Showing posts with label 4b. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4b. Show all posts

Chapter 51: A Long Shot

Previous: A Jolt Of Fear

"It is certainly a long shot, but if we line it up
properly and hit it just right, who knows?"
Sherlock Holmes looked up from his plate and asked, "How goes the reading?" It was plain from his tone that he wasn't expecting an enthusiastic answer.

"I've been at it less than an hour," I said, "and already my head is spinning."

"Why?" he asked, without the slightest hint of surprise.

"I can't put my finger on it," I replied, "at least not yet. But it seems for every detail that makes sense, I'm finding three or four others that make no sense at all. And ever since I started reading, I have been unable to put the word caricature out of my mind. I'm not sure what that means."

"I think you should trust your feelings on this, Watson," replied my friend. "A caricature is a drawing in which all the prominent features are highly exaggerated, yet the subject is instantly recognizable."

"I know that," I answered somewhat testily.

"And you are reading a story," he continued as if I hadn't spoken, "of which the same is true. Your intuition is serving you very well, even if you don't understand it yet."

"There is so much about this story that puzzles me," I said. "And it seems the more I read, the less I understand."

"You don't need to understand it, Watson," replied my friend. "You have me here, or in a couple of days you will.

"I don't need you to solve all the mysteries," he continued. "I just want you to get a good look at all the files. After our meeting with Dr. Hewitt, we will have plenty of time to talk. You'll have questions for me. I'll have questions for you. Maybe we can get somewhere with this if we work together."

"So it's not as big a job as I thought," I said with considerable relief.

"No, not at all," replied my friend, "My sense of humour may be somewhat obtuse, but I was joking about deadlines and pressure. If by 'big' you mean 'difficult,' then you are correct. It's not supposed to be difficult.

"But 'big' can also mean 'important,'" he continued, "and your work over the next two days may turn out to be very important indeed."

"Are we looking for anything in particular?" I asked.

"I think we should focus on three main aspects of the story," he said. "First, the plot itself: What exactly were the plotters trying to do? How close were they to being able to do it?

"Second, surveillance and prosecution: How were they caught? How were they convicted? Why did it take so much time and effort to put them away?

"And third, Rashid Rauf. We think Gareth Williams may have been reading the coded email he was exchanging with the plotters. So: What sort of code were they using? What were they saying? And what did it really mean?"

"You ask difficult questions," I observed.

"I don't expect you to answer them," he replied. "Just use them as a guide in your reading, and pay close attention to anything that seems as though it might hold the answer to one of them."

"Do you really think we can approach the truth about the murder of Gareth Williams in such an oblique way as this?" I asked.

"It is certainly a long shot," replied Holmes, "but it is the best shot we have at the moment. And if we line it up properly and hit it just right, who knows? It may very well go in."

Soon we had finished our dinner, my companion had packed a bag and called a cab, and I had settled down with a comforting fire to tend and files of clippings to read.

"It could be worse," I told myself. "It could be much worse." My shoulder was happy to be warm and dry. Mrs. Hudson could keep me fed indefinitely. Holmes had left me so much to read that I might never get bored -- certainly not in only two days.

And if I ever needed a break from reading, I could spend some time watching the counter tops dry.

Chapter 52: The 'Liquid Bombs' Plot

Previous: A Long Shot

I used Vim to clean the
Comet off the counter tops.
I read for a few hours after dinner before turning in, slept fairly soundly, all things considered, and woke Thursday morning with an unexpected urge to check on the counter tops.

All the surfaces were dry and a powdery white residue was easy to see. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to remove.

I used another cleaning product, a creamy white cleanser called Vim, to take off the last of the Comet residue. Then, sensing an opportunity, I didn't rinse the counter tops very well, but instead allowed them to dry.

Holmes was still away, so I sat by myself and ate the breakfast Mrs. Hudson had prepared for me. Then I went back to my reading.

