by Mairi Chong
It was gone half-two and Holly had only just returned home having purchased a fragrant and, frankly, slimy sausage roll from the butchers on the way past.
The crumbs of flaky pastry lay conspiratorially on the plate by the sink. As she moved across the kitchen with the phone to her ear, she paused and prodded at them, swirling the scraps around and around and then individually flicking them into the sink, watching as they landed at random and stuck to the damp metal surface. Ten points for the plug. But Carol interrupted the game.
‘Did you hear me? An arrest,’ she said again.
‘Who was it then?’ Holly asked impatiently. The silly woman probably didn’t even know. She was phoning with half a story and expecting her to sit up and applaud like some fat sealion.
There was a pause. ‘It’s Thomas,’ Carol finally said.
Holly froze. She nearly dropped the bloody phone in the sink.
‘Thomas?’ she repeated. ‘What, Thomas, who comes into the shop? It can’t be him. I was just talking to him.’
‘That’s who they say did it. Thomas. Apparently, they have evidence of some kind. Well, enough obviously to take him in for questioning anyway. I’m phoning around the others. I don’t suppose you’ve seen –’
Holly hung up before Carol could say anymore. She was done with listening. They had got it wrong. Who in their right mind could imagine feckless, crazy Thomas having the ingenuity to pull off a murder? She couldn’t imagine a less likely candidate if she tried. What were the police playing at, and what was it that they had on him anyway?
Holly grabbed her jacket from the hallway. Although she had only spent a relatively short time with the man, she knew it was all wrong. She could just visualise his panic-stricken face. He was such an innocent. She thought of his mad behaviour, of him leaping about at even the sound of a car horn, of him disliking the proximity of anyone if they stood too close. She knew that the police had procedures for dealing with people like him, they had to. There would be a responsible adult, or interpreter, or whatever they called them, to help him understand. Someone to explain the implications of the answers he gave them. But still, Holly felt that he would be like a fish out of water, and frightened. That was the worst of it really; imagining him sitting bewildered, not knowing what he had done wrong.
She slipped as she half-jogged her way down the close. The pavements were inky-black and patches that had not yet caught the sun were quite icy. As she neared the corner of the cul-de-sac, she slowed, afraid that she might fall on the tarmac. She assumed that Marie would be in and of course, she was correct.
‘Have you heard?’ Holly asked, breathlessly. Her fevered words met the cold air, turning them to vapour in front of her.
‘I know, I know,’ Marie said, ‘Come in.’
She went in through the familiar hallway, and Marie led her back to the pink room in which the three of them had sat only the day before. There was no offer of biscuits or tea this time though. Holly looked at the stool in the corner, where he had munched his way through the best part of a packet of Rich Teas along with the rest, scattering crumbs with carefree abandon.
‘I only just heard,’ Holly told her, turning to look at Marie’s worried face. ‘How about you? Is it all around the town then?’
‘He was here when they came. They kept saying it was just for formal questioning and not an official charge yet, but that’s bad enough isn’t it?’
Walking across to the chair by the fire, she lowered herself into it heavily. She landed awkwardly and winced, stretching a hand behind her back to adjust the rose velour cushion. She pulled the pillow out completely and sat with it on her lap, tracing patterns on the velvety fabric without knowing she did it.
‘The police came here?’ Holly asked, feeling as if she was sounding very stupid indeed. ‘Did they give a reason? I just can’t imagine them believing he had it in him. I mean, Thomas?’
Marie shook her head.
‘I don’t know much about the man, but you clearly do. Why do they think it was him?’ Holly asked.
‘They said they had found a patch of blood by the bins where he lives up at The Court,’ she replied sighing. ‘Apparently, it’s being examined and tested, but they know already that it’s human.’
‘But that doesn’t mean it was him. It could have been anyone. What about Carbolic? He lives at The Court too, and all of the rest of them. Tricia from the charity shop even goes in to visit some old dear up there as well. It could have been her, or any of the people who work there.’
‘I know,’ Marie answered.
