The Body in the Boot: The first 'Mac' Maguire mystery (6 page)

‘I’d be grateful if you could. Whatever that girl has been given might hold the key to not just her case but the suspected murder of five other girls.’

‘By the way who is the girl under?’

‘Dr. Ludmilla Tereshkova,’ Mac answered.

‘Lilla? I know her quite well. I’ll give her a ring and see what she’s found so far. It sounds like an interesting case.’

Tommy passed a card over.

‘Thanks doctor and please call this number immediately if you do hear anything.’

‘I will. Detective Nugent, mind if I have a quick word with Mr. Maguire before you go?’

‘Of course,’ Tommy said.

He left them to it

‘How have you been Mr. Maguire? I know we have an appointment in a couple of weeks but as you’re here…’

Mac gave it some thought.

‘I’m not too bad if I’m honest. I think I needed to be doing something, something to take my mind off things. I’m really surprised I’ve found the energy to do anything, before this case all I wanted to do was just sleep all day, but yesterday I put in a full shift.’

‘Pain is a strange thing. Tell me how do you envisage your pain?’

‘It’s like water,’ Mac replied without hesitation. ‘Every moment of every day is like trying to wade through water, the pain makes it harder to do everything. I feel like I’m constantly putting up a barrier of leaky sandbags while the waves are crashing on the other side and sometimes the waves are just too big, they smash the barrier down and I start drowning.’

‘That’s not a bad analogy. When people ask me about pain, I always say ‘It depends’. How much pain you feel depends on the resources you can muster to fight against it. Some life events, such as bereavement, can remove most of those resources making the pain levels experienced feel much higher. How has the pain medication worked so far?’

‘I wouldn’t be able to do anything without it. Thanks again for suggesting the patches.’

‘I’m glad you’re back at work. I think that you might be one of those people for whom work is the best pain killer. Okay I’ll let you get on and I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.’

‘Thank you doctor,’ Mac said.

As he was making for the door the doctor said, ‘Oh, about your hibernation drug, you might also want to have a word with Sammy Newell. He leads a team of researchers here. If this is some sort of new novel drug Sammy will be the one who knows. He keeps himself abreast of all the latest research going on.’

Sammy Newell, yes that was his name. Mac thanked the doctor again and joined Tommy outside.

‘Oh well, at least it’s got the ball rolling,’ Tommy said.

‘Yes. I’ll just text Bridget.’

He told her he was finished with Dr. Wilkins and asked if Sammy Newell was around. Her reply instructed him to meet her in the hospital restaurant on the lower ground floor in half an hour.

As they made their way there Mac said, ‘I was trying to think of the name of one of the medical researchers, someone Bridget used to go out with, and the doctor gave it to me without me asking. I believe he’s the person you go to here if you want to know what’s going on in the world of medical research. We definitely need to have a word with him.’

Tommy bought them both coffees which they sipped in silence while they waited.

‘She used to go out with this researcher?’ Tommy eventually said, stressing the word ‘used’.

‘How old are you Tommy?’

‘Twenty six.’

Mac sighed again. Tommy too looked much younger.

‘So let me guess you joined at eighteen, did your two years on probation, five years on the beat and then you made detective.’

‘Have you been reading my record?’ Tommy asked with some suspicion.

‘No, that was more or less the same route I took except in those days you only had to do three years on the beat so I was a little younger when I made detective. I was already married by then.’

‘So how did your daughter become a doctor?’

‘It’s what she always wanted to do. I bought her first toy doctor’s kit when she was five, the first of many. She used to love watching all of the hospital dramas and she was already reading medical textbooks from the library when she was only eleven. And she did it, six years at university and two years in training and then she chose paediatrics as her speciality.’

‘That would make her…’

‘Twenty six, the same age as you Tommy. Do you have designs on my daughter?’ Mac asked pointedly.

Tommy’s face reddened.

‘Designs? No, I’ve only just met her and, to be honest, I’m not even sure what that means. She just looks…so different to anyone I’ve ever met before that’s all.’

Mac remembered when he first saw Nora. He’d known straight away that she was the one.

‘Let’s not talk about this again,’ Mac said. ‘I’m certainly not going to help you with my daughter...’

Tommy’s face fell when Mac said this.

‘…but I won’t hinder you either. Just keep me out of it. However, there is one thing you should know.’

‘What’s that?’ Tommy asked.

‘Bridget’s very like her mother in one way, she has a fearful temper, but it disappears as fast as it comes and she never holds a grudge.’

Tommy nodded and simply said, ‘Okay.’

When Bridget arrived Tommy stood up and pulled out a chair for her. She gave Mac a quick questioning glance and Mac replied by rolling his eyes heavenward which made Bridget smile. She thanked Tommy and gave him an appraising look.

‘Find out anything?’ she asked.

‘No but he’s going to ask his team so perhaps one of them might know something. He did mention Sammy Newell’s name however, said if anyone knew he probably would.’

‘I tried ringing him just now but unfortunately he’s on holiday. However I have arranged for you to see one of his colleagues, Dr. Olsen. Sorry Dad but I’ve really got to go, it’s my own outpatient clinic soon, but he isn’t too hard to find. He’s on the fourth floor, turn right out of the lift and it’s the first door on the left. Just ask for him there, he knows you’re coming. Bye Dad,’ she said giving him a big hug. ‘It’s so good to see you back at work, you look so like your old self.’

Then turning to Tommy she said, ‘Pleasure to meet you Detective Nugent.’

‘Just in case you think of something,’ Tommy said as he stood up and slipped a card into her hand. ‘It’s got my mobile on there too, you know just in case…you think of something,’ he said, ending quite lamely.