Fresh from a night's sleep and with Holmes' questions in mind, I found his archives much less daunting than they had seemed the previous day. I also began to recognize and ignore the usual details, which were reported endlessly everywhere, and this made it easier for me to concentrate on finding the information I sought.

The technical details of the plot were difficult to find -- most reports omitted them entirely -- but I did find a few sources which I thought might interest Holmes. In doing so, I learned that three different mechanisms were ascribed to the plot at various times.

A disposable camera was
to serve as the trigger.
First an article appeared in the Guardian which said the plotters were planning to make TATP in mid-air. Later an article was published in an infamous issue of the New York Times -- infamous because it was never distributed in Britain -- claiming the plan was to make HMTD in flight. But then at trial the Crown said the plotters were planning to make TATP not aboard the planes but in the flat they had rented, their so-called "Bomb Factory."

Then, according to the Crown, they were going to hollow out some AA batteries, fill them with the TATP, and reassemble them so they could be smuggled aboard planes, where they would be used as primary charges. When they exploded, they would detonate the secondary charges, bottles of hydrogen peroxide which the plotters were planning to smuggle onto the planes disguised as soft drinks.

Once in flight, a bomber could tape a fake battery to a bottle of fake beverage and wire it to the flash unit of a disposable camera. After that, he would only need to press the shutter to trigger an explosion that would blow a hole in the fuselage, knocking the plane out of the sky and killing everyone aboard.

The plot, however it was described, struck me as more than slightly wacky. Whether it hinged on the ability to synthesize explosives undetected aboard a moving aircraft, or to hollow out batteries, fill them with homemade explosives and put them back together, it all seemed too difficult for me. I couldn't imagine how anyone could think the scheme would work. And yet here were photos taken in the 'Bomb Factory' of empty bottles the plotters had collected.

Holmes' knowledge of chemistry was in some ways superior to mine, and I was eager to consult him on this subject.

My friend had also asked me to watch for indications of how close the plotters were to being able to carry out their plot. This question -- which would make sense only if the plot itself was viable -- was easier to answer. The plotters had no airline tickets. They had no passports. Some of them had not even applied for passports. The notion that they were going to board transcontinental airliners in the near future seemed quite fantastic.

The plotters had collected
several empty drink bottles.
Furthermore, they had made no TATP, no HMTD, no bombs of any kind. Police searched for four months and found nothing more explosive than a few bottles of hydrogen peroxide. Granted, hydrogen peroxide can be used to make explosives, but it can also be bought wherever disinfectants are sold.

I became convinced that Holmes had been right about my intuition. The jolt of fear had been the result of a caricature. We'd all been hoodwinked. 

The "Liquid Bombers" were dreamers with no weapons. The "Bomb Factory" was a place where no explosives had ever been made.

The planned attack could not have been imminent, even it it were possible, which seemed very unlikely.

And therefore the story told to the public had been a lie. But what was the truth? What had really been happening?

Fortunately for me, I had been instructed not to try to answer all the questions that came to mind. So I put these thoughts aside and continued to make my way through the files.

Chapter 53: 'Liquid Bombers' On Trial


Ahmed Abdullah Ali:
guilty, 40 years to life
Holmes had asked me to pay attention to information pertaining to the surveillance, arrest, and prosecution of the "Liquid Bombers." It was a long and complicated story.

The surveillance was extraordinary. Reportedly the plotters were under surveillance for nearly a year before they were arrested. Police had a installed a covert camera in the "Bomb Factory." The Crown introduced as evidence photos of the plotters shopping for bomb-making supplies.

MI5 had intercepted email that the plotters had sent, and some of this email was also introduced as evidence.

Undercover officers from all over Britain had reportedly been brought in to follow the plotters around. One sat across from a conspirator at an Internet cafe and watched him download information that could have been used in planning the attack.

Some of the initial reports said the police had arrested 25 people during the night of August 9-10, 2006, and some reports mentioned that one of them had been released immediately. Later reports put the number of people arrested at 24.

