Murder Club - Mark Pearson [92]
Bible Steve was sitting up in bed now. He seemed different, his eyes more focused. Not as scared.
‘You say you have been having flashes of memory?’
‘Just fragments really. You know, like a dream. When you wake up and try to hold onto it and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes just bits of it.’
‘You seem a lot more lucid.’ Kate turned to Dr Crabbe. ‘Do you think his memory is returning?’
‘Possibly. As I explained to Steve, amnesia can be caused by a number of things. Shock can often be a part of that. And another traumatic episode can have the reverse effect. He has been through a lot these last few days.’
‘These fragments,’ continued Diane Campbell. ‘Can you tell us about them?’
The old man rubbed his eyes. ‘Just people, faces,’ he said.
‘Do you know who they are?’
‘No. At least, I think I did know them once. And I can see buildings. Tall, granite buildings. And I can see a house. I think it’s possible I might have lived there.’
‘Do you remember the road? The town?’
Bible Steve closed his eyes tight shut, then opened them and shook his head. ‘I can’t, I’m sorry. If I try it just fades away.’
‘Don’t try and force it. Sometimes these things take time,’ said Kate.
‘Can you remember anything of Friday night?’ asked Diane, in a manner that suggested time was something they didn’t have.
‘No.’
‘You were with a young woman. You were both attacked. Did you hurt anyone, Steve?’
‘I can’t remember. Why would I hurt anyone?’
Diane Campbell’s phone beeped in her pocket. ‘I’m sorry, I have to take this,’ she said and went out into the corridor.
‘Make sure that woman doesn’t upset him further.’ The registrar went to check on a patient next door. The intensive care unit was always a bit of a revolving door, Kate knew only too well from her own days on rotation in the department. She didn’t miss them one bit. Beds becoming vacant were not always a good sign.
She sat down on the chair beside the homeless man’s bed.
‘I watched the police footage of you being booked in on Friday, Steve,’ she said. ‘I know that Steve isn’t your real name, but do you mind me calling you that?’
Steve shook his head.
‘In the footage you seemed to recognise the police surgeon who attended to you.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Doctor Laura Chilvers. She has been in to see you.’
‘The blonde lady. The angel.’
‘Yes, you called her that in the station. Why is that?’
‘I don’t know. It just came into my head. I know her, I think.’
‘Where from, Steve?’
‘I don’t know. But I can see her. And there is blood on my hands.’
His forehead furrowed as he tried to remember. ‘Did I try to kill her?’
‘You recognised her before you were attacked, Steve. At the police station.’
‘Did I want to hurt her?’
‘I don’t know.’
64.
KATE WALKER FLIPPED the X-ray transparency onto the light box and clicked the switch.
She looked at the skeletal chest that was exposed and traced her finger across it.
She flicked off the light and stood there looking for a moment, contemplating.
‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ asked Dr Crabbe.
‘Yes. I think I did.’
‘Good.’
‘Maybe. I’m not so sure that it is good. Do you think he’ll make it?’
Dr Crabbe considered for a while, then shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t think he will.’
Lorraine Eddison held a paper tissue and blew her nose. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘You have nothing to be sorry for, Lorraine,’ answered Jack Delaney.
‘Yes I do.’
‘It wasn’t your fault you were attacked.’
‘I shouldn’t have been walking alone at night. I should have got a taxi. I had had too much to drink.’
‘None of that makes it your fault,’ said Sally Cartwright. ‘The man who attacked you is a sick predator.’
‘Did he rape you, Lorraine?’
‘No. But he tried to.’
‘You managed to get away?’
‘He held a knife to my side and said if I shouted out or screamed he would kill me.’
‘Just like Michael Robinson,’ said DC Cartwright.
‘I saw on the news that he had been killed.’
‘That’s right, Lorraine.’
‘But this wasn’t him. I was attacked after he was arrested.’
‘We know.