by Clare Revell
On a whim, he drove to the hospital and parked on the street outside in a twenty minute space. He ran to haematology, but the main section was indeed shut. He showed his ID, but Isabel hadn’t been there. He ran up to HDU, but she wasn’t visiting Will either. Where was she? Still as he was here, he may as well sit with his friend a while.
His colleague looked worse than he had that morning, the bruising on his face more pronounced. He looked at the nurse. “How is he?”
“No change. He’s not sedated at all anymore, but he still hasn’t woken.”
“Is it OK if I stay for a few minutes?”
The nurse nodded. “Of course.”
Zander slid into the seat beside Will’s bed. “Hello, Will. Well, you missed all the fun at work today. The Guv expanded the Slayer taskforce. Isabel and I are still leading, but we get to boss the Sarge around now. The proverbial waste well and truly hit the fan about an hour ago. Robert and Mark went too far with winding Isabel up, did it in front of the Guv. Isabel stormed off and I can’t find her. Aside from that, not much has happened. Apart from body number five. The current thinking is that either he hit your car in his rush to leave, or that I’m the Slayer.”
He paused. “Doesn’t help I crashed my car last night either. You need to hurry up and come back, mate. As Isabel puts it, you’re one of the good guys.” His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at it. “I have to go and take this. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Leaving the ward quickly, he answered his phone in the corridor, amazed he actually had a signal. Most hospitals were Faraday cages. “Hello?”
“Zander, where are you?” Gramps sounded annoyed. “Are you coming?”
“Coming where?” Zander asked, confused.
“Dinner. You texted earlier today and arranged it. Isabel got here a good half hour ago, if not longer. She’s in the kitchen cooking something that smells absolutely delicious.”
Zander started. “Isabel is there? Umm, yeah, I’ll come there now. I’m at the hospital, just checking on Will.” Honestly, he’d totally forgotten and assumed Isabel had as well, especially given the way she’d stormed out of the squad room, but he wouldn’t admit that. He hung up and ran down to where he’d left the car. He drove to Gramps, making it in record time, having legally tanked it as the Guv always put it.
Isabel answered the door. “Don’t look at me like that,” she said, as she let him in. “You’re the one who forgot.”
“Did not,” he objected, taking his jacket off.
“Did too. You’re a lousy liar, Zander.” Isabel shut the front door.
“Excuse me?” Zander protested. “You’re the one who flipped your lid and flounced off in a complete hissy fit. The Guv wants to see you first thing in the morning.”
“I’m busy tomorrow,” she said flatly. “I have a long list of things to check out. On the clock I hasten to add.”
“Such as?”
“Never you mind. Dinner’s ready. We were about to start without you.”
Zander rolled his eyes. “You know, you really are the most irritating woman I’ve ever had the misfortune to work with.”
“Really?” She stuck her hands on her hips, quirking an eyebrow.
He kept his face straight. “What? No snarky comeback?”
“I’m simply assuming you’ve worked with hundreds of irritating women. And I’m pleased I’m top of the list. So, no. No snarky anything. Instead I offer you dinner. Take it or leave it.”
Gramps coughed. “Either get in here young man or go home. You are not speaking to a guest of mine like that in my house.”
Zander raised his gaze to the ceiling. “Angels and ministers of grace,” he muttered.
Isabel turned her back on him and headed to the kitchen. “If you’re staying, make yourself useful and carry something in for me.”
Without saying another word, he followed her to the kitchen and took the casserole dish. He carried it to the lounge and set it on the table. “Who rattled her cage?”
Gramps glared at him. “Give the lass a break, Alezander. She’s had a bad few days. It’s not easy losing someone you love. Especially when that someone is your whole life.”
“I know that,” Zander muttered.
“And it certainly isn’t helping the situation any with the blokes in the office giving her a hard time.”
Zander raised an eyebrow. “She told you that?”
“She didn’t have to.” Gramps patted the chair beside him. “I read between the lines when she arrived here with what your Gran would call panda eyes. When I asked what was up, she told me. And when did you plan to tell me that you’d broken up with Rosa?”