Assad Sarwar:
guilty, 36 years to life
I wondered whether the discrepancy in the numbers represented Amjad Sarwar, the man who was awarded a six-figure settlement after several newspapers reported that he had been arrested when in fact he had not.

Several more people were arrested in Pakistan, at the same time or somewhat earlier. The numbers and dates were never made clear.

Of the 24 (or 25) men arrested in England, all but 12 were released within two weeks.

Under English anti-terror law, suspects may be held without charge for up to 28 days. But after the first week, the detention must be extended, a week at a time, by a judge, based on police having expectations of finding evidence.

So the police can arrest a suspect, hold him for a week, and then release him without charge. Or they can wait a week and then apply to a judge, who will say, at worst, "Come back in another week with something, or else charge or release him."

Tanvir Hussain:
guilty, 32 years to life
If police release suspects after two weeks, without a second appeal for extension, that is an admission that they have nothing on the suspects.

One of those released without charge after two weeks was Rashid Rauf's brother, Tayib Rauf.

Releasing the alleged mastermind's brother so soon seemed to imply that police were not even willing to go to a judge and say, "We think we have the brother of the mastermind, and if we squeeze him a bit, we may find out a great deal more." Of course, it could have indicated something less or more sinister.

There were two primary stories about how the English arrests came about. Both appeared to hinge on the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf.

One account said that when Rashid Rauf was arrested, he sent a message to the plotters in Britain saying, "Go! Go!" According to this story, the police intercepted this message, tracked down the recipients, and arrested them.

The other story said that Rashid Rauf was arrested several days ahead of the others, that he was tortured and interrogated, and that he gave police the names of the plotters, who were then arrested.

Arafat Waheed Khan:
guilty, 20 years to life
But it was difficult for me to see either account as sensible. If Rashid Rauf was arrested, how did he send a text message? Did he send the message before he was arrested? How did he know he was going to be arrested? Did the Pakistani police give him a 5-minute warning? Or did he send the message after he was arrested? Or maybe he sent the message while he was being arrested?

Or maybe he didn't send a text message at all, but he was arrested and tortured, during the course of which he spilled the names of the people who just happened to have been been under surveillance for almost a year.

Allegedly it was Rashid Rauf who told investigators the targets of the plot were transatlantic airliners. The plotters claimed they were planning to create a disturbance to highlight a political protest about the role of the UK in American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they denied they were planning to make their disturbance aboard an airplane. Their lack of tickets and passports would seem to have borne out this statement.

There were three trials.

Eight men (Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, Umar Islam, Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman, and Mohammed Gulzar) stood in the dock in the first trial in 2008.

Ibrahim Savant:
guilty, 20 years to life
Seven of the eight (Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, Umar Islam, Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, and Waheed Zaman) pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to cause a public nuisance" in having made martyrdom videos. Mohammad Gulzar, the alleged ringleader, had not made a martyrdom video, reportedly because he was so valuable to al-Q'aeda that he was being saved to coordinate future suicide missions.

Three of the eight (Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Tanvir Hussain) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions.

All eight were charged with conspiracy to murder persons unknown. On this charge, the three who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions (Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Tanvir Hussain) were found guilty, one (Mohammed Gulzar) was found not guilty, and the jury was unable to reach a verdict against the other four (Umar Islam, Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, and Waheed Zaman).

All eight were charged with conspiracy to target aircraft. On this charge, Mohammed Gulzar was found not guilty, and the jury was unable to reach a verdict with respect to the other seven defendants.

Umar Islam:
guilty, 22 years to life
British officials were reportedly "astonished" at the verdicts, thinking they had presented a strong case against the men. Most surprising, perhaps, was the exoneration of Mohammed Gulzar, who had been described as the ringleader of the plot.

In view of the embarrassing facts -- only three convicted of charges more serious than making martyrdom videos, and none convicted for plotting to attack airplanes -- another trial was hastily arranged.

