‘No, it’s not that. But her husband, Adam, he didn’t seem violent at all. I never knew why she married him, not really, and I knew they’d had their up and downs, but they’d patched things up, I’m sure of it.’
‘When you say problems, what do you mean?’
‘She’d been having an affair. She more or less admitted as much, once or twice.’
‘With someone from the hospital?’
Emma laughed. ‘Randy nurses, eh? Why do people always assume that us nurses can’t wait to get their hands on all the doctors?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s the other way round.’
The woman looked at him keenly for a moment, and he wondered if he’d overstepped wherever the line of political correctness was now drawn, but then she threw her head back and laughed.
‘Aye, maybe it is, and all. And anyway, you’re right. I think it was someone from work.’
‘Do you know who?’
‘No. Do you?’
Dixon let the question go.
‘I wanted to ask you about something, actually. And before I do I need to say that you wouldn’t be getting anyone into trouble, whatever you tell me. It’s just that things were very different back then, weren’t they? So I’m wondering if medical staff ever took home the odd painkiller or sleeping tablet, anything like that?’
This time Emma didn’t laugh. ‘You’re asking if Sharon Burke ever helped herself to any prescribed medicines? No, of course she bloody didn’t. Now if that’s all you’ve come to ask, you’d better get out.’
‘Look, I’ll level with you, Emma. Adam Burke may not have killed his wife, and if he didn’t then not only has he spent a good chunk of his life in prison for no reason, but there’s every chance that the killer is still out there. Maybe he’ll do it again, maybe he already has, we just don’t know. Anyway, what Adam is saying to us is the reason that he can’t account for his movements on the day that Sharon disappeared is that his wife had given him some pills. You see where I’m going with this?’
‘No. No, I don’t. Oh, shit, you’re wondering if she drugged Adam, so she could see someone else, aren’t you?’
‘Not necessarily, Emma. You’re reading far too much into this. I’m just trying to establish if his story is plausible, that’s all. Look, let me ask it another way. Think back to that time for me. Would it have been possible for someone on the medical staff to have taken the odd pill, if they’d wanted to? I’m not asking if they did, just whether or not it was possible. I’m certainly not accusing anyone here.’
‘All right. I see. Well, aye, it would have been possible. Things tightened up a few years later, but back then, aye, it could have happened.’
‘All right, thanks. And what are we talking about? Pain killers, the odd sleeping tablet?’
‘Aye, that sort of thing. They’re commonly prescribed on some of the wards, and patients sometimes nod off before they take them. It does happen, like. They should be disposed of, but back then things weren’t so strict. And that’s definitely true, no matter what the hospital tells you, like.’
‘All right, thanks’, said Dixon. ‘Like I say, you can’t get Sharon into any trouble, and you might yet help her husband.’
‘OK. And are you off to see anyone else, while you’re here?’
‘Like who?’
‘I don’t know. Like one of the doctors who was around back then, maybe.’
‘It’s a thought. Can you suggest anyone, Emma?’
‘Dr. Fleming’, she said immediately. ‘He was here at the time, and he and Sharon were pretty friendly.’
‘Friendly?’
‘Aye, friendly.’
Dixon wrote the name down, and noted the number of his office. ‘I’ll maybe drop in for a quick chat then, seeing as I’m here, like.’
Dixon was lucky, and a voice called out ‘come in’ when he knocked at Fleming’s door.
He introduced himself, explained that he was involved in re-examining the circumstances surrounding the death of Sharon Burke, and asked if Fleming could spare him a couple of minutes.
‘But that was years ago. The husband did it. Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything, and I’m very busy, OK?’
‘I can always come back another time, doctor. Just say the word. I’m very anxious to talk to you.’
‘To me? Why? I hardly knew Sharon Burke. Now, if you don’t mind…’
Fleming was already turning back to his computer, and Dixon decided to take a chance.
‘We both know that’s not true, don’t we?’
He paused, and waited for Fleming to respond. If he blustered, then he’d definitely been shagging Sharon Burke.
‘What do you mean by that? What right have you got to say something like that? You’re not even a policeman, are you?’
‘I’m not, no. But, as I explained, we are looking at the case again, and if we can provide new evidence that exonerates Adam Burke, or indeed that implicates someone else, then it’s perfectly possible that the police will reinvestigate. And you didn’t come forward at the time, did you, doctor?’
‘But I wasn’t even interviewed. I had nothing to do with what happened to Sharon.’
‘That’s not much of a defence, I’m afraid. And you can see how it will look. You two were having an affair, and it finished just a few weeks before Sharon died. But you never came forward to tell the police about it. You just kept quiet, didn’t you, sir?’
Now Fleming looked surprised, more than angry. Frightened too, come to that.
‘But it was me who finished it.’
Dixon came right into the office, and closed the door behind him.
‘Look, why not tell me everything? Your side of the story, like. That way, if and when a new investigation begins, everyone will know that you’ve been completely open, won’t they?’
Foster thought for just a moment, and the moment he replied Dixon knew for sure that he was innocent.
‘And all this is just between us? It won’t get out, I mean.’
