CHAPTER 18
Sgt. Huston announced that he'd received the results of the exhumation, when Tom and William were away in the city. William could not even begin to imagine that he'd have to go on a hunt for masks and negotiate with suppliers. In the last week, life both in the city and in the whole country had 'gone bananas' as Tom put it.
'Come on, talk to the Sergeant,' William shouted, gesturing to Tom. His boss nodded his head, moving the mask away from his mouth.
'Speak, Jimmy!' Tom shouted, feeling the Sergeant's hesitation on the other end of the phone.
'This is confidential information, Sir, and discussion over the phone isn't…'
The black inspector shrugged.
'Okay, you're right,' he admitted. 'More generally speaking, what's happened?'
The sergeant replied in an even tone: 'In general? The tests have been done and results are ready.'
'I'm going to go, Tom,' William got up and shoved his phone into his pocket, but it clipped his pocket and fell to the floor with a minor crack of the screen.
'You're nervous, Bill, I can tell. Jimmy's a little asshole! Let's go together,' Tom took a glass of unfinished coffee and the pair headed for the door.
Weirdly, there were a lot of people in the office. Everyone was wearing a mask, behind all of them were annoyed, sweaty faces.
Sergeant Huston arrived and closed the door to Tom's office behind him.
'Here are the results, Sir,' he said, handing a folder to Tom. The inspector looked at William and gestured towards two chairs. The pair of them sat down.
'Tell me everything. I've not got the time to read,' Tom exclaimed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a napkin. The air conditioning in his office had never been repaired.
'The hair in Woodruff's house is a young girl's, but the body in the grave is different. According to the results, there's no cross-over between the two. The burnt corpse belongs to Samantha Takeros, who had been killed and buried the week before. We'll have to order the opening of her grave as well to confirm this, but we can discuss it in more detail later. It looks like four years ago someone's dug up Samantha's corpse and put it in a car to mislead us. For now, we're assuming that this was the driver of the car. Now we just need to get permission to visit the clinic. The deception must've happened there.'
'That's for sure. It can't be anywhere else. They've already taken tests there, I'm sure of it!' William exclaimed louder than usual, not taking any notice of Tom's raised hand. 'If we have to wait for permission, this will stall the investigation. Do you get what I'm saying? Right, what's happening on the matter of patrols? I can call the head physician and department head. We can…'
'Wait! He's got more to say!' Tom stopped him and looked at Huston.
'We've got access to the archives for this case. By tomorrow, I'll have the names of employees who've worked in the morgue and been identified. Also, I've sent another request to the clinic for information. No one's confirmed when they'll get back to me yet, as they're busy with a government assistance program. We'll have to wait for a reply to my email, it'll take as long as it takes.'
'Ah! The clinic! We've got to get there urgently,' William took off his mask and pushed his collar down. Even though he felt a rush of blood to the head, his thoughts remained clear. 'Get some water, would you?' he requested and soon enough, he took out some soothing pills and washed them down from the plastic cup Tom was wielding in front of him. The inspector shook his head and sighed, whilst Sgt. Huston didn't react at all.
'However, this information just doesn't add up,' Huston added. 'When we inspected Woodruff's car, other several long hairs were found. Bryson found that, as if by magic, there were some with hair roots, which will help to make a DNA-test, although the rest has been cut off. All of our samples are completely identical to those found in Woodruff's house. Therefore, we've got reason to believe that a trace of hair has gone from his house to his car that was found in the parking lot, and we need to trace whoever this is to find out if they were alive. I highly doubt they were, given the fact that most of the hair has been cut off and just a few with roots were found on it. It's not plausible that whoever was in the car got their hair cut whilst on the move.'
'Maybe Woodruff drove around with this person's head? It's just an idea.'
William appeared critical in his response.
'Are you mad? Sofia's head? Where did you get that idea? Could it just be a soccer ball that's been covered up? But..!' an idea had soon shot into William's head. 'It could be a wig. That's it! It's definitely a wig! If there's no fingerprints and the hair is scattered all over the place, then it must be a wig.'
'It sounds plausible. Then we've got to assume that Sofia came here to meet her mother, and also that this meeting was arranged by Woodruff. What do you think? Did that idea not occur to you?' at this moment, Tom raised his eyebrows inquisitively, whilst everyone remained silent.
'Can I please go on?' Huston asked, whilst Tom gestured for him to continue. 'The most interesting find we've got is a handkerchief, made of old cotton. It's embroidered too. If it's needed, we can find out where the threads are from. Of chief importance, though, is the fact that dried saliva was found on it and it's not Woodruff's. Sam did his best to examine it, and he found out who it belongs to.'
'Can you cut this down Jimmy?' William begged to the Sergeant.
'Of course, I can. The DNA found matches both you and your wife's, as well as that of the hair. It's not exactly identical, though, meaning that we're dealing with a third person in all of this.'
