel was aware of the sound of heavy footsteps.

  “The Middle Common Room is just above us,” said Liz. “It’s almost an exact copy of this one but half the size — as you’d expect. The Fellows insisted on it having a thick carpet so they couldn’t hear the graduates talking — or worse laughing and having a good time. That doesn’t stop one hearing the heavier members of the MCR moving around. Would you care for a sherry before dinner?”

  Gabriel gave a dutiful laugh and shook his head. “I have to drive home to Boarstall.”

  “I hope you don’t mind if I take one. I feel I may need it if we’re to spend an evening
with Palmer.”

  “Are you sure he’s dining tonight at High Table?”

  “He hardly ever misses a Thursday evening. It’s our guest night at the college during Term. He usually brings someone with him.”

  Liz pulled out a key from her purse and opened a drinks cabinet which was cunningly concealed in a stone fireplace. Whilst pouring out her drink, she asked, “Why are you so keen to make contact with him? It rather peeves me that you’ve refused so many of my previous invitations to dinner. It takes a murder to get you here.”

  Brook had advised Gabriel not to divulge that Anna Taylor had written to him at home and he was guarded in his reply. “Let’s just say I’m curious to see how our colleague is holding up in these difficult times. I need to catch up on a few things with him. Find out what he’s up to.”

  “Lots of things is the answer, I suspect.”

  “Before I came to Oxford Forsyth did a lot of research with him. A lot of Forsyth’s reputation in Oxford was built on Palmer’s research.”

  “I worked with both of them when I was a student here. Forsyth used him just as a pathology technician at first, but Palmer was bright and it wasn’t long before he was developing his own research agenda.”

  “They were quite a team,” Gabriel remarked. “They wrote a lot of scientific papers together.”

  Liz nodded. “Forsyth helped to get Palmer his chair here. But all the time I was with them you could tell Palmer resented the fact he had to share the glory with Forsyth; that Forsyth seemed to get a lot of the credit for work that was really his. The two of them went their separate ways after the MT-1 business.”

  “That was the palindrome Palmer claimed was only in cancer cells. Forsyth once told me it was the only time his name was ever on a retraction of published research. Palmer submitted the paper to Nature without showing it to him first.”

  “The palindrome was in cancer cells, all right. The problem was it wasn’t restricted to them.”

  “Whoops.”

  “I actually did some of the pilot work on that project. I never got any credit for it, of course, being just the student.” Liz’s voice was full of resentment. “I was the first to observe that MT-1 was not only in cancers but also in benign tumours and normal tissues. It was anything but a specific marker for cancer cells. Palmer believed it could be used as a therapeutic target for all cancers. He was too quick to publish. He ignored the data that didn’t fit his ideas. He wouldn’t listen to Forsyth when he told him that it wasn’t that simple.”