‘You’re worried about someone knowing about the affair?’
‘My wife. We’d only been married for three years when it happened, so….’
‘I understand. Look, I’d be lying to you if I said that there’s no chance that eventually it might come out, if you were called as a witness in a subsequent trial for instance, but look at it this way. If you don’t talk to me now it might be the police who suddenly rock up at your home, maybe early in the morning, and they won’t be remotely worried about your wife finding out about your affair, I promise you that. So let’s just do it now, shall we? That way you’ve at least got a chance that it won’t have to go any further.’
‘OK, but there’s not much to tell. It was just a fling really, and it only lasted for a few weeks. She was unhappy with her husband, and I just let it happen, I suppose. But I broke it off when I realised that she had hopes, you know..’
‘That you’d leave your wife for her?’
‘Yes.’
‘When all you wanted to do was play doctors and nurses?’
Dixon smiled, but Foster didn’t. Dixon assumed that he’d heard that one before.
‘Something like that, I suppose.’
‘And how did Sharon take the news?’
‘Better than I expected, actually. We agreed that it had all been a fantasy for both of us.’
‘Did she say whether or not she’d tell her husband about the affair?’
‘Not at the time, no. But later, maybe a week before she died, she told me that she had spoken to him. That’s why I always assumed he’d done it, I suppose.’
‘Why? Because he was angry? Violent, maybe?’
‘No, not that. She said that he’d been OK about it. And I got the impression that she was feeling really guilty about the whole thing.’
‘That’s understandable, surely.’
‘Yes, of course, but I just had a sense that it wasn’t just me she was feeling guilty about. I thought that there was s
omething else.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know. It was just a feeling, and it was all so long ago. Look, Mr…..’
‘Dixon. Do you think that she might have been involved with someone else as well as you? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘No, not that. Well, maybe. It’s possible, I suppose. Sharon was just one of those people who was always hoping for something better to come along. You know what I mean?’
‘I do, doctor, I really do. But then sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel really is just an oncoming train, isn’t it?’
Andy Hall was driving when Dixon called to update him, and he had to turn off the Kathleen Edwards CD he’d been playing to try to get Grace back to sleep.
‘He shoots, he scores’ said Dixon.
‘You know I’m not great with sporting metaphors, Ray. But am I to assume that your trip was productive?’
‘It was, aye. First, one of the nurses confirmed that it was possible to get hold of drugs, back in the day. Unused doses given to patients who nodded off, or died or whatever. Easy to pocket, apparently. And I found your Dr. Fleming too. What Burke told us about him was true too, he admitted it. He says that he broke it off with Sharon, and that she told Adam, just like he said. But Foster also said that he thinks she might have had a first reserve.’
‘Speak English, Ray. She was seeing another man as well as him, is that it?’
‘He seems to think it was a possibility, aye.’
‘Any chance that Fleming is our man, then? Maybe he’s inventing this third man, just to distract us.’
‘No, sorry, Andy, but I just don’t see it. He wasn’t bothered about me asking questions, not really, like. What he was shitting himself about was that he’d been playing away, and it might all come out now, because he’d only been married for a few years when he was shagging Sharon Burke. He didn’t seem remotely concerned that he might be a suspect.’
‘All right. But did you ask him what he was doing on the day that Sharon vanished?’
‘I did, aye.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘He looked it up on the computer. Believe it or not they archive all of the doctor’s diaries, and he was on duty that Friday afternoon. He clocked on just before 2pm, and finished at midnight.’
‘And you asked him what else he could remember about that day?’
‘Aye, of course. He just looked at me like I was mad, and he made sod all attempt to make anything up. Like I said, Andy, the bloke’s no killer. Not sure I could say the same about his wife, based on how scared of her he looked.’
‘You’re not serious, are you? Do you think she could be a suspect?’
‘I was joking, mate, but I suppose we can’t rule anything out completely at this stage. But where are you at, anyway?’
‘On my way to Ainstable.’
‘You seeing Billy Wilson?’
‘Detective Chief Inspector William Wilson retired, if you don’t mind.’
‘Like that, is it?’
‘It is. But listen. You said that the records of staff are computerised, and they go all the way back to ’95?’
‘Aye, that’s right.’
‘Good. Do me a favour and check something out for me, would you, Ray?’
Grace started crying as Hall was asking his question, and Dixon laughed.
‘And they say that policemen are getting younger, don’t they?’
‘I think that’s just supposed to be a relative thing, Ray, not an absolute. And I’m planning to feed and change Grace before I go in to see Billy, so with a bit of luck she’ll sleep through the whole thing.’
‘Very much did as Billy did through most of his career.’
‘You knew him, then?’
‘Only slightly. A right lazy bastard, I thought. I took over a case from him once, and it took me about two shifts to get the bloke who’d done it nicked. I got the impression that Billy’s DS wasn’t much better than him, neither. Billy led his team by example, if you see what I mean.’
