‘But how did they know he wasn’t ringing from home,’ she asked, ‘pretending he was at work?’
‘Ah! Because you could hear the yard in the back ground, all these vans and a Tannoy, really clear. It was brilliant. It proved he was at work, miles away at about the time of the murder. And now it looks like they’re on to the right suspect.’
We nattered on some more about what we liked and didn’t about the new technology.
‘Promise me,’ said Diane, ‘if I ever get obsessive about it, you’ll tell me.’
‘Promise.’
‘Hey, maybe you could be the first virtual private eye, shadowing people down the Information Superhighway, uncovering virtual crime.’
‘What, for virtual money? Give over.’
I slept late on the Saturday morning. My cold was receding and I’d enough energy to make a start on planting up the cold frame. Maddie and I made a trip to the local garden centre and bought a selection of packets of seeds. I limited myself to petunias and lobelia for tubs and baskets, I could supplement them with cuttings I’d taken from ivy and pansies. I got some asters for the border and Maddie chose lettuce and candytuft for herself and Tom.
On the way back I called at the office to check my mail. There was a handwritten envelope. I didn’t recognise the writing. I opened it eagerly though I should have realised that no friend would write to me at my work address. Inside was a cheque, drawn on the account of Mr J. W. Achebe. Jimmy, paying off his debt. The fact he’d bothered to sort it out in the midst of what he must be going through brought a lump to my throat. There was a small note with it; it just read ‘Thank you.’ I sighed, put it in my drawer to deal with on Monday. Poor Jimmy. Now he was free to start grieving for the loss of Tina. There’d be all the arrangements to make for her funeral once they released the body. He’d been transformed from murderer to widower. Had friends and family believed him guilty, how would they ever face him again?
It was a mild, grey day and the two of us pottered nicely, filling old seed trays with compost, sprinkling on seeds, watering them gently and putting them in the frame.
Maddie wanted a picnic lunch so I heated a tin of soup and we sipped it from mugs, along with cheese rolls. She chattered on about school, mainly about Miss Bryan, her teacher, who she was deeply in love with. She wanted to be exactly like Miss Bryan, she was going to be a teacher like Miss Bryan, Miss Bryan had three earrings in one ear. I watched a magpie pulling twigs from a tree in the adjoining garden and flying off with them.
I left Maddie playing with her bike and went in to ring Moira. What had happened with the police?
‘They got the gist of it over the phone,’ she said, ‘then they sent a chap round last night, had to repeat it all again. Said it’d be Monday at least before they’d be doing anything – no point in calling on people over the weekend. Not a high priority for them, anyway.’
I rang Agnes too. Lily was neither better nor worse. They thought it was pneumonia. Agnes had been there the previous evening. I told her what the results were on the tablets.
‘I knew there was something wrong with them.’ She was triumphant. ‘I just knew it. Four times too strong. It really is disgraceful. How did it happen? Did he write out a faulty prescription?’
‘No, the label’s got the correct dosage on – it’s the tablets that are stronger than the label says. You’d only know that if you had them analysed. The mistake must have been made when they were being prepared.’
‘It’s a clear case of negligence, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Whoever’s got it wrong must be disciplined.’
‘Well, the police are involved now. My friend the GP who sent them to the lab had to report it so they’ll hopefully get to the bottom of it. But listen to this, they were made up at Malden’s, the place where Mrs Goulden works. I think Goulden’s covering up because Malden’s got it wrong. I bet he didn’t do anything after we went to see him, thought we were cranks, and now he’s realised…The others probably know too. It could ruin them, bad publicity and that, endangering life. But, Agnes, I think there’s more to it than just the tablets.’
‘Yes?’
