Desolate Sands Crime Book 5 (Detective Alec Ramsay Crime Mystery Suspense Series)

by Conrad Jones

  “Are you sure you’re ready to charge him?”

  “It would have been nice to wait for Kathy Brooks to finalise her search, but now we don’t have the privilege to do so. We make the press look like they have jumped the gun and play it down. Charging Tibbs will take the spotlight off this shambles. We nail him today.”

  Chief Carlton brushed imaginary dust from his trousers with trembling hands. He’d noticed that they were trembling more these days and it frightened him a little. His father developed tremors in his fifties and he was sitting in a nappy full of his own waste ten years later. The older he became, the more perspective life gifted him. What was it all about anyway? He had spent decades locking up criminals anyway that he could. Now he had to make sure that they locked up criminals the right way, without infringing on civil rights and such bollocks. He had a chance to wipe out the Kraznic issue and wrap up the Crosby Beach murders in one day. “Do it,” he said. “What can go wrong?”

  “Don’t tempt fate,” Alec said wagging his index finger. A knock on the door interrupted them for a second time. “Come in,” he called.

  “Sorry to interrupt again, Guv, but we’ve had a phone call and I thought you would want to know immediately,” Lewis said poking his head around the door. “Laura Ryder has been admitted to the Royal. Uniform are on site and they have been informed by the doctors that she has either attempted suicide or she’s been poisoned. Do you want me to go down there and see what’s going on?”

  “Yes, and I’ll come with you,” Alec said. He looked at Stirling and the big man shrugged. Her second husband had been assassinated. It wasn’t beyond the realms of belief that she had had enough. “What do you think?”

  “Who knows,” Stirling grumbled. “It doesn’t affect our plans does it?”

  “No,” Alec agreed.

  “Is it something that we need to worry about?” Carlton asked. He stood and shuffled uncomfortably.

  “Not right now,” Alec said reassuringly. “We’ll charge Tibbs. You sort the press out.”

  Chapter 41

  Alec and Lewis waited patiently at the nurses’ station for permission to enter the intensive care unit. Entry was monitored and limited in order to combat infections being carried in by visitors. After what seemed like an age, a uniformed officer opened the door and gestured for them to come in. Compact anti-wards were on both sides of a narrow corridor. The lighting was subdued and Alec thought the air felt dry to breathe. It was an unnatural atmosphere generated to make those who teetered on the edge of this world comfortable, before they slipped into the next. Some would recover and stay but most of those wheeled into the unit would cross. It was quiet, apart from multiple beeping noises which drifted to him from the various life monitoring machinery. The floor shone like glass and the smell of antiseptic mingled with the sickening odour of human waste. He wrinkled his nose at the offending aroma.

  “Stinks doesn’t it,” the uniformed officer commented. “The bloke in the first bed exploded a few minutes ago.”

  “Exploded?” Lewis frowned.

  “That’s the best way to describe it. I’ve never seen so much shit in my life,” he began to explain.

  Alec held up his hand to stop him. “I get the idea, no need for the details.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Where is our patient?”

  “Fourth room along on the right.” The officer pointed. “The doctor is with her now.”

  “Any of her family there?”

  “The husband’s cousin, Geoff Ryder, brought her in last night. He’s still in there but he’s not saying much.”

  “Thanks,” Lewis said walking down the corridor behind Alec. A pretty black nurse wiggled out of a ward, almost colliding with him. Her look of surprise quickly turned into a smile. She stepped sideways, mouthed the word ‘sorry’ and disappeared into the next ward. Lewis took the opportunity to watch her wiggle from behind and he wondered how she had squeezed all of that ass into one tunic. “Keep your mind on the job in hand,” he whispered beneath his breath. Further down the corridor, they came across a name plate with Laura Ryder’s name written on it in felt tip. Alec knocked gently and opened it. An Asian doctor was filling in his notes. “DS Ramsay,” he introduced himself and walked in. The man that he assumed was Geoff Ryder stood up and walked towards him. He looked tired and very concerned. “Are you Geoff Ryder?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I’ll let you talk to the doctor alone. I need a coffee anyway.”

