The Zima Confession
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“I’ll stand on the mountain that stands on me and I will see everything.”
Callan had finished reading, but everyone continued to stare at their personal copy of the note as though they still expected to find some meaning in it.
Logan was the first to speak: “Christ! Mitchell wrote that? Are you sure? I mean…” he was lost for words. “I said cheerio to him Friday, going out the office. He said cheerio back. He was the same old Andy Mitchell I’d known for…”
Dr Skinner interrupted: “Some of that might not be complete gibberish; he’s quoting Sartre – I think – and John Lennon. We should trace the quotes and see…”
Callan interrupted Skinner’s interruption: “That’s a fool’s errand – we’ll never get to the bottom of any meaning that might be found in a synthesis of Sartre and Tomorrow Never Knows. Was he on drugs or something?”
Osbourne replied: “Actually, yes. That seems to be it. We found significant traces of ChiroButyline-A in his blood. It’s a tranquilliser that was banned worldwide about six months ago because people who took it for any length of time tended to commit suicide.”
“Why would he be taking it then? How could he even get hold of it?” Callan asked.
“Both questions – we don’t know yet. Second question – maybe he had been prescribed it some time ago but had decided not to take it, then for some reason had started taking it recently.”
“I see. So it could have sat in his bathroom cupboard for years?”
“This is all speculation, but something like that is likely. However, if he had required medical help for any reason, he should have informed us. Needless to say, he didn’t.”
“Should have, yes. But of course it would be like waving goodbye to his career.”
“But such cases are handled delicately to ensure people do volunteer this sort of information. We all know the rules.”
“Of course we do, yes,” Callan agreed.
“Hopefully, none here would hesitate to inform us if they required this sort of help.” Osbourne looked around defiantly and received a murmur of affirmation before continuing. “So we have to be aware that perhaps there is some sort of foul play involved.”
It took several uncomfortable seconds of grim silence for this information to be digested.
“If so, everything he was working on might be in jeopardy,” Callan remarked.
“Yes, it might be,” Osbourne agreed. “Bear that in mind when taking over his ongoing cases.”
This ruffled a few feathers. Jack Logan, in particular, looked agitated or even annoyed. He had apparently guessed what was coming next.
“On that note,” Osbourne continued, “Graham, Tom, I’m dividing the majority of Mitchell’s cases between you – except Winter. Jack, you’ll take over from Mitchell. It has to be you because of the aversion treatment. You’re the only spare resource. Put in an appearance at VirtuBank but keep a low profile.”
Dr Skinner broke in to say: “But Osbourne, Mitchell’s work there was finished. There’s nothing left to do.”
“We just want to keep an eye on things.”
“But how about Callan? Surely he can…”
“Can we just back up a bit?” Callan interrupted. “I have a question. How did he kill himself? Is it possible that someone killed him?”
“He threw himself under a train, Jim,” Osbourne replied.
“Possible then – it’s one of our favoured methods.”
“The platform looks virtually empty at the time, according to the CCTV. Of course CCTV too can be tampered with in various ways, as we know.”
“How many cases was he handling? Was he overworked?”
“No, definitely not. If anything, his workload was lighter than normal.”
“Also, we all get tested for drugs once a month. He couldn’t have been taking this drug for very long,” Callan suggested.
Osbourne contradicted him bluntly: “We don’t get tested for this stuff. It’s banned and it’s never been on the list.”
“So why did they test for it in the autopsy?”
“A jar of the stuff was found amongst the mess that the train left.”
“OK. But let’s not jump to conclusions. I presume we’re going to go ahead with a thorough investigation. Check for debts, mistresses, all the usual?”
“Of course,” Osbourne said with finality. He looked down at his laptop again to make it clear the discussion on this matter was closed and he wanted to move on. There was another period of gloomy silence in the room as he did so.
“So what went wrong in Helsinki?” Osbourne was looking at Dr Skinner.
“I don’t know. Everything went more or less to plan. Mitchell gave him the key and verbal instructions.”
“But is Winter up and running? Is anything happening?” “We don’t know. We haven’t heard anything yet.”
“So probably nothing is happening. Any idea why?”
Dr Skinner glanced nervously at the expectant faces around the table.
“I, I mean Mitchell followed the procedure to switch phases. He got a signature and he followed the procedure to flip him back.
Then he gave Snowman the key and told him what to do with it. Maybe he was confused and didn’t remember what the key was for. Phase transition is not easy.”
“Other possibilities?”
Skinner shrugged. “Maybe Snowman doesn’t want to do it.”
“After all these years, I think that’s unlikely.”
Jack Logan butted in, “Yes, but maybe this is too hot to handle. Experienced operatives like Mitchell don’t just top themselves for no reason.”
Callan spoke: “But there does seem to be a reason in Mitchell’s case: ChiroButyline-A. As for Snowman, the most likely explanation for his inactivity is that he couldn’t understand what to do because you guys had just turned his mind inside out. Or imagine if he was in the wrong state when you gave him the instructions – he would probably be completely unaware of them when he flipped back.”