At the second trial, in 2009, there were five defendants. Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Tanvir Hussain, who were "only" found guilty of "conspiracy to murder" in the first trial, were found guilty of "conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs," a conspiracy deemed to have targeted airline passengers.

Umar Islam was convicted of conspiracy to murder but the jury did not reach a verdict on the charge of "conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs."

Waheed Zaman:
guilty, 20 years to life
Donald Stewart-White, who was not tried in the first trial, was charged with "conspiracy to murder" and "conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs" and found not guilty on all counts.

The second trial required two juries. The first jury was dismissed, reportedly "for legal reasons," a second jury was sworn in, and the trial resumed. There was no media coverage following the stories that said the first jury had been dismissed, until the verdicts were announced.

The third trial featured only three defendants. All three (Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, and Waheed Zaman) were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

In the third trial, two juries were dismissed. No reason was given. There was no media coverage until the day the verdicts were announced.

In all three trials, the jury was reportedly offered the majority option, which they reportedly used. In other words, the verdicts were not required to be unanimous; eleven-to-one or even ten-to-two decisions were considered acceptable.

Having drawn together all this information, I couldn't resist the urge to do a final round of maths.

Donald Stewart-Whyte:
not guilty of all charges.
Of the twenty-four people who were arrested, nine were tried, seven more than once, in a four-year legal process involving three trials and six juries.

These trials resulted in seven convictions for conspiracy to murder, and three convictions for conspiracy to murder using liquid explosives.

Sherlock Holmes had asked why it took so much time and effort to put them away.

His question was one of many which I couldn't answer, but I had new questions of my own.

Why was there so little media coverage of the trials?

The arrest of the "Liquid Bombers" was supposed to be the most significant success ever on the home front in the war against the terrorists. The trial should have occasioned high-profile, daily coverage. But something quite different had occurred: the press covered the prosecution during the first trial but fell silent when the defence attorneys took the floor. News reports sneered at the judge and the jury when the verdicts were announced, and trumpeted intentions to proceed with a second trial.

Alleged ringleader Mohammed Gulzar:
not guilty of all charges.
The papers covered the second trial sparsely from the beginning until the first jury was dismissed, at which point they fell silent until the conclusion. And nothing of any significance was reported about the third trial until it was over.

So what had happened? It was supposed to be a very big show. But when it came off, it was almost invisible.

The fire was fading and so was I. Thursday had been a long day, with no sign of Holmes. But he and Dr. Terry Hewitt were both due to arrive late Friday afternoon, which left me several more hours to find what I could about Rashid Rauf and the email Gareth Williams had been reading -- if I could find anything at all.

Of one thing I was certain. My eyes were closing so often that I wasn't going to find anything Holmes could use, unless I found my bed first.

And the longer I sat and stared at the papers, the more difficult it would become.

Next: Breakable

Chapter 54: Breakable


I could see that it was breakable.
Friday dawned warmer and drier than its immediate predecessors, for which my shoulder was grateful. On my way to breakfast, I looked in on our counter top experiment. The surfaces were dry and all except the darkest looked clean. But I dragged a fingertip across them, and it came up white. The residue was powdery and slightly sticky, and it took a bit of effort to wash it off my hands.

If the object of our experiment were to find out whether a white powdery residue could have been left behind, possibly accidentally, after an almost-thorough cleaning with a common household product, then the answer was obvious. I left the counter tops undisturbed so that Holmes could see them for himself.

After breakfast, I spent some time looking through Holmes' files in search of articles about the coded emails that had passed between the plotters and Rashid Rauf.

I found a piece in the Independent called "Police watched the plot unfold, then pounced" which said
The email sent by Assad Sarwar from an internet cafe in High Wycombe to an account in Pakistan in the summer of 2006 was meant to sound innocuous. With its reference to "Calvin Klein aftershave" costing "80 quid," its contents were crafted to meld seamlessly into the blizzard of data sent across cyberspace without attracting undue attention.

