1 First Blood

by Claire Rayner

  Something would have to be done in the distraction line, no doubt about it. She picked up the phone and buzzed through to Jerry. He listened to her demands and said sweetly, ‘Dr B., I promise you, you’ll have it all as fast as we can do it. I’m checking every damn thing in sight for every damn thing I can think of and a few more besides. You will have the fullest of reports in no time at all. Well, not long after lunch. If you leave me alone to get on with it, that is.’

  She snapped the phone down, glowered at it, and then picked it up again. Constable Urquhart. Detective Constable Urquhart. He was the fellow she needed to talk to now. At the very least, he’d keep her mind off Toby Bellamy.

  The call nearly ended in disaster; the Ratcliffe Street station switchboard put her through to the CID room when she asked for Mr Urquhart, and as soon as he heard her voice he said cheerfully, ‘Och, it’ll be Mr Hathaway you’re wanting. I’ll see if he’s available –’

  ‘No!’ she shouted. ‘No, it’s you I want. In fact, I’d as soon Mr Hathaway didn’t know I’d called.’

  ‘Oh!’ The young voice became guarded. ‘Now, why would that be?’

  ‘For the same reason you got annoyed with him,’ she said. ‘You told me you’d be glad if I showed Mr Hathaway I wasn’t the sort to be pushed about. I remember it perfectly.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Indeed I do. You also said that he can be downright nasty sometimes, and that he won’t listen to other people’s ideas. That he doesn’t trust intuition and only wants hard evidence.’

  The voice became even more cautious. ‘I said all that?’

  ‘You certainly did.’

  ‘Hmm. Well, and suppose I did? What of it?’

  ‘I’ve been using my intuition.’

  ‘Ah.’ There was a short silence in which she could hear the rattle of typewriters in his office and the sound of other men’s voices burring. Then he said, still carefully, ‘Well, now. I’m interested to hear that. But why do you want me?’

  ‘Because I need help to get the hard evidence. You said yourself that if he gets hard evidence …’

  Again there was silence and then he laughed, a soft low sound that had a great deal of real pleasure in it. ‘D’you know, doctor, you’re a grand lady. I’ll –’

  ‘Don’t call me doctor! He may be listening.’

  ‘No, he’s no’ listening. He’s too busy bawling out Brewer to be listening to me. So, what is it you want of me?’ She told him succinctly and he listened, making affirmative noises. When she’d ended he said, ‘Got that. Would you just spell the name again?’

  ‘F-o-r-m-b-y,’ she said. ‘Mitchell. I don’t know where the offence was supposed to have been committed. I’ve checked here and I can tell you he’s been on the staff for a year if that’s significant.’

  ‘It might be. Is there anything else you need to know?’

  ‘I don’t think – Yes! Come to think of it, yes. Oxford. Did he have a computer in his flat?’

  ‘A word processor.’

  ‘Same thing. Look, is it still there? And all the software with it?’

  ‘Which software? There was a good deal.’

  ‘Well, I’d like to know if there was any that dealt with money. I can’t go and look, I suppose.’

  ‘If you do, it’ll be noted and reported,’ he said. ‘Every visitor to the flat has to be logged.’

  ‘Can you look for me?’

  ‘I could try. What is it you’re wanting to know?’

  ‘I’m not sure. About money mainly. I don’t suppose it’s that important, but I’d dearly like to know where he got it all from. Can you see if he’s got a disc for his bookkeeping or whatever?’

  ‘Well, it’ll no’ be as easy as finding the other, but I’ll try … And, er, doc – I mean, I wish you luck. I’d like to see you – um – showing you weren’t one to be pushed about.’

  ‘Oh, me too, Mr Urquhart, me too!’ she said and hung up.

  After that it was easier to concentrate on the routine of the day and she didn’t think about Toby at all until she had to go over to the renal department at eleven-thirty to see one of Kate Sayers’s patients. The boy had not responded to his dialysis as he should, and Kate wanted to consult on the matter of his creatinine levels, among other things.

