The Case of the Headless Billionaire by Michael Leese

Author:Michael Leese [Leese, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-17T23:00:00+00:00

35

Mayweather couldn’t resist a quick glance at her deputy and was pleased to note that he clearly had no idea what Roper was talking about either, so at least she wasn’t going to be the odd one out. Even as this thought settled, Roper said, “Richard of York gave battle in vain.” He beamed at her, then added, “Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet — those are the main colours of the rainbow, and that’s the mnemonic to remember them by. Well actually there’s a bit of an argument about that, and that’s why it’s taken me a couple of days to get through it.”

He was warming to his theme, his eyes sparkling. He was also blinking rapidly, a sure sign that he was thinking fast and furiously as he ran through the details. His audience had no idea what he was talking about but were hoping that, if they allowed him to plough ahead, it would start to make sense.

Roper continued. “The light we can see is on a spectrum,” he said, drawing an imaginary horizontal line in the air. “There are said to be a hundred different colours, maybe more, although most people can’t make out anything like that many. And that’s not counting things like infra-red, which nobody can see.

“Then there’s the linguistic argument: does everyone actually see the same colours? So, is the blue I see the same as your blue? Or do we describe colours in the same sort of way since they may mean different things to different people? Some people can even see sounds as colours.”

He leaned forward to emphasise his point, his hands seemingly taking on a life of their own as they traced patterns in the air. “To make the discussion more manageable, people generally talk about the ‘primary colours of the rainbow’. There are seven overall, although there is quite an argument about whether indigo is really a primary. Of course, you get other factors that come into play. Even the primary colours can be variable if you get something like ‘spectral smearing’ . . .”

As he drew breath to carry on, Hooley jumped in. “Jonathan.” He spoke quite loudly. Roper stopped talking and looked startled. The DCI pressed his advantage. “I think we might find it easier to understand if you tell us what you have in mind first, then you can go into the theory later — much later, preferably.”

Roper frowned. “Yes, I suppose I could do that, but it really is fascinating when you get into it. There are all the myths about rainbows, like the idea that you can find a pot of gold . . .”

“Jonathan . . .” Hooley gave him a very direct look.

Roper ran his hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh. “The point is that my new rainbow spectrum will allow me to process information better. You see, I started thinking that if I placed information in different coloured boxes, I could then put the same information in more than one box if I thought there might be links.

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