Phosphate Rocks Chapter 22: Platinum

The day they realised the true value of the missing platinum, John was the first person to be called into the investigation. He had been on shift the day the man from the catalyst company unpacked the gauzes from the Securicor van. He watched in awe as the lustrous silvery tissue was unpeeled from a roll and placed gently, one layer on top of the other, onto a grid and trimmed to size. When the fitting was complete, the reactor for the new nitric acid plant was closed up, the job was signed off and the spare bits of gauze and sweepings were weighed and noted and returned to the stores to await secure shipment back to the supplier. 

It wasn’t until the package arrived back in Royston that they noticed the discrepancy in weight. Between leaving the area around the nitric acid reactor and arriving for packing at the factory store, a quantity had gone missing. The catalyst engineer checked his records and was able to identify the missing weight. 

A triangular off cut of platinum gauze, the size of a large neckerchief, was missing. 

Only one conclusion. Theft. 

There were many possible thieves. 

Big Stu was the obvious culprit. An experienced fence, the leading hand’s main income came from trading whisky stolen from the bonded warehouse that adjoined the Sally Street packing line. He had other interests, gold and silver of dubious origin, but John would not put it past him to diversify. However, Big Stu had been in Ibiza in the fortnight before the nitric acid plant started up. 

John interrogated everyone who had been in attendance the day the catalyst was loaded. He had a sixth sense for the truth, and none of the operators or craftsmen gave him the slightest hint of deception. They appeared to be as flummoxed as everyone else. 

John extended his inquiry to others on site that day, including the day shift. Becksy was well known for hoarding things as broken as himself. Half idiot, half magpie, the profoundly deaf greaser had a treasure trove of trash, and a knack for fixing things. Unlike Big Stu, Becksy was incapable of lying. When John confronted him, his sign language was eloquent. And it led him to the last person John would ever have suspected. The giant bulldozer driver: Brodie.