Driving Dead

by Stephen G Collier

  ‘We’ll have to resort to old-fashioned police methods then,’ Randall smiled and rubbed the side of his nose.

  ‘How long till we know?’

  ‘Couple of weeks probably,’ Kirsty replied and looked away.

  ‘And?’

  ‘And nothing.’

  ‘I see. You’re obviously thinking about something.’

  ‘It’s none of your business really, but I was thinking that I had the same conversation with my husband a few days before he died, about the other remains.’

  Randall looked at his feet. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but do you have any further information about those other remains?’

  ‘Not really. We have minimal DNA for her, as I just said. Nothing on any database to give us any ideas. We’ve been looking at dental records, but it’s not a priority, so it’ll get done, when it gets done.’ Kirsty walked away from the slab and asked Anton, who had busied himself helping the other pathologist, to remove the remains.

  Kirsty walked towards the door, snapping off her gloves as she did so.

  Randall followed a few steps behind. They went into the atrium, where they both removed their gowns and threw them in the bin with others.

  ‘Anything else I can help you with, Inspector?’

  ‘No, I think that’s all. I just needed to confirm how she died, to understand what I’m looking for,’ he paused, ‘we could go for a coffee, if you like, if you want to? To discuss the case further.’

  ‘I don’t think so. I have a lot to do.’

  ‘Just thought I’d ask.’

  They pushed through the doors and walked on together along the corridor towards a lift and in the direction of Kirsty’s office in silence.

  They arrived at the lift and the doors opened.

  Randall held out his hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Doctor Kingsfield. I’m sure we’ll meet again.’

  Kirsty took his hand and shook it. ‘No doubt about it, doing what we both do, Inspector.’

  Randall nodded, said goodbye and headed into the lift.

  22

  The apartment that Jake had taken after his separation from Rosie, was on the outskirts of Northampton. Part of a new development. He’d taken the top floor. There was a large landscape window in the lounge that led out onto a balcony. The view from there was unrestricted and looked out over an almost never-ending vista of Northamptonshire countryside. It was a relaxing sight after a busy day at work.

  With a westward-facing view, he could sit on the recliner out on his balcony and watch the sun go down with a nice glass of whiskey, feeling the stresses of the day ebb away with the setting sun. Occasionally he would prefer not to be sitting alone.

  But that night, he stood in his bedroom. It’d been a long time since he’d dressed for an evening out socially with a woman. Rosie was, when all was said and done, his first love and, after everything they’d been through together, she’d thrown muck in his face. It still hurt him and probably would for years to come.

  He straightened his tie, then decided to take it off. It was a social evening not a job interview. He picked up a clothes-brush and lightly brushed the jacket, then took that off as well then gave himself a glance in the mirror before walking downstairs to his car.

  He climbed into it and drove away to his first date in years.

  As he pulled up outside Kirsty’s apartment, he couldn’t help but look up at the CCTV camera opposite that had caused so much trouble twelve months earlier. In those twelve months, the camera had been replaced by one that was encased in a grey ball and fixed to look along the road only, as opposed to being able to look into people’s apartments.

  He sat for a couple of moments, pondering what might come from that evening. Was he doing the right thing? He knew of course that he had an ulterior motive for going with Kirsty, but he could not help but think that this could be the start of something he would be unable to control.

  He had concluded a few months earlier that his attraction to Kirsty was more than just that. It had blossomed into a love that he had kept to himself and he had been unable to approach Kirsty, for fear of her pushing him away. But she had been particularly warm towards him just recently, more as a friend than as her FLO.

  He knew that he was an inherently shy person, who put on the persona of a macho copper when he had to. Now, he also felt that he might have a rival for her affections in the new D.I. Fletcher Randall. He had seen the way Randall looked at her right from the start. Known that he had visited the hospital on the pretext of looking further at the Fulborough Wood remains. Not once but at least three times, Anton had told Jake on his last visit for another case.

