had concerns about the adequacy of the security arrangements,’ Kennedy summarised, scribbling notes as she spoke.
Parminter shifted in her seat. ‘Yes.’
‘But you only raised them on that one occasion. A pity, given the way things turned out.’
‘I was ignored! You can only beat your head against a brick wall so many times.’
Kennedy pursed her lips. ‘And these concerns. You voiced them in an email? A memo?’
‘No.’
‘At a minuted meeting, then.’
‘No.’ Parminter looked exasperated. ‘It was a private conversation.’
‘Which Dr Leopold will corroborate?’
The older woman laughed, astonished, indignant, faux-amused, but with a nervous edge underneath these things. ‘Dr Leopold suffered a massive stroke. He can’t even talk. But I’m not on trial here. Security is the Director’s remit.’
‘Of course,’ Kennedy agreed. ‘Nobody is on trial here. It’s just that I was asked to submit a report on staff awareness and efficiency, in addition to the case-specific inquiry. I want to make sure I do you full justice.’
So start talking.
‘This is absurd,’ Parminter protested.
Kennedy shrugged sympathetically. ‘I know.’
‘We had a spate of attempted break-ins,’ Parminter said. ‘A cluster, all together, around seven months ago.’
‘Attempted?’
‘Yes.’
‘No actual loss or damage?’
‘No. But it made us all aware that in some ways we were falling short of best practice. I’d been on a course the year before where there were talks on how you should go about protecting very small and very valuable items.
‘I pointed out to Dr Leopold that some museums and archives use a double-blind system for storage. When an item has to be brought out of the stacks into any other part of the building, a requisition form has to be filled in first. Assistants use the item code to generate a physical address from the computer and the box is brought up from the stacks, sealed. The curator who requested the box knows what’s in it, but not where it is. The assistant knows where it is, but not what’s in it.’
‘Which has the effect of …’
‘It makes targeted theft impossible. Our system, by contrast, depends on physical barriers and deterrents. Which are fine until somebody figures out a way to bypass them. And when they do, they know exactly where to look. Well, except for the books, of course.’
‘The books?’
‘The legacy collection from the old British Library. That’s what Room 37 is full of, isn’t it?’
Kennedy’s interest quickened, despite the woman’s lecturing delivery. Gassan had said that the British Library and the British Museum used to share the same premises. At the time, she’d wondered where that random factoid had come from. ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘What makes the books different?’
‘Well, we don’t have an extant catalogue for them,’ Parminter said, as though stating the blindingly obvious. ‘The catalogue and all the access codes went to the new library building on Euston Road. If they wanted to find a specific book, they’d have to give us a physical location – room, rack, position, box number. The only alternative would be to search every box until you found it.’ The older woman smiled. ‘It’s ironic, really.’
‘Is it?’ Kennedy asked. ‘How?’
‘Well, the lack of a physical address means we’ve achieved a level of security for those books that goes beyond anything we’ve got for the other artefacts. And yet the books – at least the ones that were left with us after the move – are the least valuable part of the collection.’
‘I’m not sure that counts as irony, exactly,’ Kennedy said. ‘But I take your point. Ms Parminter, what do you think the intruder was after?’
‘Whatever he could get his hands on.’ The answer sounded flip, but it was spoken with a definite emphasis.
‘What, you don’t think he had a plan? A specific target?’
‘No. I don’t.’
‘Why is that?’
Parminter almost
Parminter shifted in her seat. ‘Yes.’
‘But you only raised them on that one occasion. A pity, given the way things turned out.’
‘I was ignored! You can only beat your head against a brick wall so many times.’
Kennedy pursed her lips. ‘And these concerns. You voiced them in an email? A memo?’
‘No.’
‘At a minuted meeting, then.’
‘No.’ Parminter looked exasperated. ‘It was a private conversation.’
‘Which Dr Leopold will corroborate?’
The older woman laughed, astonished, indignant, faux-amused, but with a nervous edge underneath these things. ‘Dr Leopold suffered a massive stroke. He can’t even talk. But I’m not on trial here. Security is the Director’s remit.’
‘Of course,’ Kennedy agreed. ‘Nobody is on trial here. It’s just that I was asked to submit a report on staff awareness and efficiency, in addition to the case-specific inquiry. I want to make sure I do you full justice.’
So start talking.
‘This is absurd,’ Parminter protested.
Kennedy shrugged sympathetically. ‘I know.’
‘We had a spate of attempted break-ins,’ Parminter said. ‘A cluster, all together, around seven months ago.’
‘Attempted?’
‘Yes.’
‘No actual loss or damage?’
‘No. But it made us all aware that in some ways we were falling short of best practice. I’d been on a course the year before where there were talks on how you should go about protecting very small and very valuable items.
‘I pointed out to Dr Leopold that some museums and archives use a double-blind system for storage. When an item has to be brought out of the stacks into any other part of the building, a requisition form has to be filled in first. Assistants use the item code to generate a physical address from the computer and the box is brought up from the stacks, sealed. The curator who requested the box knows what’s in it, but not where it is. The assistant knows where it is, but not what’s in it.’
‘Which has the effect of …’
‘It makes targeted theft impossible. Our system, by contrast, depends on physical barriers and deterrents. Which are fine until somebody figures out a way to bypass them. And when they do, they know exactly where to look. Well, except for the books, of course.’
‘The books?’
‘The legacy collection from the old British Library. That’s what Room 37 is full of, isn’t it?’
Kennedy’s interest quickened, despite the woman’s lecturing delivery. Gassan had said that the British Library and the British Museum used to share the same premises. At the time, she’d wondered where that random factoid had come from. ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘What makes the books different?’
‘Well, we don’t have an extant catalogue for them,’ Parminter said, as though stating the blindingly obvious. ‘The catalogue and all the access codes went to the new library building on Euston Road. If they wanted to find a specific book, they’d have to give us a physical location – room, rack, position, box number. The only alternative would be to search every box until you found it.’ The older woman smiled. ‘It’s ironic, really.’
‘Is it?’ Kennedy asked. ‘How?’
‘Well, the lack of a physical address means we’ve achieved a level of security for those books that goes beyond anything we’ve got for the other artefacts. And yet the books – at least the ones that were left with us after the move – are the least valuable part of the collection.’
‘I’m not sure that counts as irony, exactly,’ Kennedy said. ‘But I take your point. Ms Parminter, what do you think the intruder was after?’
‘Whatever he could get his hands on.’ The answer sounded flip, but it was spoken with a definite emphasis.
‘What, you don’t think he had a plan? A specific target?’
‘No. I don’t.’
‘Why is that?’
Parminter almost
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