The Kate Fletcher Series

by Heleyne Hammersley

  Tsappis smiled. ‘I’m sure that the relevant paperwork will have been forwarded to the coroner as soon as it was requested. If not, Rosemary can–’

  ‘No.’ Kate interrupted. ‘We have the notes but we don’t have any of the original scans or images or whatever you call them, only descriptions of the findings.’

  ‘And what would you like from me?’ he asked with a smile.

  ‘I’d really like those images. Or, if not, I’d like you to text your colleague and ask him to ring me at his earliest convenience.’

  ‘I’m not authorised to release the case notes of somebody else’s patient without the consent of the relevant consultant,’ Tsappis said with a shake of his head. ‘I can have a look at the case myself and share my thoughts with you but that will probably only support the notes that you’ve got. As for texting my colleague, that would be highly irregular.’

  ‘But you could do it?’

  He stared at her as though considering her worthiness for such an honour.

  ‘I could. But I’d like something in return?’

  Kate’s heartbeat picked up. Was he trying to bribe her? Did he have some sort of criminal past that he needed her to wipe from the records? Or was it just a parking ticket?’

  ‘What?’

  Another flash of that smile.

  ‘I’d like your phone number.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ Kate said with relief. ‘Obviously Read will need to be able to get in touch with me, I’ll give you my card.’

  She dug in her pocket for a second before she realised what Tsappis really wanted. She wasn’t used to being asked out, especially when she was on a case, and his direct approach had thrown her. She felt herself beginning to blush.

  ‘That’s not what I mean,’ Tsappis said. ‘I’m sure you’re busy but I’d like to take you to dinner when you’re next free. Quid pro quo.’

  Kate had a sudden vision of Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter leering at Jodie Foster through the glass of his prison cell as he asked her to share her most intimate secrets.

  ‘I er… I suppose so,’ Kate said, handing over her business card, thrown by his request. It was unusual but hardly unethical – this man had nothing to do with any of her cases; he wasn’t a witness or a suspect and he was very good looking. Tsappis opened a drawer on the other side of his desk and passed his own card back to her.

  ‘I would have texted Read anyway,’ he said with a sheepish grin that was worlds removed from his earlier confident smile. ‘I just thought I’d take a chance on you being single. Feel free to change your mind if you think I’ve bullied you into it. I don’t normally ask out women that I’ve just met but I couldn’t help myself.’

  If it hadn’t been for the grin it would have been corny, but Kate could see that he felt a bit embarrassed by his own bravado. She surprised herself by accepting his card and his invitation.

  ‘I’ll let you know when things quieten down for me,’ she said. ‘But it could be a long wait.’

  The team office was fairly quiet when Kate got back to Doncaster Central. Cooper was hunched over her keyboard, Hollis was talking to somebody on the phone and there was no sign of Barratt or O’Connor.

  ‘Been having fun?’ Hollis asked, hanging up the phone.

  ‘Great,’ Kate responded. ‘I love the smell of formaldehyde in the morning.’

  ‘Nothing helpful with our mystery woman?’

  She gave him a brief account of Kailisa’s findings including his speculation about the house brick. Hollis tapped the top of his desk with a pen while he listened, his frustration obvious.

  ‘I really thought we might be able to ID her. Thought she might have an unusual tattoo or something helpful like that. I hate this. Somebody, somewhere must be missing her especially if she’s got a kid out there. She’s been missing from home for two nights and nobody’s come forward.’

  Kate understood his frustration even though hers was tinged with a creeping feeling of unease. The missing woman could be somebody like her. Somebody who lived alone, had minimal contact with family, and had little going on in her life besides work. Was that why she’d accepted Tsappis’s invitation? It was unsettling to realise that, if she went missing, there would be nobody to make the initial report, nobody to be told to wait twenty-four hours, nobody to pace up and down with worry and fear.

  ‘Have you checked that no missing person reports have come in overnight?’

  ‘I keep checking,’ Hollis said. ‘That’s who I was just on the phone to. Nothing.’