  That was not going to happen. The thought of her being with him that night in a social setting was a whole new ball game. He hadn’t been this nervous since he was a teenager.

  He smiled to himself and checked his hair in the car mirror, not that he had much to check. He thought about the advice his father gave him on his first date with a girl from school. Couldn’t even remember her name now, but the last thing his father had said to him, as he left the house, was “No tongues on a first date, Jakey boy.” Jake chuckled as he got out of the car.

  Walking up to the big oak doors of Kirsty’s apartment building, he rang the bell and was buzzed in without a word. When he arrived at Kirsty’s top floor apartment, the door was slightly ajar. Memories came flooding back. The last time he’d seen her door like that he had ended up in a scrap with Bingham Tyler in the apartment, after Tyler had taken Kirsty hostage before he ran off.

  Kirsty had never left the door open for him. She always answered it, never left it for him to enter on his own. He tapped lightly on the door and called out, ‘Kirsty!’

  ‘Come in, Jake. I’ll be with you in a moment,’ Kirsty shouted from within the apartment.

  He closed the door behind him. As he got into the sitting room, Kirsty came along the hallway from her bedroom. Jake just stood staring at her, stunned by the sheer beauty of the woman walking towards him. He saw her in a different light. After all, he’d seen her in her apartment before in all sorts of states of dress during her darker times. But this was different. She wore a slightly flared blue dress, which came just above the knee and a short bolero-type jacket, the whole ensemble accentuating her fine curves. She wore her red hair in ringlets and those green eyes just sparkled as she gave him a beaming smile.

  ‘What do you think, too much?’ she enquired, doing a little twirl. He simply nodded, grinning. She walked up to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. Oh God! He felt some stirring emotions he hadn’t felt in a long time. He wanted to scoop her up there and then, take her to the bedroom and…

  ‘Jake!’

  ‘Yes, that’s me.’

  Kirsty smiled. ‘You’re staring, I’ve never seen you like this before.’

  Jake shook his head as she took his arm. ‘Sorry,’ he said quietly. He’d fantasised about her before, but not so intense as that night. Perhaps it was the knowledge of not being on an official visit, and he knew that this was going to need a lot of soul-searching and emotional control.

  They took Kirsty’s car to see her old friend. After hers had been destroyed, she’d told him that she hadn’t the heart to sell Jim’s Audi TT. It still had the faint smell of his cigars, which he found was a pleasant reminder of him. In the beginning, Kirsty couldn’t drive it, because of the memories, but now she seemed to have come to terms with that part of her grief. Part of the healing process. It was good to see her drive it. Jake had offered to go in his, but Kirsty was quite adamant. ‘You drive me everywhere,’ she said as she got in the car. ‘It’s my turn to drive you tonight.’

  Jake agreed to drive back though, so she could have a drink with her friend. They drove west out of Northampton towards the village of Harpole. High on a hill, having driven through the village, they approached a large, detached house with a white, pebb
le-dashed frontage, standing in about an acre of land. It had a short, gravel drive, which opened out to a large parking area and double garage. A ‘C’ class Mercedes Sport stood on the drive, nose in.

  By the time they arrived, the light was beginning to fade. They’d travelled mostly in silence. Jake was trying to come to terms with the turmoil of emotions he was feeling as he watched Kirsty driving. Quite efficient. Part of him still wanted just to be her FLO, but a bigger part of him now understood that he wanted more. Wanted to be involved more in her life. Wanted to protect her, to make sure that nothing bad ever happened to her again. He wondered, what was to become of that night and the future.

  23

  They walked up to the front door and rang the bell. After a minute or so, Tanya Nicholls answered the door. She smiled broadly, a glass of wine in hand, welcoming them in with a double kiss on the cheeks for Kirsty and a fairly firm handshake for Jake.

  ‘Tanya, you’ve met Jake,’ said Kirsty.

