The Dead Ground (19 page)

‘So you have her patient records?’ Guy asked.

‘I’m getting there. Lots of names. But guess what, if you look at when the data was last accessed, it was the second of December.’

Guy took this in. ‘You mean
after
she went missing? Erin, did you access them on that date?’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’ve not been near the thing. I got signed off work with shock after Dr Bates died.’

She didn’t look very shocked, Paula thought, but whatever. Guy was frowning. ‘So what happened, Trevor? Did they know the password or was it hacked?’

‘They must have known it, I’d say. There’s no evidence of hacking.’

‘But she’d never tell it to anyone, surely – oh.’ Paula was realising one situation in which Dr Bates might have been forced to yield up this information.

She looked at Guy quickly; he got it. ‘Erin,’ he said pleasantly. ‘Could you give us a minute, please? Thank you.’

She went, with a fair amount of hair flicking and a backwards smile at Trevor. ‘You’ll email me about that thing?’

‘I will, of course.’ But he had the grace not to stare after her.

‘That’s why,’ Paula said, when the girl had safely gone. It was all very clear. ‘That’s why they took her. They wanted the password to her files, she wouldn’t give it to them – that’s why they kept her for three days. That was as long as she could hold out.’ She remembered the autopsy report. ‘Those cuts and injuries, the drug in her system. They were
torturing
her.’

‘This is very troubling,’ Guy was twisting his mouth. ‘Are you saying someone out there now has access to all Dr Bates’s records, Trevor? All the women in Ballyterrin who might have wanted an abortion?’

‘Pretty much. They could get all the addresses, even. I already ran a search through, and guess what, Heather Campbell’s in there.’

Guy’s eyebrows went up. ‘But she wants her baby. She told us she’d been trying for years.’

But Paula understood. ‘That’s not it. Do you remember, Heather told us her mother had added her onto the system like a patient appointment, when she went to see her? It seemed to especially hurt her. So her name would be in there for that reason.’

Guy asked, ‘What about Caroline Williams or Kasia Pachek?’

‘Not that I can see,’ said Trevor. ‘I’ll take another gander.’

‘Do. And see if you can find out what appointments Dr Bates had on the day of her disappearance. Maybe one of them was our killer. Anything else for us?’

‘Yes!’ He almost bounced in his seat. ‘This is good, boss. Caroline Williams, the mother of that other baby who got taken – she was involved in some baby-breeding group, yeah? Little Monkeys?’

‘I wouldn’t put it that way, but essentially, yes.’

‘Well, turns out they’ve a discussion forum online. Nappy rash and crayons and all that. Guess who else went on there for chats?’

‘Who?’ Guy sounded wary.

‘Heather Campbell! We took her laptop in when she went missing and it’s all on there, under her own name. Amazing how many people do that. Anyway, it turns out her and Caroline Williams got involved in a sort of online spat on there, and that’s what made them both leave the group. So guess who that was with?’

‘Just tell us, Trevor.’

‘Sorry, sir. It was our friend Melissa Dunne. AKA Life4All. They have to give their real names on sign-up. I printed it all out for you, here. Melissa and Heather had some kind of row about hospital births. Heather it seems was all for them – babies died at home, she said, and it wasn’t safe. Her dad’s some bigwig doctor. Melissa of course was all in favour of dropping one in your kitchen. “Get that, darling!”’ He sniggered at his own joke. ‘So, it got a bit heated, and Heather deleted her profile.’

‘And Caroline?’

‘She chipped in about choice and “breastfeeding Nazis” and then deleted her account too in a huff. You know, it’s more and more common these days, online rows spilling out into real life.’

Guy looked thoughtful. ‘It’s not implausible, I must say. Did Melissa Dunne seem the type to start online feuds, Paula?’

‘Yes, frankly. Obsessive, petty, lives her life on the internet. Exactly the type.’ Her mind was racing, fitting this information against the outline in her head, the shape of things. Caroline Williams and Heather Campbell knew each other. At least, online.

Guy was saying, ‘Trevor, is there any way we could find out if Melissa was the one who accessed Dr Bates’s files?’

‘Oh yeah, if we had her computer. Even if she wiped it I can find the records. Very hard to wipe things entirely.’

