Delayed & Denied (7 page)

Jane sat back in her chair, and put her hand to the back of her neck. It felt as knotted as the wires behind the TV. Grace was fast asleep, and would need to be taken up to her cot in a minute. She hoped that Andy would offer to do it, so she could check her work email for one last time.

‘Good for you, love. So when will you talk to this doctor? I’m not off again for nearly a week, you do know that?’

‘I do. I was thinking of asking Ray to fly solo on that one. He’s recording all the interviews anyway.’

She smiled again, because she knew exactly what that response really meant.

’So you don’t fancy this doctor for it at all, do you?’

‘What makes you think that, love?’

‘Because you’d move heaven and earth to be there if you seriously reckoned this bloke as the killer.’

Hall smiled back. ’OK, you’ve got me. It doesn’t seem likely at all, no. The timings are all wrong, for a start. Because the affair ended about a month before Sharon disappeared, at least according to Adam. So if the doctor did it, then why wait so long?’

‘I don’t know, lots of reasons. Maybe Sharon threatened to tell his wife, or the hospital authorities, about the affair. A woman scorned, and all that.’

‘I suppose so.’

She could hear in his tone that he wasn’t remotely convinced, and it irritated her slightly. He could be a right stubborn bastard, sometimes. Always giving more weight to his own instinctive reactions than to those of anyone else. It was one of his faults as a detective, and as a bloke, too.

’I hope that you’re not showing prejudice in favour of the professional classes, Andy. I mean, even doctors can be cold-blooded killers, can’t they?’

Hall nodded. But then he’d been thinking much the same thing himself, and warning himself against it too. ’I’ll get Grace up to bed, shall I?’

Monday, 13th August

Kendal

Andy Hall couldn’t remember the last summer that he’d spent so much time in the garden. One year when the girls were very small, maybe. But now Grace was asleep in the warm shade of the house, and he decided that this was a safe time to call Sandy Smith. She’d be in the lab, and she hated being called to the phone, but he was absolutely certain that if he turned up at CSI central with Grace in tow Sandy would do nothing but take the piss. And he wanted her to focus on what he needed to talk to her about, not listen to her go on about how much Grace looked like the postman.

‘Fuck me’, said Sandy when she came to the phone, ‘I thought you were dead, Andy.’

‘Just retired.’

‘That’s what they all say. But judging by your email you’re not all that retired, are you? I bloody knew you’d never be able to give it up, mate.’

Hall agreed. It was usually the safest course of action.

‘Did you have a chance to look at that file?’

‘I did. But you haven’t gone soft in the head, have you, Andy? You do know I’m not a pathologist?’

‘I do. But you’re an expert on poisons, or am I going soft in the head?’

‘Probably. But aye, I know a bit. You have to, in my line of work. And why do you think we’ve had so many Chiefs, this last few years? They even call his office the waiting room now, did you know that?’

Hall did. ‘No, I didn’t. A bit like Grange, then. But you know they’ll keep appointing new Chiefs, no matter how many you bump off?’

‘Aye, so it bloody seems.’

Hall laughed. ‘So you know what I’m going to ask.’

‘Could this Ruth Lee have been poisoned, and it not show up in the PM?’

‘Exactly.’

‘And this is strictly off the record, right, mate? I don’t want to find myself in the box on this one.’

‘You won’t, don’t worry.’

‘All right then. Well here’s the idiot’s guide, just for you. First, the cause of death was rare. People do just peg out like that in middle age, but you’ll be pleased to know that it’s not all that common. Second, the lab ran the normal bloods and fluids, and nothing unusual showed up. But then they weren’t looking for anything really unusual, were they?’

‘So could she have been poisoned? Is there something that could give those symptoms, and not show up in the tests that they ran?’

‘Aye, it is possible, but without digging her up we’d never know. And it’s not likely, Andy, I can tell you that. Is this suspect of yours, the husband I assume, a chemist, or a doctor? Owt like that?’

‘No, he works in a factory.’

‘Well, then I’d say natural causes is a racing certainty, unless he had outside help. We’d be talking about using a couple of compounds in a very specific relationship, and at very low doses. Joking aside, if I wanted to kill someone that’s probably the way I’d do it. But it would take skill, and plenty of it.’

‘OK, thanks. But is this something that you could find out how to do online?’

There was a silence at the other end of the line, and Hall knew much better than to fill it.

‘Aye, probably. That’s a surprisingly intelligent question, Andy, but then you were always were a cut above the ordinary copper. Let me have a look. Hold on a minute.’ It turned into a long minute, but Hall didn’t mind. He was listening to the birdsong, and feeling the warm sun on the side of his face. Eventually Sandy was back. ’Aye, you could, maybe. I found a few references to what I was thinking of. But you’d need to know what you were looking for already. You couldn’t find it by accident, like.’

