The Infirmary (DCI Ryan Mysteries prequel)(52)

Ryan was on the cusp of ruling it out; there was too much to lose and no room for error. On the other hand, Lowerson would never gain the experience he needed if he was never given the opportunity to try.

“Alright. Tell him to bring Cooper in. MacKenzie can brief him on a few pointers if we’re not back in time.”

Phillips nodded his agreement and stepped outside to put a call through to Lowerson. In the remaining silence, Ryan turned to Faulkner.

“It’s a big ask, Tom, but I need you to work round the clock on this. Whatever it takes. He’s not stopping now; he’ll have the next one lined up already.” He lifted a hand to encapsulate the room and let it fall again. “He planned all this, right down to his choice of victim. There are any number of women in this city but how many of them could he have vetted personally, spoken to and struck up an acquaintance?”

“Not only that,” Faulkner said. “We’re within walking distance of the hospital where she worked and came into contact with hundreds of people. It wouldn’t take much to strike up conversation and find out that she lived nearby, then to follow her home one day to find out exactly where. If he works at the hospital or anywhere in the vicinity, he could pop back regularly to top up the drugs, so she was always doped up.”

“Yes, he needed to strike a very careful balance. He couldn’t risk an early overdose, or she might die before he had time to play. On the other hand, he had to give her enough so she’d be unresponsive while he was away. He couldn’t risk her making an escape, as she did today.”

“He made a mistake,” Faulkner observed.

“Yes. That tells me he’s either losing control, he was held up, or both.” Ryan took one final, sweeping look around the room. “Whichever it is, it brings us one step closer to finding him. I only hope we can do it before he kills again.”

“He wouldn’t do it so quickly,” Faulkner argued. “He has to know there’s an army of police looking for him.”

Ryan’s mouth flattened into a hard line as he thought of Nicola’s killer prowling around the city, his lust for blood unsated.

“It’s the nature of the beast.”





CHAPTER 22


Back at Police Headquarters, the sun blazed through Gregson’s office window, setting the sky aglow in shades of ochre and cardinal blue but its splendour was lost on the two men who faced one another across the room.

“Ryan, take a seat.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m fine standing.”

“Suit yourself,” Gregson muttered, feeling at a disadvantage. He rose from his chair and walked around to lean against his desk.

“Report,” he said.

“Sir, since my last update, I can confirm we have completed the initial stages of securing the scene of crime at the victim’s home. Nicola Cassidy was twenty-two years old and a medical student at the university, completing her training through the RVI. Her last rotation was spent in Paeds.”

“What?”

“Paediatrics, sir.”

Gregson grunted, and Ryan continued.

“We’re in the process of interviewing her former colleagues in that department but our current focus is centred on A&E.”

“Why?”

Gregson had never been a man to waste words.

“Isobel Harris attended the department within weeks of her death. If our working theory is that her killer works in A&E or is associated with the department, the timescale would have given him enough time to research her personal situation and plan his approach. DCI Cooper was known to the A&E department already given her professional duties and our most recent victim, Nicola Cassidy, completed a rotation in Emergency Medicine late last year. There’s enough of an opportunity, sir, for somebody minded to kill.”

“You’re reaching, Ryan.”

“It’s the only thing that connects the three of them so far,” Ryan argued.

“Cooper believed LoveLife connected them,” Gregson said. “What makes you think she’s wrong?”

“I don’t think she was wrong. Cooper thought Harris’s killer had clinical training and I happen to agree. In fact, everybody other than the Head of Emergency Medicine agrees with that working theory. The only difference is that Cooper focused on the dating site whereas I believe we should focus on the hospitals. The fact that two of our victims have associations with the RVI narrows down the search radius.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

Ryan had thought about that. He’d lain awake most of the previous night asking himself the same question, without any satisfactory answer.

“All I can do is my job,” he said. “If I’m wrong, then I’ll have more names on my conscience and I’ll have to live with that.”

Gregson’s eyebrows drew together.

“You didn’t kill those women,” he said. “You needn’t have them on your conscience.”

Ryan said nothing, only continued to stare at the wall above Gregson’s head until the older man let out a long sigh.

“Speaking of the Head of Emergency Medicine, I’ve had Draycott on the phone. He wants to make a formal complaint about how you barged into a protected area and threw your weight around, thereby obstructing the work of his team. Care to comment?”