by L M Krier
On the drive home, Trev said very little. Then he suddenly blurted out, 'It just suddenly hit me. I could drop dead, at any moment, just like that. Any exertion, and that could be it.'
Ted put a gentle hand on his arm as he drove and said reassuringly, 'You might not even be affected, though, don't forget that. Hold on to that thought. We won't really know anything until the test results. Try to stay positive.'
'But I might, Ted. I might. And that terrifies me.'
Ted seemed to be on auto-pilot all week. He was so worried about Trev that he could not concentrate and he knew he was not much use to the team at the moment. Luckily, Jezza seemed to have knuckled down for the time being, which was one less problem for him. She had not yet seen Angela at the home but she had at least been turning up there regularly to keep an eye out.
Mike sensed there was something serious worrying the boss, so he tried to rally the team and field any minor issues himself until the DI was back on form.
Ted was surprised at how much he was looking forward to lunch at his mother's. He thought it might do Trev some good and he would have done anything to put the sparkle back into his partner's eyes. He hoped, too, that Trev's date with the Professor on the Sunday would at least give him some of the answers he was looking for.
If there was one thing they could both be sure of with Bizzie, it was that she would do some straight talking and call a spade a spade. Ted just hoped she might find a bit of tact from somewhere, to temper what she had to say.
His mother had clearly gone to a lot of trouble, and expense, with her cooking. From the moment she opened the door, she kept apologising to Trev, saying the meal she had prepared could never match up to the one he had made when she visited. He silenced her by engulfing her in one of his big, warm, bear hugs, which made her beam with delight.
'Anything you make will be delicious, Annie, I'm sure,' he told her.
He offered to help her bring things to the table but she wouldn't hear of it. Ted was worried when he saw the size of beef joint she proudly produced, knowing how far such a cut would have bitten into a care worker's wages.
'I didn't know if you would remember, Teddy, but you always liked my Yorkshire puddings, so I made those,' she said, producing a plateful of perfectly risen golden brown puddings.
'Oh, wow, I can never get mine to rise as well as those. What's your secret?' Trev asked shamelessly, although his were every bit as good. Ted's mother smiled with pride as she disappeared in search of the roast potatoes and vegetables.
'You should hug your mum, Ted,' Trev said softly, putting a hand on his arm. 'While you can. While you have the chance.'
Ted took something of a back seat, enjoying watching Trev clearly having such a good time. Trev was tall and well-built and rather dwarfed the small room whenever he stood up to help. He looked so vibrant, so full of life, that Ted struggled to swallow his food past the lump which rose in his throat whenever he looked at him.
When they were leaving, Trev looked pointedly at his partner as he gave Annie another big hug and a kiss on both cheeks. Ted managed a brief peck on the cheek and a clumsy gesture, almost like a pat on her shoulder.
The next day, with Trev potentially tied up for much of the time with the Professor, Ted decided to drop in at the station. He could not settle to much until he knew about Trev. His mother had asked him if he would mind picking up some of his grandmother's things which were still at the home, as she couldn't face doing so herself. He decided that he would also do a tour round some of the other homes, to see if he could pick up on anything his team had missed so far.
He found Maurice and Steve on duty in the main office, still plodding methodically through lists of staff and looking for any crossover.
'I can't believe how high the turnover is for care workers, boss,' Maurice grumbled when he saw Ted.
'I'm not surprised to hear it. Not everyone's dream job, I imagine, and I know the pay is very low,' Ted replied. 'I'm planning on taking a quick trip round some of the homes, just on the off-chance I have a sudden blinding flash of inspiration. I might just get lucky and bump into Angela. I've got to go to Snowdon Lodge anyway, to pick up the last of my gran's things. '
Ted found it a depressing way to spend the day. Some of the homes were clearly well-run and compassionate. Others had more of an air of factory farming about them. He was recognised and greeted warmly by Stacy at The Poppies. He asked about developments, then had to dash off once more in pursuit of the same elderly lady as before, intent on making her escape yet again.