In reality, what looked like email trivia was one of dozens of coded updates sent by Sarwar, a restaurant delivery driver and the quartermaster of the liquid bombs plot, to the overseas jihadist masterminds of the conspiracy to cause carnage on an "unprecedented scale" in the skies above North America and the mid-Atlantic.

The "Calvin Klein aftershave" was far from being a business opportunity. It was code for hydrogen peroxide hair bleach, bought by Sarwar from a Welsh hairdressing supplies wholesaler, which had been concentrated by Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the charismatic ringleader of the British cell, to the 80 per cent purity required to turn it into the key explosive to be used in the attempt to simultaneously destroy at least seven airliners.
The rest of the article contained details I hadn't seen (or hadn't noticed) the previous day, including an explanation for the timing of the arrests which made much more sense than either of the previously floated stories. According to this account, the British shared information about their ongoing surveillance with the Americans, who decided -- for security and/or political reasons -- to force the issue. They pressured the Pakistanis into arresting Rashid Rauf, and the British police claimed that when they learned of this development, they were forced to arrest the plotters as soon as possible, lest they learn of Rauf's arrest and do something dangerous.

The most detailed information I could find about the coded emails was published by the BBC and entitled "Airlines bomb plot: The e-mails."

It quoted seemingly nonsensical passages from the email conversations and explained what each passage was understood by prosecutors to mean.
The trial heard that ... Abdullah Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar used coded e-mails to contact jihadist leaders in Pakistan. One of Ahmed Ali's contacts is thought to have been a British man, Rashid Rauf, who helped plan plots for al-Qaeda.
4 July 2006: Abdulla Ahmed Ali to Pakistan

Listen dude, when is your mate gonna bring the projectors and the taxis to me? I got all my bits and bobs. Tell your mate to make sure the projectors and taxis are fully ready and proper I don't want my presentation messing up.
Prosecutors said that projectors and taxis were code for knowledge and equipment because Ahmed Ali still needed some guidance. The word "presentation" could mean attack.
12 July 2006: Assad Sarwar to Pakistan

I spoke to my friend and he will soon sort the prices for the telephones… Everything is going good here. Will need to send you some CDs and DVDs over to you soon. Don't forget to call me.
Over the coming weeks, surveillance officers see Sarwar, Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain buying bomb parts. The prosecution alleges that CDs and DVDs is a reference to martyrdom videos they expect to send out to Pakistan.
13 July 2006: Pakistan to Ahmed Ali

Hi gorgeous. Well nice to hear from you… Your friend can go for his rapping concert rehearsal... But somewhere popular would be good… make sure he goes on the bus service which is most common over there.
This was said to mean that their aides in Pakistan had given the go ahead for a dummy run to test airport security. The prosecution alleged "bus service" meant domestic American carrier, such as United, or American Airlines.
18 July 2006: Ahmed Ali to Pakistan

There are a few lads who wanna join up. I have about four lads.
The BBC made no comment about this passage. Presumably it was a reference to the four plotters at the "second level" of the plot -- the men convicted in the third trial (Arafat Waheed Khan, Ibrahim Savant, Umar Islam, and Waheed Zaman). I recalled reading that the judge who conducted their trial had said they were guilty of conspiring to kill, even though they may not have known what the targets were. And I wondered how much they really knew about the group they were so eager to "join up" with.

