‘What difference does that make?’
‘These big needles – orange ones you say were inserted in you – they were in both arms. Surely there’d be puncture marks?’
‘You’re not hearing me. You haven’t listened to what I said. They were there. I saw them. That was obviously a part of his plan to fool me into believing I had been injured. To fool me into believing I was incapable of moving. The whole thing was designed to make me think I was defenceless so that I .?.?. so that I agreed to let him do what he wanted.’
A small smile curved the young officer’s lips. She looked at Tom Collins and Maggie Fielding. Alex saw them each make brief eye contact with one another. They were sending messages with their eyes and she was being excluded. This was a private club where only the professionals were allowed – not the victims.
‘This would scare me if this was a movie,’ Laura Best almost tittered.
Anger drove Alex off the cushioned trolley and she stood in her bare feet and a hospital gown a foot away from Officer Best. ‘Well it’s not a fucking movie, so take that smirk off your face. I didn’t fucking dream this up! I was attacked. I was abducted, and if I hadn’t agreed to what he wanted I’d be fucking dead in a morgue right now.’
‘I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. We’re not saying this didn’t happen,’ she said, including Tom Collins and Maggie Fielding in this statement. ‘We’re just trying to understand. Your underwear and your shoes were in place. Every button on your dress was done up.’
And then she said what she was really thinking, what had obviously been going on in her mind all through this interview. ‘Your colleagues tell me you had a difficult day.’
Alex’s head whipped up at the careful tone.
‘No more than usual. It’s always a difficult day in A & E, or haven’t you noticed?’
‘More so than usual, is my understanding. Unless of course it’s every day you lose a baby?’
‘I .?.?. I .?.?. She was already dead when the ambulance brought her in. There was nothing we could do for that baby!’
‘I think Alex has had enough,’ Maggie Fielding cut in. ‘She needs to rest. And DC Best, next time you have a case such as this I think it would be appropriate to have a more senior officer present, or at least one trained in sexual offences, as I’m sure you’ll be told when you report back.’
Maggie Fielding was not Alex’s favourite person at the best of times. She was a brilliant gynaecologist, but her manner was usually brusque. Right now Alex was glad of her presence.
‘I want Patrick. Where’s Patrick? I need him here!’
Maggie Fielding nodded. ‘He’s here. He’s waiting outside.’
‘Well I want him! Patrick,’ she hollered. ‘Patrick!’
In Patrick’s arms she finally wept. In between incoherent cries she told him of her night. He was explosive in his shock, demanding that Laura Best find this man. He demanded she get more police in and asked why he hadn’t seen a posse of them searching the hospital yet. It was only Alex that managed to keep him from running into the night to search for the man, her grip on his hands unwilling to let go, her need for him to stay finally getting through. In his arms she was finally safe and finally soothed enough to sleep.
Chapter four
Laura Best stood next to Patrick Ford. Despite the night he’d spent at his girlfriend’s bedside he still looked well-groomed and fresh. He was ready to question her again, judging by the intensity of his gaze. Well he could wait; it was her turn. She didn’t get a chance to take a statement from him last night, between him challenging her to find this man dressed as a surgeon and his need to comfort his girlfriend.
They’d just walked around the car park, and he’d shown her where he and a security guard had found the doctor and where he’d been parked. Only a few cars away, and yet he hadn’t seen her. His explanation for this was understandable. He’d arrived, waited a short while, then gone into the department to look for her, only to be told she’d left fifteen minutes earlier. He decided she must have got a taxi to his place because he was late to pick her up, so he’d returned home before coming back to the hospital to begin a search.
‘Why were you late?’ Laura asked him.
Patrick Ford shrugged. ‘I wasn’t, really. What I mean is I wasn’t late considering how long I normally wait for her. She’s never on time coming out of the place. I finished surgery – I’m a vet – a bit late, about five or ten minutes, but I wasn’t unduly worried because like I said, Alex is always late. I got here about nine forty, maybe nine forty-five.’
‘And at what time did you come back again to start looking for her?’
‘Probably eleven. It takes me twenty minutes each way to get home and back again. I hung around at home for about a quarter of an hour to see if she’d turn up.’
Laura was surprised. ‘So how come it took so long to find her?’
‘Ineptness would be a good term to use,’ he replied irritably. ‘We only initially searched between the cars. We then wasted time searching the hospital, checking wards to see if she was with a patient. Even when we found her, she wasn’t obviously visible, lying beneath the trees, because it’s pitch black at night over there.’
‘How is she this morning? Has she said anything further?’
He shook his head. ‘She’s sleeping.’
‘Do you have any ideas about what happened?’
His head lifted in surprise. ‘What do you mean?’
She gave a slight shrug. ‘Just any thoughts you might have had about last night?’
‘Are you telling me you don’t believe her?’’ His tone was challenging. ‘I don’t know what to think. I’m shocked by what I’ve heard. But I haven’t for a second doubted what Alex has told me.’ He stared at her intently. ‘I take it you’ve searched for this man? You’ve at least checked out her story?’
Laura nodded her head purposefully. ‘Absolutely. Yes. We’ve searched all the theatres, the grounds, and talked to theatre staff. And now, of course, you and I have just seen where you found her. The branches above her were heavily shaken in the wind. There’s debris and bits of branch, some quite heavy, all around where she lay. She had a bump on her head and she was knocked out.’
‘So you’re saying a tree branch could have knocked her out? ’ he said tersely. ‘But it’s not what she said occurred, is it?’