The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1735 by Angharad Copyright © 2012 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

I woke as Simon was dressing, the sun was shining, although the forecast was mixed–on the whole, it’s been a rotten summer so far and I don’t think it’s going to get much better anytime soon.

“Could Stella have enemies?” I asked my husband as he pulled his trousers up.

“Apart from you and me, you mean?”

“Seriously, I was just thinking; what if she was the target, and they were prepared to kill others to get her.”

“I don’t think she’s got any enemies, unless it’s because she’s a Cameron–the bank makes them for a past time, all part of lending money to people who can’t pay it back. We go out of our way to help where we can, but at some point, we have to repossess houses or go to court–or we’d have no credibility with the rest of the world. It’s part of banking I hate, destroying the little people.”

I had some new areas of thought to work through but it might take some time to gel. “Si, I know it’s all against the rules, but is there any way I could get a list of those in this area who’ve been victims of the bank, or who consider themselves so, oh, and their occupations?”

“I’ll ask my secretary to sort it, I’ll bring it home tonight–I can’t email it, not secure enough.”

“Tonight is fine.”

I got up made him some breakfast and then got the girls up, showered them and me, then got Julie, Jacquie and Sammi up. It was Sammi’s first day and I told her to get herself ready and I’d drop her in work after I left the girls at school.

She was buzzing like a shaken bottle of cola and I had to tell her to calm down a couple of times after dropping the three mouseketeers. She thanked me for everything as she got out of the car and was promptly sick in the road. Nerves, I hope. I watched her go into the bank and drove on to the university.

Jacquie texted me to say the courier had called for the package. Three hours later James sent me one to say he had it and was on his way to the lab. He didn’t think it was semtex.

I was invigilating today–Gareth should have been doing it, so it seemed only fair that while I was doing so, I had my laptop running off a battery doing a search for conflicts with the Nature Conservancy Council or Natural England as it’s now called.

I found six of those, one of which concerned a quarry. I downloaded all of them for reading later. Then I spotted someone acting oddly, one of the exam candidates. He fell off his chair and began writhing on the floor–looked like a full blown grand mal seizure. I called for assistance and then went to see what I could do to help him–other than trying to prevent him from hurting himself or choking, there wasn’t much I could do.

One of the porters arrived and he summoned student health who arrived ten minutes later, by which time the whole place was in uproar. I asked the porter to inform the dean that I needed to ask his advice urgently. Students were grumbling about how it had upset them or put them off.

There were bound to be complaints and I needed advice about what we did next. The dean arrived about twenty minutes later. By now, the unfortunate young man had been taken off by ambulance, so at least he didn’t have to listen to all the whining.

The dean ruled that they would allow a further twenty minutes for the exam to make up for the interruption. There were loads of grumbles at that but I considered it was a reasonable compromise. Things died down and I finished the exam and collected the papers with another member of staff two and half hours later.

I missed lunch, so grabbed one of the chocolate bars I keep in my desk for such emergencies. I was running a tutorial in the afternoon and that was like watching paint dry. What do these kids think they come to university for? To party and drink themselves into a pregnancy or abortion? It certainly didn’t seem like they came to learn and study.

I eventually read the riot act to all and sundry–we had two weeks left before term ended and I wanted a rewrite of the assignment by all of them–no excuses. If I can find time to mark them, they can bloody well find time to write them properly.

When one of them quipped, “Ooh, you look lovely when you’re angry,” I nearly exploded.

I went home after checking on the dormice–Spike came and sat on my hand and ate a brazil nut–did you know the country was named after the nut not the nut after the country? Most of the nuts in this country sit in Westminster.

I grabbed the girls on the way home and I immediately set up my laptop and read through the cases I’d found in the local papers. James called. “I’ve got the results of the stuff from the sample.”

“Crikey that was quick?”

“Yeah, well we had a little inkling as to what it was.”

“And?”

“Nitro glycerine.”

“As in dynamite and so on?”

“Yep, I told you it wasn’t semtex–saw enough of that in Ireland.”

“James, if I send you a link to a cutting, could you tell me what you think?”

“Sure–you think you’ve found something?”

“I don’t know–it’s a long way from possible motive to proving someone did something.”

“Sounds fascinating.”

I sent him an email and added a link to the story about the quarry closing– after a request to expand was stopped by Natural England to protect a woodland which contained dormice and a pond with crested newts.

The quarry company went bust after two failed appeals against the ruling–the managing director eventually killed himself. His son was very angry about it and vowed to bring down the government agency who he considered caused his father’s death.

“Hmm,” said James having read the article, “want me to check him out?”

“Discreetly,” I emphasised.

“Damn, I was hoping to get out the thumb screws and branding irons.”

“You enjoy your work too much.”

“Oh, that obvious is it? Anyone else?”

“A couple, mainly farmers who allow shooting or run shoots who also shot the odd bird of prey.”

“Yeah, well most of the time they get away with it.”

“Exactly, so when they’re dumb enough to do it in front of witnesses, they deserve to be strung up by the balls.”

“Hang on, Cathy, you’re making my eyes water here.”

“They shot a hen harrier–they’re getting very rare, farmers aren’t.”

“Ah, okay, remind me not to annoy you.”

“Don’t annoy me.”

“I meant a bit later, in case I forgot.”

“Go and earn your ridiculous fees.”

“Yes, boss.”