The Visitor (#3 - The Craig Modern Thriller Series)

by Catriona King

“What should I be looking for on these, sir?”

  “Well now, let’s see...that’d be anyone who looks like a murderer.”

  Martin blushed, throwing his freckles into bright relief. Liam patted him on the arm, relenting.

  “Just go through them and mark anything you think we should have a second look at. But mind and get those copies of the floor plans before you come back for the briefing. I want to get them enlarged.”

  Joe’s team had finished their last interview, and when Liam entered their allocated office, he was on the landline, nodding. “That’s great. See if Meg can copy the files for me, the D.C.I. will want them. OK, OK, that’s grand. I’ll see you then.”

  “Was that Karl?”

  “Aye, he’s got some stuff for us on Tommy. He’s in court again today, but he’ll be at the briefing tomorrow.”

  “Grand. Look, it’s twelve o’clock now, Joe, so why don’t you go and get some lunch. Can you nip back afterwards and check on Martin? I’m interviewing Frosty the snow-woman after lunch, so we’ll meet you back at the ranch at three-thirty.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  Just then Annette wandered into the office.

  “Here, speak of the Devil and she shall appear.”

  “Oh, that’s lovely talk. I’ll just leave again then, will I?”

  “No, I’ve a better idea, Cutty. Joe’s heading on, so I’ll buy you lunch and you can update me. Then we can do the Sister’s interview together.” Joe stood up to go.

  “I’m away now Liam. I’m nipping out for a burger. I’ve tried hospital food before, and I’m surprised there aren’t more deaths. See you at the squad.” He waved goodbye and left the Unit through the front security door, as Annette scanned the ward nervously.

  “Liam, I’ve just had the strangest feeling walking through the foyer. As if someone was watching me. Have you seen anyone strange hanging about?”

  “No, Cutty. But hospitals are busy old places so they’d be hard to spot. Did you have a good search around?”

  “Yes. Nigel Murdock was standing near the lifts with a crowd of men. I recognised some of them. The Chief Executive and your Dr Lewes, and there were two other men as well. But I couldn’t see any of them watching me. It was just weird. It really made my skin crawl.” She shuddered, shaking the unease off her like snow. “It was probably nothing. I expect we’re all just tired.”

  “Aye...we’re all that, right enough.”

  “Anyway. The reason I’m here was to say, have you noticed that the Unit door only allows admission through the intercom or a swipe card? I’ve had to buzz the office to get in every time. But you can get out very easily. It’s all changed since I nursed. You used to be able to wander in and out of every ward then.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “Well, that means that whoever was in here on Monday night was buzzed in by someone on the Unit. Or they had a swipe card. Have you checked the CCTV yet?”

  “Not Monday night’s yet. We already know there was nothing for the time that Evie was killed. But I’ve just had a thought. Give me a minute to phone Martin.”

  “You lazy thing, Liam Cullen! Go and see him. He’s just down the corridor. Anyway, you’re not supposed to be using mobiles in here.”

  “Oh aye, forgot again. I’ll nip down. Wait here.”

  Annette could hear his booming voice all the way down the ward. It was so loud sometimes that it hurt her ears.

  “And can you pay particular attention to any shots of people entering the Unit on Monday night, Martin? Buzzed-in people and swipe card entrants. Pull any records they keep on the swipe-card activity. The computer people at the Trust should keep them. Grand, grand, good lad.”

  Annette peeped into the post-natal ward while she waited. It held all the new mothers, some needing special care. The women were holding their tiny offspring with varying levels of confidence, and she smiled, remembering. A young mum by the door was gazing at her baby as if she was surprised it was there at all. Its shock of black hair was pointing in different directions and it completely ignored her stares. Its eyes screwed-up in sleep and its curly mouth moved softly.

  Annette didn’t even notice Liam coming back to stand beside her.

  “God, Cutty. That’s my life at the moment with Rory.”

  “I remember being that shocked when Amy was born. I used to hold her at arm’s length, like a china teapot.”