Ted was interested to check security at the homes he visited, to see how easy it was for someone unknown to walk in off the street and visit a resident. He found it disconcertingly simple at many of them. He was beginning to realise how their Angela had managed to insinuate herself into the homes and befriend the nearest elderly person she spotted, sitting by themselves.
He saved Snowdon Lodge for his last visit of the day. That way, he could pick up his grandmother's few remaining things and drop them round to his mother's, before going home to see how Trev had got on with the Professor.
Once again, he simply tagged along behind other visitors going in, this time a couple in their fifties, who held the door open for him when they were admitted. They didn't stop to sign the register. Ted didn't, either.
'Sid! Sid! Where are you, Sid? Sid, I need you. Where are you?'
The same elderly woman, in the same chair, still smelling strongly of urine. Ted wondered if anybody ever attended to her. He looked around optimistically for a staff member. There was no sign of anyone. The one who had opened the door had quickly disappeared back down a corridor.
He doubted that the manager would be at her desk on a Sunday but he walked along the hallway to her office, just in case. The door was firmly shut. He headed back in the opposite direction, towards what had been his grandmother's room. Off duty and out of sight of the Ice Queen, he had adopted his favourite casual clothes and Doc Martens boots, so he made no sound.
There was an elderly woman he did not know in the room which had been his grandmother's. The door was open and she was sitting in an armchair beside the bed, staring blankly out of the window, ignoring one of the endless repeat episodes of Inspector Morse which was playing on her small television. Ted wondered how Morse would have fared with this case.
He continued along the corridor and came to another room with a door standing open. It was clearly the rest room for the carers. Two of them were sitting there drinking tea. As Ted neared the room, a third carer came up the corridor and stuck her head round the door.
'Where the bloody hell is Danni?' she asked angrily, taking no notice at all of Ted. 'She's supposed to be helping me, lazy bitch. The old woman in room twenty-seven is throwing up all over everywhere and I'm not cleaning it up by myself.'
'Danni keeps going off to the bogs. She's puking too,' one of the other carers told her.
Ted stepped forward, a feeling of dread and déjà-vu hitting him.
'Who's in charge here today?' he asked.
The first carer, who was twice his size in all directions, looked him up and down. Her name badge said she was called Mandy. 'Are you a relative?' she asked.
Ted pulled out his warrant card. 'I'm a police officer. I'm investigating the sudden death in this home of Mrs Gwen Jones. Tell me about this current situation.'
The woman shrugged, unconcernedly. 'It's not a situation,' she said dismissively. 'We've got an old dear throwing up. It happens a lot in a place like this. She probably ate too much cake, or she's got a bug. Danni was most likely out on the lash.'
'Is anyone else in the home sick? How long has the resident been like this?' Ted persisted.
'She had cake after her dinner, earlier this afternoon. She's been poorly since, but she's greedy, she always eats too much and too quickly,' the carer told him.
'Was the cake something baked here in the home?' Ted asked, starting to get worried now.
'No, a visitor brought it in for he
r, I think, but I didn't see who. It's been busy today, a lot of visitors. She'd already had a big dinner. It was just too much for her, making a pig of herself like that.'
'Call an ambulance,' Ted ordered. 'Now. I'll take full responsibility if I'm over-reacting.' His tone left no room for argument.
Whilst the first carer was doing that, Ted asked the others, 'Could this Danni have had any of the cake? Has anyone else had any?'
They looked at one another, then one of them said, 'Danni took it off Betty as she could see she was gobbling it too fast. She told me she ate some of it herself but said she didn't eat a lot as she didn't like the taste of it.'
'Go and see to the resident who's ill. I've no idea what care you need to give her, but give her whatever you can. Make her comfortable, at least. When the ambulance arrives, make sure they also check out this Danni. And you better call the manager in, she might be needed.
'Why are the residents still being allowed to have food brought in from outside? Why is the ban not still in place?' he asked.
