Bernard Knight - Where Death Delights

The man in question arrived with his secretary a few moments later and as the attendant was ushering them in, Richard hoped that he would not offer them a mug of his peculiar brew. The look on Prudence Mortimer’s face when she saw they had to work in a blocked-off railway arch was enough, without the offer of chicory extract mixed with Cow and Gate.

When they went into the inner sanctum and were kitted up, Richard could see that poor Linda was deteriorating. After two dissections and a third in the offing, it was high time that she was finally put to rest. He sometimes wondered at his own immunity to the horrors of death, presuming it was part predisposition and part familiarity. Pryor was often asked how he could possibly do such an awful job, but realized that he rarely thought about it. Those who could not handle the macabre job either never started or soon gave up. Not a few of his colleagues had become alcoholics and several had committed suicide, an occupational hazard which was more common amongst all doctors than the general public.

Shrugging off these morbid thoughts, he asked Miss Mortimer if they had had copies of his report.

‘We have all the documents, thank you, Professor,’ she said with a charming smile that made him feel that she was not such a cold fish as she was assumed to be. Prudence seemed indifferent to the proximity of a dead body in a poor state of preservation, looking more disconcerted by the strange building in which they had to work.

Once again, Richard went through his findings for Millichamp, several times emphasizing that Patrick O’Malley, who hardly uttered a word, was the primary pathologist.

‘I’m afraid after the previous dissections and the passage of time, you won’t have much to look at,’ he said to the visitor. ‘But no doubt your instructing solicitor will have given you copies of the photographs and I can give you a spare set of section of the bruises and the major organs.’

As before, Millichamp worked with considerable speed, not that there was much left to examine. The important bruises had been taken by Pryor for microscopic examination, though he had brought them all in their labelled jars of formaldehyde for the other pathologist to see.

‘You are extremely thorough, Professor Pryor,’ complimented Millichamp as he washed his hands in the porcelain tank that was the only sink. Patrick O’Malley again tried to make himself look invisible, as the two forensic pathologists launched into a discussion of recent research into new methods of dating injuries, both agreeing that the results were not all that helpful.

The two visitors left after delighting the mortuary attendant with a one pound tip for his help. Richard Pryor was left with something that was much more valuable to him, another assurance from the influential Londoner that he would ‘have a word’ with some unspecified authority about getting him onto the Home Office list – and an invitation to visit his department at ‘Barts’ any time he was in the big city.

A few weeks’ routine work followed, Richard Pryor gradually building up his foundation of coroner’s cases which brought in a modest, but steady income. Similarly, Angela Bray’s reputation in the field of paternity testing steadily increased the number of blood tests she was called on to perform. Some of these came from far afield and in some instances, she was asked to go and actually obtain the samples from mother, child and putative father. This mean going off in her little Renault, with a consequent increase in the fee. Sometimes she took Sian with her on these jaunts, if the technician had time, though even here, the number of defence alcohol estimations was gradually increasing.

As well as physical work in the laboratory, both he and Angela began getting case papers for expert opinions on a variety of subjects, both criminal and civil. Lawyers were increasingly demanding a second opinion on autopsy reports, biological opinions and road and industrial accident claims. Even insurance companies were coming to the Garth House partnership, as it was coming to be known, when they wanted to confirm or contest some dubious claim for compensation. By the end of August, Richard and Angela felt confident that their bold venture to go private was going to succeed and decided that they could order some more equipment for the laboratory which would extend the range of investigations that they could offer.

They heard nothing from Agnes Oldfield or her solicitor and one further visit from Trevor Mitchell confirmed that he had been unable find any trace of Anthony being treated in hospital after a climbing accident.

The Gloucester shooting went before the magistrates and, as expected, the local gangster was committed for trial at the next assizes in several months’ time. Richard was called to give evidence at the magistrates’ preliminary hearing, but there was no cross-examination, this being reserved for the later trial. Arnold Millichamp was present in court, sitting behind the defence solicitor, but apart from leaning forwards a couple of times to whisper in the lawyer’s ear while Richard was giving his evidence-in-chief, he seemed to have no contrary opinion.

Afterwards, Arnold waited outside the court with Prudence Mortimer to greet Richard affably and talk about the two cases in which they were involved. Though lawyers generally do not encourage prosecution and defence experts to confer, there was no potential conflict of opinion in either the shooting case or Michael Prentice’s problems, especially as the latter was not facing any charges relating to his wife’s death or injuries.

Even so, they both spoke circumspectly and most of their chat was about the forthcoming November conference in Cardiff, to which Millichamp expressed interest in attending. Before they parted, the London pathologist repeated his invitation to Pryor to visit his department – and also offered to have Sian there for a week or two, to get some experience of a bigger laboratory.

When he took this bit of news back to Garth House, the technician was wildly excited and almost ready to pack her bags for a visit to London, until he calmed her down.

‘But it all helps to get us better known,’ he said to Angela. ‘If I can get onto this Home Office list, we can throw our net even wider.’

The magistrates’ hearing in Gowerton had been a damp squib, as the prosecution wanted more time to prepare their evidence. Ben Evans said it was requested by the document examiners in Cardiff, who were seeking other opinions elsewhere, to decide if they could substantiate their suspicions that Linda had not written the suicide not.

In spite of the objections of the police, bail was extended and Michael Prentice carried on living in Pennard and working at the Jersey Marine premises, though what his colleagues there thought of him, was unknown.

In the meantime, Brian Meredith, the Monmouth coroner, had wrestled with the paperwork and the General Register Office, to annul the death certificate issued for Albert Barnes. Mrs Molly Barnes protested loud and long to him about what she claimed was a ‘denial of her rights’ and threatened to go to the newspapers about it, until Meredith pointed out to her that she had given false evidence about the watch and ring, which could get her into trouble.

He had taken legal advice and found that he needed to hold another inquest, as the remains buried in a corner of the Monmouth municipal cemetery were now of an unidentified person, which required an inquest with a jury. This was a formality, after all the futile efforts to establish to whom they belonged had failed.

Richard Pryor and Angela were called as witnesses, merely to get the physical facts and the blood group put on official record, but the outcome was inevitably another open verdict.