Trauma (34 page)

Sarah gave him a brief resume of the case.

'This may be our chance to catch Logan out,' said Lafferty. 'A young patient for whom transplant permission was refused. Presumably the boy's body should be in the hospital mortuary?'

'I think so,' said Sarah but then she added as an afterthought, 'Actually I'm not at all sure. I've just realised I've been overlooking something.'

'What's that?' asked Lafferty.

'Some of our patients are fitted with a type of monitor we call Sigma probes. They are actually implanted in the skull. If a patient fitted with these probes should die we have to have the probes removed by specialist technicians before anything else happens to the body.'

'Where do they do this?' asked Lafferty.

'I don't really know,' confessed Sarah. 'They come and remove the body from the unit. I'm not sure what happens after that. I suppose I assumed they took the body to the mortuary when they’d finished with it and the undertakers would take over from there but maybe not.'

'Maybe not,' agreed Lafferty.

'Do you think that . . .' Sarah began excitedly.

'It's possible,' replied Lafferty. 'Can you find out more about where the bodies go to have the probes removed?'

'I'll try,' said Sarah.

'But be careful!' warned Lafferty. 'In the meantime I'll try to find out which undertaker is dealing with the Keegan boy's funeral.'

'You be careful too,' said Sarah.

'Let's both be careful,' said Lafferty gently.

The more he thought about it the more Lafferty felt that they had discovered how the theft of the bodies was carried out. The 'specialist technicians' Sarah had mentioned would have to be in on the scam but that would be all as far as the hospital and the university were concerned. All HTU cared about was getting the Sigma probes back so even if it meant Logan replacing them out of his own pocket it would be a small price to pay in the stakes he must be playing for. It would mean of course, that these same technicians were responsible for loading and sealing the coffins otherwise the undertakers would know what was going on. He could check this if he could find out the name of the firm handling the Keegan funeral. He went out to get the local evening paper.

On the way back, Lafferty was stopped by one of his parishioners who seemed bent on telling him every detail of her medical history over the past five years. Lafferty made appropriate tutting and clucking noises at what he hoped were the right intervals but feared that his impatience might be showing. 'It's not an easy life you've had Thelma,' he said to the small, fat woman standing before him, 'but you've got a loving family and a God that cares about you. See you on Sunday?'

'Yes Father,' replied the woman, taken unawares as Lafferty sneaked off.

Lafferty ran his finger down the DEATHS column and stopped at Keegan. 'Tragically as the result of an accident, Martin John Keegan, beloved only son of James and Edwina Keegan. Funeral at Mortonhall Cemetery 11am on Thursday 18th. Flowers to Harkness and Glennie, Causewayside Lane. Lafferty checked Yellow Pages and saw that Harkness and Glennie advertised twenty four hour manning of their office. He would go there in person and ask about the Keegan boy's body. First he would phone Main and let him know what was going on.

'Well done,' said Main when Lafferty told him. 'It must be how they are doing it.'

'I think so,' agreed Lafferty. 'If we can just show that the Keegan boy's body has gone missing we can call in the police and give them all our information.'

'How are we going to do this?' asked Main.

Lafferty told him of his intended visit to the undertakers.

'Do you want me to come?' asked Main.

'Better if I go alone I think,' said Lafferty. 'Priests have an obvious connection with death. It'll arouse less suspicion if I go on my own.'

'As you like,' said Main. 'Let me know what happens.'

Sarah went on duty at six. She had left it as late as possible in order to minimise contact with Derek Logan. In the event, he was nowhere to be seen when she entered HTU and looked into the duty room. 'Good evening, Staff,' she said to the nurse sitting there. 'What's cooking?'

'Professor Tyndall is having words with Dr Logan,' replied the nurse, as if she was imparting a secret. 'They've been going at it hammer and tongs for the past ten minutes.' The nurse held her finger to her lips and Sarah listened. She could hear raised voices coming from Tyndall's office. She shrugged her shoulders round her ears in order to empathise with the nurse. 'What's it about?' she asked.

'I don't know,' replied the nurse. 'Dr Logan suddenly appeared and walked into the Professor's office without as much as a by-your-leave.'

Sarah made a face. She was about to say something else when the arguing voices grew suddenly louder. Both she and the nurse pretended to be otherwise occupied as Tyndall's door opened and Logan emerged. 'You haven't heard the last of this!' Logan was saying, his face red with anger.'

Logan saw Sarah standing there as he shut Tyndall's door. He gave her a look that suggested she might not be on his Christmas card list come December and left.

'Something you said?' asked the nurse who’d noticed.

'Must have been,' said Sarah.

Twenty minutes later, as Sarah was checking the patient in Beta 4, Tyndall came in and stood opposite her. He seemed unruffled by whatever had passed between him and Logan. Sarah thought it the mark of a gentleman. He said, 'I spoke to my brother about your request. He suggests you pop up tomorrow in your off-duty if that's convenient?'

'Absolutely,' said Sarah.

Tyndall handed her a piece of paper with a telephone number on it. 'That's his personal extension. He asks that you call him before going up.'

'Thank you Professor,' said Sarah. 'I'm most grateful.'

Tyndall smiled and turned on his heel. He made a point of saying, good night to the nurses and left.

When she had a moment, Sarah called Lafferty but he was out.

It was shortly after seven thirty when Lafferty found the premises of Harkness and Glennie, a double shop front with curtains in the window, half way along a narrow lane and facing due north. The paintwork of the premises was a respectful combination of grey and black. The door was locked but Lafferty could see that there was a light on somewhere inside. There was a brass bell on the wall. He pressed it and heard it ring. A shuffling of feet was followed by the undoing of locks and the door opened a fraction.

