'That was interesting to say the least!' Daisy started to sum up after George had left. 'Chilling almost!'

'You'd still need to get the explosives!'

'Wrong! Alex! Look here!' John showed her his screen. 'I just typed 'How to make explosives' into Google and I have got these interesting answers. It tells you how to make plastic explosives from easily available chemicals in this example. If you want to make Irish jelly, then any farm has loads of fertiliser that can be nicked. You could also buy fireworks in parts of the Europe and then strip out the gun-powder.' He turned towards Daisy. 'Do your kids experiment with explosives. Most boys do at some time! I did!'

'I hope not! But I'll agree with you about the ease of making explosive devices. We get a lot of unsophisticated ones now. After the crack-down on guns, the thugs need another way to intimidate.'

'How many do you get?'

'Five or six a week in London!' Daisy thought for a bit until she recalled the figures. 'I think there's a similar number in the rest of the country. Usually, they are small and detonated with a simple timer and a battery. They'll blow windows out or your hand off! Some have been bigger, but thankfully not many! Most are used in turf wars over drugs.'

'Have any used phones for remote control?'

'Yes! One of the bigger ones was detonated in that way to kill a drug-dealer! They put it under his seat in his BMW! It was a very quick and messy death! I can see all of this will get worse as they start to use the type of technology that George talked about!'

'I'm thinking about this a bit laterally!' John was busy typing as he spoke. 'Have you noted any similarity between the devices?'

'Yes!' Daisy remembered the briefing she had had on the devices. 'It does appear that someone is making them or the design is circulating on the Internet. But we can't find anything concrete. Perhaps, we should call you in on that one too! Any ideas?'

'Not really!' John pointed at the screen. 'I take it this was the murder!'

'Yes!' Daisy was now standing behind him. 'To be frank, he won't be greatly missed. Even his mother hated him!'

'Did you trace the call that set the bomb off?'

'Yes! It was two phones bought in a supermarket a month before with cash! No leads at all. They were just used to set off the bomb.'

John highlighted some words on the screen. 'You're right! It says here that a modified mobile phone had been used. You can do it fairly easily in a crude manner. Again it's all on the Internet!'

***

Daisy's mobile phone rang and she answered it. 'Yes! ... Can you e-mail it to us here? ... You've got John Deacon's e-mail address! ... Good!' She closed the phone. 'That's alright isn't it? They're sending the details of the interview! Apparently, it was very helpful!'

John turned back to the computer and checked his e-mails. 'It's not here yet, but I see George has sent us the full contact details for Stephen Williams. That was good of him! Do you want a printed copy?'

'Yes! Thanks!'

'That's interesting.' John was reading the document from the screen. 'It even contains his bank account details!'

'Not much use to us without a Court Order!' Daisy almost sighed the words. 'Gone are the days, when we could find how much a suspect was worth with a quick phone call. And we don't get the orders unless we have evidence!'

'I thought banks had to co-operate because of money-laundering?' Alex spoke.

'They do! But only when large transfers are made! Supposing someone had a large overdraft, it might mean he was more likely to commit fraud!' Daisy paused and pursed her lips. 'But I would certainly like to know how much he's worth! Can you find out if he's got a mortgage or there's a charge on his property?'

'Yes!' John hadn't thought of looking up the property register, which showed details of registered houses. The house must registered as it had been sold in the last year.

'Well do it then!'

Several clicks, typing of the address and a credit card payment later and they had the details. Stephen Williams had paid nearly six hundred thousand Euros for the house and he didn't have a mortgage. 'Very interesting! How does someone from a very average background in Barrow, who works as a lecturer at a good University come to own a house worth nearly ten times his salary?'

'You tell me!' Daisy was puzzled. 'Our Mr. Williams certainly has a few questions to answer.'

***

'There's something else here that we should look at!' John was clicking away again. 'According to George's e-mail, he appears to have a blog. I hadn't been able to find it! I'm going to take a look, as George has told me where it is!'

'What's it like?' Daisy was looking at the pages as they were displayed. 'It's big and it looks like he's been writing it for some years. You wouldn't connect it to him though! No names! No links!'

'You know about blogs then?' John was surprised at her knowledge of the rather nerdish practice of putting fairly meaningless logs or diaries on the web.

'Of course I do! My husband does a medical one for his patients! Covers all the medical topics and worries in the media. He's found it's cut the number who turn up at the surgery. That was very much a surprise to him and his partners!'

'Why do you find it a surprise?' John was showing his surprise. 'We've been sending out information using blogs for some years! They're so easy to write even Alex can do it!'

'Watch it!' Alex spoke. 'You have a salary review in a month or so!'

'I won't buy you any more chocolates!'

***

'So what does the analysis show?' Daisy was asking as a program John had run was showing the results of a textual analysis on the blog.

'A lot of venom about Blair, Thatcher, Iraq, taxes, too much government, bad public transport, cars, trucks, supermarkets ...'

Daisy cut him short. 'What the hell are you using?' She pointed to the list of words at the top. 'Unhappy, left wing, lonely, computer-literate, non-driver, single, soccer, pacifist. Does this program categorise people from what they say?'

'Yes!' John smiled at her. 'Clever isn't it! It uses a Bayesian analysis to identify words that put people into particular boxes. Can I try your husband's blog?'

'No!' Daisy smiled back. 'I know him too well! And I wouldn't want my prejudices about him upset. Is Ireland mentioned?'

'Not politically!' John pointed to an entry in the blog. 'He says here that he's been talking to an Irish Spurs supporter about the merits of Glenn Hoddle as player and manager! I don't think that counts!'

'Are we sure it's his blog? His words?'

'Yes!' He thought again. 'George says it is! He's usually right and he has met the guy!'

'So except for the fact, that he's not the happiest of people, lonely etc., you wouldn't say he was a threat to national security!'

***

'What does it say?' The e-mail from London had now arrived and John was printing it.

Daisy picked up the single sheet and precied the details to the others. 'It looks like he's not our man, but he's given us a great deal of help.'

'How?' John was rather disappointed.

'It appears that he has a bad relationship with his mother.' Daisy gave a look that said something. 'So he has said that he can't get a phone where he lives and he'll phone her every other night from somewhere else!'

'I was right about the mother being a pain!' John had cheered up about getting that right!

'His normal box was busy that night, so he moved on to another! You were right again! But there's more! He recognised her! Apparently, she quite small, good looking, long blonde hair and has a passion for short, tartan skirts!'

'Her!' John was very surprised. 'I never thought it would be a woman!'

'You're not always right!' Alex couldn't resist the gibe!

'He claims they both used to live in the same block of 1950's walk-up flats in Mile End. Rather awful, filthy and very downmarket!' She read further. 'Apparently, they both moved out about four months ago, when the block was demolished. Sounds they should have knocked it down years ago!

'Did they know each other well?' Asked asked the question.

'Not at all! They lived on adjacent staircases on the same floor and their flats actually shared a wall!'

'Sounds feasible!' John broke in! 'Are you checking this out?'

'We already have!' She showed John the plan drawn in the e-mail. 'He could hear her through the wall and that's how he identified she could have been Russian, Ukranian or something like that! He claims he has never said a word to her except perhaps for a brief greeting. He also says that he thinks she's a lecturer at his college!'

'With all those openings! No wonder, he's single!'

***

'You have all been a great help!' Daisy was summing up as she said good-bye in John's car in the station car park. 'It appears that we now knew who made the call, how it was created and made. But that small amount of information should lead us a long way. It's all down to good police work now.'

'Glad, we could help!' Alex gave the formal reply. 'Do let us know what happens!'

'I will!'

Copyright 2004 by Ewart Higgins