George Barnabas - 04 - Fourth Attempt (41 page)

‘You know that perfectly well. I never believe in coincidences like that. Synchronicity sometimes, maybe, when two things happen together because — well, because they do. I’ve read my Jung and my Koestler with the best of ’em. But I doubt any synchronicity here. We’re looking for one person.’

‘So, let’s start with the first column. Who do you want to see written down as a suspect?’

He thought for a while. ‘It’s hard for me to say yet. I haven’t been able to question the Chambers woman. Maybe she’ll have more to tell us.’

‘She has.’ George put the board down on her knee again. The next little while was going to be a tad difficult, and she knew it. But she’d overridden Gus’s instructions before now and got away with it. No reason, she thought stoutly, why I can’t again.

‘Oh?’ He looked at her accusingly. ‘Don’t tell me. You stayed on and talked to her, right?’

She lifted her chin defiantly. ‘Right’

‘George, you really are the end,’ he said with a sudden surge of real anger. ‘Christ, I’m grateful for your input, have been from the very first case we worked on. In the last one, well, I’d have gone down with all hands if you hadn’t jumped the gun on me, more than once. But there’s a time and place, for Chrissakes.’

‘There was a time and place this morning,’ she said. ‘Listen.’ She told him calmly all that she had got out of Sonia Chambers, and he listened silently, not taking his eyes from her face.

There was a little pause when she’d finished and then he said, ‘Will she repeat all that when she makes her statement?’

‘That’s up to you, isn’t it? You have to get the information out of her. Or get that police sergeant of yours to do it — the one who took mine over the chocolates.’ She made a little face. ‘That one would get a full confession out of Bluebeard, given the time.’

‘So, let’s assume she does. And I suppose we can still act on her information even if she doesn’t. From what she says, both Michael Klein and James Corton work at St Dymphna’s when they shouldn’t. And money changes hands which in the NHS is the crime of all crimes.’

‘Money usually is anyway,’ George said. ‘But yes. And this
afternoon I talked to Zack about Klein to see if Klein was the sort of guy who would do unauthorized tests on patients, the way Chambers said he did, and Zack said —’

Gus went red. ‘You did what?’ His voice was thin and controlled and she looked at him swiftly and then away. Dammit. This was always going to be the most dangerous area.

‘I talked to him in general terms,’ she said carefully. ‘Not just about Klein. I asked him whether any of the people he worked with, which includes Klein and Llewellyn — Frances, remember? — were the sort to behave that way Where else would I get that sort of information? He knows them both better than anyone.’

‘Talking to a suspect about other possible suspects is hardly the way to run a proper investigation, George, and you should know that by now. You’re too fond of going off half-cocked like this.’

‘Hey, hey!’ George said. ‘Is Zack a suspect? I understood that all the research on him you had done in Canada had exonerated him. And, remember, it was I who thought he might be involved, not you. When we investigated here, it was clear he wasn’t the man we’re looking for, so why shouldn’t I talk to him about the case? He’s got an interest in seeing it cleared up as much as we have. A hospital — and a Research Institute — with unsolved murders hanging around the place isn’t going to be attractive to potential funders, is it? The only thing Zack Zacharius cares about is getting the resources to complete his work. If he thought one of his colleagues was messing up his patch he’d be the first to co-operate with us to get them sorted out.’

Gus was gazing at her, his eyes a little narrowed, but she could see his first angry reaction had muted. ‘OK,’ he said after a moment. ‘I suppose you have a point. We did agree he was out of the frame. But all the same, it goes against all my instincts to discuss a case with an outsider who might —’

‘But he couldn’t be more of an insider!’ George said. ‘Can’t you see? Where else would I get the sort of info I — we need
on Klein? Which is, by the way, that Zack thinks it unlikely that Klein misbehaved the way Chambers says he did, though he admitted that it could happen. It’s not out of the range of possibilities. With Chambers’s evidence and his we ought to be able to nail Klein. If it’s him, of course.’

‘Yes …’ He sighed. ‘Well, you’ve done it now, so we’re stuck with it. If he tells Klein you’re investigating him and Klein is our man, then all that will happen is that Klein will run into cover. And we’ll never nab him.’