‘I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that all these people are involved, both in the firm and in Lily’s case. I’m not that gullible. I talked to Mrs Knight and I’m sure she knew nothing about it, she was completely fazed when I told her about the dosage and she only lied about the tablets turning up because Goulden had bullied her into it. But I checked on Ernest Theakston – the other resident from Homelea who’d gone to Kingsfield this year. His case was totally different from Lily’s. He’d been ill for a long time, the progress of the disease was slow and he never had any medication from Malden’s. I can’t see any motive either. Just suppose we’re right, there’s something going on, Goulden gets funny tablets made up at his wife’s lab, gives them to Lily, who’s got dementia any way. She becomes even more demented, they can’t control her so she’s referred to Montgomery for assessment at Kingsfield.’
‘Then she falls,’ Agnes spoke calmly, ‘if she did fall.’
I thought of the other patient with her riddles about the fall. Was she pushed? They wouldn’t dare, would they? But no one had seen her fall, neither Mrs Li nor the nurse we’d seen. Who’d found her or seen it happen?
‘All right – if she did fall. So she has an operation to sort out the bleeding in her brain.’
‘She gets an infection.’
‘But apparently unrelated to the operation or the medication.’
There was a pause. We’d reached the end of the story so far.
‘Why?’ I said. ‘What’s it all for?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Agnes, ‘but I wasn’t born yesterday. I think you should tell the police everything you’ve found out, let them deal with it.’
I had my doubts, but rang off promising Agnes I’d contact the police.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Back in the garden I set to weeding and rehearsed what I could tell the police. It didn’t amount to anything they’d want to hear – a mishmash of connections, suspicions and concerns. The only hard evidence of any wrongdoing was the falsely labelled pills and the police were already looking into that.
I struggled with a crop of dandelions along the edge of the flagged path. It wasn’t a crime for a GP to be eager to refer patients to a well-regarded local psycho-geriatric unit, even if his brother-in-law did work there. It wasn’t a crime for the same GP to order drugs from his wife’s pharmaceutical company or for the city’s neurosurgeon to sit on the board of that company. It wasn’t a crime for a GP to lose his temper.
I was right. There were too many coincidences for comfort. But I wasn’t going to go making a fool of myself in front of the police. Let them look into the mix-up with the tablets, meanwhile I needed more idea of how this all connected to Lily Palmer. Suppose she had been pushed – she was very ill now in hospital – did somebody want Lily dead? I threw down the trowel, washed the soil off my hands and rang Agnes back.
‘Did you ever check whether Charles was the only beneficiary in Lily’s will?’
‘No.’
‘Can you check for me, find out where the will’s held and if she made any recent changes?’
‘I can do. He’s up for the weekend, I’ll be seeing him at the hospital. You think that might be behind it all? Lily only had the house, nothing else. That was sold off so there would be enough to pay the charges at Homelea.’
‘And she wasn’t there very long so there’d be quite a lot still left. I’m sorry, it’s a horrible thought, but I think we should check.’
‘But Charles would contest it, if there was anything like that, surely.’
‘Let’s wait and see what he says.’
I was filling the watering can when the doorbell rang. If I’d been back out in the garden I probably wouldn’t have heard it.
Dr Ken Goulden was on the doorstep. My stomach lurched. I wanted to run. How the hell had he got my home address? He was bigger th
an I remembered, built like a rugby player.
‘What do you want?’ I was hardly civil.
‘Just what do you think you’re playing at?’
I opened my mouth but it was a rhetorical question.
‘I don’t know what your game is, Miss Kilkenny, but you’ve been making wild allegations, upsetting staff at Homelea and interfering in business that doesn’t concern you.’ His jaw was taut as he reined in his temper.
‘But it does concern me,’ I replied. ‘It concerns me a great deal actually. Mrs Palmer was being given enough drugs to make–’
‘You’ve no right to go around meddling in medical affairs,’ he said fiercely. ‘You stay away from my patients, is that clear?’
‘Those tablets were dangerous,’ I retorted. ‘Doesn’t that concern you?’
‘Mummy, who is it?’ Maddie called from the kitchen.
‘Just someone from work. You go back in the garden.’
‘I want a drink.’
‘I’ll be there in a minute.’
