Kirsty laughed ‘Girlie night out? I think we’re both a bit too long in the tooth for a girlie night out!’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Tanya grinned. She paused. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Dinner then?’
‘Yeah, that’s more my kind of thing.’
They both stood and exchanged telephone numbers. ‘I’ll give you a ring,’ Tanya said as they exchanged goodbyes and, with that, she breezed out of the restaurant.
As Jake heaved Kirsty’s laptop bag onto his shoulder, getting ready to leave, she was met by the university’s Dean of the School of Health.
‘Kirsty, I hoped I’d catch up with you before you left.’ Robert Trevellian was a man of average height in his mid-fifties with receding, greying hair. ‘I happened to be passing and saw you in here.’ He nodded an acknowledgement to Jake.
‘How can I help, Robert?’
‘Well,’ he said, lowering his voice a little, ‘you may be interested to know that the Senate has approved a new full-time post and, along with taking the hospital on as the new faculty of Human Biology, predicated on the success of the courses you have been running, your name keeps popping up to take it on…’
‘What do you mean “Take it on”?’
‘Why, as Dean, of course.’
Kirsty stood silent and a little shocked. She was not, after all, an academic. She was, when it came down to it, just a mortuary technician with a bit of extra knowledge thrown in.
‘What do you think, Kirsty?’
She thought for a moment. ‘I didn’t think I would enjoy teaching, but it’s quite fun and the students are so enthusiastic. I don’t think that any of them have missed a session yet. Mind you, they’ve not seen a real post mortem – that’s coming next week.’
Jake watched Trevellian physically cringe. The prospect of a human cadaver being cut up, dissected and pawed over by the students was one that Jake knows all too well. Looking at Trevellian it was clear from his face that it was not something that he would enjoy.
‘You don’t approve?’ Kirsty asked, also noting the look on the Dean’s face.
‘No, not at all. I just don’t want to see it myself, prefer to remain in the land of the living.’
‘It’s certainly not for everyone. We’re bound to get a few drop-out, literally,’ she demonstrated a faint with her arm, ‘when we start on the real stuff.’
Trevellian cringed again. ‘What do you think?’
‘I’ll give it some thought. I’d still need to do real autopsies, though, to keep my licence.’
‘Yes, we realise that. Don’t worry. It just means that you’ll have two jobs.’
‘OK, I’ll think about it.’
‘Don’t think about it too long – Professor.’ Trevellian smiled at his use of the title and Kirsty returned the smile.
‘Professor – that’s twice today you’ve been called that,’ Jake remarked as they walked out of the refectory. ‘Mmm, Professor Kingsfield – very sexy.’
Kirsty looked at Jake, smiled and she slapped him playfully on the arm.
17
Mary & Kyle –
Two Weeks Later
Sunday night was a night that Mary wanted to remember, but, for some reason, it was a blank to her. It wasn’t very often that the schools’ teachers managed to get out of an evening, but it was near the end of term, so they decided to go out and celebrate.
‘How were things last night, Mary?’ Angela asked, as they travelled along the A45 towards the motorway.
‘Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It was good to get out for a bit.’ Although she was unsure as to whether she did enjoy it.
‘We were all pretty drunk by the end of the night, as I recall. If I remember, we were having such a good time, that some other women gate-crashed the party as well. Nobody we knew, but they joined in.’ Angela laughed.
‘I’m surprised that we’ve managed to get everyone here on time this morning. Some of the other teachers looked a bit the worse for wear, I have to say,’ Mary added.
‘Good job too. How do you think we’ll get on today?’
‘MK gym team are pretty good, so we’ll have to see. I have every confidence in our boys and girls.’
Mary yawned and closed her eyes for a micro-second.
‘You falling asleep?’
‘No, just tired after last night. I don’t think I should have had so much to drink.’
‘But you said you weren’t going to drink.’
Mary laughed. ‘That didn’t happen did it?’
They had left the school right on time. Amazingly, everyone had turned up early and enthusiastic about the gymnastic tournament they were going to in Milton Keynes. Even her son, Kyle, had managed to get himself out of bed and was ready to leave the house with her. She thought that the only reason he wanted to be with her today was because of a girl that he had taken a shine to in the year above. Mary smiled. Raging teen hormones.
‘What’s the joke, Mum?’ he asked, as he leaned forward, with one earbud in his ear and the other swaying about in mid-air.
‘Oh, nothing – nothing for you to worry about anyway.’
He leaned forward further. ‘Can we stop in a minute?’
‘Why? We need to get to the venue early.’
‘I need to go… ’
‘Goodness, Kyle. How many times is that this morning?’
‘I don’t know – nerves, I suppose.’
‘But you’re not even competing today!’
‘Still nervous for my friends,’ he said, smiling.
‘Or just one friend in particular?’
He grinned. ‘Maybe.’
Mary drove the minibus onto the southbound carriageway at junction sixteen. The motorway was already busy with three lanes of heavy traffic. She had only driven a little way when she felt more and more tired. ‘I can’t understand what’s up with me,’ she said to Angela.
