David Trevellyan 03 -More Harm Than Good (29 page)

       
“It was easy, to tell
you the truth. A trained monkey could have done it. On the morning of the
transfer, I got an e-mail, which was also copied to my boss. It told us the
number of canisters that were coming, what was in them, and gave a code number
for each one. Then, when the truck arrived, I went outside with a barcode
reader. I scanned the codes, and if they matched the e-mail, everything was okay.”

       
“So all the containers
had barcodes on them?”

       
“Yes. The code
identified the container, and also what was inside it. The system was very
good. It meant no one could send too few containers. And they couldn’t lie
about what was inside.”

       
“That’s good.”

       
“Yes. It was very well
thought out. A copy of the e-mail went to my boss. The barcode reader
automatically copied its results to him, too, so no one could hide anything.
Once the containers were safely inside, the technicians would check them, as
well. If anything
was
wrong, they would flag it up.
And there were outside technicians who we could call in if we were worried
about anything.”

       
“That sounds pretty
thorough. But tell me something. What if someone wanted to sneak an extra
container into the
vault.
How could they do that?”

       
“They couldn’t. It would
be impossible. The delivery scan wouldn’t match the e-mail. The system would
pick that up automatically, even if I didn’t notice there were the wrong
number.”

       
“But what if you
accidentally forgot to scan one of the containers? Couldn’t it be missed?”

       
“No. Once again, the
scan would not match the e-mail. And the
e-mail is known
about by the original hospital, and my boss
. You see
,
that’s the strength of the system. At no time does it depend on only one person.
If something
was
done wrong, by accident or on
purpose, two other people would see.
As well as the computer.
It’s as they told us on the training. Impossible to fiddle.”

       
“It does sound like a
strong system,
Amany
,” Melissa said, shooting me a disappointed
glance in the mirror. “Thank you for explaining it to us.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“It does sound pretty watertight,” I said. “Do you
mind if I just ask one thing, though?”

       
The woman shook her
head.

       
“You said you scan the
barcodes,” I said. “That sounds complicated. How do you do it?”

       
“Complicated?” she said.
“It’s the easiest thing in the world. You take the scanner and point it at the
barcode. That’s all there is to do. And you can tell you’re pointing it in the
right place, because it shines a red light.”

       
“So the scanners are
portable?”

       
“Of course. You would
need a crazy long wire, otherwise.”

       
“And what powers them?
Batteries?”

       
“They are rechargeable.
You never have to change the batteries.”

       
“What if you forget to
plug then in? What if the batteries go flat?”

       
“They last for weeks.
And we have spare ones. And the truck brings a spare one of its own, which is
charged up by the engine. We’ve never had a problem, and I doubt there could be
one.”

       
“What if they break
down?”

       
“Then we’d use a spare
one. We have several, like I said. But I can’t ever remember that happening.”

       
“OK. Forget about the
handsets for a minute. What if the system went wrong? The computer system
itself, I mean. The place where the scanners send the information to be matched
with the e-mail?”

       
“It is very well
designed. It never goes wrong.”

       
“Never? It never throws
a fit? Melissa, have you ever heard of a computer system like that?”

       
“No,” Melissa said.
“I’ve never heard of a computer that’s not constantly falling over, in fact.”

       
The woman stayed silent,
but turned her head to look out the opposite window.

       
“Seriously,” I said.
“You’re saying this system never crashes?”

       
“I don’t recall that
ever happening,” the woman said.

       
“Okay. Let’s just go
with the idea that this thing is bullet proof. We’ll take your word for it. But
let me ask you something else. There must have been an emergency procedure for
you to follow, just in case there ever was a crash?”

       
“The hospital is very thorough.
There are processes and procedures and roadmaps and guidelines for more or less
everything.”

       
“Including what to do if
the barcode scanner system wasn’t working?”

       
The woman said nothing.

       
“
Amany
?”
Melissa said. “What’s your answer? This is all part of keeping you out of
trouble, you know. Don’t dry up on us now, or you’ll only be hurting yourself.”

       
“OK then, yes,” she
said. “There was a procedure.
 
But it was
just for emergencies.”

       
“About this procedure,”
Melissa said. “How did it work? What did you have to do?”

       
“It was easy,” she said.
“The barcodes have little numbers underneath them. You just had to write them
down and then key them in to a special form on the intranet. But like I told
you, the scanners never went down so that’s not important.”

       
“There’s something we
should, perhaps, have explained at the start,” I said. We’re not the regular
police. We have access to things that most people can’t get their hands on. For
example, we could get a copy of the maintenance file for every system in that
hospital as easily as you could buy a morning paper. Do you follow me?”

       
“Yes,” she said. “I do.
And I bet you could get my attendance record, too. And if you did, and you
checked, you would find no scanner breakdowns for any days I was working.”