'Oh, good Lord, what does that mean? One of them must've been cloned then!' William proclaimed stupidly. Tom waved his hand dismissively and attention turned back to the Sergeant.
'It's not a clone of yours, most likely a child. Sam has said he'll have to do another test. There isn't a way at the moment because of the hysteria with the virus, but later on he'll be sure to find out how to contact the lab.'
'That's a pain. How could we do that?'
'Bill, if you want a simple explanation,' Tom began, 'We've got reason to believe Sofia's alive and she's got a child. The burning question at the moment is why they were or weren't in Woodruff's house and why they were in his car.'
'Woodruff may not have taken them in a car,' the sergeant declared. 'There aren't any prints inside his car, so we can only discuss the handkerchief, the hair and test results at this moment. As the lieutenant said, it might be a wig. In addition, the handkerchief could be something that Woodruff was carrying in his car for some reason.'
'Come off it! He must've done all this for fun and then given the wig, as well as his laptop and phone to this mysterious third person to take elsewhere. This just doesn't add up,' Tom scoffed. 'Jimmy, let's do this by the book. What needs to be done? Today I've spoken with the mayor, and she believes that there'll be a state of emergency soon – you know what this will mean for the city. It'll become paralyzed. Look, I know what you want me to say – every case is just as important as the next one. Seriously, though, what can William and I do without impeding on your progress? Think of it as us working simultaneously.'
'That's the only thing – bring me a list of employees and those who work at the morgue or the documents from the archive. All the information we need will definitely be there. Following that, we'll immediately call those listed for questioning, but if quarantine is introduced, we won't be able to do a thing. Everything will be at a standstill.'
'Right, now I get it!' William declared with a renewed vigor. 'No one can stop me from asking questions to the director and head physician about how they've treated my daughter, right? By the way, I've also got official permission to interrogate that woman in the clinic, Laura Median.'
'It's not an easy case either, quite the confusing one. Her husband has disappeared, yet all the bills for the clinic have been paid,' Huston scratched his head, looking puzzled. 'New evidence has emerged, so I don't know if it's worth using Laura Median for questioning. It seems like a bad idea, but it's not illegal.'
'I've got to go now. Jimmy, I owe you one. Could you print all those documents for me whilst I'm calling the director or head physician? I hope the two of them won't need to get approval from the court or the clinic's board of directors first.'
'Well, don't mind me. I'll just be sitting here!' Tom joked.
William sounded sincere in his response. 'Boss, you're always right and cover our asses. Thanks for that!'
Neither the director nor the head physician could answer the call, and it was only the head of department, Theresa Fly, who was free to listen. She answered briefly with a simple 'Yes, come down,' and after that, she hung up.
CHAPTER 19
In the clinic, he was taken to a familiar office in the right wing of the building where the lean and tall physician greeted him with a tired look. The bags under her eyes became all the more visible, as William approached and her cheeks were drained of any color, giving her a pained expression. Theresa Fly, who stayed inside the office, didn't look any better.
The conversation didn't get off to a good start. William shouldn't open with the test results, as both women interrupted as soon as he tried to speak. Their manner was rather formal. William soon grew tired of this, bit his tongue, and spoke in a softer tone.
'Sorry to interrupt, and don't think I'm blaming for you for anything. It's just the matter of my daughter. I haven't ever told anyone about this, but it feels right to tell you. For all this time, she only lived in the memory of my wife and I. We couldn't cope with the loss of her. Sure, it was our fault, and when my wife died, I realized it was all my fault due to my mistakes. Do you get what I'm saying here? I've made all these mistakes in life and it's only now I see I've been deceived and that someone helped me do it. I've got no idea who did it, but I know that someone convinced me that my daughter died in that car and I couldn't save her. I feel like someone's mocking me for this, you know, and it's as if someone's done it on purpose to make me suffer even more. I couldn't find any common ground with my wife either, and now she's dead. I feel even more tormented by the fact that there's been malicious intent in their actions. I want to get their truth and I really don't need any other evidence or accusations from you.'
'Do you want us to suffer as well? Mr. Lindstone, if anything, we sympathize with you. Although we've got a psychiatric clinic, there's no reception to provide you with any help or guidance,' the head doctor spoke coldly. It was a hard hit for William to take; he hadn't expected such a harsh answer. Even the department head Theresa Fly had to purse her lips. William had to admit that the doctors were right in their own way. 'You've got to understand how tense it is here as well. We're in a difficult situation due to red tape and you've no idea the impact that this virus will have on us, even though we don't have any details of its threat as yet. We're also overworked with work piling up in every corner and to make matters even worse, budgets are having to be stretched further on new products such as ventilators and oxygen canisters, since the government aren't giving us a penny. This will have a knock-on effect in the future and could mean some streamlining will have to take place. We've got to follow a structured plan to avoid any potential chaos. I'm pretty sure you're in the same boat as us. Moving on, if you don't mind, I understand you told Dr. Fly that you've got clearance for a discussion with Laura Median?'
