Trauma (24 page)

Sarah shook her head and replied, 'No Father. It's against unit policy.' Then realising how cold and impersonal that sounded, she added, 'There are just so many.'

Lafferty nodded and said quietly, 'Of course. I should have thought.’

'No, not at all!' said Sarah, suddenly anxious to assure Lafferty. For some reason the last thing in the world she wanted to do was offend this man. Perhaps it was because he had been so kind to her when she had felt vulnerable or perhaps it was because she detected a kind of vulnerability in him. She didn't know but suddenly knew that she had to confide in someone and Lafferty was the man. 'I was wondering if I might have a word with you, Father,' she said.

'Of course,' said Lafferty automatically before starting to wonder why? 'Just now?'

'No, I'd rather it was somewhere away from here,' said Sarah, looking over her shoulder.

'Perhaps you could come to the church?' suggested Lafferty. 'Or . . .'

'The church would be fine,' said Sarah. 'St Xavier's isn't it?'

Lafferty nodded.

'This evening?'

Lafferty spread his hands, 'Fine,' he said. 'Seven o'clock?'

A nurse came into the room and Sarah's voice changed. 'Yes, Father Lafferty, that would be fine,' she said in official tones and led the way out of the room.

Mrs Grogan answered the door when Sarah arrived at two minutes past seven. Lafferty had forgotten to tell her that she would be coming so Sarah had to undergo what amounted to an in-depth interview at the door. Lafferty overheard and came out into the hall.

'It's all right, Mrs Grogan. I should have told you I was expecting this young lady.' Then to Sarah, he said, ‘Come in won't you, I'm sorry about that.'

Sarah smiled and entered leaving Mrs Grogan looking at the back of a young lady with a rather short skirt entering the sitting room of Father Lafferty's apartments. Lafferty noticed the look on Mrs Grogan's face and decided to say nothing by way of explanation. Even the boiled eggs had not been too wonderful this evening. 'Thank you Mrs Grogan, why don't you go off early? I shan't be needing you any more.'

'As you wish Father,' said Mrs Grogan, wearing a prim expression that almost verged on open disapproval.

'Tea? Coffee? A drink?' inquired Lafferty when he had closed the door and the pleasantries were over.

Sarah, who was sitting awkwardly on the edge of a faded green sofa, hesitated for a moment before saying, 'If a drink’s really on offer, I'd love one.'

'Whisky, gin or sherry? That’s about it.’

'Gin please.'

Lafferty opened up his drinks cabinet, grimacing at the squeal of the brass hinges and extracted a bottle of Beefeater Gin. He continued with a rummage through the bottles before saying, 'It will have to be bitter lemon, I'm afraid. I don't seem to have any tonic.'

'Fine,' said Sarah.

Lafferty poured himself a large Jamieson's whisky and sat down opposite her.

'Irish whisky?' said Sarah.

'With a name like Lafferty and a job like mine I thought I'd better complete the stereotype,' said Lafferty.

Sarah thought she detected something other than humour in what Lafferty had said, a hint of bitterness perhaps. 'Is that really how you see yourself?' she asked.

'The whole bit,' said Lafferty unguardedly. 'The pantomime priest. If you don't have the substance, at least have the props.'

Sarah shook her head slightly, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand,' she said.

Lafferty smiled and said, 'Nothing. I'm talking nonsense as usual. How can I help you Doctor?'

'Call me Sarah.'

'Very well, Sarah.

Sarah opened her mouth to start speaking but then she stopped and shook her head. 'Maybe I should have gone to the police but they wouldn't believe me,' she said.

'The police?' asked Lafferty.

Sarah nodded. 'I think a crime has been committed,' she said.

'At the hospital?'

'Yes.'

'What sort of crime?' asked Lafferty.

'Murder.'

Lafferty's mouth fell open. 'Murder?' he exclaimed. 'But who?'

'John McKirrop. I'm convinced he was murdered.'

Lafferty took a few moments to compose himself before saying, 'Have I got this right? You are telling me that John McKirrop was murdered while in hospital?'

'I think so,' said Sarah. 'In fact, I'm sure of it.'

'But why? How?'

'I don't know why but I do know how,' said Sarah. She told Lafferty about her examination of the cadaver and the evidence she had found.

'You seem certain,' said Lafferty.

Sarah nodded. 'The trouble is that I can't prove it without the original skull X-ray. Without that, everything seems to be above board. Mr McKirrop was admitted to HTU with a depressed fracture of the skull and it caused massive brain damage. End of story. Only I and the killer know that the fracture got much worse after he was admitted to HTU.'

Lafferty shook his head, finding it difficult to take everything in. 'But why?' he asked. 'Who would want to kill a man like John McKirrop?'

'Needless to say, I've been thinking about that a lot,' said Sarah. 'The only thing I can come up with concerns a colleague, Dr Derek Logan. He's actually my immediate boss.' Sarah told Lafferty about Logan being made to look foolish if McKirrop had recovered from his injuries. 'He dismissed the patient as being a hopeless case without even checking the X-rays.'

'I see,' said Lafferty thoughtfully. 'As an outsider it all seems a bit extreme to say the least. Do you really think this man Logan capable of such an act?'

Sarah sighed and shook her head. 'Much as I dislike him, no I don't,' she said. 'It's more a case of being unable to think of any other motive.'

'Then we'll have to look for one,' said Lafferty.

'I have been trying,' said Sarah with a wry smile.

'Of course you have and have you managed to come up with anything at all?'

'I suppose it's just possible that McKirrop knew something that other people didn't want him to talk about,' said Sarah.