  They sorted that out fairly quickly, with Kate herself seeing the best way to adapt the boy’s medication once George had discussed the vagaries of proteins in dialysed blood at some length. Then Kate said cosily, ‘Any news?’ and George laughed.

  ‘You’ll make me suspect you only asked for a consult because you wanted to catch up on the gossip.’

  ‘Oh, no, I wouldn’t waste your time that way. But now you’re here … coffee?’

  ‘This place runs on caffeine,’ George said, and perched on the edge of the table. It felt less time-wasting than sitting down. ‘So, what sort of news?’

  ‘The Oxford murder of course.’ Kate busied herself with her coffee equipage.

  ‘If it was murder. We can’t be sure yet. Why is everyone assuming it is?’

  ‘Isn’t it?’

  ‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ George took her coffee cup. ‘It looks very possible, but it could have been, well, possibly, accident, suicide …’

  ‘Hattie told me you said it couldn’t be either.’

  George sighed. ‘I know I did. But neither can I say it’s murder, don’t you see? It’s evidence we need. If I could find the way he got all that digitalis in him then it’d be a lot easier. We’re doing the checks now – I have to get back.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Jerry promised to have it all done by lunchtime. If I nag at him it’ll just slow him down, but –’

  ‘I thought you’d do the tests for something so important yourself.’

  ‘And cause an uproar in the labs? No way! People have their own jobs to do, and I have to let them do them. It’d be like you taking over the nursing here because you regarded a particular patient as more important than another. They’d get very upset, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘I suppose so. I must say I wish everyone was as sensible as you. The admin people are so ham-fisted they create havoc.’

  ‘Oh?’ George was alert at once. ‘Trouble with Formby?’

  ‘Mmm? Oh, not him. I hardly know him. He’s the chap who deals with the Barrie Ward building, isn’t he?’

  ‘And the major supplies. Haven’t you had any gear stolen here? Like the – er – ECG machines that went from cardiology?’

  ‘Oh, did they? I hadn’t heard about that. But then, things are always walking in this place. The wastage must be colossal.’

  ‘So, if it isn’t Formby who’s giving you grief, who is?’

  ‘Oh, Matthew bloody Herne! He’s so pompous and so – so slippery. And so boring.’

  George giggled. ‘He didn’t look boring last night.’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘I saw him at the theatre. With a somewhat overdressed creature who looked as though she’d been sprayed with polyurethane. She was the one who was with him at the concert, too.’

  ‘Oh, that’s his wife. Extraordinary-looking woman, isn’t she? A model, some say. I don’t know. It certainly caused a stir when he first brought her here last summer.’

  ‘Oh! Then they haven’t been together that long?’

  Kate shook her head. ‘Apparently not. Was he all over her?’

  George grimaced. ‘I wasn’t actually watching them, they were a few rows in front. But he certainly seemed – what’s the word? Uxorious.’

  ‘Couldn’t keep his hands off her,’ Kate translated.

  ‘Something like that. What’s he done to annoy you?’

  ‘Oh, it’s my dialysis machine. I told him I spent hours, absolutely hours, in discussion with the manufacturers, worked out exactly what new systems we need, sorted out the prices, everything, and then when I send it all along to get the authorization signed, he suddenly announces he’s got a better supplier, takes all the specifications and sends my chap off in high dudgeon. I f
eel such a fool. It looks to the firm as though I was the one who used all their time and expertise to sort out my problems and then took the order they were entitled to expect to another company.’

  ‘I can see that’d annoy you, but was it your own fault? I mean, did you just go ahead and deal with it all without getting the hospital’s authority first?’

  ‘No, of course not! It’s taken ages to sort this out. I started on it last spring – almost a year ago! Herne told me it was fine, to go ahead. I’d been nagging for two years before that for some money to upgrade this department and he said I could have it in this coming financial year. So of course I started investigating the situation right away. I know more about dialysis equipment now than it’s decent for any person to know who isn’t manufacturing it. And after all that he goes and gives the order to another firm!’

  ‘Is it one you approve of?’