  ‘Cooper, anything?’ Kate called over to her colleague.

  A shake of Sam’s head. ‘I’ve got all the CCTV I can find from the area. So far I haven’t found anybody who looks like her. Not that surprising though. Cameras are few and far between down there. There’s one above the access gate to the marina, one on the road that runs parallel with the towpath and another at the major junction further down. Can’t find her on any of them. That’s assuming she was on foot. If she was driving it’s hopeless because we have no idea what car we might be looking for.’

  ‘You don’t know her?’ Kate asked. ‘She doesn’t live at the marina?’

  Cooper shook her head. ‘I had a look at some of the pictures from the scene. I’m fairly certain that I haven’t seen her before.’

  ‘Could you show some of your neighbours one of the least disturbing pictures? Ask around, see if anybody knows her?’ Hollis suggested.

  Cooper flushed and shifted in her seat. ‘I… er…’

  Kate leapt in, sensing the DC’s unease. ‘It might be best if you or Barratt does that,’ she suggested to Hollis. ‘These are people who Sam knows, it might not be appropriate.’

  Cooper flashed her a grateful smile and went back to her keyboard. Kate didn’t know much about Cooper’s life outside the job but that fact itself was very revealing. She knew quite a bit about the others, even Raymond spoke about his wife and kids from time to time and his crippling mortgage on the new house, but Cooper never revealed anything about her personal life unless asked a direct question. It wasn’t that she was secretive; she just never talked about herself in the way that the others did.

  ‘What about Dennis Lambert?’ Hollis asked. ‘Anything weird in the PM?’

  ‘Not really. He had cancer, he was dying. The bloods should be back tomorrow. Kailisa suggested that his cancer wasn’t advanced enough to keep him bedbound and the notes were missing some scans, so I’ve asked one of the oncologists to get Lambert’s consultant to contact me. No signs that he was suffocated or strangled. Nothing really to contradict his daughter’s story that he killed himself with an overdose. I don’t see any way to move forward on that until the rest of the results come in.’

  ‘There is one thing,’ Hollis said. ‘Lambert was in hospital for a while before Caroline took him home. Is it worth asking on the ward? Get some impressions of their relationship, that kind of thing? At the moment, Caroline Lambert’s story seems to stack up but she might have let something slip or not been entirely honest about her relationship with her father. Brenda Powley thinks that there’s something not right.’

  It was a good idea, and the hospital wasn’t too far from the Ings Marina.

  Chapter 11

  The five-minute drive from Doncaster Central to the town’s Royal Infirmary took nearly half an hour because the rain that had been threatened for the last few days had finally materialised, as snow. The traffic had slowed to a crawl and the heater in the pool car seemed to have given up even trying to demist the windscreen.

  ‘Are we there yet?’ Hollis asked, in his best petulant toddler voice.

  Kate took another swipe at the windscreen with a duster and extended her reach to include Hollis. ‘Shut up or you won’t get an ice cream,’ she said over his pretend outrage, as she finally turned into the visitors’ car park. ‘Thank God for that. I thought we’d never get here.’

  The car park hadn’t been gritted and the trek to reception had them both tiptoeing across the icier str
etches like new-born foals. At one point, Kate had to cling on to Hollis for support. He gave her a knowing grin as she grabbed his arm.

  ‘See. Every woman needs a big strong man at some point. Even you.’

  Kate was about to retaliate when she lost her grip as he slipped on a pile of slush and nearly lost his balance. ‘Looks like you could do with one as well,’ she joked, hitting a clear patch and picking up pace as the doors to the main reception were finally within sight.

  There was another delay as the young man on reception had to get his supervisor to ensure that he was able to give out the relevant information, then a seemingly endless walk, escorted by another member of staff, to the ward where Dennis Lambert had been treated.

  ‘Finally,’ Kate breathed as their escort pushed open one half of the double door barring her entry and gestured for them to go inside. A nurses’ station stood a few feet beyond the door and beyond that, Kate could see doors which presumably led off to the patients.