'Ambulance is on its way,' the first carer told him. 'I'm sure it's nothing, she's probably just eaten too much. And what food ban? I've never heard there was one.'
Ted hadn't thought the way this case was going could get much worse. He had a horrible feeling it was just about to.
Chapter Twenty-three
It was immediately obvious to Ted that he was going to have to take charge of the situation. He was desperate to get home to Trev, to find out how he had got on with Bizzie. But the carers didn't seem to know what they were doing, and there was a possibility he would need to preserve a crime scene, if it turned out to be another poisoning.
'Do you have any nursing staff on duty?' he asked the first, formidable, carer.
She shook her head. 'Not in this wing. We're a care home, not a nursing home. Not many staff on at the weekend, either.' She was heading back to room twenty-seven, Ted falling into step beside her.
'Who's the duty first aider?' Ted asked. 'I assume you at least have one of those?
'Danni. The one who's also throwing up,' she said as they reached the room.
The elderly woman in the bed looked in a bad way. She had vomited all over herself and the bedclothes and was now clearly struggling for breath.
'Come on now, Betty, let's get you cleaned up a bit and settled for the night,' the carer said, with enforced jollity.
'You need to try to turn her on to her side,' Ted told her. 'Vomiting like that, she risks choking on it. I would say cleaning her up is the least important thing at the moment. You need to try to maintain a clear airway. Do you need a hand?'
She threw him a look of barely concealed contempt. 'I could probably pick up the both of you together, one in each arm.'
'But do it gently,' Ted told her, his voice authoritative. 'Make her as comfortable and safe as possible until the ambulance gets here.'
'What are the police worried about if another old biddy just eats too much, too quickly?' the carer grumbled to herself. She effortlessly turned the frail figure onto her side and moved pillows and a spare blanket to maintain her position.
'Because there's a strong possibility this may be more than that,' Ted told her coldly, not impressed by her attitude. 'You could wipe her face a bit, make sure her mouth is kept clear. And try to reassure her. What's her pulse like?'
'I've got other residents to see to, you know, we don't have enough staff for one to one, especially with Danni sick.'
'Stay with her,' Ted ordered, once again his tone allowing no room for argument.
He went in search of the other two carers. One of them was just finishing a telephone call. The other was nowhere to be seen.
'I've called the manager in. I've also phoned through to our other wing, the secure unit. They have a nurse on duty and he's on his way. What else can I do to help?' she asked.
Her badge said she was Katya. She spoke with an accent but her English was extremely good.
'That's brilliant, thank you,' Ted said, relieved to find someone with a bit of gumption. 'Now, where is this Danni and how is she?'
'I sent the other carer to go and find her and make sure she's all right. The trouble is, we really need to be getting on and seeing to the other residents. There's never enough staff on to cope with a real emergency,' she told him.
Ted nodded his thanks and understanding. At that moment, a man came walking purposefully down the corridor. He was stocky and shaven-headed, with tattooed arms, wearing a white tunic with a badge which said 'Derek'. Ted's immediate thought from the way he carried himself was that he may have been an Army medical orderly at one time.
He stepped forward with his warrant card in hand.
'I was here on a routine visit,' he told the man. 'The circumstances of this sickness are very similar to what happened recently with Mrs Jones, so an ambulance has been called on my instructions. If I have over-reacted then I take full responsibility, but I don't think so.
Ted led the way towards room twenty-seven. They could both hear Mandy grumbling away in the room. Ted wondered if she was like that with all the residents or just those who made a mess when she was on duty.
'I'll take over now, Mandy, you go and get on with the others,' the nurse, Derek, told her.
He seemed competent and his bedside manner was better than Mandy's. At least he spoke kindly to the elderly lady, who was clearly now in considerable distress. Her toothless mouth was opening and closing like a fish, as if searching for air. She was still retching, but there was nothing left to bring up.
Derek took her pulse and gave Ted a worried look.
'Her heart rate is all over the place,' he said quietly. 'How long for the ambulance?'