‘You’re still a bit sleepy. It’ll wear off. Don’t worry.’
‘I’m just finding it hard to keep my eyes open.’
Mary passed the Northampton services, down an incline, which then rises towards junction fifteen. Traffic was very busy and beginning to slow down, with cars and lorries putting on their hazard lights to warn others behind about slowing traffic.
But to Mary, these lights only confused her. She saw everything out of focus. ‘Oh, shit,’ was all Mary could exclaim, as her foot hit the accelerator. She was conscious enough to try to stop the minibus hitting the lorry in front of her and managed to wrench the steering wheel over to the right.
Her eyes closed for the final time and there was nothing she could do as she felt her whole body go into a spasm.
Crossing all three lanes, the minibus collided with the central reservation, bounced into the path of another van which pushed the minibus back towards the first lane, where an articulated lorry slammed into the minibus, turning it over, throwing the passengers about, like a washing machine.
The motorway came to a grinding halt and silence befell what was normally the deafening sounds of passing vehicles.
18
The lecture theatre at force headquarters was a large room with tiered seating that resembled the auditorium Jake had attended with Kirsty – only without the paintings and the oak panelling. It was regularly used for briefings, which required multi-agency attendance.
When Jake arrived in the late afternoon, it appeared to have been recently emptied. He’d insisted that all the units attending the motorway smash should be there for a post-incident de-brief. They arrived sporadically and sat talking softly among themselves until Jake brought the meeting to order. He thanked everyone for their attendance and work at the scene and gave a brief explanation as to how they believed the collision had occurred. He went on.
‘According to the preliminary findings of the collision investigator, t
he collision scenario commenced when the school mini-bus went out of control, crossed the carriageway from the near-side lane, and collided with the central barrier. The minibus rebounded and collided with a van, overturned and was hit by an artic. Several other vehicles then collided in the ensuing tailback of traffic. A white van took out a passenger who had got out of another car, and was standing in the lane. Reports from witnesses said the driver was looking down at his phone.
‘There were some minor collisions, which we could deal with individually, but we’re going to treat it as all one incident. PC Prentice will be the Officer-In-Case. Be gentle with him. It’s his first multiple.’
A chuckle went around the room.
‘First fatal and now my first multiple – all within a month,’ Jake heard Prentice remark to Johnson.
‘OK, on a more serious note, the FCI in this case will be Andy Thomas. Unfortunately, the lady driver who died in the collision, we believe, was dead prior to the accident.’
A hand raised. Jake acknowledged it.
‘Heart attack?’
‘It’s possible, but we won’t know till the PM.’
‘Fortunately, most of the school-children were wearing their seat belts and only sustained minor injuries, apart from one, who is in a critical condition with a traumatic stomach injury.’
A paramedic caught Jake’s attention, who indicated for him to proceed.
The paramedic stood and described the injuries using his hands. ‘He’d caught his foot under the framework of one of the seats in front of him and, as the vehicle overturned, it virtually ripped off his foot. We could see tendons and bone exposed, when we finally removed him. The seat frame had contorted and come away from the floor. One of the metal legs was twisted upwards and had entered his abdomen. It pierced some vital organs and we were unable to remove the metal leg in-situ.’
The paramedic looked at the air ambulance doctor, who nodded and agreed.
‘It was a life threatening injury so it was far too dangerous to do that. If we had we may well have killed the patient there and then,’ the doctor confirmed.
The paramedic continued. ‘The fire service cut away what they could, then we had to remove him to the emergency department with the pole still in place. He’s undergoing emergency surgery now, but the prognosis is not good.’
‘What are his chances, do you think?’ Jake asked.
The air ambulance doctor replied, ‘honestly?’ he thought for a moment, ‘I’d say 70/30, against.’
‘Not good then.’ Jake nodded to Prentice. ‘We need to prepare for that eventuality, Chris.’
Prentice nodded and made a note in his file. ‘There was a kid I saw at the scene sitting on the barrier and texting. What happened to him?’
Jake replied. ‘We’ve spoken to him. He was unhurt, but he did put a video up on YouTube.’
The look on Prentice’s face said as much.
‘He tweeted it to his mates, before he even contacted his parents. Although he’s been advised. He’s known for it around the school. Bit of a voyeur, by all accounts.’
Know all about them, Jake thought privately.
Andy Thomas raised his hand and spoke. ‘I don’t know whether you’ve noticed already, but the description of the deceased is the same as those we were discussing last week, Sarge.’
‘It hasn’t gone unnoticed, Andy. It certainly crossed my mind when I saw her. We’ll know more after the PM. I want you with me on that, Andy.’
‘Roger that,’ replied Thomas.
Jake continued to debrief the crews for the next thirty minutes. As the meeting dispersed, Jake called Thomas and Prentice over to him.
‘Andy, can you explain to Chris the issue with these other fatals?’
