Learning English

1.  Interview Room 3

Callie
This interview is being recorded and may be given in evidence at a later date. We are in interview room 3, at Beltonfield Police Station. The date is 23rd October 2019 and the time 1534. I am DS Callie Pritchard. Please state your full name and date of birth.

Paul
Paul Stevenson, 5th July 1979.

2. interview room 5

Juliet
Juliet Arnott, 13th of the 2nd, 1988.

Nikesh
Mrs Arnot, what is your connection to Jamie Phelps?

Juliet
I’m Jamie’s P.A. [personal assistant] - We’ve been working together for seven years. I moved with him when he left KPL and started up on his own.

3. interview room 3

Callie
What's your relationship to Jamie Phelps?

Paul
He’s my brother, look is this going to take long?

Callie
It’ll take as long as it takes, I’m afraid. But you are here of your own free will, you may leave at any time.

Paul
Fine, alright, it’s just, I have work to do. I’m only here because Lucy… Fine, fine, carry on.

Callie
I’ll cut to the chase then, Mr Stevenson. According to Lucy Phelps, your sister-in-law, there is fifteen thousand pounds missing from one of her and her husband’s accounts, money paid to you by your brother. Help me out here, you appear to be a wealthy man, why was Mr Phelps paying you all that money?

Paul
Jamie’s such a wuss, he should have told her.

Callie
Told her what?

Paul
It was an investment. We invested in a new cryptocurrency called Wok. Really exciting stuff. You got a better deal the more coins you bought, so we went in together. He sent me the money and I bought us 2 thousand Wok coins.

Callie
Wok? Wasn’t that in the news recently?

Paul
Yah, it’s all folded. Real shame. Their block chain was hacked. And look, that’s the deal. That’s the risk. You’ve got to be in it to win it. But you don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

Callie
Could Jamie afford to lose fifteen grand?

Paul
Well, it turns out, no. Idiot. But I only found that out this morning.

4. interview room 5

Juliet
He’s a lovely, lovely man you know? Head screwed on. Heart in the right place. And his wee boy? Did you say he was found by the side of the road? It never occurred to me that Pip was in the car. Oh… I don’t know how he’s got himself into such a pickle... I know no-one’s saying it, but, you must think he’s done away with himself. That’s what blokes do when they have money troubles isn’t it? But it’s not him. He wouldn’t. I mean, this morning he was stressed but he had a plan, he was engaged. I could tell.

Nikesh
A plan for what d’you think?

Juliet
To deal with the ransomware.

Nikesh
What ransomware?

Juliet
What’s why I’m here, isn’t it?

5. Office kitchen

Callie
Hit me.

Nikesh
Right, so the company’s files were taken ransom with this computer virus – malware, last night. It’s pretty simple, the files are stolen and held until a ransom is paid. In this case twenty-five thousand pounds. The threat is usually either to delete them, or to publish them online. According to Mrs Arnott, the threat here was to publish. They’ve got some high profile clients – so privacy is important.

Callie
And people pay these things?

Nikesh
Yeah, it happens all the time. They’re smart enough to ask for amounts of money that people might be able to scrape together.

Callie
Who is “they”?

Nikesh
Cyber criminals. Anyone – anywhere in the world, even a kid in California in his bedroom…

Callie
So Jamie got one of these last night…

Nikesh
Well it happened last night, but he only realised this morning.   

Juliet (on tape)
He called me from the car. Said we’d been hacked, and he was on his way in. They’d sent emails to his personal account and the company’s.

Nikesh
And how did he seem on the phone?

Juliet
A bit shaky, shocked. I shouldn’t have told you. He made me promise to keep it a secret. I know it’s a lot of money, but I dare say he’s got savings and investments… The thing is, if the files were released… it’s not only his career that would be destroyed. Some of our clients, you know…

Nikesh
She wouldn’t talk after that. I think it suddenly occurred to her that she might be about to lose her job.

Callie
Ok, ok ok. So, the brother confirmed to me that he spoke to Jamie this morning. Apparently, Jamie called him asking for a loan. But reading between the lines, there’s not a lot of brotherly love going on there, and Paul, charmer that he is, said no.

Nikesh
Nice. So he’s broke, lost all of his savings, his business is being blackmailed and his brother…

Callie
…financial advisor of the year, by the way…

Nikesh
…won’t bail him out. So the next person… last person? he speaks to is…

Nikesh (answers phone)
Yes…. OK… Cheers, send him up. We’ve only got the celebrity chef, Arthur Montgomery, here. Listen, before we get started, can I just ask him a super quick question about his baba ghanoush recipe?

Callie
No, Nikesh… not a good idea.