‘Are you sure?’ she said and looked at him sharply. ‘Didn’t you once tell me, a long time ago, that people under pressure make mistakes? Reveal themselves? Couldn’t having Zack warn Klein help us? Not that I think he will, mind you. I asked him to treat my questions in confidence.’

He laughed then. ‘Oh, George, you are funny. You asked him, did you? So that means of course that he’ll do as you asked.’

‘I believe he will.’ George was defensive. ‘He said he would.’

‘Let me tell you a secret, ducky,’ Gus said, leaning over to whisper in her ear. ‘He might have lied.’

‘Well, even if he did,’ George said crossly, pulling herself away from him, ‘it’s like I said. Maybe that’ll make Klein less careful, according to your creed. So either way there’s no harm done.’

‘Is he your prime suspect?’ Gus asked. She looked at him sideways, and slid down a little on the sofa. ‘Dammit,’ she said after a pause. ‘No, he isn’t. I wish he were. He’s not really a likeable man.’ She stopped.

‘So, what have you discovered about the other one? Who, I take it from your reaction,
is
a nice man. Which shouldn’t carry any weight, but I know how you feel. I gather it’s the same man Chambers talked about’

‘Yes,’ George said. ‘And I thought he was — Well, what I thought of him doesn’t really matter, I guess. Maybe he’s a good actor. I suppose he has to be to do what he’s been doing.’

‘How do you mean?’ He was sharply curious now, seeming to know that she had a very special piece of information for him. ‘Have you got some hard evidence?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not yet. But it’ll be the easiest thing in the world to get. The thing is, Gus, I don’t think Jim Corton is a doctor. He’s a hoaxer with no qualifications to be dealing with patients at all, either at Old East or at St Dymphna’s.’

Gus sat very still and stared at her, and then, to her amazement, leaned back and opened his mouth wide to roar with laughter.

‘I don’t See what’s so goddamned funny,’ she cried. ‘We’re going to have to gather evidence and if — no, dammit,
when
we do, I’m in one hell of an ethical quandary. And you’re laughing?’

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his streaming eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said huskily and managed to calm down. ‘It was just that I got this sudden set of images. I mean, admit it, George, it’s like one of the corniest of
Doctor in the House
gags, or some seaside comic card joke. You know, “Big breaths,” says the doctor. “Yeth,” says the sexy girl. “And I’m only thirteen.” And then the so-called doctor leers at the audience and says, “I’m really a fishmonger, but a white coat comes in handy.” Oh, dear.’ He shook his head, wiped his eyes and stowed his handkerchief. ‘Sorry, ducks. I’ll be sensible now. So, how do you know?’

‘I got the idea because of a lot of things. Things people said, but particularly the night cleaner on my department. A Mrs Glenney. She talked about people in white coats all looking the same and how people sometimes pretended to be doctors. I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but later … Well, I won’t detail it all. Just say I went to HR —’

‘Personnel,’ he muttered. ‘I hate these new labels.’

‘Call it what you like. I went there, and conned a girl into
showing me his file. All highly improper, of course. And there’s nothing there that they’ve checked. Not his qualifications, not his references, nothing. Apparently, employers don’t.’

‘They do in the police force,’ Gus said.

‘I’m not surprised. Some very flaky people get involved in the police,’ she retorted, ‘I mean, if you got past their vetting, what are the ones they discard like?’

‘Oh, lovely,’ he said approvingly. ‘That’s more like my girl. OK, so no one checked his references. But this alone doesn’t make him a fraud.’

‘The references are all written in the same sort of way, same tone of voice. It’s hard to explain but you know how different people use different speech rhythms? These are all matching. Also some of the words used are repeated, like saying he has “perceptive judgement”. That one was used in every reference, and that has to be unusual. It’s not a phrase you normally find doctors using about other doctors. They might say something clichéd like “sound judgement”, but “perceptive”? In three separate references supposed to be from three different people? No way. And there’s more. The way the paragraphs are indented. The use of semi-colons — I mean, who uses semi-colons in letters these days? There’s no individual personality behind them either. I know doctors, and you can spot the sort of guy most of ’em are from the way they write. Add it all together, I plain didn’t believe those references weren’t all written by the same person.’

