The Visitor (#3 - The Craig Modern Thriller Series) (17 page)

“It takes all sorts lad. You’ll soon find that out. And if boring equalled bad we’d be locking up half of Northern Ireland. Right, I’ll see you later.”

He left the room, and then stuck his head quickly back round the door.

“Have a break and get a sandwich before you get stuck into that. And...you’re doing great work son.” Then he disappeared again quickly, leaving a beaming probationer. Annette’s people skills were definitely rubbing off.

***

The Visitor leaned coolly against the wall, watching as the female police walked back onto the Unit. People milled around her, rushing to their lunches. But how could food matter when there was important work to do?

They had such power and such access, and yet none of them had dealt with the deaths. It was disgusting. But now the father would take the steps needed. The guilty had to be exposed. And they all
had to pay for the pain they’d caused.

Chapter Fourteen

As Craig walked onto the squad at 3.40, Liam and Annette were discussing their interview with Laurie Johns.

“God, she was dire! Everything was Beth’s fault, and Murdock walks on water. And she couldn’t wait to tell us that Beth had been seen at Sarajevo wearing PVC. As if PVC’s a crime!”

Joe popped his head over a cubicle wall hopefully. “PVC?”

“Nah, forget it Joe. You’re not her type. You’ve got too many bits.”

He screwed up his face, confused, until Martin leaned forward and said quietly. “Sarajevo’s a gay bar, sir.”

“What? Are you telling me that gay men have fewer bits than us?” Annette and Nicky laughed simultaneously and Liam helped him out.

“God Joe, keep up. There are gay women as well. She’s a lesbian, so
all men have too many bits. Get it?”

“Oh...I see. Ah now, you know, I’m pretty sophisticated when all’s said and done. Live and let live, that’s me.”

Craig’s deep voice joined the conversation.

“Glad to hear it Joe, otherwise you would be on that equal rights course next week with Martin. Right, we’ve a briefing in twenty minutes so get as much together as you can. Grab a coffee and I’ll see you downstairs at four. Martin, could you go down to the front desk and sign-in Doctors Winter and Marsham please? Then bring them down to the briefing room.”

***

“Let’s make a start. We’ve a lot to get through. You all know Dr Winter, the Director of Forensic Pathology, and Dr Marsham, Head of Forensic Science. That’s C.S.I. for the Wii generation amongst us. Welcome, both of you. I see Nicky’s got you coffee.”

“Aye, hello again, Doc.”

John nodded and then took off his suit jacket, revealing a pair of red braces that exactly matched his shoes. Then Davy appeared, displaying his newest ear piercing, and Craig laughed as Martin gawped at the fashion show.

“OK. Before we start, most of you will know that it was Dr Winter’s eagle-eye that first brought us this case. He also alerted us to the possible irregularities in two older cases. So without him we might never have realised this is potentially, and I still say potentially, murder number three. And this might have gone unchecked for much longer.” John gave a mock bow.

“OK, everyone please give an update on your interviews. Then we’ll take Joe about the Drug Squad info. And Liam and Martin on the preliminary CCTV, swipe cards and floor plan information. Then I’ll summarise. But before all of that - perhaps our guests would like to tell us what they’ve found?”

Nicky distributed the summaries that John and Des had brought with them, and they outlined their findings in tandem. They steered suspicion towards either a clinical person over forty, or someone completely non-clinical, but with easy access to drugs and needles. They’d brought a sample giving-set, a green needle and the electron microscope photograph. Des confirmed that traces of Pethidine had been found along the needle track in the rubber connector. While a summary of the drug charts and notes tied everything together.

“The post-mortem’s not finished yet and we’ll be collecting more swabs for D.N.A. from Evie’s body.” John twisted his face in disgust. “I also found out an hour ago that unfortunately, or very suspiciously I believe, the first two victims were cremated. So we have to get everything we possibly can from Evie.”

“Cremated? That’s convenient, Doc.”

“Too convenient, Liam. If Alan Davis wasn’t already dead I’d kill him myself.”