The BBC piece continued:
19 July 2006: Sarwar to Pakistan

Hi [smiley emoticon]. Got some good news that will bring a big smile to your face… I have some nice files you will love. It will give you wet dreams after you see it ha ha ha. I have 15 suppliers to give Calvin Klein aftershave. One box of 50 is only £175.
21 July 2006: Pakistan to Sarwar

Regarding the aftershave bottles, you need 40x100ml bottles. I have orders for those already so I need those asap. I need to know when you can get me those asap. You know the price is always the same … but I need you to get another 30 bottles on top of the 40. The order for those should go through too. I don't want to wait around … I don't want to lose these customers.
Pakistan emphasises precise quantities and finished concentrations of chemicals (omitted from this transcript). At face value, Sarwar is under pressure to come up with a big order of aftershave. But surveillance officers see him buying hydrogen peroxide. Over the coming days, Tanvir Hussain and Ahmed Ali record martyrdom videos. Assad Sarwar buys more parts.
31 July 2006: Pakistan to Ahmed Ali

How is the skin infection you were telling me about? Has it got worse or is the cream working?
3 August 2006: Ahmed Ali to Pakistan

Listen, it's confirmed, I have fever. Sometimes when I go out in the sun to meet people, I feel hot… by the way I set up my music shop now. I only need to sort out the opening time. I need stock…
4 August 2006: Pakistan to Ahmed Ali

Do you think you can still open the shop with this skin problem? Is it only minor or can you still sort an opening time without the skin problem worsening?
The men suspect they are being watched. Skin infection, the jury heard, meant surveillance. In fact, they are all being watched in the UK's largest-ever surveillance operation, involving scores of officers working around the clock.
6 August 2006: Ahmed Ali to Pakistan

I will still open the shop. I don't think it's so bad that I can't work. But if I feel really ill, I'll let you know. I also have to arrange for the printers to be picked up and stored… I have done all my prep, all I have to do is sort out opening timetable and bookings.
The clock is ticking and Ahmed Ali wants to finish the bombs - described here as "printers". During 9 August, the men are arrested. In Ahmed Ali's pocket, there is a USB drive with the details of transatlantic flights.
So ended the BBC account. I continued to look through the files but could find no more on the subject. And for the first time in nearly forty-eight hours I had nothing to read, and no incentive to look through any more files.

Something about the style of code used by the terrorists reminded me of the one-time cipher Holmes had arranged with Slate. Certain words and phrases stood for other words and phrases -- this was "the key" -- and according to Holmes the code was unbreakable, provided it was only used once. With no context, eavesdroppers could do no better than guess as to the meaning.

But the terrorists had used the same keys again and again -- in the series of emails about their "skin problem," in the exchanges about "aftershave," and most likely in many other conversations which were not used in court, or which the BBC did not see fit to publish.

I could see that their code was very breakable. And I could see how a gifted logician such as Gareth Williams might have helped to break it. But I could not see that we had come any closer to understanding why, or by whom, the young man was killed.

Had I overlooked something important? Had I failed to appreciate the significance of some detail or another? If so, it wouldn't be the first time.

I was eager for my friend to return.

Chapter 55: Terry Hewitt

Previous: Breakable

Dr. Terry Hewitt
As the afternoon wore on, I tried to ignore the ticking clock. But my apprehension continued to build as I contemplated the possibility of interviewing the professor who was coming to see Holmes, rather than simply taking notes while the detective asked the questions.

But, as so often in the past, I needn't have worried. Holmes arrived with ten minutes to spare, so Dr. Terry Hewitt found the detective lounging in his favourite armchair, just as if he had been there all week.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hudson," said Holmes after our landlady had introduced our guest. Shaking the professor by the hand, he continued, "This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, before whom you may speak as freely as before myself."

I rose and shook Hewitt's hand, and Holmes gestured toward the other armchair. "Please make yourself comfortable, Dr. Hewitt. Thank you for coming to see us today. You have saved us a trip to Manchester."

Hewitt smiled. "It's the least I could do," he said. "I was surprised to hear from William Hughes, and of course I'll do whatever I can to help that poor family. I knew I would have an hour or two to spare in the city this afternoon, and I couldn't think of a better place to spend it, sir."

"May I ask why you're in London today?" said Holmes. "I understand you're teaching at Bangor now?"

"Yes, sir," said Hewitt. "I left Manchester University in 2008. Now I teach at Bangor, I work for a private firm as well, and I also speak at conferences here and there -- all around the world, lately. Next week I will be helping to host a conference here in London, and I've been here today to assist with the preparations."