‘So there’s no online poisoner’s guide? Something that spells it all out in layman’s terms?’

‘Not that I could see, no. Put it this way: a normal GP probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about, if I tried to explain how it could be done.’

‘All right, thanks.’

‘No problem. So I’ve saved the Whitehaven gravediggers from making an early withdrawal, have I?’

‘You have. It was just a thought anyway, that’s all it was.’

‘Mmmm. I know you, Andy Hall. In my experience your nasty, dirty little ideas have an unpleasant habit of turning out to be right. I wouldn’t like to be inside your head, I really wouldn’t.’

Ray Dixon was enjoying his morning too. He’d left home early, and the drive through the lakes was stunning. There was no traffic through Ambleside, and just wisps of mist rising off the lake, and the sun was high by the time he topped Dunmail Raise. He stopped for breakfast at a little cafe he knew near Keswick, and bantered with the lass who served him. It was turning into his idea of a perfect day, and he still had a morning of old-school detective work to look forward to. He just didn’t know how it could get any better, until he dropped a blob of egg yolk straight onto his favourite leather jacket. The lass came and helped, but he knew that the stain would never come out properly.

He’d called the administrator at the hospital the day before, and although she was suspicious about his identity and intentions he’d eventually won her round. Two of Sharon’s former colleagues still worked at the hospital, both as nurses, and by coincidence both were on the early-turn the next day, and would be on duty until noon. So Dixon went straight to the administrator’s office when he arrived, and explained again that he was a former police officer, and that he was involved in an investigation that the police were well aware of. The administrator still looked at him as if he was trying to sell her second-hand stethoscopes, so he suggested that she call DI Jane Francis at Kendal CID for confirmation.

The administrator took him up on his offer, so it was another ten minutes before he was following her along corridors and through the double doors.

‘You’ll find Emma and Polly in there, Mr. Dixon. You won’t keep them long, I hope?’

‘No. Just a minute or two.’

‘And your questions won’t reflect badly on the hospital, I hope.’

‘No. I’m asking about things that happened twenty years ago. You were still at school then, I expect.’

The administrator smiled, and turned to go. She should be pleased, thought Dixon, because if she was a day under fifty then she must have had an especially arduous paper-round when she was a kid.

Both nurses were in the small office off the open ward when Dixon knocked at the door. He briefly explained who he was and what he wanted, and then shut up. They didn’t have to talk to him, so he wanted to gauge how hard he’d have to push.

‘The husband didn’t do it’ said Emma firmly, ‘I always knew that. So I’ll help if I can.’

‘I’ll leave you to it, then’, said Polly, ‘I need to get round the ward.’

Dixon knew that, copper or not, a friendly witness was always more use than a hostile one, so he just smiled as Polly left.

‘Why do you reckon that the husband didn’t do it?’ he asked Emma, when the door had swung closed. ‘Do you have an idea about who did?’

‘No, it’s not that. But her husband, Adam, he didn’t seem violent at all. I never knew why she married him, not really, and I knew they’d had their up and downs, but they’d patched things up, I’m sure of it.’

‘When you say problems, what do you mean?’

‘She’d been having an affair. She more or less admitted as much, once or twice.’

‘With someone from the hospital?’

Emma laughed. ‘Randy nurses, eh? Why do people always assume that us nurses can’t wait to get their hands on all the doctors?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s the other way round.’

The woman looked at him keenly for a moment, and he wondered if he’d overstepped wherever the line of political correctness was now drawn, but then she threw her head back and laughed.

‘Aye, maybe it is, and all. And anyway, you’re right. I think it was someone from work.’

‘Do you know who?’

‘No. Do you?’

Dixon let the question go.

‘I wanted to ask you about something, actually. And before I do I need to say that you wouldn’t be getting anyone into trouble, whatever you tell me. It’s just that things were very different back then, weren’t they? So I’m wondering if medical staff ever took home the odd painkiller or sleeping tablet, anything like that?’

This time Emma didn’t laugh. ‘You’re asking if Sharon Burke ever helped herself to any prescribed medicines? No, of course she bloody didn’t. Now if that’s all you’ve come to ask, you’d better get out.’

‘Look, I’ll level with you, Emma. Adam Burke may not have killed his wife, and if he didn’t then not only has he spent a good chunk of his life in prison for no reason, but there’s every chance that the killer is still out there. Maybe he’ll do it again, maybe he already has, we just don’t know. Anyway, what Adam is saying to us is the reason that he can’t account for his movements on the day that Sharon disappeared is that his wife had given him some pills. You see where I’m going with this?’

