The Coroner (49 page)

    'Alison
Trent, coroner's officer - I've often seen your name on the email but never put
a face to it.'

    The
PA responded with a cautious 'Right. ..'

    'It's
nothing much,' Alison said. 'It's just that the coroner made an order that Dr
Peterson's dictation tapes for the month until 7 May of this year be produced.
They may contain some evidence relevant to an inquest she's been conducting. I
thought they might be up here.'

    'Oh.
Dr Peterson hasn't said anything to me.'

    'It's
not really a matter for him. Here's the coroner's order.' Jenny heard Alison
unlock her briefcase and hand over the document she had typed out before
leaving the office. 'If these tapes are in your possession, custody or control
you are required by law to hand them over to me now.'

    There
was a pause as Kathy Greenway looked at the document. With a note of anxiety
she said, 'I'd better get my line manager, Mr Hassan. I don't know anything
about this.'

    Alison
said, 'It's really nothing to do with him. This relates to the person who has
possession of the tapes.'

    'I
still need to speak to Mr Hassan.'

    'Miss
Greenway, before you call, I need to know if you have those tapes.'

    'Not
for those dates, no.'

    'Well,
where would they be?'

    'I
don't know. They all get recycled.'

    'You
mean they would have gone back to Dr Peterson?'

    'Not necessarily.
They all go in that tray over there. Someone takes them away and they get
reused.'

    'By
whom?'

    'Any
of the typing staff here.'

    Another
brief hiatus, then Alison said, 'Do you type up all the post-mortem tapes Dr
Peterson sends in?'

    'Yes.'

    'So
you'll have copies of all those files on your computer?'

    'I'm
not going to answer any more questions. I'm calling Mr Hassan now.'

    Kathy
picked up the phone and informed Hassan that there was someone from the
coroner's office here asking to see Dr Peterson's files. Jenny heard the
background chatter die down, the other PAs "taking an interest. Kathy came
off the phone and said Mr Hassan would be along right now, and explained that
she wasn't allowed to give out anyone's files under any circumstances.

    Alison
tried again. 'If you look at the wording of the document, Miss Greenway, it
covers transcripts of the tapes. That means if you don't give copies to me now
you could be called up in front of the court.'

    'If I
did that without my boss's permission I'd lose my job, OK?'

    Jenny
could feel the tension between them as they waited for Hassan to arrive. The
other PAs had stopped talking, only the desultory click of their keyboards
filling the silence. They had agreed that Alison would control the phone, but
Jenny was impatient to intervene; she could see Hassan calling his boss and so
on up the food chain until the chief executive was wheeled in. What was needed
was a sharp threat. She pressed the 'end call' button on her phone, waited a
moment for the line to disconnect on each side, then dialled Alison's number.
It rang only once. She answered with an abrupt hello.

    'You
need to be tougher. When Hassan comes, tell him he either hands over the files
or he and the girl will find themselves in court first thing Monday morning.'

    Alison
said, 'Yes. It's being dealt with. Goodbye.' She pressed several keys on the
phone - probably killing the ring - and stuffed it back in a pocket.

    It
was at least another five minutes before she heard a cautious, bureaucratic
voice say, 'Ali Hassan, and you are?'

    'Alison
Trent, coroner's officer.'

    'OK.
This is Alan Yates from our legal department. He's going to handle this
request.'

    'Mrs
Trent.' Yates's voice was that of a young, confident lawyer who spent his life
helping the hospital beat off negligence claims. 'Could we step into the
corridor, please?'

    Alison
said, 'I'm here to collect evidence that's been ordered by the coroner. You
understand what that means, Mr Yates.'

    'If
you wouldn't mind, I'd prefer to discuss this privately.'

    There
were sounds of movement, Alison following him from the room. A door closed
behind them, shutting out the office noise.

    Dropping
all pretence at politeness, Yates said, 'What's going on here? The coroner's
been suspended. She's got no legal authority and our staff aren't obliged to
give you anything.'

    'This
order was made before the Danny Wills inquest was adjourned. As far as I'm
concerned, it has to be complied with. If it isn't, there will be
consequences.'

    'We'll
take them.'

    'You
realize you're obstructing a coroner's investigation?'

    'Let's
cut the crap. I've just spoken to the head of legal at the local authority and
you shouldn't even be here. Either you leave now or I'll call security.'

    'Mr
Grantham has no jurisdiction over the coroner's office.'

    Yates
said, 'Nice try. Come back with an arrest warrant and we might take you
seriously.'

    There
was a moment of silence, then a click as Alison reached into her pocket and
ended the call.

    She
found Jenny at the corner table swallowing her lunchtime pills, no longer
making any effort to conceal them.

    'How
much of that did you hear?'

    'Pretty
much everything. Sounds like he called your bluff.'

    'What
was I meant to do - lie? He'd spoken to Grantham. He knew you'd sent me on a
fishing trip. Face it, Mrs Cooper, we're not going to get anything out of
them.'

    'I'm
not your boss any more. You can call me Jenny.'

    'I'd
prefer not to.'

    Alison
sat stiffly on the edge of her chair, avoiding Jenny's gaze, annoyed with
herself and embarrassed at her failure. She said, 'I suppose that's it, then.
We're not going to get any further here.'