"We certainly do appreciate your cooperation," said Holmes, "and we won't take any more of your valuable time than necessary. What, sir, can you tell us about Gareth Williams?"

"I was shocked when I heard the news," replied Hewitt. "Nobody ever expected news like that, sir."

"When did you meet him?" inquired my friend.

"He came to us in 1997 at the age of 18," said Hewitt. "That was four years younger than most postgraduate students."

"And what were your impressions of him?" the detective continued.

"He was an exceptionally gifted student," said Dr. Hewitt, "a very talented young man."

"Aside from his academic qualities," asked Holmes, "what do you recall about his personality?"

"He was friendly, Mr. Holmes," replied the professor, "but he was reserved with staff and fellow students alike. He was certainly not a ‘geek,’ but 'reserved' is the best description I can give you. I think that reserve came about because he was so much younger than the students around him, sir."

"Completely understandable," said Holmes. "What else do you remember about him?"

"He didn't need much supervision," answered Dr. Hewitt. "He was a very able student. He was very private and worked well on his own. I remember he was interested in cycling, but I don't recall his being interested in anything else other than his studies."

"What was he studying with you?" asked Holmes.

"He was modelling how light reflects on surfaces," replied his former teacher. "His PhD thesis, 'Methods for Global Illumination Models,' examined how light and shade could be replicated in computer games."

"Not a topic for the mentally challenged," said my friend.

"No, not at all," replied Hewitt. "It requires some very advanced mathematics and computer programming techniques."

"He finished his PhD?" asked Holmes.

"Yes," replied Hewitt.

"And then?" asked Holmes. "What happened next?"

"After he left Manchester," said Dr. Hewitt, "he began a post-doctoral qualification at Cambridge. But he dropped out of that course just after he started, and he signed up for GCHQ."

"How do you know that?" asked the detective.

"He came into my office one day," said Hewitt, "and said, 'I’m going to GCHQ.' He had to tell me, as I was his referee for his vetting."

"What came of that?" asked Holmes.

"Nothing at first," replied the professor. "But MI5 eventually got hold of me and examined me about him. His knowledge of maths skills and computing techniques would have made him attractive to them."

"I need to ask you a somewhat more difficult line of questions," said the detective. "In the article by Yakub Qureshi that appeared in the Manchester Evening News of August 28, you were quoted as saying, 'Everything that was said about him was true.' Is this an accurate quotation?"

"Yes, sir," said Dr. Hewitt. "I believe that is what I said."

"And did you mean it?" asked Holmes.

"Yes, sir," replied Hewitt.

"When you said that, were you aware that Gareth was being described in the London press in terms such as 'gay,' 'drag,' 'bondage,' and so on?"

"Oh, no, Mr. Holmes," replied Dr. Hewitt. "I had no knowledge of such descriptions at the time, and no intention of supporting them. None whatsoever, sir."

"Did you ever see any indication," asked Holmes, "that Gareth was interested in bondage, cross-dressing, gay sex, or anything else out of the ordinary?"

"As I said, he was very reserved," said Dr. Hewitt. "We spoke fairly often, but we spoke of maths and computers, data structures and algorithms, requirements and deadlines. We hardly ever spoke of anything personal, but when we did, it was usually about his most recent bicycle race. In other words, even if he had been a gay cross-dresser with a bondage fetish, I probably wouldn't have known about it. But to the best of my knowledge, no, sir. He wasn't."

"I have nothing further, Dr. Hewitt," said my friend, rising from his seat, "save to thank you once again for calling on us."

"It's been my pleasure," replied the professor, rising to shake both our hands. "I don't mind saying I've been disappointed with the police and their investigation. If you gentlemen can solve the case, I'm not the only one who will be very grateful."

"We're doing our best," said Holmes with a narrow smile, as he led our guest to the door.

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