  ‘Can I help you?’ a voice asked. ‘Visiting time’s over until half past seven.’ A woman in uniform poked her head above the counter which ran in a semi-circle around the nurses’ station. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until then.’

  Kate quickly flashed her ID. ‘We’re not here to see a patient; we’d like to ask a few questions about somebody who was here in November.’

  ‘That’s a long time ago,’ the woman said with a regretful smile.

  ‘It’s only six weeks,’ Hollis said.

  ‘Can you imagine how many people come through these doors in six weeks? The turnover of beds is high in this ward. Most patients are assessed here and then moved on to specialist services.’ She brushed a stray strand of mousy brown hair from her face. Her tight bun was coming unravelled and was threatening to collapse if she didn’t give it some serious maintenance.

  ‘Please,’ Kate said trying not to sound too desperate. ‘Five minutes.’

  The woman sighed and scowled up at Kate, her pale grey eyes narrowing with frustration. ‘Look, we’re short-staffed. If you can talk to me here while I finish this report, you can have your five minutes.’

  It wasn’t ideal but Kate could see that it was the best she was going to get. ‘Okay.’ She leaned over the counter top. ‘Dennis Lambert. Admitted on November twenty-first last year with stage four liver cancer.’

  The nurse was tapping on the keyboard. ‘What about him?’

  ‘Do you remember him? Anything about his case?’

  ‘I do, actually. He was admitted while I was on shift. I remember because he’d been here two days before anybody came to visit him. I thought it was a bit sad that he had nobody. Then an elderly woman turned up and a family member came as well.’

  It fit with what Kate already knew. The elderly woman must have been Brenda Powley.

  ‘Were you involved in Mr Lambert’s care?’ Hollis asked.

  The woman stopped typing and looked up at him, a faint smile playing on her lips. ‘I’m involved in everybody’s care here. We all are. It’s not like we can pick and choose. And nor can the patients.’

  She wasn’t being difficult, Kate could see that she was willing to help, but it was probably impossible for her to have spent much time with Dennis; he’d have been one among many.

  ‘How long was he here?’ Hollis asked.

  ‘If you give me a second, I’ll find out.’ She continued whatever she was doing on the computer then a few more mouse clicks. ‘He was admitted on November twenty-first and discharged on the twenty-ninth. Eight days.’

  ‘And his contact details? Is the daughter listed as his primary contact?’

  Her eyes flicked down to the screen and back up again. ‘Yes. Caroline Lambert. An address in Sheffield.’

  This wasn’t getting them very far. Kate had had visions of a stern matron who remembered everybody and who made snap and accurate judgements about her patients and their visitors. She knew that modern hospitals weren’t at all like the Carry On films that she’d watched as a child but a part of her wished that it was that straightforward instead of a faceless bureaucracy where everybody was overstretched and overworked.

  ‘Is there somebody who would have had oversight of Dennis Lambert’s care?’ she asked, expecting to be directed to his consultant, the absent Mr Read.

  ‘Of course,’ the nurse replied, looking slightly offended. ‘There is a protocol in place for each patient depending on their needs.’

  She looked back at the computer screen. ‘I’m afraid that the nurse in charge of Dennis Lambert’s care isn’t on duty at the moment. She’s not been in today. I don’t know if she’s off sick or if she had holiday booked. I can probably find out.’

  Another dead end.

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Kate said, slipping her card across the counter. ‘Have her call me when she gets back, if you don’t mind. And thanks for your time.’

  Chapter 12

  Dusk was settling along the canal as Kate and Hollis approached the marina. The water was turning into a black ribbon stretched between slush-sodden banks, and the air was still and icy. The marina was protected by high wire fencing and a large double gate was barring their entry; tall metal posts with folded-back spikes like lethal petals on top.

  ‘Looks like they take security seriously,’ Hollis said, clicking his seatbelt loose and opening the car door. He strode over to a keypad mounted on a wooden post just in front of the fence, next to the gate, obviously intended to allow access only to those in the know.