“But he couldn’t have had them cremated, John. Surely that’s the family’s decision?”

“Two doctors have to sign cremation forms, Marc, He’s the first signatory on both, so he could easily have encouraged or pressured the families to do it. But I’ll be looking into that.”

Martin raised his hand politely and Annette smiled like she was his Mum.

“Yes Martin?”

“Can I ask...why is D.N.A. worth taking, Dr Winter? Won’t it just be a mess of trace evidence? After all, the crash team worked on her, and she was in theatre as well.”

“A very good question.” Martin beamed. “But there are still some areas of the body where we shouldn’t find foreign D.N.A., even in those circumstances. Whatever we do find, we’ll eliminate anyone involved in the resusc and operation of course.”

“God! Does that mean we need to get D.N.A. from everyone on staff, Doc?” Liam looked exhausted even thinking of it.

“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves, Liam. We need to find something worth comparison first.”

The meeting continued for over an hour, until eventually, Craig saw everyone flagging and summed up.

“OK. Here’s what we know for sure. Over the past three months there have been three deaths of healthy youngish women on the Maternity Unit. They all occurred either before or soon after they gave birth to baby girls. All had Pethidine and Insulin in their blood in high but non-lethal quantities, and all had Caesareans, either before or after death. The UK and Irish police have come back with no similar cases. But we might have a vague hit now in Australia - during the period that Beth Walker was there. Davy’s chasing that up.

All three patients had the same male surgeon, Nigel Murdock, and the same female midwife, Beth Walker. The surgeons and midwives don’t work in set pairs, and there are sixty-four possible combinations in the Unit. So the fact that they were paired during all three deaths is
much more than coincidence. We also have knowledge of a very difficult relationship between Walker and Murdock.”

Annette interjected. “And she was openly against Murdock doing so many Caesareans, sir.”

He nodded, continuing. “Ms Walker lives an openly gay lifestyle, as is her right. But this has led to public disapproval by both Nigel Murdock and Sister Laurie Johns. It’s safe to say that Sister Johns is a great fan of Mr Murdock and not a fan of Ms Walker at all. The deaths all occurred on the same ward in side rooms. Different ones, but all on the corridor nearest the Unit’s front door. And the Unit is a locked one, with access only possible by buzzed admission or swipe-card. The last death shows Pethidine was deliberately introduced by a non-standard route called-‘piggy -backing’. It’s a method rarely used since the ‘80s. So probably done by a non-clinical person with drug and needle access, or by an older clinical member of staff. The drug seems to have been given as part of a set scenario, the significance of which is so far known only to the killer. Evie also had a laceration to her right cheek that was made deliberately. We don’t know if that was also present on the two earlier victims.

None of the interviews yielded anything except unbelievable arrogance, or declarations of guilt about the fact that Evie died. And there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on. No-one saw anything that points to a stranger attack. We were just lucky that it was a closed Unit. On an open adult ward strangers would have gone un-noticed.”

Annette nodded and stared at John meaningfully. They both remembered when anyone could walk into wards off the street, relying on the busy staff to notice. Craig kept going, the length of his summary showing the complexity of the case.

“Liam, Annette and Joe’s team have accounted for all the staff and builders present that evening. We caught a break with the relatives of other patients. They were few and far between from six pm on Monday until Tuesday morning. That saved us quite a bit of leg work.”

He paused to draw breath and Liam filled the gap. “Boss - you still have Iain Lewes to see again, and we’ve got some cleaners to interview. Otherwise we’re done.”

Liam updated them on the episode with Lewes in the canteen, watching Craig closely when Katy was mentioned. He didn’t even blink. He was good. Annette noticed John’s discomfort when Liam said Natalie’s name, and she shot him a ‘shut-up’ look that he completely missed.

“Lewes seemed pretty shifty, boss.”

Annette interjected quickly. “Can I do Dr Lewes’ re-interview with you, sir?”

“Here - do you fancy him then, Cutty?” Annette rolled her eyes. They
were
back at school.

