Murder Club - Mark Pearson [70]
She looked at the Amazon gift page she was browsing and then closed it with a sigh. She was already carrying the best present she could give him, he always said. But she’d think of something!
Her phone went and she snatched it off her desk. ‘Dr Kate Walker.’
The voice on the other end was male. He was speaking quietly. ‘Hey Kate, it’s Ben Fielding.’
Kate nodded and pushed some papers around, looking for a pen. ‘What have you got for me, Ben?’
‘The blood-work and sample analysis back on your mysterious woman.’
‘And?’
‘No semen. No blood. No foreign pubic hairs. Some evidence of lubricant.’
‘Consistent with a condom?’
‘No. Too much for that.’
‘Okay.’
‘Her blood had a cocktail of drugs showing in it, and her alcohol levels were very high for the morning after. I’ll email you the report. But you didn’t get anything from me.’
‘Of course not. Goes without saying.’
‘But I’m not at all surprised this lady didn’t remember anything of what happened. It’d be amazing if she did.’
‘Thanks again, Ben. I owe you one.’
‘No, you don’t, we’re quits.’
Kate sat at her desk for a moment or two, pondering the implications after she had hung up her phone. And then moved her thumb on the touchpad of her laptop to bring up her mailbox, to see if the reports were there. They weren’t yet, but another message had come in. She read the subject line and clicked it it to open.
Then she took out her mobile and hit a speed-dial button. The phone was answered after a couple of rings.
‘Hey, gorgeous, I was just thinking about you.’
‘Getting all hot and bothered, were you,’ Delaney replied on the other end of the line, lowering his voice and putting on the brogue.
‘Always. But I was thinking of what I should get you for Christmas.’
‘Why don’t I take you down to Agent Provocateur in Broadwick Street? I’ll help you pick something out for me.’
‘I don’t think stockings and suspenders would be a good look for you.’
Delaney laughed. ‘I wasn’t planning on wearing them myself.’
‘So, you still at the hospital?’
‘Just grabbing a coffee. Both witnesses are unavailable for comment right now. Hope to speak to Bible Steve soon. He had a bit of a turn.’
‘Well I just heard back from the World Peace Mission. Seems Geoffrey’s brother, Jeremy Hunt, was a missionary with them. Also a reverend with the Church of England, but peripatetic as it were, overseas.’
‘Go on.’
‘The World Peace Mission is tracking down his medical records. Not easy from twenty years ago, if you think that he was in Africa at the time and the Internet wasn’t anything like as accessible as it is today.’
‘When will we get them?’
‘This afternoon, they promised.’
‘Good work.’
‘I do my best.’
‘And you do it very prettily.’
‘Now that wouldn’t be a sexist remark, would it, Jack?’
‘It’s a statement of fact, Doctor. My job, after all, is sifting the facts from the fiction.’
‘And you do it very handsomely.’
‘I do my best.’
‘So are you just going to hang around until you’re allowed in to speak to the witnesses?’
‘I’m going to speak to the reverend’s wife. See if she has anything to add.’
‘Send her my regards.’
‘Will do.’
‘And be gentle with her, she’s an old lady.’
‘This is an old murder.’
‘True. But Patricia Hunt is no murderer.’
‘Everybody has secrets, Kate.’
‘Part of your job is wheedling them out?’
‘Yup.’
Kate ran her hand, slightly guiltily, over her stomach. ‘You just take care of yourself, is all.’
‘Hey, I’m always careful out there. Bye, darling, catch you later.’
‘Bye, honey.’
Kate hung up and looked down at her stomach. ‘Because he has to take care of us too, doesn’t he? He has to take care of all of us,’ she said in a soothing voice.
An incoming message beeped on her computer and Kate pulled up the report just in from Ben Fielding.