Zander rolled his eyes at the door to the hallway. “That woman talks too much.”
Gramps chuckled. “Isabel or Rosa?”
“Both! And you never liked Rosa in the first instance, so don’t you go telling me how sorry you are we’re not together anymore.”
“Not liking the woman, doesn’t mean I wanted you to break up. I just want you to be happy.”
Zander pulled off his waistcoat, laid it on the back of the sofa, and sat at the table. “Actually, Rosa broke up with me. Dumped me for someone else, who she’d been seeing for a while. And I was going to tell you when I saw you next. Only someone,” he shot a glare at Isabel as she came into the room, “got there first.”
“What have I done now?” Isabel dumped a pile of plates and a dish of peas and carrots on the table.
“We’re talking about Rosa,” Gramps said.
“Oh.” Isabel dropped into the remaining chair at the table. “Well, Lexi was telling me about her new boyfriend—who’s tall, dark, and handsome. A cop who has a flash car and thinks she’s the bees knees—and Mr. Mac asked me how you and Rosa were and I wouldn’t lie and…”
“Sheesh woman,” Zander interrupted. “Take a breath why don’t you. That has to be the longest sentence ever known to man.”
Her lips twitched into a slight smile. “Not quite, but never mind.”
“You know a longer one?”
“Yes, as it happens.”
Zander shook his serviette onto his lap. He picked up the water jug and filled their glasses. “Think I preferred you silent and scared of everything. You talk too much.”
She kicked him under the table and he shot her a wink to show he was teasing.
Once Gramps said grace, Zander picked up the dish of vegetables and helped himself. “Isabel.”
She looked at him. “Zander.”
“Will you tell me what’s wrong? You’ve been in a horrid mood the last couple of days.”
She sighed, spooning food onto her plate. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Is. Talk to me. I can’t make things better if I don’t know what’s up.”
“I’m just a green female who knows nothing and shouldn’t be breathing, never mind be a cop running a murder investigation. Those blokes think everything is hormonal, and sometimes, it’s not. On top of which, I’m tired, I’ve had a headache for a few days, I’ve run out of pain meds for it, take your pick. You’re the one with four sisters, remember?”
Zander could feel Gramps eyes boring a hole in him. His cheeks burned. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been winding you up about it all day.”
“No. You shouldn’t have,” Isabel told him. “Some women can just take two pain meds and carry on as normal. I’m not one of them. Without the pain meds I—Sorry. TMI.” She stabbed the fork into her food.
Zander winked. “Just a little. But I’m your partner, Is. I need to know when you’re not well, so I can pick up the slack and cover you. Just as you’ll do for me. How about I keep a box of pain meds in my desk drawer for when you run out?”
She ate a few mouthfuls before nodding. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. But maybe we should change the subject.”
Gramps glanced up. “Don’t you mind me, Zander. Fifty years of marriage to your Gran means there isn’t much about women I don’t know.” He lo
oked at Isabel. “Maybe go see your doctor, lassie. See if he can give you something stronger.”
She sighed. “I’ve tried everything. Even got told you’re a woman, put up with it. Oh and then I got told it’ll improve when I have kids so run off and get pregnant. As if having a baby will make migraines go away.”
Gramps huffed. “Male doctor, I assume. Blames it on hormones instead of looking into why they happen.”
“Yeah.”
“My Alice was the same,” Gramps said. “Real bad sometimes. She was sick and could hardly move. Her doc suggested herbal teas. Mind you, they didn’t have the meds back then that they do now. Raspberry leaf was one. And I think the other was ginger.”
“Thank you. I’ll try it.”
Zander glanced from one to the other. “Can we please change the subject? Maybe some good food and this cold glass of water will help, too. ” He glanced over at Isabel. “Did you really make this?”
“Yep,” she replied. “The Internet is a wonderful teacher.”
He grinned. “Good. It means you’re no longer in any danger of starving, after all.”
Isabel looked across at Gramps. “Is he always this rude?”