‘There has to be more,’ Holly said defiantly. ‘Had he and Betty even known one another? I know she saw him occasionally in the shop when he came in, but was there anything else?’
Marie looked uncomfortable. Eventually, when she spoke, her words came out in a heavy monotone, like she was reciting it without feeling. Her hands, by this time, had stopped moving and she clasped them as if had she not, they might escape.
‘I never liked the woman, I told you that already,’ she began. ‘My husband used to call her ‘The Ice Queen’. Seemed to hate men. Her poor husband didn’t stay around for long. Certainly, she didn’t stand for children running about the street making noise.’ Marie sighed. ‘You want to know about Thomas? He used to come down here regularly. I bumped into him quite literally in the street a good few years back now, not long after Arthur died.’ She gestured to the mantlepiece and a gilt-framed photograph of her husband looked solemnly down. ‘Well, you know yourself what Thomas is like. So naïve, and in a way, I suppose I felt rather sorry for him, as you do too.’ She glanced across at Holly now, seeming to find her voice properly once more. She laughed and it sounded tuneful like a breeze playing on windchimes. ‘He’s quite a character, is Thomas. I think, what with losing Arthur, I was looking for something, maybe someone, and Thomas was there. We were almost fated to be friends. I needed him just as much as he needed me, you see? It was equal.’
Holly nodded.
‘He used to come down here a lot at the beginning. I think that I must have been the first person in a long time to take an interest. I used to look forward to our funny little conversations. He’s far smarter than he makes out, you know? He has a wonderful memory for numbers and dates and times. Anyway, I suppose I must have encouraged him too much. He was quite a bit more boisterous than he is now.’
Holly laughed. ‘He’s bad enough now.’
Marie smiled. ‘Well, believe me, he was a lot louder back then. Used to come down the street singing and calling out to me. Before he even came around the corner, he was shouting and carrying on. Sometimes if I was out, he told me he had waited on the doorstep. Every-so-often, he’d sit there, possibly for hours waiting until I got home, just so that he could have a news with me and a biscuit.’
Holly smiled at the thought of his silly figure, curled up on Marie’s porch, rocking and singing until she returned.
‘He had nobody really,’ she said. ‘I got onto the social services about it after a while and he now has these organised days out, and at least he’s at The Court being looked after. But back then, he was like a lost child. Not a bad bone in his body. The social work people knew of him of course, but he had gone off the radar a bit. They’re busy enough as it is.’
‘Is it right then, that he has no one? He told me he had no family.’
‘In a way, that’s true. His mother, I believe was also mentally a bit not-there and easily swayed. I think poor Thomas may have been the product of a violent encounter. These sorts of things happened more frequently than you’d think, back in the day. His mother wouldn’t have been able to care for him anyway, even if she had wanted to, and he was passed from pillar to post.’
‘Is his mother still alive then?’
Marie shrugged her tiny shoulders. ‘Who knows. She’d be no use to him now anyway.’
‘So, I still don’t understand why he’d have a motive to kill Betty.’
‘No, I’m not explaining very well, a
m I?’ The old lady smiled and then sighed. ‘Betty took a dislike to Thomas. It was really intense and quite unjustified. She came over here on a couple of occasions complaining about the noise he was making when he came to visit, even said he was tormenting her cat or some such nonsense. She threatened to tell the RSPCA but as far as I knew he’d just been throwing stones for the poor creature to chase. You can imagine. You’d have thought in her line of work in the past, she’d have been more understanding, wouldn’t you? But no. I told him to calm himself down a bit, but it only made him worse.’ Marie twisted her hands in her lap. ‘It came to a head at the end of last summer. He had been drinking. You know he does sometimes? He came down the cul-de-sac singing and shouting, and Betty came out of her house and had a real to-do with him in the street. Well, you know how that went, what with him being drunk and silly. Betty went back into her house, and how I wished I had known what he was about to do, but I didn’t, you see?’
‘What did he do?’ Holly asked.
‘It was so childish and I offered to pay, of course. There was no point in her going to the police and making a big fuss, but she wouldn’t listen. He was cautioned at the time.’ Marie looked at her now. ‘He threw a brick in her front window,’ she said.