‘No. No, I don’t. Oh, shit, you’re wondering if she drugged Adam, so she could see someone else, aren’t you?’

‘Not necessarily, Emma. You’re reading far too much into this. I’m just trying to establish if his story is plausible, that’s all. Look, let me ask it another way. Think back to that time for me. Would it have been possible for someone on the medical staff to have taken the odd pill, if they’d wanted to? I’m not asking if they did, just whether or not it was possible. I’m certainly not accusing anyone here.’

‘All right. I see. Well, aye, it would have been possible. Things tightened up a few years later, but back then, aye, it could have happened.’

‘All right, thanks. And what are we talking about? Pain killers, the odd sleeping tablet?’

‘Aye, that sort of thing. They’re commonly prescribed on some of the wards, and patients sometimes nod off before they take them. It does happen, like. They should be disposed of, but back then things weren’t so strict. And that’s definitely true, no matter what the hospital tells you, like.’

‘All right, thanks’, said Dixon. ‘Like I say, you can’t get Sharon into any trouble, and you might yet help her husband.’

‘OK. And are you off to see anyone else, while you’re here?’

‘Like who?’

‘I don’t know. Like one of the doctors who was around back then, maybe.’

‘It’s a thought. Can you suggest anyone, Emma?’

‘Dr. Fleming’, she said immediately. ‘He was here at the time, and he and Sharon were pretty friendly.’

‘Friendly?’

‘Aye, friendly.’

Dixon wrote the name down, and noted the number of his office. ‘I’ll maybe drop in for a quick chat then, seeing as I’m here, like.’

Dixon was lucky, and a voice called out ‘come in’ when he knocked at Fleming’s door.

He introduced himself, explained that he was involved in re-examining the circumstances surrounding the death of Sharon Burke, and asked if Fleming could spare him a couple of minutes.

‘But that was years ago. The husband did it. Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything, and I’m very busy, OK?’

‘I can always come back another time, doctor. Just say the word. I’m very anxious to talk to you.’

‘To me? Why? I hardly knew Sharon Burke. Now, if you don’t mind…’

Fleming was already turning back to his computer, and Dixon decided to take a chance.

‘We both know that’s not true, don’t we?’

He paused, and waited for Fleming to respond. If he blustered, then he’d definitely been shagging Sharon Burke.

‘What do you mean by that? What right have you got to say something like that? You’re not even a policeman, are you?’

‘I’m not, no. But, as I explained, we are looking at the case again, and if we can provide new evidence that exonerates Adam Burke, or indeed that implicates someone else, then it’s perfectly possible that the police will reinvestigate. And you didn’t come forward at the time, did you, doctor?’

‘But I wasn’t even interviewed. I had nothing to do with what happened to Sharon.’

‘That’s not much of a defence, I’m afraid. And you can see how it will look. You two were having an affair, and it finished just a few weeks before Sharon died. But you never came forward to tell the police about it. You just kept quiet, didn’t you, sir?’

Now Fleming looked surprised, more than angry. Frightened too, come to that.

‘But it was me who finished it.’

Dixon came right into the office, and closed the door behind him.

‘Look, why not tell me everything? Your side of the story, like. That way, if and when a new investigation begins, everyone will know that you’ve been completely open, won’t they?’

Foster thought for just a moment, and the moment he replied Dixon knew for sure that he was innocent.

‘And all this is just between us? It won’t get out, I mean.’

‘You’re worried about someone knowing about the affair?’

‘My wife. We’d only been married for three years when it happened, so….’

‘I understand. Look, I’d be lying to you if I said that there’s no chance that eventually it might come out, if you were called as a witness in a subsequent trial for instance, but look at it this way. If you don’t talk to me now it might be the police who suddenly rock up at your home, maybe early in the morning, and they won’t be remotely worried about your wife finding out about your affair, I promise you that. So let’s just do it now, shall we? That way you’ve at least got a chance that it won’t have to go any further.’

‘OK, but there’s not much to tell. It was just a fling really, and it only lasted for a few weeks. She was unhappy with her husband, and I just let it happen, I suppose. But I broke it off when I realised that she had hopes, you know..’

‘That you’d leave your wife for her?’

‘Yes.’

‘When all you wanted to do was play doctors and nurses?’

Dixon smiled, but Foster didn’t. Dixon assumed that he’d heard that one before.

‘Something like that, I suppose.’

‘And how did Sharon take the news?’

‘Better than I expected, actually. We agreed that it had all been a fantasy for both of us.’

‘Did she say whether or not she’d tell her husband about the affair?’