       
“I’m sure you’re right.
But here’s my real question. How many times would the records show you’d
entered the details manually, anyway, even though the system was working?”

       
“The system never broke
down. The backup method was only for emergencies.”

       
“How many times?”

       
“It wasn’t necessary.
The scanner has always worked.”

       
“
Amany
,”
Melissa said. “We can only help you if you tell us the truth. If you keep lying
to us, I’m sorry, but the deal’s off.”

       
She said nothing.

       
I pulled over to the
side of the road, took out my phone, and held it up so the woman could see it.

       
“I’m going to call one
of my people,” I said. “I’m going to have them compare the maintenance log for
the scanners with the method of entry for the information. And when I do, how
many times will it say you used the backup?”

       
She didn’t answer.

       
“Do you know why I
picked this exact spot to stop?” I said.

       
She shrugged.

       
“Because of that
junction,” I said, pointing towards the roundabout that was a couple of hundred
yards ahead. “If I go left, there’s a police station within a quarter of a
mile. If I go right, we can be back at your house inside twenty minutes.”

       
I saw a scowl begin to
spread across her face.

       
“Keep lying, and I’ll
turn left,” I said. “Start telling the truth, and I’ll turn right.”

       
“Two,” she said, after
another few seconds. “Turn right. The answer’s two. I used the backup system
two times, even though scanners were working.”

       
“Thank you,” I said,
pulling back out into the traffic but joining the queue in the
centre
lane. “Now, tell me who asked you to do it.”

       
She didn’t respond.

       
“We’re moving again,” I
said. “We’ll be at the roundabout in a moment. The way things are going
,
I’m turning left.
To the police station.
Is that where you want to go?”

       
“No one asked me to do
it,” she said. “I was just curious. I did it as an experiment. To see how it
would work. I know that was wrong. I
apologise
. But I
didn’t think it would do any harm. I never thought anyone would find out.”

       
I pulled into the left
hand lane.

       
“No,” she said. “Wait. Please.
I am confused. I need more time. English is not my first language. I do not
understand what you’re asking me.”

       
“Keep going straight
please, David,” Melissa said. “I think I know what’s going on here.
Amany
, I understand that in life, people sometimes do
things they’re ashamed of. Things they never want their families to hear about.
But here’s the problem. We are going to find out why you did what you did with
those records. And if you tell us now, while there’s time for us to make sure
no one else gets hurt, we can keep your secret hidden. No one in Egypt will
ever know. But if you don’t...”

       
The woman’s left hand
started to shake, and I saw her draw it onto her lap and hold it still with her
right.

       
“It was a man who asked
you to, wasn’t it?” Melissa said.

       
The woman gave a tiny,
almost imperceptible nod.

       
“Were you involved with
him?” Melissa said.

       
The woman said nothing.

       
“I think you were,”
Melissa said. “You might as well come clean. You’ll feel better if you admit
it. Trust me.”

       
“How did you know?” she
said.

       
“A sudden divorce.
Falling out with co-workers. Public fights in the hospital canteen. I know the
signs.”

       
“It’s so shameful. I
don’t know how to explain.”

       
Melissa gave her a
second to catch her breath.

       
“My husband, Mark, and
I,” she said, when her breathing was almost back under control. “We were having
terrible problems. He’s an artist. He doesn’t earn much, but he thought we’d be
OK, with me as a teacher. Only I wasn’t allowed to teach.”

       
“That wasn’t your
fault,” Melissa said.

       
“I know. But he was
still mad with me. He thought I could get a better job if I tried harder. He
said I was lazy.
That I was a liar.
That
I was disrespectful to him.
His temper was so awful, any little thing
would set him off and he’d scream at me, right in my face, for hours and hours.
He’d use such horrible language. And he was so much bigger than me. I was
terrified. I had no friends. My mother, my sisters, they were on a different
continent...”

       
“And then you met
someone? Who was nice to you?”

       
“Yes. Stewart.”

       
“Stewart?”

       
“Stewart Sole. My boss.
The first man from Scotland I ever met. It’s funny. At first I could hardly
understand what he said, and soon he was the only person I could talk to.”

       
“And Stewart asked you
to enter some numbers manually one day, when a delivery came? To act as if the
scanners weren’t working?”

       
“Yes. He came to me,
that morning. I could tell something was wrong. At first he didn’t want to tell
me what, but I pressed him. He said he was in trouble. He’d made a mistake,
something to do with the delivery, and he was going to get fired. I was scared.
I needed him. I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing him every day. I told
him I’d do anything I could to help him.”

       
“The numbers he gave
you. They didn’t match what was on the containers?”

       
“I honestly don’t know.
I thought it would be better if I didn’t look. But...”