  “We will need to talk to you too.” Lewis tried to gauge his level of involvement from his reactions but he didn’t give anything away.

  “I’ll be outside once I’ve bought a drink.” He opened the door and stepped out without looking back.

  “What is wrong with her, Doctor,” Alec asked bluntly. “Did she jump or was she pushed?”

  “Sorry?” The doctor frowned confused.

  “Suicide or attempted murder?”

  “I am a doctor. I don’t know.” He shook his head stepped towards the door.

  “Hold on a minute,” Lewis said stepping in front of the door. “We need you to tell us exactly what is going on here please. This could be a murder investigation.”

  The doctor sighed loudly and removed his thick glasses. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers and then replaced them, blinking to focus. “Mrs Ryder was brought in last night in what we thought was an intoxicated state. She was disorientated and vomiting but when her condition deteriorated we ran blood tests and found that she had ethylene glycol poisoning caused by the ingestion of ethylene glycol, the primary ingredient in automotive anti-freeze.”

  “So she drank it?”

  “I assume so,” the doctor shrugged. “It is a toxic, colourless, odourless liquid with a sweet taste. It wouldn’t be difficult to swallow enough to kill yourself. It is occasionally consumed by children and dogs due to its sweetness.”

  “What if she drank it without knowing?”

  “If it was in a sweet drink then she wouldn’t know it was there, Detective. She vomited so much that we have no way of knowing how she ingested it.” The doctor ran his hand over his thinning hair. A few stubborn strands was all that was left. “I really must get on with my rounds.”

  Wait a minute,” Alec said impatiently. “How bad is she?”

  “Bad.”

  “Will she live?”

  “Following ingestion, there is cardiovascular dysfunction, and finally acute liver failure.” The doctor spoke quickly and without emotion. “The major cause of toxicity is not the ethylene glycol itself but its metabolites. Treatment consists of initially stabilizing the patient, followed by the use of antidotes.” He picked up his notes. “We have administered them and now we need to put her on dialysis.”

  “Dialysis?” Lewis said, shocked by the severity of her condition.

  “Hemodialysis is also used to help remove ethylene glycol and its metabolites from the blood. As long as we can do it in time, the prognosis is generally good, with most patients making a full recovery.”

  “And are you in time?”

  “I don’t know. Only time will tell. She may have suffered irreversible damage to her kidneys, her brain, even the lungs can be effected. Obviously, we’ll keep you informed of her progress.” He stepped around Lewis and reached for the door handle. Alec placed his hand over the handle and smiled. In close proximity to the doctor, he could smell saffron and cumin on his breath.

  “One more thing, Doctor,” Alec tilted his head as he spoke. “If you had to make an educated guess, did she jump or was she pushed?”

  The doctor shook his head and frowned. “I cannot be drawn on that. I refuse to speculate.”

  “Humour me,” Alec pushed. “Your opinion will not be repeated to anyone.”

  The doctor sighed. He realised that Alec was a pedantic man. “In my opinion, she was pushed.” With that he reached for the handle again. Alec stepped aside and allowed him to leave.

  The door closed and Lewis walked over to t
he bed and looked at Laura Ryder. She was a pretty woman. He could see why two brothers fell for her but he couldn’t see why anyone would poison her. The door opened and Geoff Ryder came in. He looked at Lewis, who was standing over Laura and something flashed in his eyes. Was it jealousy? Lewis could see that he was angry about something. “Shall we talk outside?” he said flatly. “They say the hearing is the last thing to go.”

  Alec thought it was an odd thing to say. “They do?” he said walking out of the door.