Holly sat back in the chair. She blew a tuft of fringe off of her face. ‘Now I understand,’ she said, ‘and so, they never really got on after that?’
‘And me and her neither. There are ways of dealing with things, and she went about it the wrong way. Vindictive that was.’
Holly grimaced. ‘She was murdered first. They say she was hit on the head. It wasn’t the train that killed her at all. So, the police think that poor Thomas did it out of revenge of some sort. I take it he doesn’t have an alibi for that evening?’
‘He wasn’t with me anyway,’ Marie said. ‘But of course, it wasn’t him. They’ve just settled for the most obvious and vulnerable person, and it’s wrong.’
‘And if they have Thomas in custody, it means the killer’s free and probably thinking that they’re mighty smart for having pinned the crime on him.’
Holly left not long after that. Marie seemed glad that she had come and even suggested that she return if she heard any more news. Holly gave the old woman her mobile number just in case. Maybe Marie saw her as some kind of vigilante, and perhaps in a way, she was.
When Holly looked at her mobile as she walked home, she saw that she had three missed calls. All were from Carol. She was glad to have missed them, but Carol had left a message anyway. In it, she sounded irate, which made the corners of Holly’s mouth prick for the first time that afternoon. Walking home, she felt even more determined. Carol had said that the shop was opening again in the morning. They were all to come in. At least Holly would be doing something useful and she knew in her heart, that the answer to Betty’s death was there, in amongst the shabby overcoats and random candlesticks.
17
‘Crazy Thomas,’ Michelle whispered.
‘Unbelievable,’ Julie mouthed. ‘You never can tell with loonie folk though, can you? I’d never have put him down as one though, a murderer, I mean, would you?’
Michelle scrunched up her face. ‘Mental age of a five-year-old or whatever. Something sent him over the edge, I guess. Maybe she looked like his dead mother who used to hit him or something. You read about things like that happening all the time. Something snaps and they go totally wild.’
Julie whistled quietly. ‘My God. Well, I suppose it’s as well he’s behind bars now and not ranging around the streets. I used to see him all over the town, dragging that horrible bag behind him everywhere. Always crossed to the other side of the road when I saw him, and I’m glad I did now.’
‘He’s not been in to see any of the GPs for a while, has he? I think he was seeing the podiatrist every few months but I’ve not had to deal with him at all.’
‘Me neither, thank goodness. It always comes out though, doesn’t it? And it’s usually the crazy ones that do it. I know it’s not particularly politically correct. There’ll be a big inquiry, I imagine.’
‘Definitely, and the doctors’ll be involved, no doubt. Having to give evidence about his character and whatnot, I imagine. Whether it could have been prevented in some way.’
‘Oh well, we’ll hear more later on. I’m just glad they caught him so quickly. And we had thought it was suicide too. Poor old Betty Scott. Murdered.’
Thomas Hogg had been a patient of theirs all of his life. Cathy had looked up his files earlier when James came through and together, they had run down the list of reasons for him consulting them. It seemed that Thomas kept himself to himself and had not been in attendance for some years, but he had seen the practice nurse once for an infected toenail and she had referred him, quite rightly, to the podiatrist after that.
‘Well,’ James said, straightening up from the screen. ‘Not much to be said. Poor chap. Moderate learning disability, that’s all. I’d not have put him down as a person to kill, and there’s nothing in his notes to suggest violent behaviour.’
‘I might dig out his paper notes later,’ Cathy said.
The practice still kept ancient physical notes in one of the back storerooms. These were mostly historical and of little interest to the GPs, but the police might quite well want to see them.
‘Something from his paediatric files, you think?’ James asked.
‘Not really. I mean, how could there be anything? But you know what the police are like when they’re making a case, and if it gets to the point where they charge him with murder, it’ll all have to be gone through. He must have been assessed early on for learning disability, and surely well-known to the social work department. I guess that they’ll find out more from them rather than us.’
‘I wonder what evidence they have against him,’ James mused.
‘Didn’t Julie say that the police were seen looking around the bins up at The Court? Perhaps they found something?’