'Yes?' asked the unseen male voice through the crack.

'I'm Father Lafferty from St Xavier's. I wonder if I might have a word?'

Lafferty heard a chain being undone and the door opened to reveal a small man in pinstripe trousers and shirt sleeves. 'You can't be too careful these days Father,' he said as he indicated that Lafferty should enter.

'I suppose not,' said Lafferty as he waited for the man to secure the door again. What the hell was anyone going to steal from here? he wondered.

'This way,' said the man. He led the way through to the back of the premises and into a small room which had a television on in the corner. A few chairs, a small table with a teapot and a half empty milk bottle standing on it and two or three newspapers lying around suggested that this was the 'staff room'. The man turned the television off and put his jacket on. 'Now Father, what can I do for you?’

'It's about the Keegan boy,' said Lafferty.

'A tragedy,' said the man, shaking his head. 'Eighteen years old.'

'Quite so,' said Keegan. 'Is the lad in your Chapel of Rest?' Lafferty asked - he had seen this facility advertised outside. He managed to ask it with a straight face although the idea of a commercial 'Chapel of Rest' made him want to throw up.

'No Father, he isn't,' said the man.

'He isn't,' repeated Lafferty, hoping that this would induce the man to say more.

'He's up at the medical school.'

'I see,' said Lafferty, hoping for more information.

'I understand he had to have some special medical equipment removed from so we delivered the coffin and the chaps up there will let us know when we can collect it.'

'So you won't actually have anything to do with the boy's body?' asked Lafferty.

'We'll just collect it from the university in time for the funeral,' answered the man.

'I see,' said Lafferty. The pieces now fitted perfectly. 'I'm sorry to have bothered you,' he said.

Sarah managed to glean from the night nurses that Sigma probes were removed in a special lab up in the medical school. She called Lafferty just after midnight to give him this information. He, for his part, was able to tell her that he had largely found this out for himself through his visit to the undertakers and also that the technicians up there were responsible for sealing the corpse into its coffin.

'So that's it then,' said Sarah.

'I think so,' said Lafferty. 'Logan must have an arrangement with the technicians. Which department would they be attached to do you think?''

'They must work in Professor Tyndall's lab or his brother's. Both are funded by Gelman Holland as is the Sigma probe project.'

'But that's where you plan to work isn't it?'

'Yes,' agreed Sarah.

'It could be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire.'

'That’s a thought,' said Sarah.

Lafferty said, 'I'm not sure this is a good idea after all. You could be in great danger.'

'Let me play it by ear,' said Sarah. 'Nothing has been agreed yet. Cyril Tyndall wants me to phone him first.'

'Probably to arrange a meeting,' said Lafferty. 'If you're asked to go up there, maybe you could use your visit to find out as much as you can about the set up for Sigma probe management?'

'I'll certainly try,' said Sarah, adding, 'Although it's quite hard to see how I could bring something like that into conversation.'

'As you said, play it by ear,' said Lafferty.

'With a bit of luck Logan's time is going to run out anyway,' said Sarah. She told him about the row she'd heard him have with Professor Tyndall.

'Did you manage to hear what it was about?'

'Fraid not.'

'Be extra careful,' urged Lafferty. 'He could be at his most dangerous if he thinks the net is closing in on him.'

'I will,' said Sarah.

After an uneventful night in HTU, Sarah went off duty and slept until two in the afternoon when her alarm woke her. She had set it for two so that she could telephone Cyril Tyndall and hopefully arrange a meeting for later on that same afternoon.

'Professor? It's Sarah Lasseter. I think you've probably been expecting me to call?'

'Yes indeed, Dr Lafferty. Cyril tells me you'd like to work with us for a while?'

'If that's all right with you sir?'

'I think perhaps it might be better if we were to meet first and discuss which aspects of the research interest you most?'

Sarah had the distinct impression that Cyril Tyndall was stalling and had other things on his mind. 'I was rather hoping I might be able to call in and see you this afternoon sir?'

'Out of the question I'm afraid Doctor.'

'Tomorrow perhaps?'

'I'm afraid we're all rather busy at the moment, Dr Lasseter. We've got a bit of a problem on our hands. Why don't you give me a call say, tomorrow afternoon, and we'll try to fix up something?'

'Very good sir,' said Sarah, feeling dejected. Cyril Tyndall's interest in her career certainly seemed to have become lukewarm. She was forced into considering that Paddy Duncan might have been right at the reception when he suggested that Tyndall's interest in her had more to do with her gender and the dress she’d been wearing than any genuine regard for her professional skills. She decided that she would have to be philosophical about it but it didn't stop her feeling more than a little foolish. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear her father say, 'Life is a learning process Sarah . . . and there are no school holidays.'

Sarah felt at a loose end. Instead of being on her way up to Cyril Tyndall's lab later then afternoon as she had planned, she would have to twiddle her thumbs until tomorrow at the earliest. She wondered how much time they had before the Keegan boy's funeral took place. Lafferty would know; she called him.

'It’s on Thursday,' said Lafferty. 'According to the undertaker I spoke to, they won't pick up the body until just before the funeral so presumably it will lie in the medical school mortuary until then.'

'That gives us three days.’

'Not long,' said Lafferty. 'Especially if you are not going to get a chance to go up there until the day after tomorrow at the earliest.'