  “Me too. That’s when Danni would even let me touch Erin, she was so protective. She’s the same now with Rory, except when she wants a nappy changed.” His nose screwed up in distaste. “Here, what sort of a dad do you think the boss would make?”

  “Great. And they’d be the best dressed babies in town.”

  They walked off the Unit laughing loudly, until Annette remembered her training and quietened Liam down a bit. Then they followed the signs to the first floor canteen, tailing the crowd wandering in to brave the health service cooking.

  Katy and Natalie were near the top of the lunch queue, standing with Iain Lewes. They were chatting when Katy noticed Liam, spotting his police look immediately. She tapped Natalie on the shoulder.

  “Natalie, look. I bet that’s one of the policemen.”

  “Oh, is he your one?”

  Natalie turned and immediately recognised Annette, from a Christmas party she’d gone to with John. She felt a sudden pang, remembering the great time they’d had.

  Katy flushed. “He wasn’t my one. He just interviewed me, that’s all. His name’s Craig. And no, that isn’t him. The woman must be police as well.”

  At the mention of Craig’s name a hurt look flickered over Natalie’s face. “I know Craig, he’s nice. I...I dated a friend of his. Until last week.”

  Katy was surprised. Natalie hadn’t mentioned that she was seeing anyone, but then they hadn’t known each other long. The emotion in her voice stopped Katy asking for more details.

  Natalie lifted her tray determinedly. “Well, I’m going to say hello. They must feel awkward not knowing anyone.” She hesitated for a moment, uncertain what to say to them. Then she shrugged and marched off.

  “Don’t you dare, Natalie. You know you’re just being nosy.”

  But she was already halfway down the queue, heading for Liam and Annette. They were at the hot food counter having chips shovelled out by a glum Victoria Wood caricature.

  “You should try the cheesecake - it’s almost edible.” She stood grinning up at them, eye-to-eye with Liam’s chest. Then she extended her hand warmly to Annette, smiling at her confusion.

  “We met at a party, at Christmas. I...I was with John Winter.”

  Her voice broke slightly as she said his name, but she pushed her smile firmly back into place. “My friend Katy was interrogated by your boss yesterday.”

  Annette put her hand out to shake. “I remember now. Natalie isn’t it? Dr Winter is…”

  Natalie nodded and quickly interrupted, afraid that Annette might reveal something about John’s life now that would hurt her. “Hey, your boss scared the life out of Katy yesterday. But then she’s easily scared. I’m not.”

  Liam gazed down at the chirpy five-footer, amused by her directness. Most people stayed as far away from the police as they could. “I just bet you aren’t. Will you join us?”

  “Sure. I’ll get us a table.”

  She grabbed a free table, calling across to the others, and Katy glared at her murderously. The queue was slow but eventually Katy paid and sat down beside her, soon joined by Liam and Annette.

  Natalie beckoned to Iain Lewes, pulling out a chair for him. But he gave his pager an intense stare that implied urgency and indispensability. The doctor’s universal cover. Then he abandoned his tray and left hastily.

  Liam noticed his move and nudged Annette, whispering. “Well now, wasn’t he in a hurry...?”

  “Don’t be so suspicious, Liam. He’s probably just busy.” She made a mental note to get to Lewes first, before Liam scared the life out of him.


  Once Katy got past her embarrassment it was a fun lunch, and the case wasn’t discussed at all. After thirty minutes of banter, Natalie was bleeped away and they all filtered off. Liam and Annette headed back to the ward with Liam smiling wryly.

  “That Dr Stevens is someone new to slag the boss about. He forgot to mention she was pretty, didn’t he? I’ll save it up for the right time. He’s got a bit boring since he paired up with McNulty.”

  “She had great shoes too, although God knows how she walks in them. And just think of the lovely designer babies they’d make...”

  ***

  John Winter examined the rubber connector closely. It had linked the clear drip-line to the needle inserted into Evie’s arm. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his green eyes hard, then he heightened the microscope’s resolution and scrutinised it again. There was no doubt about it, Des had been absolutely right. There was a significant needle track running through the rubber. An electron microscope photo showing it would follow from the Materials Lab soon.