  Kate shrugged. ‘I never heard of it. It’s a foreign one. I’d done my work with British firms. Not that I’m a little Englander or anything, but it seemed to be more sensible to have the gear of a company that could be fetched in a hurry in case of an emergency. I know we’re in the EEC now, but I’d still rather fetch people from Birmingham or Leeds than Stuttgart or Paris or wherever, and it’s easier without a language difference. I have to make sure the patients can understand all the instructions for the parts of the system they use in their own homes, and translated advice is never all it might be. Anyway, there it is. He won’t be budged. It’s got to be his choice of manufacturer and that’s all there is to it. It’s as you said. He’s behaving like someone who can’t trust people to do their own job properly.’

  ‘Yes,’ George said and looked at her watch again. ‘I see what you mean. But I must go. Jerry’ll have that stuff ready for me soon, and if I’m not there to be impressed by his speed he’ll be as mad with me as you are with Herne – and I want to know as fast as I can anyway. I’m as interested as everyone else in what happened to Oxford, take it from me.’

  ‘Promise you’ll let me know as soon as you’ve got the answer?’ Kate said. ‘I’m really fascinated by the whole thing, and so’s Oliver.’

  ‘Oliver? Why?’

  ‘He’s a journalist! If there’s a story here, obviously he’d like to have a crack at it and get some inside stuff other people couldn’t get. You can’t blame him. He deserves something to pay him back for all those broken nights when I’m working and he has to cope with the kids on his own.’

  ‘I’ll tell you, I promise,’ George said as she slid to the ground. ‘As soon as I know, you’ll know.’

  She went back to the lab via the canteen, so that she could pick up some sandwiches. They were never very exciting but they were better than the usual hot food; lunch on her desk might be lonely but this way it would at least be something she could actually eat.

  Toby was there two places in front of her in the line-up, buying cheese and pickle rolls, and she thought for a moment of turning and scuttling away before he could see her, and then dismissed the idea as shameful and marched up to get her own sandwiches.

  ‘Good morning!’ he said, calling across the pair of gossiping physiotherapists who stood between them, and then stepped back to let them through. ‘How are you today?’ he added as perforce she came to stand beside him.

  ‘Fine,’ she said, leaning into the cold cabinets ostensibly to study in great detail the packs of sandwiches on offer. ‘Busy, of course.’

  ‘I know.’ He was richly sympathetic. ‘Lunch on the run. Isn’t it dreadful the lives we dedicated sons and daughters of Hippocrates lead?’

  She didn’t look at him, wouldn’t respond to the laughter in his voice. ‘Mmm. I’ll take the tuna and cucumber,’ she said to the gloomy girl behind the counter. ‘Can I have it on wholemeal bread, please?’

  ‘All gone,’ the girl said, clearly brightening at having to impart the information. ‘It all went at the mid-morning breaks.’

  ‘Then why don’t you order more, if it’s so popular?’ George said, and the girl gaped at her.

  ‘We don’t get enough call for it,’ she said and went away in a huff when Toby burst into a loud hoot of laughter. This time George did respond to him. It was a relief to have something outside themselves to which she could.

  ‘Last night was fun,’ he said, when the laughter stopped.

  ‘Mmm. I liked the play.’

  ‘Bugger the play. I was thinking about later.’

  ‘The case you were called back for – difficult?’

  ‘It was a perforation, had to operate right away. Didn’t get to bed till gone seven this morning.’

  She risked a glance at him. ‘You look all right on it.’

  ‘It’s being so near to you that gives me strength.’ He grinned and put a hand on hers very deliberately.

  ‘Toby, I have work to do!’ she said, stepping back. ‘I really can’t – oh!’ as a group of chattering nurses joined the queue and separated them. ‘I really can’t talk now. Must get back.’

  ‘I’ll see you this evening then. I need a swim to recover my energy and a nice early night. How does that idea grab you?’

  ‘If that’s what you need, you go right ahead,’ she said. ‘Me, I’m working late.’

  ‘I’ll pick you up in the residence this evening,’ he said, and also made way as more and more people arrived to join the lunch queue. ‘I can wait till you’re ready. See you!’ He winked at her and pushed past on his way out, and, as he went, trailed one finger across the back of her neck making her shoulders hunch and her hair stir on her head. Oh, damn, damn, damn, she thought. Now I won’t be able to think of anything else all afternoon.

