uncharacteristically sociable, encouraging her to organize dinner parties and weekend visits with friends, work colleagues and relations until July. According to the police, he was working to an agenda. They point to the fact that his secretary was instructed very early on in the investigation to keep his desk diary up to with social engagements, including private ones, and it is noticeable that April, May, June and July 1990 are significantly fuller than in the previous year. His brother admits this behaviour was unusual.
'We were surprised when they invited us to stay over. James always said he found entertaining tiresome. The police argue that it was a successful ruse to lull the investigators into believing he had no idea the fraud had been discovered and would still be available for questioning through to July. But it is equally logical to argue that, because he was as worried by the rumours as everyone else at Lowenstein's he acted out of character in trying to prove his commitment and dedication. Certainly, he wasn't the only employee to up his work schedule during that period and most of those diary dates refer to business meetings.'
His family go on to quote Streeter's computer illiteracy as further evidence of his innocence in this unsolved mystery. 'James simply didn't have the skill to work that fraud,' says John. 'His complete aversion to modern technology became something of a joke over the years. He could use a calculator and a fax machine but the idea of him being able to reprogram the bank's computer is laughable. When and where did he learn how to do it? He had no computer at home, and no one has ever come forward claiming to have taught him.'
But others have raised doubts about Streeter's alleged ignorance. There is evidence that he had an affair with a woman called Marianne Filbert, who was employed as a computer programmer by Softworks Limited. Softworks was invited to produce a report on Lowenstein's computer security in 1986, but they failed to complete the task and the report was never presented. James Streeter's detractors point to Marianne Filbert's access to that half completed report as the key to the fraud, while his supporters dispute that he even knew Filbert. Alleged or otherwise, the affair was certainly over before the fraud was discovered because Filbert moved to America in August 1989. However, James Streeter's secretary has stated that on several occasions she found him using her word processor for personal correspondence, and colleagues testify easy understanding of the computer spread function. 'It took him no time at all to find an entry I'd made,' claimed one member of his department. 'He said any fool could work the system if you told him which buttons to press.'
Nevertheless, there remain several unanswered questions about James Streeter's disappearance that, in the opinion of this author, have never been adequately addressed. If we assume he
The police argue that he chose that weekend to run because his movements could not be monitored, and that he would have gone whatever decision the board had reached, but this is to ignore the relationship that existed between James and his wife. According to Kenneth, one of the reasons the marriage was stormy was because the two people involved had more commitment to their careers than they had to each other. 'If James had said he had to fly to the Far East on Friday for a business meeting the following Monday, his wife wouldn't have turned a hair. That was what their lives were like. He didn't need to choose the one weekend she was away. Her absence only becomes important if someone
The police argument also ignores the fax James sent to his brother: 'I shall be home all weekend, so give me a bell when you can. I've told Dad I'll call back Sunday lunchtime.' The fact that John did telephone, but wasn't worried when there was no answer, may, as the police claim, have been entirely predictable, but it was a strange gamble for a guilty man to take. If we put that beside Kenneth Streeter's claim, tested and verified by a lie detector, that James promised to phone him on the Sunday with John's contribution to the Ruby Wedding debate, then the gamble becomes entirely unnecessary. Had John and Kenneth followed up the promised phone calls, then James's absence might have been discovered earlier.
The Streeters' defence of their son relies heavily on a conspiracy theory-someone more highly placed than James and with access to privileged information manipulated decisions and events to exposure-but without evidence to prove their case, their campaign to clear their son's name was a hopeless one. Sadly, conspiracy theories work better in fiction than they do in real life, and on any objective reading of the evidence the conclusion must be that James Streeter
*2*
Six months later in the middle of a cold, wet December, when flaming June and its sweltering heat were a distant memory, Mrs. Powell was telephoned by a journalist from
'How did you get this number?' she asked suspiciously.
'It wasn't difficult. Your name and address were all over the newspapers six months ago, and you're in the telephone book.'
'There's nothing I can tell you,' she said. 'The police knew more about him than I ever did.'
He was persistent. 'I won't take up much of your time, Mrs. Powell. How about if I came round tomorrow evening? Say eight o'clock.'
'What do you want to know about him?'
'Whatever you can tell me. I found his story very moving. No one seemed to be interested in him except you. The police told me you paid his funeral expenses. I wondered why.'
'I felt I owed him something.' There was a short silence. 'Are you the Michael Deacon who used to be with