  He lifted the phone to forensics. “Des, would you mind coming up for a moment please? And bring the needles, I need to check something.”

  Two minutes later the bearded figure of Des Marsham, Head of Forensic Science, ambled in. He carried a sterile box in one hand and his lunch in the other. He handed the box to John and sat down heavily beside him, biting into a sandwich.

  John removed three different needles from the box and tried them each in turn, inserting them gently into the rubber without damaging the track. Both the orange and blue needles were too small. But a standard ‘green’ needle slipped in, fitting the hole exactly. They were available in every ward.

  “Des, how do you fancy a quick road-trip to Docklands? About three-thirty?”

  “Sounds great, it’d be brilliant to escape lab-rat-ness for an hour. I’ll do a one page summary of my findings and ask Marcie to make copies of the drug charts and notes as well.”

  “Right, I’ll meet you downstairs then, with the photo.”

  There was never any question that Evie had been murdered, she had Pethidine in her system that should never have been there. But now John knew how it had been introduced. Giving several types of medication through the same line was usually done with a three-way switch, and Evie’d had one fitted. Yet the drugs had been injected through the rubber connector instead. Injecting drugs that way was called ‘piggy-backing’. But it had mostly gone out of vogue in the ’80s, except in dire emergencies.

  That meant that if the killer was medical they were unlikely to be recently trained. Anyone under forty would just have given the drug through the switch.

  So either the killer was clinically trained but over forty, or they weren’t clinically trained at all. It wouldn’t narrow their suspect pool much. It didn’t rule-out any of the older ward staff in fact. But finding out who did it was Marc’s job, not theirs.

  John was taking extra care on Evie’s post-mortem because two others hinged on it, so he wasn’t finished just yet. And he still had to go over the other P.M.s. Still, at least this information might help the murder squad a bit. And he wanted to present it at the briefing and answer any questions himself.

  But the biggest question of all still had to be answered. What was Evie Murray-Hill’s cause of death?

  ***

  Liam and Annette wandered back to the ward-room, resigned to their fates. “Here we go, Cutty. Only one more interview before we head home. Sister Laurie Johns, God help us.”

  “I saw her wandering down the corridor as we went to lunch. I’ll see if I can find her. She’s too power-mad to be away from her empire for long. You go down and see Martin - I can tell you’re desperate to check if he’s found anything.”

  Liam laughed out loud. “God! I can’t fool Danni at home and I can’t fool you at work. It’s like having two wives.”

  “You wish. Five minutes, and don’t be any longer.”

  He wandered down the short corridor and reached the room, where Martin was still sitting in the dark. “Martin lad, what’ve you got for me? Anything?”

  “Well sir, we’ve no camera views at all outside the door. Or in the Maternity corridor.” He saw Liam’s face fall and added quickly. “So I walked down and had a look, and there’s a cross-corridor. Anyone turning right from it, at either of two points, could only be heading down the glass corridors towards Maternity. They don’t lead anywhere else. It was designed that way especially, to isolate Maternity for the women and baby’s safety. Paediatrics is exactly the same on the opposite side of the building. So the tapes from the cross-corridor could be worth viewing.”

  “Well done son. Top of the class.”

  “I’ll get the tapes and mark any sections showing people entering or leaving the corridors. The interviews say there was a lot of coming and going from Maternity on Monday night, especially from 9pm till 6am. With the tapes we should be able to confirm some alibis.”

  “Can you check for any trace of the cards swiped then as well?”

  “Will do. I’ll call I.T. now, sir.”

  “And did you manage to get the floor plans yet?”

  Martin was about to say ‘what did your last slave die of?’ but he thought better of it. He bit his tongue and fixed his smile firmly in place - Liam would be writing his assessment.

  “I collected them twenty minutes ago. That’s partly what put me onto the cross-corridor. That project manager Ted Greenwood’s a real geek. Totally dead-pan. When I told him what I wanted, he just leaned back over his chair and handed me a roll of plans. No chat, nor nothing!”

  “It takes all sorts lad. You’ll soon find that out. And if boring equalled bad we’d be locking up half of Northern Ireland. Right, I’ll see you later.”

