‘So why is this the first I’ve heard about it?’
‘It didn’t seem important until now.’
‘Since when has it been your job to decide what is and isn’t important?’
‘It was uncorroborated gossip. I only found out about Gary Lennox an hour or so ago, and I would have told you straight away if Whelan hadn’t called first.’
‘You shouldn’t have been at their house anyway. What the hell did you think you were doing?’
I’d never seen her so angry, but I wasn’t happy about this either. ‘Visiting an old woman and her son who’re struggling to cope,’ I shot back. ‘If I’d known about any of it sooner I’d have done things differently, but I didn’t. Would you rather I’d just ignored them?’
‘Right now, yes! And this had better not be a backdoor way of getting social services to help them out.’ She held up a hand to stop me as I started to object. ‘All right, that’s not fair. But you shouldn’t be talking to potential witnesses, let alone possible suspects, behind my back. Oduya was bad enough, but after this I’m starting to wish I’d let Mears…’
She didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to. ‘Let Mears what?’ I demanded. ‘Examine Christine Gorski as well?’
Good luck with that, I thought, furious. After the mess he’d got into with just two victims, God knew what he’d have done faced with the responsibility of all three.
But I couldn’t say that without making the situation worse. And Ward seemed to be regretting her loss of temper as well. She made a visible effort to rein herself back.
‘OK, let’s both calm it down. I know you didn’t do it deliberately. And I appreciate you offering to help Mears like you did.’
I thought I’d misheard. ‘Sorry, say that again?’
‘Don’t get me wrong, I know it was well meant. But Mears is a big boy, he doesn’t need any help. You should stick to your own responsibilities in future.’
Jesus. ‘What exactly did he say?’
‘Just that you’d stopped by the mortuary and offered to lend a hand. He wasn’t complaining, as such. He was very polite about it.’
I bet he was. I tried to keep a lid on my temper. ‘You seriously think I’d just “stop by” the mortuary at eleven o’clock at night?’
Ward studied me for a moment. ‘OK, probably not. But whatever’s going on between you two, either sort it out or keep it between yourselves. We’ve enough problems as it is without the pair of you getting into a pissing contest.’
I didn’t trust myself to respond to that. Bloody Mears. ‘So do you still want me on the cadaver dog search?’
‘If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here. I just want you to stop all these extracurricular activities you seem to find.’
‘I don’t go looking for them.’
‘Maybe not, but they seem to find you anyway.’ She sighed. ‘Look, we’re under a lot of scrutiny. I’m under a lot of scrutiny. Ainsley’s still furious about yesterday, what with Jessop kicking off and then Luke Gorski nearly passing out.’
I was glad to get back on to less contentious ground. ‘How is he?’
‘If you mean the brother, it was just a faint. He was visiting the place his sister was murdered, he’s entitled to be a bit overwrought. The point I’m making is that we’ve had enough cock-ups already, some self-inflicted, some not. I don’t want any more, OK?’
I had the impression there was something about Luke Gorski that Ward wasn’t saying. I knew when to take a hint, though: I was on thin enough ice already.
‘So what happened with the asbestos?’
Ward massaged the back of her neck as she answered. ‘There’s an old service tunnel in the basement that used to link the hospital to the morgue. That’s been knocked down, but the tunnel’s still there, and now it turns out there’s asbestos in the ceiling. It should have been removed before any demolition work started, but as far as we can tell it’s only in the tunnel. We can cordon it off for now, so providing everyone wears masks and protective gear down there it shouldn’t be a problem.’
I’d seen the remains of St Jude’s morgue around the back of the main building, now just a mound of bricks and concrete overgrown with weeds. The tunnel would have been to transfer patients’ bodies to it from the hospital, well away from public view.
‘Did Jessop know about it?’
Ward’s smile was hard. ‘He says not, but I don’t believe that for a second. We’ve found out he lost his licence for asbestos removal six months ago. Some foul-up over red tape because he didn’t fill in the right forms, or something, which doesn’t surprise me. But it meant another company would have been brought in to remove it, which would probably have lost him the contract. At the very least it would have caused delays and he couldn’t afford that. He’d pared his costs down to the bone to win the tender, even re-mortgaged his house to buy new equipment. It’d have ruined him.’
‘There were delays anyway,’ I said.
‘That’s his problem,’ Ward said unsympathetically. ‘I’m more bothered about how it affects the investigation. And it makes me wonder what else he might have done.’
‘Like what?’
But she shook her head. ‘Never mind. I need to get on.’
She heaved herself to her feet, grimacing and rubbing her lower back.
‘How are you?’ I asked, standing up as well.
‘This, you mean?’ Ward rested her hand on her stomach. ‘Peachy. My back aches, my bladder’s got a mind of its own and I’ve got this pain-in-the-arse forensic consultant who won’t do as he’s told. Other than that, everything’s great.’
‘Business as usual, then.’
‘Pretty much.’ Her smile died. The tension between us had thawed a little but it hadn’t gone completely. ‘Seriously, we can’t afford any more cock-ups. I can’t afford any more. Let’s keep our focus, shall we?’
I didn’t think I’d ever lost it, but I wasn’t about to argue. ‘Can I at least ask what’s going to happen with Lola and her son?’ I chanced as we left the trailer.
‘We’ll look into it.’ Ward’s tone seemed to end the conversation, but then she paused. ‘This Lennox and her son, do they have a dog?’
‘I didn’t see one.’ I was about to ask why, then I realized. There were dog hairs on the tarpaulin that Christine Gorski’s body had been wrapped in.
‘OK, I just wondered,’ Ward said.
Her expression was thoughtful as she walked away.
Back inside St Jude’s again, it was as if I’d never left. Shut off from the outside world, the old hospital seemed to exist in a bubble all its own. Its interior hadn’t seen fresh air or sunlight for years, and the dankness seemed to have soaked into its stones. Not even the Labrador was immune to the oppressive atmosphere. The animal had taken to whining more often, looking to its owner for reassurance before venturing into yet another dark corner. Even the well-chewed tennis ball it was rewarded with seemed to have lost its appeal.
But at least we were making better time. By late afternoon we’d finished searching the rest of the top floor and were well on with the middle. There’d been fewer false alarms down here, perhaps because this floor was less accessible to any birds and rodents from the loft. Armed with power tools and an endoscope, another SOCO had replaced Jessop in case any suspect walls were found. So far, they hadn’t been.
We’d got as far as the hospital chapel when Whelan received a call.
‘They’ve found something in the basement,’ he said, coming back over. ‘No need for the dog, I’ll just pop down to take a look with Dr Hunter.’
‘Don’t they want the dog to check it out as well?’ I asked, my voice echoing as we went down the stairwell.