‘God,’ said Guy. ‘There must be hundreds of names in those files. What if that’s it – the killer’s targeting women whom she feels didn’t want their child? If you find any more links between our cases and the files, Trevor, I think we should contact all the patients on there. Warn them, in case they went ahead with the pregnancy. They could be in terrible danger if the killer has access to these records.’

It was then Paula remembered that her own name and address would be in those files, for all to see.
Bollocks
. She tried to keep her face neutral.

‘If you arrest your woman Melissa, I can requisition her computer,’ Trevor was saying. ‘I don’t think we can do much without it.’

‘OK. Thank you, Trevor.’ Guy was still looking troubled. ‘Let me see those forum print-outs.’

They made depressing reading, misspelt and littered with smiley faces. Melissa Dunne, or Life4All, had used a picture of a foetus as her avatar. It appeared she had barged into a thread on hospital births and accused Heather Campbell, who’d started it, of trying to kill her baby.

Mrs H Campbell:
I’ve spoken to my father about this and he says hospital birth is much the safest and home births aren’t safe at all, what does anyone think about this? I’d like to have a water birth but maybe in the hospital. J

Life4All:
that is rubbish and the usual lies from the mainstream media. Having the baby at home is the BEST for the baby and the BEST for mum. You only have to look at the MRSA and all those other nasty bugs they have.

Then Caroline Williams had also become involved.

SnazzyCaz:
Life is right, I’m sick of being told by the nurses what I have to do with the baby, forcing you to breastfeed even if you’ve no milk and the baby’s hungry, their like Nazis L

Life4All:
that is very dangerous, u must not give Baby ANY other food or else u will kill it

SnazzyCaz:
Er what r u on about? I COULDN’T feed my baby so I had to use formula

Life4All:
Laziness is all. U don’t see animals not able to feed now do you. People just cant be bothered nowadays is all

Mrs H Campbell:
I’m sorry but who are you to comment Life? My father is a famous doctor and he says babies die at home all the time. What medical qualifications do you have? But I agree we should all be breastfeeding for at least six months.

Life4All:
I have five healthy children at home all home births all breastfed. More than any of u stupid girls I bet

SnazzyCaz:
Mental cow

Paula lowered the paper. Guy was staring at her, worried. Trevor was fiddling with his computer again. So. Melissa Dunne had fought online with two women; now one of them was missing and the other one’s baby had been taken. ‘We have to, don’t we?’ said Guy. Sometimes they could do this, talk without words. At first it had thrilled her; now it was just a reminder of everything that was gone. She nodded. They had no choice.

‘That was quick. They’ve arrested her already?’ Paula had been at the station for barely an hour when she saw Dunne’s round face through the glass at the custody desk. The sound of raised voices reached into the main station. She left her desk and caught up with Guy, who was walking quickly down the corridor to the interview suites. Tiled in squares of grey carpet, it effectively muffled you from the world.

He kept walking. ‘Corry leapt at it when I went to her. She was desperate to make an arrest, especially with a second child missing. The feedback from up above is Not Good.’ He seemed to almost relish this for a moment, then his face turned sober again. ‘Let’s hope we get something from her.’

‘Will she cooperate?’

Guy moved with long, purposeful strides. ‘I doubt it. She’s saying we need a warrant to access her computer files.’

‘And you really think it’s her?’

Guy slowed as they approached the incident room, lowering his voice. ‘You know what I think. I agree we should talk to Mrs Dunne, but it’s madness not to check up on Magdalena Croft. Corry’s got a blind spot there.’

‘Maybe she just trusts her. The Gardai did have success using Croft.’

‘I don’t see it. I feel like we’re ignoring basic policing here – if someone knows exactly where to find a kidnap victim, chances are they must have helped put them there, not that they have psychic visions.’

Paula shrugged; she’d largely given up trying to translate it for him. ‘It’s Ireland. I’m sure Corry has her reasons. She doesn’t believe for sure the cases are linked, so it makes sense to bring in the person who threatened Dr Bates.’

‘But if she’s wrong—’

‘We don’t exactly have anyone else. Come on, we’ll be late for the briefing.’

Chapter Twenty-One

‘Yes. DC McGivern. What have you got for me?’

The middle-aged detective quailed under Corry’s stare. ‘Uh – we’re still working through all the hospital staff – nearly a thousand of them. I’ll reckon we’ll know soon enough who was there that day on the ward.’

‘Good. Liaise with Dr Maguire to set up more cognitive interviews if you need them, and check all the alibis for when Dr Bates and Darcy Williams were taken.’