‘Mistakes happen, human error,’ Goulden said. ‘It’s regrettable but that’s no reason for this sort of vindictive harassment. I’ll be speaking to my solicitor. I have a reputation to think about and I’m not going to let you jeopardise that with your cheap innuendo and your wild accusations.’
Bloody hell! What on earth had Mrs Knight said to him? ‘I work with facts,’ I began, my anger mounting. ‘You prescribed those drugs, your wife’s firm supplied them and when we came to you worried about Mrs Palmer you did nothing–’
He didn’t let me carry on. ‘You stay away from my patients.’ He pushed his finger at me, emphasising the words. ‘Any more harassment…’
‘Mummy?’ Maddie was coming down the hall.
I moved to go in. Goulden grabbed my wrist, his hand large and hot. ‘Do you understand?’ he hissed at me. I could smell whisky on his breath. It mingled with a citrus aftershave. ‘Any more meddling from you, missy, and my brief will be down on you like a ton of bricks. We’ll do you for theft, trespass, defamation, libel, the works. Your feet won’t touch the ground.’ His nostrils whitened and his cheeks reddened as he spoke. ‘You can kiss goodbye to all this.’ He jerked his head towards the house. ‘You won’t know what’s hit you.’
‘Let go.’ I enunciated clearly through clenched teeth.
He dropped my wrist and I moved inside, slammed the door shut. My wrist ached. I was as livid as I was scared. The arrogant, bullying bastard. To come here and threaten me. Just wait, I thought. The police will soon be knocking on your door, matey, asking awkward questions.
‘Why was that man and you shouting?’
I steered Maddie back to the kitchen. ‘We were having an argument about work. He’s gone now. So, you want a drink?’
‘Blackcurrant.’
I unscrewed the lid. My hand was shaking so much it was all I could do to pour the dark syrup into the cup.
On Sunday Agnes rang me. Lily’s will was in Charles’ safekeeping. She’d updated it just before her move to Homelea so it would take account of the change in her circumstances. Charles was the sole beneficiary.
‘We’ve put the wind up Goulden,’ I said. I told her about his unwelcome visit. ‘I don’t think he’s realised that the police have been informed. I’d love to see his face when they turn up on the doorstep.’
‘Sal, hadn’t you better talk to them soon, if he’s been to your home, threatening you?’
‘I will.’
Then I rang Moira to find out who was handling the investigation.
‘DS Wignall – you can get hold of him at Bootle Street. Won’t be there today. Why?’
‘I’d like to talk to him. There’s a lot of questions that could do with looking into. I’ve had Dr Goulden round, telling me to lay off.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh, yes. Got quite nasty.’
‘Sal, you didn’t tell him about the police?’
‘No. But he knows about the lab results.’
‘How?’
I felt sheepish. ‘Well, I went to see the matron at the home, after I’d spoken to you on Friday. I didn’t mention the police or anything. Anyway, she must have told Goulden.’
‘Well, I shouldn’t think DS Wignall will be best pleased.’
‘Maybe not but I don’t think Goulden realises how far it’s gone. He’s not about to flee the country or anything. As far as he’s concerned I’ve had an analysis done which threatened his precious reputation and he came to warn me off.’
Maddie and I spent a couple of hours sorting out the toy boxes. While she rediscovered lost treasures I ended up reuniting Lego, removing rotting fragments of crisps and apple and chucking obscure bits of plastic and broken toys in the bin when I was sure she wasn’t looking. It all looked neater and cleaner when we finished. It was now possible to tell which box held jigsaws and games and which was Duplo and other little figures. It’d stay like that for all of forty-eight hours until Tom and Maddie had time to redistribute it all thoroughly.
By then I was ready to put my feet up. There was a feature in the Sunday paper which highlighted the shortage of NHS beds for people with Alzheimer’s and the lack of psycho-geriatric units. Most people were being cared for in private homes, many staffed by inexperienced workers. Manchester and the Marion Unit was one of the examples. A local GP was quoted: ‘It’s now virtually impossible to refer a patient to the Marion Unit and have any hope of their getting a place. There’s a ridiculous waiting list. The unit only has sixty beds, twenty-five of those are for acute cases and short-term stay where people need to see a consultant and have proper assessment. We’ve a growing elderly population and shrinking resources. No one’s suggesting a return to the old days of the large psychiatric hospitals but we desperately need more facilities. It’s an intolerable situation.’