‘I do. Well he doesn’t do email, so I spoke to him on the phone about all this, and let’s say he wasn’t exactly forthcoming. He told me that he’d rather have his piles removed with pliers, but since he reckoned that I’d only bad-mouth him to all and sundry if he didn’t agree to meet me he said he’d give me half an hour. Just to get rid of a bloody toffee-nosed know-it-all like me, he said.’
‘Charming. And he told you exactly how guilty Adam Burke was too, I expect?’
‘He said it stood to reason, and that I should get a proper hobby now that I’ve retired, to keep my mind active. He recommended bowls.’
Dixon laughed. ‘Did he now? I can just see you, Andy, with Grace in one of those back-pack things, bowling down at Abbot Hall of an evening. Get yourself a flat cap to go with it, and then you’d be well away, like.’
It was a long time since Andy Hall had met an ex-copper like Billy Wilson. As far as he could recall they’d started to be phased out at about the same time as manual typewriters. But then Billy had been retired for well over a decade already, and he’d done over thirty in the job before that. So bobbies probably still had whistles when he’d first started, and they were, no doubt, still dab hands at giving cheeky young scamps a clip round the ear.
Wilson didn’t comment when Hall picked up the baby seat from the doorstep, after they’d shaken hands. The house was old red sandstone, the views were terrific, and Hall reflected briefly on the fact that a DCI couldn’t even dream of buying a place like this any more. Wilson led them through the double doors in the living room and out into the garden, and they sat at a large wooden table, beneath a generous sunshade. Hall just caught a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson, as she returned to the house through the back door. She’d left a big jug of squash for them, and two glasses.
Hall complimented Wilson on his house, his garden, and on anything else he could think of. Wilson didn’t look impressed by any of it. But at least Grace was fast asleep.
‘I’ve done some asking around about you, Andy.’
‘Oh, yes?’ Hall was mildly surprised, although as ever he didn’t sound or look it. But it did seem odd that a retired officer who’d been out of the job for as long as Wilson had would still have any meaningful contacts in the constabulary.
‘They say you’re probably the brightest bloke that the force has ever had. Too clever to have been a copper, they say.’
‘I always had a good team round me, that’s all,’ said Hall, smiling.
‘I don’t doubt that. But tell me, why are you getting yourself involved in this? I could barely remember this case, to tell you the truth.’
‘But you do remember it?’
‘I remember that the bloke was guilty, all right. Strangled the wife, dumped her in Loweswater.’
‘Crummock Water.’
‘Aye, Crummock Water. Then he got the guilts, and told his mate. And before you ask, Jack Lee was totally credible, right from the off. Solid alibi too, not a single crack in it.’
‘You mean that he had a solid alibi for the day and night of Sharon Burke’s likely disappearance, don’t you?’
‘Aye, but she was due at work the next morning, at eight o’clock sharp. And she never missed a shift, I do remember that. We checked, and she was as reliable as the morning, was that poor lass. But she never showed up that Saturday, did she? And it’s all because that strange bastard had already killed her, that’s why. And he was a right odd one, I tell you. Those dead eyes, and not a flicker of any emotion, even when we charged him.’
Hall took a sip of his drink. ‘I’m not absolutely convinced that she was dead by the next day, I’m afraid. Though I do hear what you say about her attendance record. And I’ve been thinking about that too, as it happens. So I just had Sharon’s attendance record checked for the weeks before her disappearance. My colleague texted me the answer just now, in fact. And you’re right, she didn’t fail to show for any shifts, but she had been off sick twice, one day each ti
me, in the month before she vanished.’
‘If you say so. Look, what does it matter? The husband didn’t have a hint of a bloody alibi, never even tried to make one up, and the only possible explanation is that he knew if he made something up we’d catch him in the lie, one way or another. Because, Andy, sometime on that Friday he strangled his wife, and that night he dumped the body in the lake. It’s the only possible explanation.’
Hall smiled his calm, reasonable smile. ‘Not the only explanation, Billy.’
‘All right, amaze me. Not that you haven’t already, like.’
‘How’s that?’
‘You must be the only bloody child-minding detective in the whole country, mate. It’s absolutely ridiculous, is all this. You look like a right dick.’
‘I’d explained about Grace on the phone, I thought. But anyway, the reason that Burke had no alibi was actually because he was drugged. Sleeping tablets, most likely.’
‘No way. He wasn’t an addict. We tested for that, straight after we nicked him.’
‘I said he was drugged, not that he took drugs. His wife gave them to him. We think it was because she was going to meet someone, sometime on that Friday.’
‘And we is you and Ray Dixon, I suppose? Takes his turn changing nappies, does he? Anyway, who told you about these mythical drugs? Burke, I suppose.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Christ, it’s taken him long enough to come up with that bloody crock of shit.’
‘That’s true, but he had his reasons for keeping quiet, all these years.’
‘Like what?’
‘Loyalty to his wife, for one. But there’s another likely reason, I think. Perhaps he didn’t even want to admit to himself that his wife was looking to pull the wool over his eyes, just a few days after she’d told him that her affair was over.’
‘What affair? We knew something was going on, but we never found out who with.’
‘Oh, that. It was a doctor at the hospital. Your team didn’t speak to him at the time, but he’s admitted it to us.’
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