‘Don’t worry – you’re safe. He’s not going to get to you here. But we need to catch this man before he does it again.’
Kim didn’t want to frighten her further by admitting that two other women hadn’t been as lucky.
Isobel’s look of horror turned to frustration. ‘I don’t…’
‘Save your throat,’ Kim instructed. ‘I just want to see if we can shake anything loose.’
Isobel nodded, but the frown remained. Kim saw her look to Duncan for reassurance. He smiled and squeezed her hand. ‘You’re doing great, Izzy.’
‘There are marks on the back of your legs and your stomach,’ Kim explained. ‘Do you have any idea where they came from?’
Isobel shook her head.
‘Do you remember anything about being taken, a smell, a sound, anything?’
Isobel shook her head.
‘Do you have any recollection of where you might have been taken from?’
She shook her head and then looked to Duncan who was pained that he could offer no response.
‘Is there anything in your mind to do with where you were held, anything at all?’ Kim asked.
Isobel’s eyes filled with tears and Kim understood.
With no memory of anything she was looking into an empty space. She knew nothing about herself. Her mind was an alien place to be with nothing familiar, nothing she knew. No memories of herself or people that she cared for.
Duncan stroked her arm. ‘It’s okay, babe. It’ll come back.’
Kim hoped he was right, not only for her own sake, and what she might learn for the investigation, but for Isobel too.
Otherwise the woman had to start again. She had to make a whole new person. Her memories would begin from about half an hour ago, providing the equipment was still working, but that was a worry for another day.
As Kim opened her mouth she caught sight of the doctor at the entrance to the bay.
He had said she couldn’t take long and he was reminding her of her instruction. She couldn’t tire the patient too much.
She was tempted to keep asking questions in case just one smidgeon of information had become lodged in the brain before the injury had washed it away. Just one stubborn recollection that was hanging on the end of a thought.
But it would be unfair and probably fruitless.
Kim stood and returned the easy chair to its position.
‘Isobel, you’re doing great, so don’t push yourself to recall stuff. The harder you try the more it may stay out of reach.
‘I’m going to leave my card here. If you do remember anything ask Duncan to give me a call.’
Isobel nodded and attempted a weak smile. Duncan nodded too. He looked tired and sad.
‘You okay?’ Kim couldn’t help but ask.
‘I’m fine,’ he said brightening.
‘You need rest too,’ she advised. Hospitals were draining, and the worry was etched into his face.
‘I’m okay. I’m going to fetch a few things for Izzy when I leave here.’ He turned to his girlfriend. ‘Pink pyjamas. You always wear pink.’
Kim enjoyed the expression of warmth that spread across Isobel’s face. Facts, information, any little nugget would be gratefully received and hopefully stored.
Kim wondered how many times the finite detail of their few dates would be recounted back to her over the coming days. And each time she would learn something new about the person she was.
Kim said her farewells and headed back to the doctor.
‘Sorry if I overstayed.’
‘No, no, Inspector. It’s not that. There’s something I think you should know.’
He stepped away from the opening to the ward.
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.’