“But her career...” said Main.
“It’s her life we have to consider,” said Lafferty. He looked at Sarah and said, “Perhaps there’s a way you could take some leave or arrange some kind of secondment until this business is over,” he said.
Sarah put her hand to her head and said, “I hadn’t thought... I don’t know... I don’t want to run away... I’m in it too, you know.”
“But Ryan’s right,” said Main. “It is too dangerous for you to continue working here. You must see that.”
Sarah nodded reluctantly then an idea seemed to strike her. She said, “I met Dr Tyndall’s brother at the reception the hospital gave for them over their new vaccine. It’s just possible that I could spend some time in his research lab up at the university medical school. That way I would be away from Logan but still be around to keep in touch with you two.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Lafferty.
Main agreed. “You’ll speak to Dr Tyndall about it tomorrow?” he asked.
Sarah promised that she would.
“So how do we go about proving it?” asked Main. “We can’t go to the police without something concrete in the way of evidence. I suspect they will need something more than Ryan’s word that Mary O’Donnell’s coffin was empty and an informed guess that Simon’s was too.”
Lafferty agreed and said, “Logan must have accomplices. I think we’re all agreed on that. Maybe that’s where we’ll find the weak link. We need someone who’ll talk. From what Sarah told us about the routine procedure after a death someone must be being paid to turn a blind eye to certain irregularities. Do we know if the same firm of funeral directors was used in both Simon’s and Mary O’Donnell’s case?”
“I used Maitland Stroud in Morningside,” said Main.
Lafferty’s shoulders sagged. He said, “The O’Donnells used Granby’s in Dalkeith Road.”
“They can’t all be in on it,” said Main.
Lafferty looked at his watch and saw that it was after one. “Let’s sleep on it,” he suggested.
“Some of us,” smiled Sarah.
“Sorry,” said Lafferty. “You’ll call me tomorrow when you’ve spoken to Dr Tyndall?”
Sarah said that she would. She accompanied Main and Lafferty to the door where they parted with whispered good-nights.
Main and Lafferty did not speak again until they were inside Lafferty’s car. They both seemed to sense that the hospital was no longer a friendly place. It had become alien, threatening, a place to fear rather than trust.
“Do you think it’s worthwhile asking the undertakers whether they actually saw Simon’s body?” asked Main.
“No,” replied Lafferty firmly.
“Why not?”
“If they did, we’ll be no further forward and if they didn’t and didn’t say anything about it, it would mean they’re involved so they wouldn’t tell us anyway. Either way, we would be advertising our suspicions. It would get back to Logan.”
Main accepted what Lafferty said without comment for a moment, preferring instead to watch the road as they twisted and turned through the dark and largely deserted streets. “You’re right,” he conceded. “I’m just not thinking straight.”
Lafferty smiled as he flicked on the wipers to deal the drizzly rain that had just started. “You’re doing just fine,” he said. “None of this can be easy for you.”
“You know, I actually think I’m glad things have turned out this way,” said Main. “It actually gives me a good feeling to think that part of Simon is alive inside someone else.”
“Good,” said Lafferty quietly.
“Even if it turns out that his body was used as part of some crooked medical scam involving millions, I’ll still be glad. It won’t matter who the patient is, whether he’s the son of an Arab sheikh or a Texas oil millionaire, just as long as the kid’s alive thanks to Simon.”
“I think that’s the right view,” said Lafferty.
“I just wish I could have said yes at the time instead of going through all this,” said Main. “But Dr Tyndall asked me at precisely the wrong moment.”
Lafferty brought the car to a halt outside Main’s apartment block.
“Would you like to come up for coffee or a drink?” Main asked.
Lafferty shook his head and said, “Let’s both get some sleep. We need it.”
As Lafferty drove back to St Xavier’s his thoughts turned to Sarah Lasseter and the danger she was in. He comforted himself with the thought that Logan couldn’t afford to harm her while he and Main were on the scene. It would be too obvious. So what would Logan do? He would secure his position, Lafferty decided. He would take extra care to see that no one got careless. He would take no risks at all until Sarah Lasseter and her prying friends had disappeared from the scene. That might make the investigation doubly difficult but surely with something this big there had to be some way of getting inside it.
Lafferty decided to leave the car parked outside on the road rather than go to the trouble of opening the gates leading to the parking area beside the house. He took the short cut through the old churchyard, his feet crunching on the stones of the path as he skirted the church to reach the house. As he rounded the last corner, he came to an abrupt halt and his blood ran cold at the sight that met him. There wasn’t much light but he could see that an animal was nailed to his front door. As he drew nearer he could see it was a cat. Its stomach had been slit open and its entrails were hanging out. The smell made Lafferty put a hand to his face. He looked away for a moment and saw something else that made his heart stop. There was a body lying in the shadows beside the door.
He squatted down and turned the body so he could see the face. It was Mrs Grogan! He felt for a pulse and found one; she was alive; she had just fainted. He gathered her up in his arms and carried her round to the side door. Once safely inside, he called the police and Alan Jarvis who he knew was Mrs Grogan’s GP. He was also Lafferty’s, though he seldom had need of him. Mrs Grogan came to before either had arrived and Lafferty had to calm her through her initial panic at the recollection of what she’d found on the door.
“I came round about ten o’clock,” she stammered. “I’d forgotten to take my magazines home earlier so I thought I would pick them up on my way home from my sister. But when I got to the door...”
Mrs Grogan buried her face in her handkerchief and Lafferty put an arm round her shoulders. Outside, cars were starting to draw up.
Lafferty glanced at the clock and saw that it coming up to two. This was shaping up to be another night without sleep, and it was beginning to tell on his patience. Mrs Grogan had been suitably soothed and sedated by her GP and the police had agreed to take her home. Other policemen, however, had remained to ask, just about every stupid bloody question they could think of, in Lafferty’s view. He had expected the incident to be dealt with by a Panda crew but they had been joined by a full inspector and his sergeant from CID. It was Inspector Lenny, the officer who had attended on the canal bank.
“Because you are involved sir,” replied Lenny, when Lafferty asked why someone so senior had come.
“I don’t understand,” said Lafferty, suddenly feeling apprehensive.
“It goes something like this sir,” said the policeman, holding Lafferty’s gaze as if it were some kind of test. “You were the priest who was looking for McKirrop to ask him about witchcraft in the cemetery. You were the priest who found him dead. Now you are the priest who has a black cat nailed to his door. You seem to lead an exciting life, sir.”
Lafferty remained silent.
“And now you are going to tell me that you have no idea who did this or why. Am I right, sir?”