No Stranger to Death: A Scottish mystery where cosy crime meets tartan noir: Borders Mysteries Book 1 (29 page)

‘Mum’s always telling us it’s better to talk things through than bottle them up. I bet you’ve all been asking her about it. And she’s a doctor so she’s used to dead people.’ Frankie fell silent when he saw the look on his mother’s face.

‘What have you been doing this weekend?’ Zoe asked Eva, who was sitting next to her.

‘We went swimming yesterday,’ Eva said. ‘And then –’

‘I can float without arm-bands now,’ Mhairi said proudly. ‘Can you, Zoe?’

‘Of course she can, she’s grown-up,’ her sister said. ‘And then that nice man came to see us.’

‘What nice man was that, Kate?’ Zoe asked.

Kate’s face took on the hue of her pink sweater. ‘Erskine Mather,’ she said.

‘He brought us sweeties, but we weren’t allowed to eat them all,’ Eva said.

‘He just dropped by to say I mustn’t feel obliged to go and see Bette, if I’d rather not.’

‘So that’s how he got to the shop so quickly,’ Zoe said.

‘Yes, he was with me when the call came in.’

Ranald put down his cutlery with a clatter. ‘You hadn’t mentioned you were seeing him again.’

‘Because I’m not, Dad.’

‘Etta, did you know about this?’

‘Oh, Ranald, don’t go on. She’s a grown woman, she knows what she’s doing.’ Etta set down the gravy jug with such force that it banged on the table, startling everyone except Kate.

‘Your mother seems very upset about Lisa,’ Zoe said as she prepared to go home later. Despite arriving at Tolbyres with no appetite, she had eaten so much she was surprised her coat would button up.

‘We all are. It’s another thing that’s been happening under our noses and we didn’t realise. How dreadful to have a husband who doesn’t want the child you’re carrying.’ Kate passed over the half-dozen eggs Etta had boxed up for Zoe. ‘I’ll see you on Tuesday. The funeral’s at eleven, so I’ll pick you up about twenty to.’

‘Do I really need to go?’

‘Of course. Everyone’ll be there. And it may be our last chance to observe Gregor and Alice together before they disappear back to Newcastle with their ill gotten gains.’

Zoe checked her mobile as she walked to the car. No message yet from Neil, which was probably a good thing. He would expect a blow-by-blow account of her time in Hawick with Lisa, yet despite their new-found intimacy she could share nothing with him either. Whatever he and Kate believed, knowing other people’s secrets was a burden not a blessing.

The weekend could not have turned out more unlike the one she had planned. To start with, there was no way she would have slept with Neil so soon under normal circumstances. And instead of moving closer to solving the mystery surrounding her car crash, she felt even further away from it.

Chapter 37

Zoe had always assumed the small scale of The Rocket exaggerated the size of her final patient on Monday morning. Yet, even in the airy space of the health centre, Ray Anderson towered above her and his hefty thighs spilled over the sides of the chair when he sat down.

Around six-and-a-half feet tall, he was solidly built rather than fat, although the tautness of the shirt across his stomach suggested recent weight gain. His medical history revealed he was approaching sixty, which was surprising, and a history of hypertension, which was not. At no time had Zoe seen him drink anything stronger than lemonade, but the publican was never far from an open packet of fatty snacks. She would recommend an appointment with the practice nurse for a cholesterol test and advice about a healthy diet.

Until he spoke, Ray’s demeanour appeared as relaxed as it usually was in The Rocket, and he smiled at Zoe as she sat down. But his mood changed rapidly when she asked what she could do for him.

‘You’ve got to help me, Doctor. Please.’ He wrung his hands and sounded close to tears.

Zoe shifted her voice to a softer tone. ‘What’s wrong, Ray?’

The big man closed his eyes briefly as if to stop them brimming over, and took a deep breath. ‘It’s Hazel.’

‘Has something happened?’

‘You’ve seen her. You know how she is.’

‘I know she hasn’t yet come to terms with your son’s death. Have you?’

‘I’m fine. This isn’t about me.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Can’t you give her something?’

‘Hazel needs to make an appointment to see me or one of the other doctors. Then we can assess how best to help her.’

Ray ran a huge hand through his thinning hair and stared at Zoe. ‘But you came to the flat. Don’t tell me that was just a social call.’

Zoe winced. She had imposed herself on a vulnerable woman, albeit one who may have been involved in Chrissie Baird’s death, to pump her for information. And now that woman’s husband was giving her credit for a far more noble motive. ‘I take it she doesn’t know you’re here.’