  He left the room, and then stuck his head quickly back round the door.

  “Have a break and get a sandwich before you get stuck into that. And...you’re doing great work son.” Then he disappeared again quickly, leaving a beaming probationer. Annette’s people skills were definitely rubbing off.

  ***

  The Visitor leaned coolly against the wall, watching as the female police walked back onto the Unit. People milled around her, rushing to their lunches. But how could food matter when there was important work to do?

  They had such power and such access, and yet none of them had dealt with the deaths. It was disgusting. But now the father would take the steps needed. The guilty had to be exposed. And they all had to pay for the pain they’d caused.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As Craig walked onto the squad at 3.40, Liam and Annette were discussing their interview with Laurie Johns.

  “God, she was dire! Everything was Beth’s fault, and Murdock walks on water. And she couldn’t wait to tell us that Beth had been seen at Sarajevo wearing PVC. As if PVC’s a crime!”

  Joe popped his head over a cubicle wall hopefully. “PVC?”

  “Nah, forget it Joe. You’re not her type. You’ve got too many bits.”

  He screwed up his face, confused, until Martin leaned forward and said quietly. “Sarajevo’s a gay bar, sir.”

  “What? Are you telling me that gay men have fewer bits than us?” Annette and Nicky laughed simultaneously and Liam helped him out.

  “God Joe, keep up. There are gay women as well. She’s a lesbian, so all men have too many bits. Get it?”

  “Oh...I see. Ah now, you know, I’m pretty sophisticated when all’s said and done. Live and let live, that’s me.”

  Craig’s deep voice joined the conversation.

  “Glad to hear it Joe, otherwise you would be on that equal rights course next week with Martin. Right, we’ve a briefing in twenty minutes so get as much together as you can. Grab a coffee and I’ll see you downstairs at four. Martin, could you go down to the front desk and sign-in Doctors Winter and Marsham please? Then bring them down to the briefing room.”

  ***

  “Let’s make a start. We’ve a lot to get through. You all know Dr Winter, the Director of Foren
sic Pathology, and Dr Marsham, Head of Forensic Science. That’s C.S.I. for the Wii generation amongst us. Welcome, both of you. I see Nicky’s got you coffee.”

  “Aye, hello again, Doc.”

  John nodded and then took off his suit jacket, revealing a pair of red braces that exactly matched his shoes. Then Davy appeared, displaying his newest ear piercing, and Craig laughed as Martin gawped at the fashion show.

  “OK. Before we start, most of you will know that it was Dr Winter’s eagle-eye that first brought us this case. He also alerted us to the possible irregularities in two older cases. So without him we might never have realised this is potentially, and I still say potentially, murder number three. And this might have gone unchecked for much longer.” John gave a mock bow.

  “OK, everyone please give an update on your interviews. Then we’ll take Joe about the Drug Squad info. And Liam and Martin on the preliminary CCTV, swipe cards and floor plan information. Then I’ll summarise. But before all of that - perhaps our guests would like to tell us what they’ve found?”

  Nicky distributed the summaries that John and Des had brought with them, and they outlined their findings in tandem. They steered suspicion towards either a clinical person over forty, or someone completely non-clinical, but with easy access to drugs and needles. They’d brought a sample giving-set, a green needle and the electron microscope photograph. Des confirmed that traces of Pethidine had been found along the needle track in the rubber connector. While a summary of the drug charts and notes tied everything together.

  “The post-mortem’s not finished yet and we’ll be collecting more swabs for D.N.A. from Evie’s body.” John twisted his face in disgust. “I also found out an hour ago that unfortunately, or very suspiciously I believe, the first two victims were cremated. So we have to get everything we possibly can from Evie.”

  “Cremated? That’s convenient, Doc.”

  “Too convenient, Liam. If Alan Davis wasn’t already dead I’d kill him myself.”

  “But he couldn’t have had them cremated, John. Surely that’s the family’s decision?”

  “Two doctors have to sign cremation forms, Marc, He’s the first signatory on both, so he could easily have encouraged or pressured the families to do it. But I’ll be looking into that.”