  Tanya smiled. Jake returned the smile. ‘Yes, but all too briefly,’ Tanya replied.

  ‘Kirsty has told me so much about you.’

  Jake smiled. ‘All good, I hope?’

  ‘Oh yes, very much so. Come in and take a seat. You can see I’ve started before you?’ Tanya said, waggling her glass in front of them. ‘What can I get you?’

  ‘What’ve you got?’ Kirsty asked.

  ‘It’s a nice crisp Chardonnay.’

  ‘That’ll do.’

  Tanya nodded. ‘What about you, Jake?’

  ‘I’ll take something non-alcoholic, if you have it. I said I’d drive back, so you two could catch up. I understand from your younger days, that plenty of alcohol was involved, so you’ve a lot of catching up to do.’ He chuckled.

  Tanya brought the drinks over to them and invited them to sit in the traditionally furnished lounge. It had a large dresser covering the end wall with a door to the left and a dining table set for four places.

  ‘Expecting someone else?’ Kirsty asked.

  ‘Hopefully my daughter. Technically she’s not my child – she’s adopted.’

  ‘Oh,’ Kirsty said, ‘when did that happen?’

  ‘It’s a long story, but to cut it short, she lost her parents when she was quite young and when she came into the hospital where I worked, we just hit it off. So, I thought, why not? We both wanted it. The problem I have is her bloody boyfriend. He’s a bit of a thug – intelligent, but, nonetheless, a thug. I hope she can sort him out.’

  Tanya took a seat opposite them. Jake looked at her. There was something about her that was familiar. Different hair. Perhaps it was the charming and relaxed way in which she was talking. He put those thoughts aside and was conscious of the fact that he’d taken the sofa with Kirsty and noticed how close she was sitting next to him.

  ‘How could you both be at university together – training as doctors?’ Jake asked.

  She smiled. ‘I started late. There’s what, nine years between us?’ she asked Kirsty.

  ‘Yes, something like that. But it didn’t seem that way when we were together at university, did it? The stuff we used to get up to! I think you were more of a rebel than I was.’

  ‘I can’t believe that,’ she said chuckling.

  ‘What does your daughter do?’ Kirsty asked.

  ‘She works with me. I’m also her boss.’ Tanya gave a little laugh. ‘Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, as you can imagine.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Jake said. Something in what she said about her peeked his interest.

  ‘What does she do, working for you?’

  ‘She’s doing a final year PhD thesis in microbiology, hence the moods. Actually, she’s had a blazing row with the thug this evening, so whether she comes down to join us, I don’t know. I think she’ll just split up with him.’

  ‘And what about him?’ Kirsty asked.

  ‘He’s got his own business. I don’t know what he does. He comes and goes as he pleases.’

  ‘He doesn’t live here then?’

  ‘Hell, no,’ she said.

  They engaged in idle gossip about their lives then and now. Jake found it interesting to watch the interaction between Kirsty and Tanya, laughing together at private little jokes, talking about the other male students in their cohort, wondering what happened to them. And Jake was happy to let them talk, until there was a knock on the door.

  ‘Ah,’ Tanya said, ‘dinner. I’ve ordered in. I hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘Having eaten your cooking, Tan, I don’t mind at all,’ quipped Kirsty.

  ‘Cheeky! I’ve got better over the years, you know. Just had a busy day at work. I can still burn a boiled egg though.’ She laughed as she walked towards the front door to answer it.

  As they got up from the sofa to help Tanya with laying out the Chinese meal on the table, Kirsty brushed against Jake and took his hand gently. The smell of her perfume, her touch, her sensuality, took his breath away. He could not equate how overwhelming these feelings were having on him. After all this time, why was it happening? He didn’t know whether he was going to cope with the rest of the night. He hadn’t realised that she had made such a physical impact on him. He was going to have to say something to her. What and how was another matter.