“Most of the time, lassie. Most of the time.” Gramps laughed. “Is he the one giving you a hard time at work?”
“Hey,” Zander objected. “Haven’t you heard the latest? I’m the Prayer Slayer and Isabel is my next victim.”
“Really?” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “And how will you bump me off?”
“Change the MO,” he shot back. “Hit you over the head with something hard first. The world needs shot of irritating women. Especially the hormonal ones.”
She held his gaze, a hint of a smile on her lips. “And how long would you men last without us? You’d all die out within one generation.”
Gramps pointed his fork across the table. “She’s got a point, laddie. Quit whilst you’re ahead.”
Zander chuckled and shoved another spoonful of peas onto his plate. “But Gramp’s question is a valid one, Is. Who’s upsetting you at work?”
“Not upsetting,” she said, hedging the question. “Just riding my case and not helping when asked, along with generally being a couple of…” She broke off, eating instead of speaking.
“Go on,” Zander encouraged. “Say it.”
She glanced up. “Say what?”
“A couple of male chauvinist pigs. And if it’s the ones I’m thinking of, then they got called into the Guv office when I left. He doesn’t stand for bullying, Is, because that’s what their behaviour boils down to. To him, a cop is a cop. You are in his squad because he picked you. Because you’re good at your job. No other reason.”
Her eyes brightened a little. “Really?”
“Yes, really.” Zander stabbed his fork into his food. “And this is good. I need your recipe.”
She smiled. “I’ll send you the link to it.” Her phone rang. “Excuse me. DC York speaking.”
Zander tuned her out. He really hoped DI Holmes sorted out the issue with Robert and Mark. Otherwise, it wouldn’t just be Isabel putting in for a transfer; he’d be doing the same thing.
Isabel put her phone away. “That was Arend Van Houten. He needs to see us.”
“Now?” Zander shoved in the last bite of his meal.
Isabel nodded. “Yeah. He did apologise, but says it’s urgent. He’ll meet us at the morgue.”
“Least we finished dinner.” Zander looked over at Gramps. “Sorry to eat and run. We’ll be back to do the dishes, so leave them.”
Gramps shook his head. “Lexi will do them in the morning, same as always. Now git gone the pair of you. Thank you kindly for the meal, lassie. Much obliged.”
Isabel hugged him and then stood. “You’re welcome, anytime.”
Zander slid into his waistcoat, not wanting to forget it. “Don’t tell him that, Is, or you’ll be doing it all the time.”
~*~
Arend Van Houten stood by the entrance as Isabel and Zander arrived. “Sorry to call you in so late, but this can’t wait. Neither can it be said over the phone.”
Isabel shouldered her bag again, wishing it would stay put. “Sounds intriguing.”
Arend led the way inside the building, waiting until he’d swiped them through the double doors before saying anything more.
Isabel glanced at Zander, wondering why all the cloak and dagger was needed, but then decided it could just be her inexperience showing again, so decided not to ask and make a fool of herself.
“I was doing the final work on Esther Leaney’s body, tidying her up and so on and found something you need to see.” He opened the door to the autopsy room. “In here.”
Isabel’s stomach lurched at the sight of five covered bodies lying on tables. “We’ve just eaten.”
Zander rolled his eyes. “Well, you know where the ladies room is.”
“I’m not cutting anything, DC York,” Arend told her. “So no worries on that score.” He pulled back one of the sheets and turned Esther’s head to one side. He lifted the hair from the back of her neck. “See that?”
Isabel and Zander peered closely. “There’s a tiny red mark at the base of her skull,” she said.
Arend nodded. “Under the hairline so it wouldn’t normally be obvious. All five victims have the same mark. This afternoon, the results came back on that syringe you recovered and gave me. It contained Conium maculatum.”
Zander frowned and looked up from his note taking. “How do you spell that and what is it?”
“C-o-n-i-u-m new word m-a-c-u-l-a-t-u-m. It’s poison hemlock. It’s used in executions. If it’s extracted from the plant properly, by squeezing the stem, the victim will be paralyzed and suffocate. Otherwise it just makes them sick. Either way it kills, but one way is just faster. I redid the bloods on the other girls. All five have trace amounts of poison hemlock in their system.”
