Sarah shook her head.
“None,” said Logan. “Not one.”
Sarah remained mute.
“And all because our noble leader is more interested in promoting his own image as Mr Nice-guy.”
“That’s unfair!” Sarah protested.
“Is it?” said Logan. “Not one in eighteen months. That’s an appalling record.”
“Not all doctors are fans of transplant technology,” replied Sarah, but it sounded weak.
Logan gave her a disparaging look. “Come on,” he protested. “We’re not talking about twenty years ago when transplant patients lasted ten minutes on a good day. We both know what the modern success rate is. Why doesn’t he try harder to get permission?”
Sarah did not reply. She was thinking how much easier it would be for Logan to run his scam with official permission.
Logan’s expression suddenly changed and he drew in breath sharply as if he had just realised or remembered something. He turned on his heel and stormed out, leaving Sarah feeling exhausted, partly from tiredness, but mainly from fear.
She sat down on the bed as she felt her legs become weak as she took pleasure for a moment in the fact that Logan had gone. He left in his wake a silence which was gradually invaded by the everyday sounds of normality. Traffic, a distant police siren, a meal trolley being wheeled across the yard outside. There was no question of going back to sleep. She would just lie back down on the bed and try to rest until it was time for her appointment with Tyndall.
Logan had been furious with her but he hadn’t harmed her. She had feared for her life when he forced his way into her room but to her surprise, he hadn’t even mentioned the business of Ryan Lafferty and John Main being in HTU the night before. He hadn’t tried to pump her on how much she knew. Instead, he had concentrated on Tyndall’s failure to get transplant permission. Was he offering this as an excuse for what he was doing?The manner of his going had also been strange. What had made him suddenly turn on his heel and leave?
Sarah tried to put Logan out of her mind as she thought what she was going to say to Murdoch Tyndall. She hoped he wouldn’t stand in her way because she was excited by the prospect of meeting up with his brother, Cyril, again. If she was really honest with herself she would have to admit that the excuse of getting away from Logan had given her the chance to find out more about Cyril Tyndall’s suggestion that she might conceivably have a career in research. Maybe it was fate, she reasoned. She had tried convincing herself that she still really wanted to go into general practice with her father, but there was no escaping the fact that Professor Tyndall had dangled quite a different prospect in front of her and it was undeniably exciting. For a moment she remembered Paddy Duncan’s joking comment that she was a medical ‘groupie’. It annoyed her.
Murdoch Tyndall put Sarah at her ease as soon as she entered his office. “Now then, Sarah,” he smiled. “How can I help you?”
“It’s a bit difficult,” began Sarah.
“Something’s wrong, I can see that,” said Tyndall.
“I have to get away from HTU for a bit, only temporarily, but I do have to get away.”
Tyndall regarded Sarah in silence for a moment before spreading his hands on the desk in front of him and saying, “Is that it? No explanation?”
“It’s very difficult for me to speak frankly sir but Dr Logan and I do not see eye to eye and I’m feeling the strain.”
“A clash of personalities?” asked Tyndall.
“Something like that.”
“And what would you propose doing during this ‘temporary absence’?” asked Tyndall.
“With your permission sir, I have a suggestion to make.”
“Go on”
Sarah told Tyndall of her earlier conversation with his brother and asked if she might be permitted to spend some time in Cyril Tyndall’s lab in the medical school.
“I see,” said Tyndall thoughtfully. “But are you sure that laboratory medicine is something you want to do?”
“No sir, I’m not. But I would appreciate the opportunity to find out.”
“But if this is to be a temporary arrangement won’t the problem still be here when you return?” asked Tyndall.
“I believe it will be resolved by that time,” said Sarah.
“Very cryptic,” smiled Tyndall. “Is there something I don’t know about?”
“Yes sir, but that is as much as I can say at the moment.”
Tyndall intertwined his fingers and said, “Dr Lasseter, Dr Logan reported to me that you had been ‘entertaining guests’ while on duty. Normally I would take a dim view of this but, on pressing him further he told me that your ‘guests’ were in fact, Father Lafferty and the Main boy’s father.”
“Yes sir.”
“You obviously don’t want to tell me more, so I won’t press you, but can I ask if their visit had something to do with the ‘problem’ with Dr Logan?”
“Yes sir, it did.”
Tyndall sat back in his seat and said, “Very well, Doctor, I’ll see what can be arranged. I’ll call my brother before I leave.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Sarah, feeling relieved and getting up. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”
“I have to think of the patients,” said Tyndall. “Discord between the staff is something we cannot allow.”
Sarah called Lafferty and told him how the Meeting had gone.
“And do you think his brother will agree?” asked Lafferty.
“Unless he’s changed his mind,” replied Sarah.
“Excellent,” said Lafferty.
Sarah told him of Logan’s visit to her room earlier and of what had been said. Lafferty picked up on the fact that the incident had been prompted by the death of another patient in HTU.
“Tell me about the Keegan boy.”
Sarah gave him a brief resumé of the case.
“This may be our chance to catch Logan out,” said Lafferty. “A young patient for whom transplant permission was refused. Presumably the boy’s body should be in the hospital mortuary?”
“I think so,” said Sarah but then she added as an afterthought, “Actually I’m not at all sure. I’ve just realised I’ve been overlooking something.”
“What’s that?” asked Lafferty.
“Some of our patients are fitted with a type of monitor we call Sigma probes. They are actually implanted in the skull. If a patient fitted with these probes should die, we have to have the probes removed by specialist technicians before anything else happens to the body.”
“Where do they do this?” asked Lafferty.
“I don’t really know,” confessed Sarah. “They come and remove the body from the unit. I’m not sure what happens after that. I suppose I assumed they took the body to the mortuary when they’d finished with it and the undertakers would take over from there but maybe not.”
“Maybe not,” agreed Lafferty.
“Do you think that—” Sarah began excitedly.
“It’s possible,” replied Lafferty. “Can you find out more about where the bodies go to have the probes removed?”
“I’ll try,” said Sarah.
“But be careful!” warned Lafferty. “In the meantime, I’ll try to find out which undertaker is dealing with the Keegan boy’s funeral.”
“You be careful too,” said Sarah.
“Let’s both be careful,” said Lafferty gently.
The more he thought about it, the more Lafferty felt that they had discovered how the theft of the bodies was carried out. The ‘specialist technicians’ Sarah had mentioned would have to be in on the scam but that would be all as far as the hospital and the university were concerned. All HTU cared about was getting the Sigma probes back so, even if it meant Logan replacing them out of his own pocket, it would be a small price to pay in the stakes he must be playing for. It would mean of course, that these same technicians were responsible for loading and sealing the coffins, otherwise the undertakers would know what was going on. He could check this if he could find out the name of the firm handling the Keegan funeral. He went out to get the local evening paper.