The Quantum Objective Read Online Free Page B

smile.
How does he do it? He must have roped in the cleaner to sneak in fresh blooms. Guess I’ll find out eventually. She rushed out the door and collided with an older couple.
‘Ms. Irving?’ The man steadied her and the woman picked up Beth’s bag. ‘This is detective Parker and I’m detective McKinley from the Metropolitan Police. We need to go over your statement again.’ They flashed ID cards.
‘Again? Now? Can’t we do it on Monday?’ Beth tapped her toes. ‘I’m already late for um…a meeting’.
‘Ms Irving, the autopsies have been completed and the forensic report is in its final stages,’ the detectives exchanged a look that cut through her fluster.
‘What? Don’t tell me you guys actually believe my statement now,’ she scoffed, still stung by the way her kidnap claim had been treated.
Curiosity, though, reopened her door.
‘You’d better come in.’

*

The detectives declined the mandatory offer of tea and crowded the sofa while she perched on a chair.
Keep this brief, she pleaded silently. Liam would probably wait for hours, but it’s so rude and the library is a good 15-minute walk. How can he not have a mobile? Perhaps I can call the front desk…
‘Ms. Irving…’ McKinley’s sharp tone seemed unwarranted. I’m doing them a favour here.
‘Sorry, go ahead.’ Focus, she thought, or they’ll be here ages.
Detective Parker was poised, notebook open.
‘Let’s start with your belief that the people in the van were professional kidnappers. How did you come to that conclusion?’
‘They kidnapped me.’
She hoped the questioning would improve. ‘They did it very well. They were efficient, calm, well prepared, or perhaps rehearsed or experienced, I don’t know. But I do know they weren’t a bunch of amateurs.’ Beth raised expectant brows. ‘So, who were they?’
Parker didn’t look up from her pad. McKinley was poker-faced.
‘We’ve not been able to identify them as yet. In fact, we can’t even get a trace from the vehicle. It’s becoming a very unusual case, Ms. Irving. That’s why we’re here.’
‘No trace…as in no registration? There must be clues, it seemed like a pretty sophisticated set-up inside.’
‘I thought you were blindfolded?’ McKinley looked down at his notes, ‘how much of the inside did you get to see?’
Hadn’t he read the statement?
‘Before I was blindfolded, I saw a faint fluorescent light that I believed came from a computer screen. That’s how I saw the man in the mask, and chrome fittings. It’s all there…in my statement.’
‘What makes you think you were not the intended target?’ McKinley’s gaze was intent.
Beth laughed.
‘Why would anyone want to kidnap me? I’m a nobody. They must have wanted an heiress or some such person from the club I’d just left. It was a case of mistaken identity.’ She shrugged.
‘But, you said yourself, these were highly skilled professionals. Would they have made such a sloppy error?’ McKinley sat back against the sofa and crossed his ankles.
Beth frowned. She couldn’t deny the logic.
‘I looked rather different that night. Not my normal attire…’
‘Ms. Irving, are you not famous, in your own way, for your intellect?’ Parker spoke for the first time. Her voice was quiet and calm. ‘Your work involves cutting edge atomic research, doesn’t it?’
Beth sighed.
‘Just because I made the papers a couple of times does not make me famous. I’m just another physicist really. My IQ isn’t so rare and there are people within 10 miles of here that score higher, I assure you. I just achieved more at a young age because…I didn’t do anything else. I liked my work in mathematics,’ she shrugged, ‘and why kidnap me? If someone wanted to know something from me, they would only have to ask. I’m not harbouring any secret information. That’s why I’m confident it was a mistake.’
She smiled. ‘Is there anything else I can help with or can we wrap up? I