'Yes, I have', William said in a hoarse voice, looking around for a water cooler. He needed to take some medication again. He was raging inside and from past experience knew that it could come out uncontrollably. 'Can I have some water please?'
The department head brought him a glass of water whilst the head doctor familiarized herself with the documents. She glanced at the packaging of William's medication, as he squeezed a pill from their foil, and remained quiet.
'Mr Lindstone, you'll be taken to the patient's room now, and Dr. Fly will remain present in the room while you talk.'
When they got to the room, another medical professional stood outside. After talking to him, Theresa invited William in. The conversation with Laura didn't go well once again. She tucked her legs up and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at him and answering in short bursts. She couldn't tell him anything new, and it was only at the conversation's end that she suddenly sat up, raised her head and looked meaningfully at William and Theresa.
'He's gone,' said Laura Median.
'Who's gone?' William began to look around in search of someone moving around. 'Is she talking about the nurse?' he asked Dr. Fly softly. She shrugged. Laura suddenly turned her attention to the head of the department with constant questioning.
'Yes, that's it. He's gone, he was killed; now I'm here. He was also killed for this, right? How long will I be here?'
'Erm, sorry, but it appears we were talking with your husband about stabilizing your condition.'
'When?'
'When you were admitted to us.'
'How much did he pay, and how long for?' Laura looked at the doctor carefully, with a slight sparkle in her eyes, as if she were about to cry, but it become more a look of fear than sadness.
'A month,' Theresa sounded surprised at her own answer.
'That means a month, which is until the thirtieth, then it's over. So, something's going to happen on the first or second of May. They'll come, I'm certain,' following these words, Laura curled up into a ball and fell silent. William took out his phone and a message flashed up on the screen. It was Tom and William needed to call back.
'Sorry, I've got to go and call someone,' he turned to the doctor and gestured to his phone. Theresa allowed him to go outside. William went outside and called Tom.
'Wrap that questioning up and make your way back to the office. That woman's husband has been found – name's Patrick Median, and he was killed in a tent city in the suburbs. It's not in our department, but Jimmy was informed, so it's right for us to discuss it.'
'Wait, why? Does she know?' asked William, but Tom didn't hear and had already hung up.
A nurse came out of the nurses' station and looked at William.
'Are you finished?' she asked. Behind her, flowers were on a windowsill, and it became apparent that someone was watering them, as a hand with a watering can emerged from behind the nurse.
'Not quite, but maybe you can help me. Have you been working here long?'
'Quite a while, fifteen years,' the nurse spoke with pride. 'I remember you and your wife, and what happened with you daughter. It was terrible.'
'Indeed so,' William replied, nodding. 'Do you remember who the clinic's pathologist was at the time? Did they work here, or were they from an outside agency?'
'We had our own staff back then, different times now. It's not necessary to have so many staff these days. Back then, they were all working as we had to deal with so many homeless people – our foundation was involved directly with city hall.'
'Excuse me, Miss, err?'
'Mrs. Lawton. Claudia Lawton.'
'Thank you, Mrs. Lawton. Can you remember any of your colleague's names?'
'Course I can! These staff were real professionals. There was George McCall the elderly pathologist, he worked here for a long time and just retired. Martin Schulz was with him – he's working now. Then there was Fred Brown, a young and talented specialist. Everyone often praised him for his expertise. He too left a few years back for the Central City Hospital. Daniel was a friend of his. Danny, do you remember Fred?' the nurse turned to someone else at the station, whilst William quickly typed those names into his phone. As soon as he'd finished, Dr. Fly left the ward.
'Mr. Lindstone, are you finished yet?' she asked. The nurse soon left and returned to the station.
'Sorry, what? Oh, I have, yes,' William answered. He was caught between the head of department's gaze, his unfinished conversation with the nurse and his phone. 'My boss called and so I've asked the nurse a couple of questions,' he realized it fell on deaf ears as the nurse had gone.
'I'm only asking you these questions since the patient requires care and because I'm busy. For everyone here, the most important thing is the patients' state of mind. Sometimes it works better than any medication ever can. It's like justice for you, even though that can sometimes hurt, right?'
'Yes, justice hurts,' William declared, a little puzzled, before looking at his phone and remembering that he needed to go back to the office. 'I've got to go,' he added. 'Can you sign these papers so I can leave you in peace?' he spoke in an assertive tone, leaving Dr. Fly a little struck, but she took a pen and silently signed the papers. After a few minutes, William had already begun his drive back and was calling Tom but the inspector didn't pick up.
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