‘She won’t come herself. Won’t even admit there’s anything wrong.’

‘I can’t treat her with you acting as go-between.’

‘If you prescribe something to help her snap out of this depression, I’ll make sure she takes it.’

‘Taking drugs isn’t necessarily the answer. She may benefit more from talking to a trained bereavement counsellor.’

‘Talk? She doesn’t need to talk, she needs medication.’

Zoe again told Ray she could not give him a prescription for his wife. Once more he insisted that she must. Eventually, backed into a corner, she offered to call round to see Hazel again that afternoon.

‘Then you’ll put her on anti-depressants?’

‘Not necessarily.’

‘Well what about me?’ Ray no longer looked Zoe in the eye but stared down at his hands. ‘Will you prescribe anti-depressants for me?’

‘Not if I think you intend to pass them on to someone else.’

‘In that case I’ll ask one of the other doctors for some.’

‘They’ll say exactly the same thing. Let’s talk again once I’ve seen Hazel, shall we?’

Ray sniffed loudly and got up. Zoe watched him trudge from the room, his long arms and massive hands hanging dejectedly by his sides, then typed a brief note into his records in case he tried to obtain drugs for Hazel from anyone else.

Paul and Walter had their heads bowed over a magazine when Zoe entered the kitchen. They sprang apart like schoolboys caught sharing their first taste of porn. Walter got up and switched the kettle on.

‘What do you think of this?’ Paul asked, waving the magazine in Zoe’s direction.

She scanned the open page then looked up. ‘From whose point of view – a doctor’s or a woman’s? That might influence my response.’

Paul laughed and Walter looked as though he was trying not to.

‘I’m sorry, my dear, I should have explained,’ Paul said. ‘I was wondering if this article would be reassuring to our male patients who have concerns about their own, um, assets.’

Zoe flicked over the page, then checked out the magazine’s front cover. ‘I wouldn’t have had you down as a reader of this sort of thing, Paul.’

‘Alasdair was home over the weekend and suggested I might find it useful. He and his friends read magazines like this all the time, apparently. His mother used to enjoy Cosmopolitan, but I’ve never been a great one for reading.’

‘In which case, my answer to your question is yes, it definitely conveys the message that male genitalia come in an infinite variety of sizes and shapes.’

Walter returned to the table with a cup of coffee and placed it in front of Zoe. She smiled her appreciation but he didn’t smile back.

‘I doubt Zoe’s male patients confide in her about such matters,’ Walter said.

Zoe agreed, but balked at giving him the satisfaction of saying so.
He wasn’t the only one who could be offhand
.

Paul looked at her over the top of his glasses. ‘Do you want to talk about what happened at the weekend? It must have been very distressing, getting involved in such unpleasantness.’ The word ‘again’ remained unsaid but hung in the room.

The two men listened as Zoe told them about the events of Saturday night and the following afternoon. It was a relief being able to reveal the true relationship between Brian and Lisa, secure in the knowledge that it would go no further.

‘Oh my Lord,’ Walter said.

Paul heaved a sigh. ‘What a wicked world this is.’ He was about to say something else when there was a knock on the door. It opened seconds later.

‘Excuse me, Doctors, I was told to come through and find you,’ Mather said.

‘Come on in, Detective Chief Inspector,’ Paul said. ‘I expect you’re here to see Zoe. Walter and I will leave you in peace.’ He picked up the magazine, though not before Mather’s eyes alighted briefly on it.

‘Please stay. Some of what I have to say concerns you all.’ Mather continued to stand, despite Walter’s gesture towards the fourth chair at the table. ‘Firstly, I have a question about the late Mrs Baird.’

‘Ask away,’ Paul said.

‘Was she a smoker?’

‘Can’t you tell that from the post mortem?’ Zoe asked.

Mather ignored her.

‘Perhaps before she moved here, but certainly not while I knew her,’ Paul said. ‘In fact she used to be concerned about the amount of second-hand smoke she and Jimmy inhaled at the pub. She welcomed the smoking ban when it came in, unlike a lot of their customers.’

All three doctors waited for Mather to explain his question. He did not. Instead he turned to Zoe and said, ‘I’m afraid I have bad news about the young woman you know as Lisa Humphreys.’

‘What’s happened?’

‘She became unwell while being questioned by the Fiscal first thing this morning. An ambulance took her to Borders General, but despite the best efforts of the staff they couldn’t save the baby.’