Andy nodded. ‘A few weeks ago, we picked up a pattern of road deaths. By sheer chance, nothing that we went looking for. But we noticed that these road deaths were similar from a post mortem point-of-view and the fact that all the deceased looked the same.’
‘How do you mean?’ Prentice asked.
‘They had the same features – dark brown hair in a bob, blue eyes, between twenty and thirty.’
‘Surely that’s just a coincidence?’ questioned Prentice.
‘As we thought as well,’ interjected Jake. ‘But the post mortems all show this unknown substance in the blood, and I bet the toxicology for this collision will be the same.’
‘OK, so what are we going to do about it?’
Jake responded. ‘If we’re sure that this unknown substance is present and if any of the students die as a result of this collision, then we are going to have to hand it on to Major Crimes. I’m not happy to say that we have a multiple murderer out there killing drivers with a new drug just yet, but we haven’t got the resources to manage such an investigation.’
‘We’ve put a rush on the tox,’ Andy commented.
‘So, in the meantime, I want you two to work together to investigate the collision as normal, but keep an open mind about the cause.’
They nodded their understanding and Jake dismissed them.
19
The body of a black male lay on the slab in the post mortem room of the pathology department. Jake noted that the damage to him was apparent, even before any post mortem was started. Both knees were obviously fractured and on the thigh of his right leg was a deep and large red slash, exposing the thigh bone. But as Kirsty had pointed out, hiss head was not exactly attached to his body anymore, only by muscle and sinew. Industrial accident.
Jake watched her finish sewing up the ‘Y’ incision. He knew that it would normally have been done by her assistant, Anton, but he’d had the afternoon off. It had always impressed Jake the way Kirsty could put aside all that had gone before in her life to do what she had just done. Even though he knew that deep down it continued to cause her some distress. He looked around as she was finishing up. He knew not to interrupt unless it was necessary.
The new PM room was light, with large panoramic windows, on the first floor of the pathology department overlooking Northampton Marina. White walls reflected the sun, which made the whole room quite pleasant, if it weren’t for that sweet sickly smell that pervaded your every pore during and after each post-mortem.
Jake stood against the back wall of the room watching. She finished her sewing, stroked the man’s hair lightly and removed her gloves as she moved towards the door. Jake followed.
‘How much of an old friend is Tanya?’ asked Jake as they left the mortuary.
‘We were at university together. Trained as doctors. She was even my roommate for a little while.’
‘Is she a pathologist too?’
‘No, she went into toxicology and microbiology.’
‘Ah – if she works locally, I may have a little job for her.’
Kirsty glanced towards Jake, as they walked along the hospital street.
Jake saw her looking. ‘What?’ he said grinning.
‘Jake, you never ever have little jobs for any of us.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ he teased.
‘I seem to recall that all these extra little jobs you get us, or should I say me, to do as a favour, turn out to be… not so little, shall we say,’ she teased back.
Jake said nothing, only smiled at her. They walked on in silence for a moment.
‘What is it then, this little job?’ Kirsty said after a few more steps.
‘Well,’ he said, as he held open the door to the hospital restaurant, to let her go first, ‘we’ve had a spate of fatal collisions, that all show some unknown toxicology, but there are no other related features which tie them together.’
‘OK, but explain what you mean by “unknown toxicology”?’
They collected a coffee each from the coffee machine, paid for it and sat down at a table by the window.
Jake outlined the situa
tion brought to him by Andy Thomas. He explained that it was found by his senior collision investigator and that he thought that it was peculiar, particularly when it was found that the deceased all had similar features.
‘What types of features?’
‘All the deceased were brown-haired, collar-length, almost identical.’
‘So, what are you suggesting? That someone’s killing off their identical twins?’
‘You suggested it, not me.’
‘Those unknown substances could all be different, you appreciate that?’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘There could be substances that we don’t know about that are perfectly legitimate.’
‘That’s fairly slim in this day and age, surely?’
‘Yes, but you never know in medicine or human biology for that matter. New drugs are synthesised almost every day.’
‘Yes, I understand, which is why I’ve got my collision investigator to go back and have them all checked again, to see if they are all the same.’
‘And are they?’
‘Don’t know. Still waiting for the result.’
They sat in silence for a moment, deep in thought.
Kirsty looked out of the window of the restaurant and across the hospital estate. The view wasn’t perfect and, amongst the other hospital buildings, there was barely any green.
Eventually she said, ‘Would you like me to ask Tanya to take a look for you, as well?’
‘Only if it doesn’t cost me any money.’ Jake smiled. ‘We’re strapped for cash as it is.’
‘All I can do is ask, or… we’re going to arrange dinner. Do you want to come as well? You can ask her yourself then.’
‘Do you think she’d mind? I’m sure you have a lot to catch up with if you haven’t seen her for a long time?’
‘No, I’m sure it will be OK. I’ll ask her first, of course. Don’t want just to turn up on the doorstep with you.’
‘Why? Do I embarrass you?’ he smiled again, something he always seemed to be doing when he was with her.
Driving Dead Page 8