  They sat down at the table and Tanya called upstairs. A few minutes later, they could hear Tanya’s daughter coming down the stairs. She went directly into the kitchen and said nothing to anyone in the room. To Jake, she was just a blur. In and out very swiftly, practiced almost.

  Tanya shrugged it off. ‘She has some issues,’ was all Tanya volunteered to them for her attitude. She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived and went back upstairs. The bedroom door slammed shut, quickly followed by the heavy beat of drums and some alternative rock music.’

  ‘Dr Tanya Nicholls, what else have you been up to all these years we’ve not been in touch?’ Kirsty picked up the conversation where they’d left off, before the Chinese had arrived.

  ‘It’s been quite exciting really. I’ve been doing some DNA research. I can’t go into details, but it was all about getting drugs to work for us in a better way. I really enjoy it.’

  ‘What type of substances are you researching?’ asked Jake.

  ‘I’m looking to combat Parkinson’s disease.’

  ‘Getting anywhere with it?’ asked Kirsty.

  ‘It’s a long and difficult process. It’s all about getting the drug to work on certain parts of the brain to stop the neurones firing, that, for example, cause the tremors.’

  ‘Is that even possible?’ Kirsty asked.

  ‘Theoretically, yes. There are lots of other drug research projects that are trying to tap into effecting certain brain functions, but, as I said, it’s a long and difficult process. Generally it takes years.’ Tanya offered the bottle to Kirsty to fill her glass.

  ‘Do you work with anyone else?’ asked Jake.

  Tanya looked at him. ‘As I said, I work with my daughter and a team of others at a research facility, not too far from here.’

  ‘You enjoy it then, working with your daughter?’ He gave a little smirk.

  ‘Having just seen her performance this evening, I know what you’re thinking, but when she’s at work, she’s a totally different person. I don’t know what’s got into her lately. She seems to have, well… ’ Tanya’s voice trailed away.

  Kirsty piped up. ‘But you’re doing some good work though, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, yes, I am, something for the good of society.’

  ‘Have you worked in this area since qualifying?’ asked Jake.

  ‘Yes, Kirsty will be the first to tell you that even during uni, I didn’t have the best bedside manner,’ she gave a little laugh, ‘but I’d always been interested in the molecular structure of the body, particularly the brain.’

  ‘Sounds fascinatin
g.’

  ‘It is,’ Kirsty and Tanya said together.

  ‘But Kirsty tells me you have a problem, that I may be able to help with Jake?’

  Jake put his knife and fork down and looked at Tanya, then Kirsty. Kirsty gave a little nod, as if giving him permission to tell Tanya about an open case, which in some ways he was reluctant to do. But she was Kirsty’s friend, so he was sure it would be OK.

  ‘I can’t give you details of the case, but we have a situation with some tox samples from some fatal road collisions.’

  Tanya’s face darkened. ‘Oh,’ she said in a lower tone, ‘and what’s the problem?’

  ‘We’ve had a series of recent road deaths that have returned a suspicious substance in the bodies and no one we’ve shown them to seems to know what this substance may be. And we need to identify it.’

  ‘Do you think that this unknown substance caused these deaths?’

  ‘That’s what I believe, yes. And before you ask, it’s the same substance in every victim.’

  ‘We’ve had the samples checked and double checked and it’s the same,’ Kirsty said.

  ‘Have you gone back to the cadavers and checked for elimination over time?’

  ‘Yes, no change, because the body’s metabolic systems have stopped, therefore anything that’s in the blood, stays in the blood. You know that,’ Kirsty said.

  ‘I do, yes, but there have been some drugs recently that continue to metabolise after the body has died.’

  ‘Right. Would that be similar to the body producing alcohol in the blood stream after death, which we have discovered recently?’ Jake asked.

  ‘In a similar way, yes. We know that in those cases the microbial action post-mortem could seemingly produce ethanol, because of the blood-glucose increase after death. It’s all about hydrolysis of glycogen stores, body temperature, whether there was alcohol in the stomach, and the like.’