    'Not
by asking politely we're not.'

    'We've
got no authority, Mrs Cooper. It'll have to wait until you're back in post.'

    'I
appreciate your optimism, but I think we both know what'll happen to those
files in the meantime.'

    Indignant,
Alison said, 'You make it sound as if it was my fault. I don't see what else I
could have done.'

    'You
couldn't, they were wise to us. If they won't let us through the front door
we'll just have to go through the back.'

    Jenny
pulled out her phone and address book and looked up a number. 'You don't have
to be involved with this. In fact, you probably don't want to be anywhere near
it.'

    'Who
are you calling?'

    'Tara
Collins. She claims to have a young hacker friend.'

    Alison
said, 'I'd better be getting back to the office.' She stepped away from the
table. 'I'll find myself a taxi.'

    Jenny
waited until she was out of earshot.

    Tara
answered her land line with a cautious 'Who is it?'

    'Jenny
Cooper.'

    'Hi.
I was going to call you - I saw the
Post.
Tell me they fitted you up.'

    'Something
like that.'

    
'Allowing
your premises to be used?
I don't like to pull rank, but it could be
worse.'

    'I'm
working on it.'

    'I've
had Simone on the phone wanting to know what the hell's going on. I used to
think she was flaky enough to survive this but I'm not so sure.'

    'I
don't know how safe it is to talk to you on this thing—'

    'What
the hell. For all I know they've got a bug up my backside.'

    Jenny
thought of suggesting they meet somewhere but it was nearly one. If Peterson's
files were still intact by the close of business she'd be amazed.

    'I've
had some information. I need to get hold of certain computer files on the Vale
District Hospital server - transcripts of Peterson's post-mortem notes. You
mentioned you knew a kid-'

    'I
do.' A note of excitement entered her voice.

    'Do
you think he'd be able to help? It's urgent.'

    'I
can call him, but there's a problem.'

    'OK .
. .'

    'As I
recall, the Vale's on an intranet. There's no outside access and no wi-fi. He'd
have to work off one of the terminals in the building, or at least get a lead
plugged into the system.'

    'I'm
here now. Any ideas?'

    'Have
a look around, I'll call you back in a minute.' She rang off.

    Jenny
pocketed her phone and went in search of a spare computer terminal. The admin
floors were out of bounds, limiting her to the clinical areas of the building.
She scouted along corridors, glancing into offices and reception areas of obs
and gynae, paediatrics and gastroenterology, but each area of the building felt
as if it was already holding twice as many people as it was designed for.
Playing lost, she wandered through two adjacent geriatric wards on the first
floor; the handful of terminals were all behind glass in the nurses' stations,
positioned to keep patients and public well away from them. She nudged at the
doors of a housemen's common room, but it, too, was overcrowded, young doctors
queuing up to get at the handful of grubby machines. An under- resourced
hospital was a tough place to get screen time.

    She
was coming back down the stairs to reception, wondering what secret corners the
intranet cables passed through and whether, like in a movie she'd seen, it
could be spliced into, when Tara Collins called back. She said that Tony had
agreed to help, but wanted a hundred to cover the risk. Jenny said fine, but
they'd need to move fast. How soon could they get here?

    'Be
there in half an hour. Found a terminal yet?'

    'You've
got to be joking. I was thinking about hacking into the cable.'

    'Not
a chance. They'll all be in armoured conduits running between the floors. Keep
looking.'

    Jenny
was there to meet Tara and Tony as they climbed out of her battered Fiat. Tony
was a pale, skinny kid wearing a baseball cap and a fluorescent waistcoat, IT
TEAM, printed across the front and back. He had a laptop bag over his shoulder
and a jumble of leads stuffed in his waistcoat pockets.

    He
looked at her with grey, unblinking eyes and in a flat drawl said, 'Hi, I'm
Tony. Tara said you were cool about the money.'

    'Sure.
I'll give it you as soon as I get to a cashpoint.'

    He
shrugged, happy with that.

    Tara
said, 'How are we doing? Have you found a terminal?'

    'Not
a chance. Every one I've found is being used or has got a queue for it. I was
hoping you'd have some ideas.'

    Tony
said, 'I'd usually go into someone's office, say I'm fixing a problem.'

    Jenny
and Tara exchanged a look. Tara said, 'He's done it before.'

    Jenny
said, 'How long do you need?'

    'We're
probably talking about a six-digit password made up of letters and numbers.
Could take maybe half an hour with my software, or quicker if I can get a link
out and get some remote machines working on it.'

    Tara
said, 'Password hacking takes computing power. You basically have an electronic
dictionary containing every permutation, millions of them. Tony's part of a
network that shares the load - hundreds of machines around the world get
working on it at once.'

    Tony,
faintly bored, picked at a spot on his chin.

    Jenny
thought about trying to get him into one of the offices she'd passed and
couldn't see how. More than likely people who worked at the same computer all
day would smell a rat. She was thinking about the geriatric ward, maybe finding
a way to distract the skeleton staff of nurses, when she realized they were
standing thirty yards away from the hospital mortuary.