  “People in comas,” Geoff explained. He held the door and then walked alongside the detectives. Lewis was head and shoulders taller and twenty years his junior. “They say that people in comas can still hear. That’s why people play music, or recordings of loved ones.” Lewis nodded and waited until they had left the ward before asking any questions. The uniformed officer waved a hand and as the detectives left the ward, he walked into the ICU to guard Laura.

  Alec headed for a quiet seating area at the rear of the building. The windows offered a view of both cathedrals, the river and the Wirral beyond. Geoff kept pace with him, his Gucci shoes squeaking on the highly polished floors. Alec guessed that his suit was Hugo Boss and cost a thousand or more. “Can you tell me what happened exactly?” Alec asked. He pointed to a row of chairs well away from other visitors. They sat down with one empty seat between them. “Take your time,” he prompted, “from the very beginning, everything that you remember.”

  “Since John’s death,” he said with his hands clasped tightly together. “I’ve been calling around to see her every day. She’s been very down, you know, depressed.”

  “Her first husband committed suicide?”

  “Yes,” Geoff nodded as he spoke, “she had a hard time getting over James. In the end their mutual grief brought her and John together.”

  “I bet it caused a few raised eyebrows?”

  “Obviously becoming involved with her husband’s brother immediately after his death wasn’t acceptable to some; others questioned John’s motives as she was about to become a rich widow,” Geoff looked him in the eyes as he spoke. There wasn’t a flicker of deceit in them. “People made spurious allegations against John. The brave ones actually voiced their opinions. None of them were right. John loved his brother as much as Laura did. James wasn’t happy in his own skin, Detective. He couldn’t admit who he was and he couldn’t face living his life in denial. Laura knew. She never said anything but she knew.”

  “He was gay?”

  “Well and truly entrenched in the closet. I heard rumours that a filthy little rent boy was bribing him and that’s why he jumped, but we’ll never know.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “Who?”

  “This rent boy?”

  “He was found dead shortly after James was.”

  “Coincidence?”

  “Like I said,” Geoff said calmly. A thin smile touched his lips. “We’ll never know. The fact is that his death almost killed Laura. John’s murder could finish her off.”

  “Tell me about last night?” Alec asked. Lewis stared at Geoff. His profile was sideways on. He was cool and Lewis could see no reason to disbelieve him, although there was something that he couldn’t put his finger on. He studied his profile as he spoke.

  “I called around to see her. She was behaving strangely and complained of feeling unwell.”

  “Had she been drinking at all?”

  “She didn’t drink alcohol. Not ever.”

  “Was she drinking anything, tea, coffee, juice?”

  “Not that I could see.” He shook his head thoughtfully. “Laura was slurring her words. She began to vomit and hallucinate so I called an ambulance and brought her here.”

  “Did you notice any note, or signs that she might have tried to kill herself?”

  “Note?”

  “Suicide note.”

  Geoff shook his head and stood up. He walked to the window and put his hands in his pockets. “I don’t buy the suicide thing.”

  “Okay then. Who would want her dead?”

  “The same person who had John murdered.” He answered without turning around. “We both know that John was involved in some unsavoury business.” He turned to look at Lewis. Lewis nodded in the affirmative. “There’s a lot of money involved and things are up in the air at the moment. His property interests were run by a holding company, New Generation Holdings. Boris Kolorov was also a director and as you know, he’s dead too.”

  “So does control of his interests pass directly to Laura?”

  Geoff laughed. “We’re not talking about a legitimate corner shop newsagents here, Detective. His investments were as varied as they are numerous. Ownership of such businesses rarely comes down to contracts or wills.”

  “I’m assuming that there are no binding contracts attached to most of those businesses, so the sharks must be circling now that there is blood in the water?” Alec said bluntly. He knew that most of Ryder’s business deals would have been sealed on a handshake. Mutual respect and the fear of brutal violence were both far greater incentives not to renege on a deal.

