skull, just above the junction with the spine.
Jenny stooped forward in the fading light to see a neat, round entry wound.
'At least it would have been quick,' Alison said without conviction.
The moment of dispatch might have been, but the preamble would have been protracted. It was a ninety- minute drive from Bristol and a long, lonely trek up the hill to the place of execution.
Something stirred in Jenny: a bitter sense of satisfaction that Tathum had suffered as much, if not more, than his victims. She was glad for what McAvoy had done. She pictured him standing outside the village hall on the very first day of her inquest, his hair tossed in the wind, the lines he had recited:
'Oh, I could kneel all night in prayer, To heal your many ills . . . My Dark Rosaleen.'
She would see him again. She had to.
Chapter 28
It was Friday morning. Gillian Golder and Simon More- ton sat alongside Alun Rhys at the reconvened secret inquest. They had come to ensure that the deal stuck. Only after lengthy and ill-tempered negotiations and having secured the personal approval of Mr Jamal and the Hassans, had Jenny grudgingly agreed to the terms: there would be no mention of Anna Rose Crosby or the ongoing investigation surrounding her; neither would there be any mention of Mrs Jamal or the continuing police inquiry into her suspected murder; and finally, as Dr Sarah Levin was in protective custody while she assisted the Security Services with their inquiries, her evidence was to be delivered by way of a statement to be read aloud to the jury. In return Golder had agreed that at the conclusion of the inquest Jenny would be fully briefed on why the secrecy measures had been necessary, and on what had become of Alec McAvoy.
Dr Andy Kerr produced detailed photographs of two complete skeletons, copies of which were shown to the horrified jury. He stated that DNA tests and dental records had confirmed that the remains were those of Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan. Both young men had met their deaths in a similar fashion: they had been shot through the base of the skull with a single nine-millimetre bullet. Each had an identical three-inch diameter exit wound on his forehead.
A ballistics expert, Dr Keith Dallas, confirmed that the same firearm had been used to kill both men. Two spent Corbon 115 gram DPX rounds had been recovered from the area near the bodies. These were hollow-tipped bullets designed to expand on impact: Nazim and Rafi's brains would have been quite literally blown out of their skulls.
Neither Denton nor Havilland asked any questions of these witnesses, leaving Collins and Khan to extract every last gruesome detail. When there were no more physical horrors left to be exposed, Alison read Sarah Levin's statement to the jury.
I am Dr Sarah Elizabeth Levin of 18C Ashwell Road, Bristol. This statement is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that if it is tendered in evidence I shall be liable to prosecution if I have wilfully stated in it anything I know to be false or do not believe to be true.
In October 2001 I was a first-year undergraduate student at Bristol university studying physics. Towards the end of that month I was attending a faculty drinks party when I was approached by an American man who introduced himself as Henry Silverman. Silverman said he was a Professor of Chemistry carrying out confidential research for an Anglo-American defence company. I would estimate he was in his early to mid- forties at the time. He was polite and charming and I was flattered by his attention.
Several days later Silverman telephoned me to ask if I could meet him to discuss a 'professional matter'. He said my head of department, Professor Rhydian Brightman, had given him my number. I met him on a Friday evening after lectures in a cafe near Goldney Hall, where I was living at the time. It was during this meeting that he told me he was also helping to collect intelligence for the American government on British Muslim students suspected of being engaged in extremist activity. He said he was looking for a 'bright young woman' to work with, and that his employers could help me a great deal. He claimed to have helped other students gain scholarships to top American universities and said he could do the same for me. At that time my education was being funded through loans and I was tempted by the prospect of being able to pay off my debts and study abroad. I told Silverman I would think about it, and met him on one further occasion - at the Hotel du Vin restaurant in central Bristol - before agreeing to work for him.
During our third meeting, this time at a cafe in Whiteladies Road, he told me that he wanted me to pay special attention to Nazim Jamal, one of the students in my year group. He said that Nazim was involved with an organization called Hizb ut-Tahrir and that, along with other students, he was attending a radical mosque. I was told their mullah was a man named Sayeed Faruq, who was suspected of being a recruiting agent for terrorist groups. Silverman claimed that emails had been intercepted in which Nazim and a close friend of his - a law student by the name of Rafi Hassan - had discussed ways of 'bringing off a British 9/11'. He admitted that it might just have been a case of young men fantasizing, but emphasized that they both exactly fitted the profile of those al-Qaeda was known to be recruiting. When I asked Silverman why he thought I could get close to Nazim, he replied that he liked to look at pretty blonde girls on the internet. I told Silverman right then that I had no intention of prostituting myself, but he assured me that wasn't what he was asking of me - I was just to try to talk to and befriend him. He offered me ?500 in cash and promised there would be more payments as and when I came up with information.
Getting close to Nazim proved easier than I had anticipated. I teamed up with him during a practical exercise in the lab and struck up a rapport. He wasn't at all how I had expected. He'd been to a good school and it turned out that we had many interests in common. During the following weeks we worked a lot together and became genuinely fond of each other, although Nazim was uncomfortable about being seen with me in public. During the last week of term, at the beginning of December 2001, he invited me back to his room and we ended up spending the night together.
We kept in touch during the vacation and our relationship continued into the following term. By this time I had become extremely attached to Nazim and had almost allowed myself to forget how the relationship had started. But Silverman began calling me in January and pressing me for information. Over the course of the spring term Nazim and I became closer. We spent several nights a week together, although he was very conflicted over this and would get up to pray at dawn, even when I was in the room. He didn't talk much to me about religion or politics, but I could see from the books he read and by checking the sites he visited on the internet that he had become very committed to the Islamist cause. Several times I overheard him talking to Asian friends about Israel and Palestine and the war in Afghanistan. On the few occasions I tried to speak to him about his beliefs, he would invariably change the subject and say that it was irrelevant or that I wouldn't be interested. Increasingly, I got the feeling that he had two lives: one he shared with me, the other with his Asian friends, and he never allowed them to cross. As a result I didn't have much to tell Silverman, who became frustrated by my lack of progress. He started phoning me most days, suggesting ways I could ask more questions. He even said I should talk to Nazim about converting to Islam.
I was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the situation, and quite frankly I was looking for a way out when, at the very end of term Nazim announced that he wanted to end our relationship. He wouldn't give any reasons, but he was visibly upset. I remember thinking that it was almost as if he'd been found out and had been ordered to stay away from me.
I told Silverman what had happened and he was furious. He said he had other information that Nazim and several friends had been discussing an attack on one of the four nuclear power stations along the Severn estuary. They'd been followed one weekend driving to Hinkley Point, then on to Maybury. He ordered me not to take no for an answer. By this time I was really frightened of him and had no one to turn to for help.
At the start of the summer term I tried to get back with Nazim, but he became hostile towards me, telling me to stay away from him. Silverman responded by giving me several miniature listening devices and told me I had to hide them in Nazim's room. That was the one time I did prostitute myself. I went to see him late in the evening and begged him to let me in. We spent the night together, but he made me swear not to tell anyone. The next morning he was in tears: he'd missed his dawn prayers and he blamed me. He said I was a whore and had been sent by the devil to tempt him. He was very emotional and left the room while I got dressed. I was angry with