But Dr Goulden managed to get his patients in, six in one year. It stank.
First thing Monday morning I rang the registry office, got put through to deaths and gave them Ernest Theakston’s name and date of birth. Asked them to search for a death in the last six mouths. Normally they want you to make a written application, or go in and spend hours there yourself searching through index cards, but with recent deaths they can call them up on the computer.
He was there. He’d died at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, about ten days after he’d left Homelea.
‘I can’t verify that for you,’ said the clerk. ‘You’d need to come in for verification.’
‘No, it’s OK,’ I said. ‘That’s him. I’m sure that’s him.’
I didn’t know what had killed him. But it sure as hell wasn’t old age.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lily died that Sunday night. Agnes rang me mid-morning. The hospital had notified Charles and he’d let her know. The pneumonia had failed to respond to the antibiotics.
‘I want to go see her,’ said Agnes, her voice remarkably firm.
‘I’ll take you,’ I volunteered. ‘I’ll be there soon.’
I tried Bootle Street before leaving, but DS Wignall was out.
The sun glanced off the wet road, making me squint as I drove. I fished in the glove compartment for my sunglasses. They were there in amongst half-empty packets of crisps and tourist leaflets.
Agnes smiled when she opened the door. She was impeccably turned out, white hair carefully brushed, a touch of lipstick, small navy studs in her ears which matched her coat. ‘Thank you for coming. I could probably have managed on the buses but all that waiting around is so tiring.’
‘It’s all right,’ I said. ‘I wanted to come.’
Once in the car Agnes began to discuss the funeral arrangements. Charles had already organised that. ‘It’ll be Southern Cemetery, the crematorium. She always wanted her ashes on the rose garden. That’s where they took Olive, her daughter. That was March too. Easter time.’ She seemed remarkably composed. If my closest friend, Diane, had just died I’d have been in bits. Did emotions dull with age? Had Agnes prepa
red herself for this or was she still in shock at the news?
We were just turning into the hospital car park when she spoke again. ‘Have you talked to the police?’
‘Not yet. I tried to get through this morning but the person I need to talk to wasn’t there. I wish we had something more substantial to go on, some sort of evidence to give them. A crime to report.’
‘Lily’s dead.’ Measured voice.
‘Yes, and the cause of death will be bronchial pneumonia. It’s very common amongst old people, isn’t it? Harder to fight infection.’
‘So no one will think twice about it.’
‘Only us.’ I climbed out of the car.
‘Sal,’ she stood beside the passenger door, ‘you will keep trying, won’t you? You will talk to the police?’ She wasn’t pleading and her gaze was steady.
‘Yes. But don’t hold out too much hope.’ I locked the car. ‘They can investigate the tablets but the rest may just sound like we’re being paranoid. You know, we could ask about a post mortem, on the grounds that the excessive medication might have contributed to her death.’
‘Yes.’ She was decisive. ‘Who do we ask?’
‘I don’t know. We’ll find out.’
We arrived at the ward and explained at the nurses’ station that we’d heard about Lily Palmer, we wanted to see her. Consternation. Glances flew between them and there was an awkward pause. The tallest nurse blushed but took charge of the situation.
‘I’m afraid we didn’t realise you’d be coming in today. Mrs Palmer’s been moved already.’
‘To the funeral home?’ Agnes asked.
‘No, she’s still here at the hospital.’ She cleared her throat. ‘She carried a donor card. We have permission to use her organs for medical research. I’m sorry,’ she looked at each of us, ‘you shouldn’t need to think about it at a time like this. But I’m sure you’ll be able to see her. Take a seat in the waiting room and I’ll ring round and find out where she is.’
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