'That makes sense,' agreed Lafferty. 'Any idea about what it could be?'

Sarah looked doubtful. She paused before saying, 'It may be silly but I think it could be something to do with what happened in the cemetery with the Main boy.'

Lafferty heart missed a beat. 'What makes you say that?' he asked, taking a sip of his drink.

'I saw John McKirrop the first time he was admitted to hospital, just after he had been beaten up by the men in the cemetery. There was something about him; it's hard to put my finger on it exactly but I got the distinct impression he knew more than he ever said about the affair.'

'Why do you say that?' asked Lafferty.

'At first he wouldn't speak about what happened at all. He seemed scared. I had to urge him to tell the police what he knew for the sake of the boy's father. Apparently he did do that but I remember thinking at the time that he wanted to tell me something else. It was as if he . . .’

'Hadn't been telling the whole story?' added Lafferty.

'Exactly,' said Sarah 'How did you know I was going to say that?'

'I've been uneasy about what happened in the cemetery myself,' said Lafferty. I've read every book on the occult I can lay my hands on, I've talked to an expert on the black arts and still nothing has emerged to suggest what kind of group would want the body or why. That's why I wanted to talk to McKirrop if he came round. I wanted to know if there had been something else he hadn't been telling us.'

'I see,' said Sarah.

'There's something else that's bothering me. You told me that McKirrop had used the word, "Yobs" when referring to the men who had dug up the Main boy. John Main used the same word when he called me up this morning to tell me that he had found the men who did it. From what he said, they didn't sound like black mass material. It made me more certain than ever that McKirrop didn't tell the whole truth.’

'Did you say that Mr Main had found the men?' interrupted Sarah.

Lafferty nodded and told her briefly how Main had done it. 'The police are looking for them now.'

'Then we should know the whole story when they catch them,' said Sarah.

Lafferty nodded.

'But what could McKirrop possibly know that would be worth killing him to keep it quiet?' asked Sarah.

Lafferty shook his head. 'I'm not sure,' he said. 'Perhaps there were other people in the cemetery that night? People who McKirrop never mentioned. Or perhaps there's something else that we haven't even thought about yet.'

'But there has to be a connection with HTU if that's the reason McKirrop was murdered?' asked Sarah.

'I suppose so,' agreed Lafferty.

'I'm scared,' confessed Sarah.

Lafferty could see that she was. 'Have you voiced your suspicions about McKirrop's death to anyone in HTU?' he asked.

'No, you’re the only person I've told,' said Sarah.

'Good, then no one knows you suspect,' said Lafferty.

'Logan knows that I was searching for the missing X-ray,' said Sarah.

Lafferty frowned. 'But not why?'

'No.'

'Then I suggest that we do and say nothing until the police have come up with the four men. If they discover a strong enough motive for killing John McKirrop perhaps you won't need the X-ray after all. Make sense?'

Sarah nodded and said, 'It does. I'm grateful to you for listening. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have shared this with someone.'

Lafferty smiled and said, 'I think you've just told a Roman Catholic priest that confession is good for you.'

When Sarah got back to the residency she found an air of excitement about the place. 'What's going on?' she asked Paddy Duncan when she met him in the corridor.

'You haven't heard the news?' he asked.

'What news?'

'Cyril Tyndall has come up with a vaccine against Herpes. It's reported as being a hundred percent effective and Gelman Holland have been licensed to manufacture it. It should be available by the end of the year.'

'That's wonderful news but what about trials and safety evaluations? Surely they can't just put it into production,' exclaimed Sarah.

'All done,' said Duncan. 'The trials were conducted in secret with government approval.'

'But why in secret?' asked Sarah. 'And why would the government approve of that?'

'It’s exactly the kind of research that the government wants to encourage,' smiled Duncan. 'The kind where industry funds the research instead of the public purse. The propaganda value in something like this is enormous.'

'But why the secrecy?' asked Sarah.

'Such sweet naively,' said Duncan. 'Do you realise how much money there is in such a product? No scientist does anything these days without talking to his lawyer and the patents office. Some people are even trying to patent the human genome.'

'So this is not a traditional vaccine then?' asked Sarah.

'No,' agreed Duncan. 'As I understand it, Cyril Tyndall managed to identify the DNA trigger mechanism in human cells which sets off dormant Herpes virus, whatever that means.'

'Brilliant!' said Sarah.

'You sound as if you know about it?' said Duncan.

Sarah nodded and said, 'I got interested in the subject at medical school when we were studying phage lysogeny in bacteria. It struck me that the same thing might go on with the Herpes virus.'

'Tell me more,' said Duncan.

'Well, you know if you get an infection like a cold sore it appears to heal and clear up but in fact it lies dormant within you until it's set off again by sunlight or stress or whatever?'

Duncan nodded.

'The theory was that the virus was kept dormant by a repressor substance until something happened to destroy or inactivate the repressor. It sounds as if Tyndall has identified the DNA trigger that does this. If he has a vaccine it must mean that they have come up with a way of keeping the virus permanently inactive. Do you know if it only applies to Herpes simplex?'

'No, that's the beauty of it,' said Duncan. 'It's said to be equally effective against Herpes zoster. We can treat all kinds of Herpes infections. No more cold sores, no more shingles, no more genital Herpes. A complete cure.'

'This could put Cyril Tyndall in line for a Nobel prize,' said Sarah.

'That's what everyone's been saying,' said Duncan. 'And not only Cyril. Murdoch Tyndall’s name is on the paper as well. Quite a family affair.'

'Are you sure?' asked Sarah.

'Absolutely. It's in today's edition of Nature. There are four authors and Murdoch is one of them.'