The long conference table, four times the size of that in the MPRU’s pokey unit, was surrounded by detectives and uniformed officers – rumour had it even the Chief Constable might be coming down to meet with Corry. The case, like Paula’s ‘situation’, was spiralling. Two missing kids. A dead woman, and another gone too.

Corry was in her element addressing the room. She prowled back and forth near the large whiteboard, the leather of her expensive brown boots making a creaking sound. ‘Melissa’s not saying a word, but we’ll soon have a list of all her Life4All group members, and then we can cross-check with the DVLNI to see if any of them drive Jeeps or similar vehicles. Melissa herself has a Land Rover. Unregistered – she claims it’s off the road, but it hasn’t been logged as such. It’s impounded and being tested for DNA.’

‘Has she an alibi?’ asked Gerard, who was leaning on the table with his sleeves rolled up as usual.

‘She claims she was at home with her husband the morning Dr Bates was taken. I’ve got him in another room, if you’d like a crack? I’ll send Sergeant Hamilton in with you.’

‘Me? Yes, ma’am.’ Gerard’s ears were going pink at the unexpected honour.

‘And if the alibi holds?’ Guy was against the wall, his arms folded.

Corry flashed him a look. ‘We’ll let her go.’

‘Really?’

‘What else would we do?’

‘It just seems we’re directing a lot of energy on this one lead.’

‘On the woman who sent death threats to one victim and fought online with two others? I’d say that was wise, Inspector.’

Everyone was following the exchange, eyes flicking like children watching their parents fight.

‘All right,’ said Guy after a short pause. ‘Have we made any other progress?’

‘Nothing. So if you don’t mind, Inspector Brooking, this is really our best lead for now. I mean, who else is there?’

‘I have one suggestion,’ said Guy quietly. ‘This so-called faith healer, Magdalena Croft. She was able to tell us exactly where we’d find Alek Pachek. You don’t think that’s suspicious?’

Corry said, ‘The Gardai have used Mrs Croft on a number of occasions, and she’s often been very accurate.’

‘You believe she sees visions?’

‘I believe she helps find lost people. That’s really all I care about.’

‘I think it wouldn’t hurt to check out her alibi for the other cases.’

Corry’s mouth hardened. ‘It’s not common practice to question police experts on where they get their insights. Is that how you do it in London?’

‘Experts? The woman’s a fraud! You must see that.’

Corry’s face was impassive. ‘I mustn’t do anything, Inspector. We can certainly check her alibis. But I think Mrs Croft’s help has been invaluable. Alek’s back with his family now, safe and well. If there’s a chance to find Darcy Williams too, I’m not going to pass it up. Are you?’

‘I wonder—’ Paula began, then stopped. All eyes were on her.

‘Dr Maguire?’ Corry, frosty and unreadable. ‘Did you have something to say?’

‘I just wondered if maybe we’d made too much of an assumption. That it’s the same person, I mean, for all these cases. Alek, and Dr Bates, and Darcy Williams.’

‘I believe that was your hypothesis in the first place. I’ve never been sure it was, but I agreed to make use of your profile.’ Corry folded her arms.

‘Well, I did think so, because of the cutting, and the womb symbolism – and because of sheer probability too. I don’t believe there could be two isolated incidents of child abduction in a small town like this. But even if they’re connected it might not be the same person.’

A heavy silence. Corry staring. Guy said, ‘Go on.’

‘Well – you said it yourself, Chief Inspector, you’ve got Melissa Dunne’s husband in for questioning to check her alibi. And we’re ruling out people because they have alibis for Alek, or Dr Bates – but if there were two people, or more even, we could be making a mistake. Do you see?’

‘And what do you suggest?’ Again Corry was unreadable. Paula felt sweat on her forehead.

‘Well – I’d say we keep following up all those leads – the hospital staff, the pro-life group, and the rest, traffic cams, CCTV. Whoever did this wasn’t invisible. But maybe we can make the link in a more creative way.’ Where was Avril? She found the analyst near the back of the room, hiding behind a computer. ‘A while back Avril, er, Miss Wright, was talking about this software you can get, you see, and it sort of maps people based on acquaintance. Like, if they’ve ever phoned each other, or been on an electoral roll together, that sort of thing. You can see all the data laid out like a web of connections. It might throw up something we haven’t thought of.’