  19

  The tuna sandwich lay ignored on the side of her desk as she sat there with Jerry beside her and the test results spread out in front of them.

  ‘Who’d have thought it?’ he said, almost jigging up and down in his chair with excitement. ‘Who’d have thought it? I wouldn’t have done in a thousand years and I’m as devious as most.’

  ‘Mmm,’ George said and looked again at the report on the samples taken from Oxford’s anus and rectum and then the report on the contents of container D. ‘You’re absolutely sure?’

  ‘Of course I am!’ Jerry was indignant. ‘You know me better than that, Dr B. I may fartarse about a bit, but when did I ever do a bad bit of work?’

  She patted his hand apologetically. ‘Sorry, Jerry. It’s just that it’s so …’ She shook her head. ‘Haemorrhoid cream! Who would have thought of spiking a man’s haemorrhoid cream?’

  ‘What you might call a really fundamental idea,’ Jerry said and giggled. ‘Really getting down to basics.’

  ‘Let’s get the jokes over and done with, then,’ she said. ‘So we can forget them.’

  ‘Well, you can’t blame me. Honestly, haemorrhoid cream: it’s so easy! You could pack a lot of stuff into it, and then leave it to the poor bugger to poison himself all unbeknowing. How long would it take to absorb, do you imagine?’

  ‘Depends on a lot of things. How it was put in – I mean was it tincture or crushed tablets? And the excipient – how much was there adhering to the mucosa, and how long does it take the active substance to penetrate and get into the bloodstream? And how vulnerable was he in terms of –’ She shook her head. ‘It can’t be more than guesswork, but I’d say it had to be as fast if not faster than by mouth. They used to use the rectal route to start anaesthetics at one time and put the pre-med in that way. And people have been fed through it – babies – they can absorb a good deal of glucose and saline rectally. And why not? Mucous membrane is mucous membrane pretty well wherever it is.’

  Jerry was laughing again. ‘Oh, can’t you see their faces when this gets round the hospital? There won’t be anyone who’ll not fall about, even the most po-faced of ’em. Poisoned with haemorrhoid cream!’

  ‘Ah!’ she said, lifting her head and staring at the wall opposite, thinking hard.

  ‘Ah, what?’

  ‘I�
�m not sure I can let you talk about this.’

  ‘What? Bloody hell, Dr B., why not? It’s not exactly a secret the chap was pushed off his twig, is it? I’ve heard you saying to people it wasn’t suicide and you couldn’t see how it could be accidental, so what was left? Now you’ve got your actual proof, so why not let me –’

  ‘Because if we know for sure it’s a murder then we also know for sure there has to be a murderer,’ George said impatiently.

  Jerry frowned. ‘Well, of course! So what?’

  ‘So, he probably is part of this place and there’s no sense in warning him that he’s been discovered.’

  ‘Part of this –’ Jerry sat in uncharacteristic silence for some time and then said, ‘But hang about a bit, how can you be sure that he’s part of this place?’

  ‘Where do you get hold of large quantities of digitalis?’ George said reasonably. After another pause, he nodded. ‘It seems logical, I suppose, though you can get it with a prescription, I imagine.’ ‘Would you like to go to a nice GP and say, “Please give me a script for ever such a lot of digitalis so I can squash it up and put it in someone’s haemorrhoid cream”? Or would you like to wander into your friendly neighbourhood pharmacist and get him to make it up for you?’

  ‘Ah,’ said Jerry.

  ‘Precisely. And, of course, there’s another thing.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘It would be someone who knew him well. Well enough to have intimate knowledge of the state of his rear end.’

  ‘Yes, I see that. His wife, I suppose –’

  ‘But they didn’t live together, did they? It could be a lover we don’t know about, and, as I say, someone here. With access to the pharmacy.’

  There was a little silence as Jerry thought. Then he made a little moue and said, ‘So what now?’

  ‘So I hand these results to the police and see what they have to say.’