Play Dead (D.I. Kim Stone, #4)(59)

Kim followed.

‘The blood tests you asked for have come back. There was a definite trace of Rohypnol in her blood, but there’s something else.’

‘Go on,’ Kim urged.

He turned to the clipboard and consulted the notes one more time.

‘Our patient has hepatitis C.’

Kim stepped back and glanced into the ward.

Duncan was helping his girlfriend take a drink of water from the plastic beaker.

She couldn’t help but wonder if either of them knew.





Fifty-Two





Kim found Bryant just outside the café chatting with a broad male on crutches. She marvelled. Bryant was one of those guys who could run into someone he knew anywhere.

He saw her, shook the man’s hand and joined her as she exited the building.

‘Get anything?’ he asked.

‘She has no memory at all. Who she is, where she works, childhood, nothing. It’s all blank. He did a real number on her head. She’s lucky to be alive at all.’

‘Will anything come back?’ he asked as they neared the car.

‘No one can say. We all know how tricky head injuries can be. We just have to wait and see.’

She took a breath before continuing. ‘But the doc also told me she has hep C.’

He stopped walking. ‘Really?’

The blood disease was infectious and affected the liver. Overall fifty to eighty per cent of people treated were cured.

But more interesting was the fact that hep C was spread primarily by blood-to-blood contact normally associated with intravenous drug use, poorly sterilised medical equipment and transfusions.

‘Not sure how that helps us, guv,’ Bryant said, opening the driver’s door.

‘Me either but let’s just try and escape this bloody hospital for more than a couple of hours, shall we?’

Bryant nodded his agreement.

‘Right, let’s head for Stourton again, eh?’ she said. Hopefully Jemima’s head teacher would be able to offer them something.

‘Er… not quite, guv,’ Bryant said. ‘I’m under strict instructions to return you to the station. Woody wants to see you straightaway and I’m not gonna lie… he doesn’t sound like he wants to treat you to afternoon tea.’

Kim nodded her understanding as she slid into the front seat of the car.

‘Oh and Stace wants you to give her a call back.’

Kim took out her phone and dialled.

‘I think I’ve got her, boss,’ Stacey said without a greeting. Her staff knew when brevity was the order of the day.

‘Our girl?’ she asked hopefully.

‘Yeah, spoke to Jemima’s mother. Jemima was chummy with a girl named Louise Hickman, who had a child when she was fifteen years old. I’ve checked with Education and I’ve got her last known address. It’s from her school days but…’

‘Read it out, Stace,’ Kim said. It was a starting point.

Kim listened to the address, which was just a few miles away in Wordsley.

‘Good job, Stace,’ Kim said, ending the call.

Bryant already appeared to know what was coming.

‘Guv, I said I’m under strict instructions to get you—’

‘And I’m under strict instructions to make sure nobody else ends up like Louise and Jemima, so turn the car around, Bryant.’

She already knew why Woody wanted to see her, and she was in no rush at all for that conversation.





Fifty-Three





Dawson walked the entire width of the field one more time. The techs had uncovered nothing more than two pieces of fabric that may or may not have been connected to their victim. Given that the area had been open fields before Westerley meant it was highly unlikely. They had been logged and bagged anyway.

What he’d really been hoping for was the rock that had been used to bash their victim’s head in. He was still hoping for some piece of crucial evidence that would blow the whole case wide open, and that was why he’d walked the field.

He knew that it was part of the forensic procedure to do it, but if he’d learned anything from his boss it was never take anything for granted.

As he walked back towards the grave site of their most recent victim he noted the professor’s presence there.

Dawson quickened his step and sighed. He had already had to instruct the professor to leave the techies to their work on two separate occasions.

‘Professor Wright, may I help you?’ he said as he neared the site.

Bobby, the tech in charge, turned towards him and rolled his eyes.

Professor Wright smiled and shook his head. ‘Just checking that everything is okay.’

Dawson understood that he was responsible for the site but constant interruptions just delayed their progress even more.

Dawson placed a hand on the professor’s elbow and began to guide him away. ‘They’re fine, Professor. They’re a bit of a strange bunch, not very sociable,’ he said. There was no need to be offensive to the man.

He nodded knowingly. ‘Oh I understand. Us scientists tend to be like that.’

‘Quite,’ Dawson agreed, removing his hand from the man’s elbow. There was a good 150 feet of space between them and the techies now.