Ken McClure: White death

‘I take it you mean Dr Simmons? She asked to be kept informed when you woke up. I’ll give her a call in a moment,’ said the nurse. ‘Mind you, she’ll have to fight her way through the heavies on the door. I thought it had to be Brad Pitt or George Clooney lying helpless in here when I came on duty last night.’

‘Sorry,’ said Steven with an attempt at a smile.

‘Oh, I don’t know…’ said the nurse with a grin as she left the room.

Steven had barely a moment to rest his head on the pillow and think back to Sunday before a middle-aged man in a suit came into the room and introduced himself as George Lamont, the doctor in charge of his case. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘I thought there was no antidote to ricin,’ said Steven.

‘There isn’t,’ said Lamont. ‘But it wasn’t ricin.’

Steven looked at Lamont, feeling confused and wondering if his recollection of events might be flawed. ‘But the dart…’

‘Was poisoned, but not with ricin,’ interrupted Lamont. ‘And you have Dr Simmons to thank for saving your life. She picked up on the slight smell of almonds coming from the dart when she picked it up to examine it and you can be eternally grateful that she made the right call. The dart delivered cyanide not ricin. She and the paramedics managed to counteract the poison with amyl nitrite when your heart stopped and then we took over.’

‘My God… I assumed…’

‘Everyone remembers the Georgi Markov story,’ said Lamont. ‘Poisoned-tip umbrellas and all that.’

Tally arrived and entered the room, wearing a white coat and with a stethoscope slung round her neck. Lamont smiled and made to leave, saying that he would give them a few minutes together before having to give Steven a thorough examination.

‘I hear I owe you my life,’ said Steven.

‘The very least I could do… after Saturday night,’ smiled Tally. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like I’ve got the worst hangover in the world,’ replied Steven. ‘I’m so sorry for exposing you to danger like that. Christ, it could have been you.’

‘You weren’t to know that somebody was going to make an attempt on your life,’ said Tally, sitting on the edge of the bed and smoothing his hair back. ‘But I am curious to know why…’

‘I got it wrong,’ said Steven. ‘I should have known better at the time but I made the wrong call. I believed what I wanted to believe.’

Tally looked puzzled and vaguely uneasy as if she suspected that she was about to hear something she really didn’t want to know. ‘I don’t understand.

Steven told her about the attack on the motorway and the two Russians who had perished in the flames. ‘I thought it was a case of mistaken identity… that they were after the previous owner of the car but that’s what I wanted to believe when it was me they were after all along.’

Tally had gone pale. ‘Steven, you’re scaring me. I know you’re an investigator but I thought… you were sort of like a tax inspector… You might have to ask awkward questions from time to time… But Russians forcing you off the motorway and cyanide darts… This is all getting a bit much for me.’

‘I think that’s what I was afraid of hearing when I went for the mistaken identity conclusion rather than even consider it had been me they’d been after,’ said Steven.

‘What else haven’t you been telling me?’

‘You know everything else,’ said Steven.

Tally looked less than convinced. ‘So where exactly do Russians and poison darts fit into an investigation into British children being given unlicensed vaccines?’

‘I don’t know,’ he confessed.

Tally looked as if she didn’t know whether to believe him or not.

‘I really don’t.’

‘Oh God,’ sighed Tally, putting her hand to her forehead. ‘I knew this was a bad idea…’

‘No,’ said Steven, stretching out to take her hand. ‘It’s a good idea,’ he insisted. ‘When this is over, I promise I will do whatever it takes to make you see that it is, even if it means giving up my job and selling double glazing in Leicester… Just don’t give up on me?’

Tally’s expression softened. ‘You know very well how I feel about you,’ she said. ‘But this…’ Words failed her and she looked everywhere but directly at Steven. ‘I need a bit of time. Dr Lamont wants to examine you and there are a lot of people out there waiting to speak to you. I’ll come back later when I’ve finished my shift.’ She kissed Steven gently on the forehead but left him feeling uneasy in his mind.

As soon as Lamont had finished examining Steven and given him a clean bill of health, Steven requested that he be allowed to make some telephone calls.

‘Calling Sci-Med?’ asked Lamont.

Steven nodded.

‘I’ve already informed Sir John Macmillan that you’re back in the land of the living. He left instructions when you were admitted that he be kept informed of your progress at all times. I gather he’s the one responsible for the guards on the door. He’ll be expecting your call.’

Steven called Macmillan but spoke first to Jean Roberts who said how worried they had all been. ‘I’m so glad you’re all right. When we heard it was cyanide… well, you know…’

Steven was touched by the note of genuine concern in Jean’s voice. He had to swallow before saying, ‘Thanks, Jean. I was very lucky. I wonder if you’d mind phoning my sister-in-law in Scotland and telling her why I’ve not been in touch. Don’t tell her the whole story, maybe just that I’ve been away on operations and I’ll call as soon as I can? Give her my love and ask her to tell Jenny that Daddy loves her very much. He’ll be in touch as soon as we’ve caught the bad guys.’

‘Will do. John’s had a bit of a job squaring things with the local police and trying to keep the story out of the papers.’

‘But he managed?’ asked Steven anxiously.

‘Yes, after enlisting some pretty heavy assistance from the Home Office.’

‘Good.’

Steven spoke to Macmillan for more than ten minutes, both trying to come up with some explanation for the attacks on his life but in the end failing.

‘It has to have something to do with what I’ve been working on’ insisted Steven. ‘But I can’t see any conceivable Russian connection with the green sticker kids. Can you?’

Macmillan said not. ‘Someone obviously thinks you know more than you do about something,’ he said.

‘Which puts me in a very uncomfortable position.’

‘Especially as they’ll probably try again,’ said Macmillan.

‘I need you to step up protection for Tally,’ said Steven. ‘They might well try to get to me through her.’

‘I did that as soon as I heard what had happened,’ said Macmillan. ‘I think the history of your car and its previous owner lulled us both into thinking it was someone else they were after.’

Steven nodded.

‘How is Dr Simmons taking things?’

‘Pretty much as you’d expect,’ said Steven, the tone of his voice suggesting not well.

‘Well, it’s a bit much for anyone to take on board. Give her time.’

‘I’m hoping that’s what she might give me,’ said Steven ruefully.

‘The sooner this investigation’s concluded the happier we’ll all be,’ said Macmillan.

Steven took the phone from his ear and looked at it in disbelief. He’d just been told to get on with things in ever such a civilised way. He fought the urge to point out to Macmillan that he’d been knocking on death’s door for the past couple of days. Instead, he said, ‘I should be out of here in the morning but one thing…’

‘Yes?’

‘I returned my gun to the armoury when I thought I wouldn’t be needing it. I’d better have it back.’