‘Oh no,’ Zoe said, shocked at such a cruel outcome when Lisa had gone to such desperate lengths to save her child.

‘What about the poor girl herself?’ Paul asked. ‘Zoe has made us aware of the circumstances behind Saturday night’s tragedy.’

‘I’m told she’ll be fine.’ Looking embarrassed at how inappropriate that may have sounded, Mather added, ‘In the circumstances.’

‘Physically, maybe,’ Zoe said. ‘But I wonder how she’ll cope emotionally with losing the baby on top of everything else.’

‘Perhaps it’s for the best,’ Walter said. ‘In the circumstances.’

The room fell silent. Zoe was about to ask Mather if he had any other news when the policeman said, ‘While I have all of you here, there is one more thing I need to say. I hope you’ll take it in the spirit it’s intended.’ He paused, unnecessarily Zoe thought, like he had been taking lessons from Chris Kossoff.

‘I realise as doctors you feel bound by confidentiality, but you obviously discuss matters between yourselves that you wouldn’t share with anyone else. By all means debate what you can and cannot tell the police, but don’t forget that we’re looking for a killer. Doctor Moreland nearly became another victim.’

Paul turned to Zoe. ‘Is this true? You told us it was an accident.’

Walter said nothing.

‘I didn’t want to worry you,’ Zoe said, her face burning.

Walter stood up and put on his jacket. ‘I for one, DCI Mather, would never keep back anything that could be useful to your investigation. And I’m certain Doctor Ryder feels the same. Are you coming, Paul? We’re expected in Melrose at twelve-thirty.’

Despite Paul’s obvious reluctance to leave, he said goodbye and followed Walter out of the room.

‘Was that a medical textbook Doctor Ryder was trying to hide from me?’ Mather asked Zoe when they were alone.

Hearing him joke shocked Zoe almost as much as the one time she overheard Gran swear. Before she could think of a reply, he pulled an envelope from his breast pocket and handed it to her.

‘What’s this?’

‘Official notification that your car has been retained as evidence. It can’t be released until the conclusion of any court proceedings, so your insurance company will probably write the vehicle off now, even if it is salvageable. You’ll be able to go out and buy yourself another one.’

‘I didn’t know that’s what happened.’

‘Not many people do.’

As Mather moved towards the door, Zoe asked, ‘Can I go and visit Lisa?’

‘She’s still in the BGH but I don’t know how long for. Once she’s physically stable she’ll be taken somewhere less open.’

‘To prison? After all she’s been through? That would be cruel.’

‘It’s out of my hands. But I’ll let you know if I hear anything.’

Mather turned and was halfway out of the room when Zoe asked, ‘Why are you so interested in whether Chrissie Baird smoked?’

‘Goodbye, Doctor.’

At a little after two o’clock, Zoe paused outside the shop on her way to see Hazel. The ‘closed’ sign on its door contradicted the neatly-written opening hours displayed below it, and a cluster of smudges on the glass told of attempts to see inside past the pulled-down blind. She wondered what would happen to the business Brian and Lisa had worked so hard to build up.
Would being a murder scene attract or repulse potential buyers?
Judging by what she knew of human nature, it could go either way.

Arriving at the entrance to the flat above the pub, Zoe knocked twice and had her hand raised to try for a third and final time when she heard footsteps. Hazel opened the door, but it was obvious she had not been expecting Zoe and was on her way out, car keys in one hand and a plastic bag weighed down with something soft and heavy in the other.

‘Hello Hazel. Didn’t Ray tell you to expect me?’

‘Ray? He’s away shooting with his farmer pals. Won’t be home ‘til opening time.’ Hazel swayed slightly and her eyes were unfocused.

‘Oh. Where are you off to?’ Zoe spoke cheerfully, trying to hide her concern. She wanted to avoid having to wrestle Hazel’s keys away from her.

The older woman’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. ‘Did Ray send you to stop me?’

‘No, of course not. In fact, I’d like to come with you.’

Hazel nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Shall we take my car?’

‘You don’t know the way.’

‘You can show me.’ Zoe guided Hazel to where the hire car was parked.

They passed the entrance to the Larimer Park estate and the water meadow where Jimmy Baird died. Hazel, clutching the plastic bag to her chest, stayed silent throughout the journey, except to issue directions. Now they were in an enclosed space, Zoe detected a sour odour not entirely masked by her passenger’s lavishly-applied perfume.