“That’s what killed them?” Zander asked.
Arend nodded. “Yes.” He turned to Isabel. “That needle stick you got at the third crime scene. Did you get the results?”
Isabel swallowed hard, feeling sick and dizzy. “They rang a couple of days ago. They wanted to redo them as there was something—” She lost her balance and grabbed Zander’s arm to stay upright.
Arend shoved a chair behind her as Zander forced her downwards. “Sit.” Zander shoved her head between her knees. “Breathe, Is.”
“I’ll need her original test results,” Arend said from somewhere over her head.
“I’ll call the hospital ED now and get them faxed over. She’s been putting off going back because of some stupid fear of needles.”
“Not stupid,” she whispered.
Zander’s hand rubbed her back. “Stupid and irritating. And if you believe the blokes, hormonal,” he muttered, a teasing levity in his tone. “But I love you anyway, kid.”
“Less of the kid. Only two years younger than you.”
“Can you redo the blood tests now, Arend?” Zander asked. He dialled his phone and raised it to his ear. He put his free hand on Isabel’s shoulder.
“Yes.”
Isabel raised her head. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Roll your sleeve up for me?”
Isabel put her bag on the back of the chair. She tugged her jacket off and fumbled with her cuff. “Just remember I’m not dead.”
Arend grinned as he prepared a tray. “Yet.”
“Ha ha.”
“I haven’t killed a patient yet.”
“That’s because you don’t have any live ones.” She finally undid the cuff button and shoved her sleeve up as far as it would go. “Hit me.”
Arend tied a strap around her upper arm. “I’ll be as gentle as possible.”
Isabel bit her lip, screwing her eyes tight shut.
Zander put his phone away and gripped her hand. “Look at me.” His other hand turned her face towards his voice.
She opened her eyes to find him hunkered down on the floor
beside her.
“Just focus on me, Is. Whatever flagged up in your tox screen was something they couldn’t identify. They wanted the tests redone to ensure it was no longer there or causing a problem. Don’t think they wanted your death on their conscience.” He grinned. “Can you imagine DI Holmes marching in there, demanding to know why they hadn’t told him you were sick?”
“He’d have their guts for garters.”
“Along with braces,” he said. “And then some.”
“OK, all done.” Arend dropped the last vial into the tray. “Go home and try not to worry.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Isabel said, rolling her sleeve down.
“It was a tiny prick,” Arend told her. “I was there. Chances are there wasn’t any on the needle at all. If you’d received a full dose, you’d be joining these ladies on the slab.”
Isabel shuddered.
Zander rubbed her arm, helping her back into her jacket. “Come on. Let’s get you home. Make sure that cat of yours hasn’t destroyed the place while you’ve been out.” He grinned. “And at least the Guv will no longer be going on about blood tests.”
“Should be grateful for small mercies.” Isabel stood and picked up her bag from where she’d hung it on the back of the chair. “Home does sound good though.”
Zander nodded. “Might even make you some tea before I leave.”
15
Isabel and Zander were prepared for the team meeting, the file on her lap ready to show DI Holmes. Two chairs were empty and she wouldn’t mourn the non-appearance of Robert and Mark. Maybe they were both out sick or stuck in traffic or something. Whatever the reason, at least she wouldn’t get the snide and disparaging looks for a few more minutes.
DI Holmes came in with another officer and shut the door. “Morning.”
“Morning, Guv,” everyone chorused.
DI Holmes jerked his head. “Jason, have a seat. This is PC Jason August. I’ve seconded him to us from beat duty until the Slayer is caught and possibly longer. He’ll be monitoring the tip line as from today and helping out as and when you need him. Be nice to him.” He introduced the whole team quickly. “OK. I’m not beating around the bush. As of now, we are all working the Slayer case. Zander and Isabel are leads on this. If they ask you to do something, then you do it, and quickly.”