'Not sure,' Ted replied. 'I'll see if I can speed it up. You have a carer with the same symptoms, though not as severe, I don't think. I'll go and find out more.'
He made a quick call to the ambulance service, identified himself, stressed the urgency and was told that paramedics were on their way. Next he phoned Trev briefly.
'Sorry, I'm going to be late back,' he told him. 'I'm at Snowdon Lodge and we have another potential victim. How did it go with Bizzie? Are you all right?'
'I'm fine, don't worry,' Trev told him. 'I'll tell you all about it when you get back. Go do your policeman stuff.'
He found Katya first, bringing a resident in a wheelchair down the corridor.
'Danni doesn't seem too bad. She's stopped being sick now, at least. We've got her lying down in one of the rooms, one where the resident stays up a bit later. Jane, the other carer, and I are just going to start getting the others to bed,' she said, then asked, 'How's poor Betty?'
'Not looking good,' Ted told her frankly. 'Hopefully the ambulance will be here in time to do something. And I may even be wrong about the possible cause. Let's hope so. If it would free you up, I could wait near the door to let the ambulance crew in when they arrive?'
She flashed him a grateful smile. She had an attractive, open face, but there was a sadness in her eyes which made Ted think of one of his mother's sayings. An old soul, been here before.
As Ted headed for the door, he phoned Maurice.
'Are you and Steve still at the nick, Maurice? I'm at Snowdon Lodge. Looks like we might have another poisoning,' Ted told him. 'No fatality as yet, but I would say it isn't looking good. Can the two of you get down here, please, and start taking statements from everyone. I'm just waiting for the ambulance. There's a carer sick as well, apparently she had some of the same cake.'
Ted had now reached the vestibule and was immediately greeted by the same plaintive, insistent voice.
'Sid! Sid! I want a cup of tea, Sid.'
He went across to the elderly woman and crouched down near to her, but just outside grabbing range. He instinctively knew that if he let her get hold of his arm, he would have a difficult time disengaging himself.
He made eye contact with her and smiled. 'I'll get someone to bring you one soon,' he promised. 'How are you feeling toda
y?'
Her tired old eyes immediately filled with tears. 'You never come and see me any more,' she said sadly. 'I'm all on my own.'
'I'm sorry,' Ted told her. 'I've been busy, but I'll try to come again soon.'
He had no idea if he was being helpful or not. He just couldn't bear to see her loneliness, confusion and distress.
At that moment, he saw blue lights through the window and the ambulance pulled into the car park, stopping close to the door. With a reassuring smile at the old woman, Ted stood up, got out his warrant card and went to let the paramedics in.
'I'm DI Darling, I just happened to be here on another matter,' he told the team of two, a man and a woman, dressed in green. He quickly filled them in on the previous case at the same home and mentioned there had been others. 'But that's to be kept confidential at this stage, please,' he stressed.
They both threw him a look of contempt, but Ted knew he had to try to cover all bases. He led them down the corridor.
'Any idea of what poison we're looking at?' the man asked.
'There have been several,' Ted told them. 'Foxglove, aconite, oleander.'
'Cardiac glycosides,' the woman said, nodding knowingly.
'Have you had experience of plant poisoning cases before?' Ted asked her, surprised.
She grinned sheepishly at him.
'No, but I love reading crime thrillers and watching them on the telly,' she confessed.
Ted showed them to the room and left them with Derek. The woman in the bed was looking more distressed than before. Ted hoped they had been quick enough to save her. He went back into the corridor to leave them to their work. He needed to make another phone call.
'Bizzie? It's Ted. Thanks for helping Trev today. I hope it went ok?'
'Ah, Edwin,' came the familiar breezy voice. 'I think I've been able to reassure him a little. I've also put him in touch with a friend of mine, a cardiac consultant. Douglas owes me a few favours. I've phoned him to call them in, so if you or Trevor call him tomorrow, I'm sure he can arrange these tests soon. It's an anxious time for you both, I know.'
