The case of the observant of‰ce boy

“NOW, JIMMY, you realise that you’re making a very serious accusation against Mr Certeck?” Inspector Carter was unusually serious as he looked intently at the 17 year-old office boy.

Jimmy Turner stared back defiantly and his voice was indignant as he replied: “It’s true what I’ve told you - Certeck did have those pictures. He’s a spy, just like my dad said he was.”

“Any questions?” Carter asked

Ted Blanchard, a former Detective Sergeant now in charge of security at Bradwell Engineering. Blanchard shook his head dismally and, at a nod from Sergeant Graham, Jimmy Turner made a thankful exit from the office.

“He’s certainly consistent in his story,” Blanchard remarked unhappily as he picked up the boy’s statement. “It looks as if Certeck is guilty after all.”

An hour before, Blanchard had phoned his former colleague, Sergeant Graham, with a request for help. A photographic assistant at Bradwell Engineering had been charged - unjustly, he thought - with industrial espionage.

When Carter and Graham arrived at the factory, Blanchard showed them three glossy black and white photographs, explaining that they were close-up pictures of a highlysecret new product.

“In the hands of a competitor, they’d be worth thousands,” he said. “Jimmy Turner found them in Arthur Certeck’s briefcase. The chairman wanted him fired on the spot, but

I’m not convinced that he’s guilty.

He shouted

The case against Certeck, Carter and Graham discovered, relied on three main points.

First, he had received the negatives a week before and should have returned them to the security office immediately after printing.

SECONDLY,

he had been seen by Jimmy Turner glazing three prints from the negatives - and finally, and most damaging of all, the same prints had been found by Turner in Certeck’s case.

According to the boy’s statement, he had been passing the half-open door of the basement printing room and had seen Certeck at the bottom of the stairs.

“He had just put some prints on to the glazing plate - I saw they showed parts of a machine,” Turner’s statement continued. “As soon as he saw me, he pulled the cover of the dryer down to hide them and shouted at me. He was very angry.

“Later, I saw him put the same three prints into his case. I told Dad, who said I should take them out and give them to Mr Blanchard.”

“What sort of man is the father?” Carter asked.

“AVERY unpleasant chap … arrogant, boorish,” Blanchard said. “He’s a works foreman. He hates foreigners and has made wild accusations about Certeck ever since the man arrived here two months ago.”

A mistake

Certeck - small, balding and nervous - denied the charges completely. “Not returning the negatives was simply a mistake,” he protested. “I’ve been very overworked recently.”

“And these prints?” Graham demanded sharply.

“They are duds, rejects … they should have been destroyed, but I just threw them in the bin without thinking. I certainly didn’t put them in my briefcase!”

Standing at the top of the stairs leading to the darkrooms, Graham found he could look down on the workbench on which stood the oldfashioned dryer, rollers and glazing plates.

“It looks to me like Jimmy Turner is right,” he told Carter as they walked back to Blanchard’s office.

“Does it, Sergeant?” was Carter’s quiet reply. “Well, Jimmy Turner’s certainly told us one lie … which means we should suspect the rest of his story!”

Why did Inspector Carter say that?