“Don’t be stupid, Liam. But the way he left the canteen so quickly made me think that he might be shy. Our Amy’s shy and she acts just like that. Eating with her in public is a complete nightmare. Anyway, I asked around and everybody says that he’s very nice, but he’s become a bit reclusive since his wife passed away last summer. She got breast cancer and died...at thirty-three. And they lost a baby the year before.”

Liam looked sheepish and immediately thought of Dannii. “Oh… That’s why he didn’t say much about family when I was interviewing him. Sorry.”

“What was the baby Annette?”

“What?”

Craig’s voice took on an urgent tone. “Which sex was the baby?”

“Oh. It was a little boy, sir. A miscarriage at twenty weeks.”

He nodded. It was a long shot, but Lewes wasn’t off the suspect list just yet. Annette saw where he was heading and continued tentatively.

“We don’t want to give him a heart attack in the re-interview, sir. So I wondered if I could help. As a nurse maybe? No offence.”

“None taken, Annette. I’d be glad of your company. But we do still need to talk to him. He’s the only doctor who hasn’t insisted on me doing it, so that’s a mark in his favour as far as I’m concerned. But he
was
on the ward on Monday night, so he had access. Nicky, could you contact him for re-interview at High Street tomorrow morning, please.”

Nicky smiled smugly. “Already done.”

“Thanks. Let’s continue. There’s no CCTV inside the Unit, although it’s now universal Trust practice. Please confirm that with the Chief Exec. Liam. We’ve released a brief ‘holding’ press statement, closed the Unit and redirected all maternity patients to Bangor. I’ve agreed press handling with the C.E.O. and signed that off with Superintendent Harrison. There’s absolutely no delegation on dealing with the media, so find me on everything please, Nicky.” She nodded quickly, knowing from his tone that there would be trouble if it didn’t happen.

“All ward staff are on temporary leave. But the M.P.E. has the biggest Maternity Unit in Northern Ireland, so inconvenience for the public is a significant factor. That means time is
a pressure. The press will harass the life out of the D.C.S. until the Unit re-opens, and he’ll roll it down to us. So we need to solve this quickly. Right. Next steps. Liam?”

“Chase up the CCTV absence. Why wasn’t it working if it should have been? Get the swipe-card data and locate anyone who went in and out on Monday night, swiped or otherwise.”

Craig smiled at his anticipation and nodded Annette to do the same.

“I’ll take Martin, Davy and anyone Joe can spare, sir. And dig deeper into the backgrounds of the three dead women. We need any connections at all to each other, the hospital, its staff and Tommy Hill. If they exist. We also need to find out more about Beth Walker, Iain Lewes and Nigel Murdock. And I’ll have a good look at Sister Johns as well.”

“Good. You all know what you’re doing then. Has anyone met with the ’80s’ families yet? Joe?”

Everyone turned to look at Joe Rice - he was slumped back in his chair with his eyes closed! When he heard the sudden silence he jerked himself upright. Then he gave them all a challenging look that said he hadn’t been asleep, just listening intently. His next words showed that it was the truth.

“I contacted the victims’ living relatives, sir. Out of eight parents, five are dead and three are in their seventies. There are five surviving siblings, all in their forties. But only two are still living here and we’re interviewing them tomorrow.”

“That’s brilliant Joe. Try to gauge any vengeful feelings. You know what to look for.” Martin leaned forward eagerly.

“Sir?”

“Yes, Martin.”

“All the babies were girls, sir. Should we add that into the record search details?”

He was right. They’d used it for the police checks, but nearly overlooked it for the records.

“Thanks for the reminder. Davy’s already been using it his database searches. OK. When you’re checking for records, can everyone focus on past maternal deaths with surviving female children please. Well done Martin. OK Joe, the Drugs Squad link. Take that further and find out more about Tommy’s little operation. How big is it? Who are his rivals? Who has he annoyed? And does anyone want to hurt him badly enough that they would use his daughter to do it?