‘It’ll be easy to check, of course,’ he said. ‘All we have to do is ask the named referees if they know him and wrote those references. If we can get the names and addresses, of course. But we’ll have to get his consent to seeing his employment file. Data protection and all that.’

‘Do you have to?’ she said uneasily. ‘Because as I told you I got a peek at it kinda illegally. But long enough to take note
of the names and addresses of the referees in question. Can’t you just use the stuff?’ She picked up her clipboard and raised the pad. Underneath it, tucked against the back, was a sheet of paper with her handwriting on it. ‘Here you are.’

He looked at it for a long moment, thinking. ‘This is tricky,’ he said. ‘Here I am with information to use, but can I legally use it? And more to the point, if I go into court with evidence gathered this way, will it be admissible?’

‘Can’t you make discreet enquiries?’ she asked. ‘Send a chap to these hospitals and get them to snoop about the way a private detective would? Then if we find we’re right, we treat him as a prime suspect and act accordingly. Once we start watching him properly, surely he’ll do
something
that’ll give us the evidence we need without ever letting anyone know I — er — bent the rules a bit?’

‘Hmm,’ he said and was silent again for a while. ‘I suppose so. It’s highly improper, but this is a murder enquiry after all, and I’m not above crossing the boundaries occasionally if it’s in a good cause. You genuinely think he could be our murderer?’

It was her turn to be quiet. ‘It’s hard to say,’ she said at last. ‘He seems such a nerd, so shy and — not helpless, exactly, but very vulnerable. But that has to be an act, of course, if he’s a hoaxer. That alone takes enormous chutzpah. In which case, his whole manner is a con and he could well be our man.’

‘Mmm.’ He looked again at the sheet of paper. ‘Birmingham,’ he murmured. ‘And … well, the London one’ll be the first we do. See what we can find there and then go on if necessary. When was he supposed to be there? OK, I’ll put someone discreet on to that first thing in the morning. If he draws a blank there we’ll have scored, and I’ll send people on to Birmingham to check what happened there, and also to the medical school. We’ll do it as a mispers search.’

‘Mispers?’ she said.

‘You know that! Missing person.’

‘Sorry, I forgot. Of course.’ She sat up a little straighter
then and smoothed the paper on the clipboard, not looking at him. ‘Gus, I’ve one hell of a problem if you do find out that he’s a fraud. An ethical quandary, in fact.’

‘I’d have thought the reverse,’ he said. ‘It’ll be a direct pointer to a piece of behaviour which, if it isn’t usually murderous, certainly gives us reason to suspect he has a possible motive to murder. Someone finds out — maybe the theatre chap Mendez spotted something in his behaviour which gave him away? Or Lally Lamark noticed something in a patient’s medical record? It makes sense.’

‘I’m not sure I can see why Pam Frean should have died,’ she objected, momentarily diverted. ‘If that’s the criterion.’

‘That one’s horribly easy,’ he said. ‘Easiest of the lot. They were lovers, right? They got together because they’re both these shy, nerdy types. Or at least he’s pretending to be like that, which is what attracts her. He plays along ’cause a fella has to get his jollies where he can, so they become lovers. She gets pregnant and demands marriage. He knows the chances of her finding out the truth about him are higher if they marry — when people call the banns and get marriage licences and so forth, it’s amazing what information shakes out of the branches. And she gets too demanding, maybe. Whatever it is, he’s already got his head round killing two people, what’s one more?’

‘And Sheila?’

‘Ah! Again she knows something about him. Or she
seems
to.’

‘Then why doesn’t he just do the same to her as he does to the other three? Why mess about with abortive attempts that seem to be designed deliberately to fail?’

That stopped him. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, though his stare was glazed. Then his vision cleared and he opened his eyes widely, and said, ‘Because he wants to know what it is that she knows! No good getting rid of her if there’s evidence lying around that could be found by her successor, right? So he wants to frighten her off so he has time
and space to look around for whatever it is she might have.’ He jumped up and began to prowl the room, too excited by his thinking to sit still. ‘That makes a lot of sense, George. The fella who went spying round in your lab, dressed in a white coat, the one Mrs Glenney scared off. The theft of Sheila’s bag and the keys, and the break-in at her flat and then into your office to steal the notes of the people he’s already killed — maybe he got more than that. Maybe he found something somewhere else in the department that he was looking for.’