Before James left, she asked him about the hospital. It had been playing on her mind a good deal and until now, she hadn’t had a chance.
‘Fernibanks?’ James asked. ‘Oh, it was shut a long time before you came, I suppose. Yes. There was an accident as it happens. A massive fire. Well, when I say massive, it involved only one building. A psychiatry consultant died. I don’t know much about it though. I was locuming as a newly qualified GP back then and hadn’t taken on the partnership yet. Eric might know, although it’s years since we last spoke.’ To Cathy’s confused expression, he explained: ‘I told you I went to one of those dreadful reunions years ago? Eric was a medical school friend. He ended up going into psychiatry for his sins, and I’m sure he was working there at some point.’
‘If you get a chance, James, I’d be grateful if you could ask,’ Cathy said.
James looked at her quizzically. ‘Cathy? What’s this all about then?’
She sighed and then smiled at his concern. ‘I feel an obligation,’ she admitted. ‘Betty Scott was my patient and I let her down.’
James shook his head. ‘No, Cathy.’
‘She was worried about something, James, before she died. She mentioned her work as a nurse in the same conversation, and I just wondered ... She worked at Fernibanks; you see? Now is the first I’ve heard of this tragedy up there. What if the two deaths were linked in some way and the police are barking up the wrong tree?’
James snorted. ‘They’ve got their man, Cathy. Poor Thomas Hogg. What do you want to go digging into it for?’
‘I know,’ she agreed. ‘But James, do you honestly think that Thomas was responsible for Elizabeth Scott’s death?’
James shrugged. ‘It does seem unlikely.’
Cathy smiled triumphantly. ‘Please speak to your friend?’
‘Good excuse to hear Eric’s news, I suppose,’ he conceded.
James left her to it and for the rest of that morning, the two doctors consulted in rooms beside one another. Not unexpectedly, she received a call from the police mi
d-morning requesting a copy of Thomas’s medical records. In a serious case such as this, confidentiality had to be waived and Cathy agreed.
‘Of course. I’ll look for his historical ones myself when I’m finished consulting. One of the girls will photocopy them for you if it helps.’
The police officer thanked her.
‘Are you really convinced he did it?’ she asked.
The man sighed. ‘Difficult, but it seems highly likely. It’s uncomfortable for all of us, but there it is. Sometimes I wonder how many of these people do slip through the net. He’s been next to useless in interviews. Sits rocking and counting to himself most of the time. If he did kill her, he’ll probably go where he should have been in the first place. An institute. Shouldn’t have been roaming about on the streets.’
Cathy felt quite sick.
Following her morning surgery, she set to work through in the back room. It was rare to come into the store as most of the relevant patient notes were now computerised. When Cathy opened the door, the room smelt musty and the air was cold. She flicked on the light and sighed seeing the lines of dusty paper folders on the shelves.
‘Oh Dr Moreland, you gave me a fright,’ Michelle said as she passed the door.
‘Sorry, Michelle,’ Cathy said. ‘I was just having a rummage.’
‘If you do need a hand looking, give me or Julie a shout,’ she offered, but Cathy was glad to be alone.
The room itself had no windows, and the only lighting was a fluorescent strip that seemed to flicker intermittently. Several times, Cathy looked skyward wondering if a moth was caught in the light shield, but it seemed that the electrical connection was poor. The shelves segmented the room into rows. The metal ledges ran the whole length and went from floor to ceiling. It felt oppressive, but Cathy was only too willing to make the sacrifice.
She came to ‘H’ and slowly began to look through. There were so many patients’ surnames beginning with the letter. It was impossible to read the spines of the folders so Cathy was forced to withdraw each in turn until she neared the ‘H-O’s.’ ‘Hobbs,’ ‘Hodd,’ ‘Hodge.’ She knew that she was getting close. Finally, she found ‘Hogg,’ and amazingly, it was where it was meant to be. There were two files. Thomas’s was there as she had hoped, along with a woman called Flora Hogg. Cathy removed both and instead of examining them there, carried them back to her room where the lighting was better.