  Kate watched as he frowned in the dim light then pressed a button. Even inside the car with the windows closed, she heard a buzzing sound as he was connected via intercom with somebody inside the marina.

  ‘Yes?’ a voice said, the tone unfriendly.

  ‘Police,’ Hollis responded. ‘Routine enquiries. Can you open the gate?’

  ‘Wait there.’ A loud click as the other person rang off.

  Less than a minute later, a figure appeared from the shadows surrounding what appeared to be a clubhouse. A man. Short, middle-aged, and swathed in a scarf and a down jacket which looked to be at least a size too big for him. The scarf covered the lower portion of his face and a black woollen hat was pulled down low across his eyebrows.

  ‘I’ll need ID!’ he shouted as he approached.

  Hollis took out his warrant card and held it out in front of him looking like he might be trying to ward off evil spirits.

  The little man scrutinised it and then nodded towards the car. ‘Hers as well.’

  Kate heard Hollis’s sigh as he stomped back to the car.

  ‘He needs your ID.’

  ‘I heard,’ Kate said. ‘Here.’ She passed over her warrant card with no intention of leaving the warmth of the car until she absolutely had to. Hollis trudged back to the gate and held up Kate’s ID which was met with another intense look.

  ‘All right. When I open up, drive through. Park over there.’

  He pointed towards the clubhouse.

  Hollis returned, passed Kate her ID back and rubbed his hands in front of the heater to try to get warm.

  ‘I take it you heard all that?’

  Kate confirmed that she had and they waited for the gates to swing open. Following the man’s instructions, she pulled up in an empty parking space beneath one of the darkened windows of the long low building which dominated much of the compound. Through the car window, she could see an open expanse of canal, bordered by gravel and concrete with black metal bollards at regular intervals, waiting for boats to tie up. It wasn’t immediately obvious that there were permanent moorings there, though. Perhaps that was another security feature.

  The man had pulled the scarf down from the bottom half of his face to reveal a scruffy grey beard and oddly feminine pink lips.

  ‘Hugh Newstead.’ A hand was thrust out to Kate before she’d even managed to get out of the car and stand up properly. He’d obviously had a good look at their IDs and realised that Kate was the superior officer. ‘I do security and run the
clubhouse.’

  ‘DI Kate Fletcher,’ Kate said, trying to shake his hand and ease him back away from the car.

  ‘What can I do for you? Your young man didn’t say.’

  Hollis coughed from the other side of the car and Kate knew, from the sound, that he was covering a laugh. Young man.

  ‘We’re investigating an unidentified body that was found in the canal yesterday. It’s possible that the woman may have been living at the marina.’

  Newstead stared at her for a second as though considering whether to enlighten her and then shook his head.

  ‘There’s not many stay this time of year. Most of the boats are just kept here over the winter. One or two stay on, mind, have residential permits and pay their council tax. We’re licensed for that, it’s all above board. But I’d have known if it was somebody living on the water. I know every one of our residents and all our regulars.’ He stood up a bit straighter and Kate could see that he was proud of his position.

  ‘She might have been a visitor? Maybe she had friends here?’

  Another shake of the head.

  ‘Doubt it. I see most people who come and go. There’s not many up and down the cut this time of year. Have you got a picture?’

  Hollis dug out his mobile phone and found the image that Kailisa had sent. The woman was clearly dead due to the paleness of her skin and the blue tinge to her lips but there was no sign of the injury to her head. Newstead studied it for a few seconds.

  ‘Nope. Never seen her before.’ He looked almost disappointed. Perhaps he’d been hoping that he could solve their case with one glance.

  ‘Is there anybody else here that we could ask? People on the boats?’

  ‘There’s not many here, like I said. There’s a young lad on Midnight. I think it’s his dad’s boat. He’s been here a few days. Reckons to be writing a book. There’s Sam and Abbie on Emily Jane and I think Frank might have been down at the weekend but he’s not here now. He might be back in a couple of weeks – I could get him to ring you.’