A number of expressions tried to appear on Tally’s face before they all failed and she lost all vestige of control. ‘Oh, Steven...’ Tears flowed freely down her face as an emotional dam burst inside her. ‘Oh Steven... hold me, hold me, hold me.’
Steven did. ‘I’ll never let you out of my sight again...’
Even Tally in her current state couldn’t stop a slight splutter at Steven’s ridiculous promise. ‘Oh God,’ she stammered. ‘I never guessed human beings could be like that... vicious loathsome animals. No, they were worse than animals: they tortured and killed for fun.’
‘Pure evil is something that most people never come across,’ said Steven.
‘But it fascinated Barrowman,’ said Tally.
‘A victim of his search for truth.’
‘Is he dead?’
‘They’re all dead.’
‘Somehow... I find that a great comfort.’
‘I suspect Mrs Leadbetter may find similar solace.’
‘Poor woman, I’m sure she thought she was doing the right thing.’
Steven gave Tally a look that left her in no doubt about his disagreement.
‘Oh, Steven, you and politicians.’
‘Let’s not go there.’
‘Okay, do I get that drink now?’
When the hour of the day and the day of the week began to recover some relevance, Tally insisted that she’d be fine if Steven left her to go to the Home Office for a debriefing session. He telephoned Jean to say that the following morning would be good and asked her to make sure that Lukas would be there.
Steven talked everyone through the re-taking of Moorlock Hall and Macmillan said, ‘Are we to assume that Barrowman’s secret died with him?’
‘We know what the secret was,’ Steven replied. ‘He found the switching mechanism for controlling genes in a number of regions on the human genome. He found it in regions of the DNA previously described as junk, but there’s more. Maybe Lukas should take over.’
Lukas nodded and said, ‘Barrowman not only described switching mechanisms in stretches of DNA we’ve been calling junk, but he came across a bank of genes which determine in broad general terms whether a person is what we might call a normal decent human being when its controlling switch is turned one way, but when it’s reversed, we get a psychopath who is as far from being decent as you can get. I think the details of how you can turn this switch on and off are on a protected disk we found among Barrowman’s stuff, but I haven’t been able to break into it.’
Steven took over again. ‘I’m pretty sure that Barrowman believed he was on the brink of being able to manipulate the switch in psychopathic killers and turn them into normal people, but somewhere along the line, he screwed up and flicked it the wrong way in himself. He turned into a complete monster.
‘Do you think he was working on turning it back in himself?’ Jean Roberts asked. ‘I was thinking about the chemicals he ordered.’
‘It would be nice to think so,’ said Macmillan.
‘Having read his notes, I think it far more likely he was intent on creating more monsters,’ said Lukas.
‘Which brings us to our intelligence services,’ said Steven. ‘Does anyone know if they have succeeded in breaking the code to get into Barrowman’s last disk?’
‘I’ve not had confirmation of that,’ said the Home Secretary.
‘Well, if we see the Queen’s own regiment of psychopathic killers trooping the colour next year we’ll know that’s a yes...’ said Steven.
The Home secretary made a face but didn’t take Steven to task. As he left the room, she said to Macmillan. ‘He did a magnificent job.’
‘We can agree on that, Home Secretary.’
‘The way he planned the assault on Moorlock Hall and the danger he put himself in to rescue Dr Simmons was quite extraordinary.’
‘I suspect he doesn’t know he’s just a collection of proteins and chemicals, Home Secretary...’
Before leaving for home, Steven called Neil Tyler to tell him all that had transpired.
‘I think you’ve just told me I’m out of a job.’
‘Sorry about that.’
‘No problem, it was Barrowman’s work I was interested in, but I’d like to be kept in the loop if any progress is made with understanding his switch mechanism.’
‘If I hear it, you’ll hear it’
‘Thanks, Steven. Bye the way, did you contact the Americans with your thoughts on the Yale fire?’
‘Not yet,’ Steven confessed.
‘If it helps your decision, the New Haven Connecticut police found the body of Father Liam Crossan hanging under a bridge last night. You might say justice has been done.’
‘Wow.’
‘There are some tills you just don’t put your fingers in.’
‘How did it go?’ Tally asked.
‘It’s over and that’s all I care about right now. We should go away, take a holiday, sunshine, blue skies...’
Steven stopped when he saw Tally shake her head. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I want to go and spend some time with Mum, tell her all the things I should tell her before it’s too late. You should go and see your daughter before she’s completely grown up. You can meet Jason...’
‘Mm, right.’
Tally hid a smile. ‘Steven?’
‘Yes?’
‘You did give that gun back, didn’t you?’