Mac watched her as she walked away and waited to see what she’d do. As she neared the door, she turned and looked back and she wasn’t looking back at him.

Well Tommy, Mac thought, you might be in with a chance after all.

They followed her instructions and found themselves in a large room filled wall to wall with oversize electronic gizmos and the smell of the seaside. There were a couple of computers but, as for the rest, Mac couldn’t even hazard a guess as to their function. A young man with a three day beard wearing shorts and flip-flops beneath a white lab coat came over to them.

‘Can I help?’ he asked in an antipodean accent, giving them a friendly smile.

Mac assumed he was some sort of lab technician.

‘We’re looking for Dr. Olson. If you could just tell us where he works?’

‘You’re looking at him. You must be Mr. Maguire,’ he said holding out his hand.

Mac shook his hand and, feeling somewhat foolish, introduced Tommy.

‘Your daughter told me something about what you’re working on. Some sort of hibernation drug that can slow your vital signs down to near enough nothing. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. A couple of years ago some researchers found a way to induce hibernation in squirrels and they’ve found out a fair bit about how bears maintain muscle mass and so on during hibernation but nothing close to applying this to humans as far as I know.’

‘If such a drug existed what would it be used for?’ Tommy asked.

‘Well, you see hibernation in a lot of science fiction films, don’t you? I believe it would take almost a year to get to Mars, handy if you could pop into hibernation and save on oxygen and food. I think the real application though would be for people with serious injuries. If we could slow their metabolism down instead of a golden hour, when intervention is most effective, we could have a golden day or even longer. We could save a hell of a lot more people.’

‘So if you had such a drug why wouldn’t you manufacture it? It sounds as though you could make a lot of money.’

‘Absolutely, if such a thing existed every hospital in the world would be buying it. No idea why, unless there were serious side effects of course.’

‘Like Thalidomide you mean?’

‘Exactly. However a lot of people don’t know that Thalidomide is still in use for some types of cancer and autoimmune diseases, we just don’t give it to pregnant women anymore. However some drugs in development have such serious side effects that they could never be used in any circumstances.’

‘Anything else you can tell us?’ Mac asked hopefully.

‘Sorry, unfortunately we’re all specialists these days,’ he said waving at the gleaming machinery, ‘all except Sammy that is. He keeps up with anything and everything to do with the nervous system. He calls us tree huggers, he says we may know a lot about a particular tree but we forget about the forest surrounding it. In his work he’s across papers from all over the world, looking for patterns in other people’s research and, when he spots something, he pulls it all together as one big study. It’s really valuable stuff. While Sammy’s away I’ll ask around though.’

Tommy gave him one of his cards.

‘If you hear anything.’

‘Where is Sammy anyway, isn’t he contactable?’ Mac asked.

‘Unfortunately not. He’s gone white water rafting in the US. I did it last year, in fact I recommended it to Sammy figuring he could do with some time away from his beloved computer. See it’s more than the rafting, its two weeks without any modern technology, trekking across the desert and camping out. Really good fun but no technology, they even make you leave your phone at the base camp.’

‘Isn’t it a bit cold in January?’ Tommy asked.

‘No way, average is over twenty Celsius during the day at this time of the year, during the summer it’s over forty. Best time of the year if you ask me, especially for you Poms who aren’t used to the heat. Anyway he probably won’t be contactable for a while but I’ll leave a text on his mobile so he’ll know when he picks his phone up.’

Holding the card up he said to Tommy, ‘Shall I give him this number?’

‘Yes please, tell him to ring me on my mobile number any time, day or night,’ Tommy replied.

As they waited for the lift Tommy said, ‘Bloody hell, I thought he was the lab technician.’

Mac started laughing.

‘You did too, didn’t you?’ Tommy said, joining in the laughter.

‘It’s a good lesson, never assume unless you have to. Unfortunately I think we’ll have to be doing a lot of that in this case unless we get some hard evidence.’

Mac looked at his watch as they walked towards the car. He was surprised to find it was gone one o’clock.

‘Where to now?’ Tommy asked.

‘That sandwich seems a long time ago now, how about some lunch? I might know a place but first I need to see if someone’s free to meet us.’

Mac rang a number and all Tommy heard was, ‘Yes, it’s has been a long time’ and ‘Okay, two thirty in the usual place.’

‘So where are we going?’

‘To New Scotland Yard or at least a pub nearby. We’re going to meet an old friend of mine who’s something or other in the National Crime Agency, it used to be called the Serious Organised Crime Agency. I don’t know why they feel they have to keep changing things. Anyway I was just wondering if there was any new recreational drugs hitting the street and, if there is, they’ll be the one who’ll know.’ 

Mac directed Tommy to an old pub called the ‘Two Coachmen’ and they were lucky enough to find a disabled space immediately opposite the pub. Inside the pub was old fashioned and inviting with studded leather chairs and dark wood. 

‘The fish and chips are really good here,’ Mac said as he led Tommy towards a little alcove. ‘Good we’ve got just under an hour before my friend arrives, let’s order.’

They both enjoyed their meals and the waitress had just taken their plates away when Mac spotted a familiar figure.

‘God, Katherine it’s so good to see you,’ Mac said with a big smile.

A smartly dressed grey haired woman in her fifties gave Mac a hug.

‘It’s been far too long Mac, I did try and ring several times,’ she said in a soft Scottish accent.

‘I know, I’m sorry but I’ve been in a strange place these last six months. Let me introduce you to my colleague, Detective Tommy Nugent.’

She shook hands with Tommy and sat down opposite him.

‘Tommy this is Katherine Rattray who is…what exactly are you now?’

‘I’m Deputy Director of the Organised Crime Command.’

Tommy was clearly impressed.

Mac smiled.