  “John was slowly moving everything into the legitimate business world, mostly property. That was the side which I had an interest in. He would never have divulged any of his illegal shenanigans to me.” Geoff raised his eyebrows as a wry smile crossed Alec’s lips. “I can see why you would be sceptical, Detective, but if you think about it realistically, if my reputation was tainted by any illegal activities then I would have been of no use to him.”

  “You’re very resourceful people,” Alec countered sceptically. “There are ways around most things.”

  “What about his stepson?” Lewis asked. Geoff sat down near him and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Would he be in a position to take over?”

  “Never in a million years.” Lewis studied his face as he answered. “To say he was a disappointment to his mother and John, would be an understatement. John tolerated him simply because he was his brother’s son. He was blood.”

  “So poisoning his mother would be futile?”

  “In terms of running the family business, yes but financially he is set to inherit all their liquidated assets, in the event of both parents dying. Killing Laura would be very lucrative in the short term. However, Laura is very well liked and Brendon is not. If anyone suspected that he was involved in hurting his mother then he wouldn’t have very long to spend his new found wealth.”

  Alec had the feeling that Geoff was feeding him bait; just enough information to make him suspicious. The solicitor knew how to walk the very fine line between legal and not. He hadn’t made a threat, yet one was implied. His thoughts were nothing more than speculation yet they carried so much more than that. Alec baited him. “Do you think he’s capable of killing his own mother?”

  “Brendon Ryder would kill his own mother without blinking an eyelid,” Geoff said quietly. “The man isn’t right in the head. He never has been.”

  “Are you going to elaborate on that?” Alec asked.

  “No.”

  “Okay. You represent the family so I understand your obligation to them, but do you think he poisoned Laura Ryder?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know,” Geoff mumbled. “Maybe whoever killed John wanted the entire family wiped out. That’s usually how these things pan out. If you don’t leave anyone alive then you can sleep soundly in your bed. In that world, relatives seek revenge.”

  “We’ll need access to her house,” Alec said. “Unless you’re happy to accept that she tried to commit suicide?”

  Geoff nodded and Alec thought he saw his face muscles switch. It was an involuntary reaction to his request, but Alec couldn’t read it. “No problem. They are putting Laura on dialysis soon, so I can meet you at the house.”

  “Do we need to get a warrant, Mr Ryder?”

  “That won’t be necessary. You may have access to the main house only,” he stood up as he answered. “I’ll waver any legal requirement. I want to know what happe
ned to Laura as much as you do and if Brendon has had a hand in it, then I hope you lock him up for his own safety.” Geoff Ryder nodded and walked away back towards intensive care. Alec felt a very strange vibe coming from him. “I’ll be there in an hour, maybe less.”

  They sat in silence until he had gone out of earshot. “There’s something not quite right here, Lewis,” Alec said thoughtfully. “Did you get the impression that he wants us to search the Ryder home?”

  “I did, Guv, and there’s another thing too.” Lewis took out his phone and held it up. “I took a picture of Geoff while you were talking. I’m going to send it to Mallon straight away.”

  “Why?” Alec was confused.

  “I am certain that he is on some of the footage from the Dorset in Brighton,” he explained. “The last place that Tina Peters worked. That would give us her link to Liverpool.”

  “Do you know who owns the place?” Alec frowned and though about the implications. “I’ll put money on it that if you’re right, the Ryders’ holding company owns the real estate.”

  “I never thought to check who owned it; I had no reason to,” Lewis sounded disappointed with himself. “I should have checked, it but if the Ryders have property down there then it would explain a lot.”

  “Go on.”

  “The DJ that I spoke to said that Tina had a cocaine habit, a bad one and that most of the cocaine in the town came in via dealers from Liverpool. We know that John Ryder was a heavy hitter in the drug world. If they were distributing in Brighton, then where better to have a base, than one of the busiest pubs?”

  “Good work. Lewis,” Alec patted his shoulder and stood up. “Get that picture checked out with your footage so that we’re sure, and verify who owns the Dorset. I want the answers to both before we search the Ryder home.”