S Bolton - Sacrifice

Something in the woman's face softened. 'OK,' she said. 'They still have their bad days. It's harder for Jamie. Kirsty barely remembers her mum.'

Helen gestured towards the baby. 'This one is yours,' she said.

Caroline nodded.

'He's gorgeous,' said Helen. Then she turned to me. 'Miss Hamilton here is an obstetrician. Brings little ones like that into the world all the time.'

Caroline sat up straighter in the chair and the wariness in her face gave way, just a fraction, to interest.

I made myself smile. 'How are you getting on?' I asked.

She shrugged. 'OK, I guess. It's tough. I mean, I'm used to kids, but babies are a whole new ball game.'

'Tell me about it,' I said, a tick of impatience starting to build in my head.

The door opened. Mark Salter came back into the room and sat next to his wife. Beside me, Helen straightened herself up. Female empathy time was over.

'When did your sister become ill?' asked Helen. Over at the window, Nigel had started scribbling. Caroline looked at her husband. He made a thinking face.

'She had a breast tumour removed about five years ago,' he said. 'Christmas time. Jamie was just a toddler. Then she was OK for a while.'

'But the cancer came back?'

Mark nodded. 'Doesn't it always?'

'When, exactly?'

'Early in 2004,' said Caroline. 'Cathy was pregnant with Kirsty so she wouldn't have chemotherapy. By the time Kirsty was born it had spread too much.'

'The doctors weren't able to remove it?' I asked.

Caroline's eyes were looking moist. 'They tried,' she said. 'She had an operation but it wasn't successful.' An open-and-shut case. 'She had chemo and radiotherapy, but in the end just pain relief.'

'She lived here with you?' asked Helen.

Caroline nodded. 'She couldn't manage the children. She couldn't do anything at the end. She was just in so much pain…'

Caroline started to cry and the baby squawked in protest. Mark Salter took the opportunity to play the annoyed husband.

'Oh great! We really don't need this right now. Are you through yet?' He didn't do it terribly well. He looked more afraid than angry.

'Not quite, sir,' said Helen, who hadn't been convinced either. 'I want to ask you about the Cathy Morton Trust. I assume you're both trustees.'

Mark nodded. 'Yes, us two and our solicitor,' he replied.

'And that would be Mr Gair?'

'Yes, that's right. Should I be speaking to him about this?'

'I doubt you'd be able to get hold of him right now. When did Cathy meet Stephen Gair?'

Husband and wife looked at each other.

'I want to know what this is about,' he began.

'I think you know already, Mr Salter. It's about the money your sister-in-law received from Mr Gair.'

'It's not our money,' said Caroline. 'We can't spend any of it. It's for the kids.'

Mark Salter stood up. Behind him, Nigel did too.

'We've got nothing more to say. I'd like you to leave, please.'

Helen stood up. Assuming we were going, I did too.

'Mr Salter, at this moment I have no reason to suspect you or your wife of any wrongdoing. But I can and will arrest you for obstruction of justice if you don't start cooperating.'

There was silence for a moment. Then Helen sat down again. Feeling a bit daft, I did too. Salter hovered for a second, then lowered himself back down beside his frightened wife. Baby Salter was seriously creating now. Caroline fumbled under her sweatshirt and released a large breast. She lowered the baby and he started rooting towards the large, cracked nipple.

Salter shot a black look at his wife. 'You tell them,' he spat. 'You were there.'

Caroline looked down at the baby. Her lip started to shake.

'Did Cathy make a will?' asked Helen.

Caroline nodded, still staring down at the sucking baby. 'In June. She knew by then she wasn't going to be around for too long.'

'And Stephen Gair drew it up for her?'

'Yes. She'd met him about a year earlier. When she sold her house. He wasn't based in Oban but he agreed to act for her. I think they even went out for a while. When she was still well. You know, dinner when he was in town, a couple of weekends away. She didn't tell us much about it because he… well

'He was married,' said Helen.

Caroline looked up quickly, guiltily, as though she were the one who'd been dating a married man. She nodded.

'Then what happened?'

She dropped her head again. The baby had detached itself and was sleeping. Christ, it was like pulling teeth. I wanted to scream at her to get on with it, tell us what she knew.

'What happened in September 2004? He came to see her, didn't he?'

'She was very ill. In bed all the time.' Caroline looked at her husband and there was precious little affection in her face. 'Mark thought she needed to be in a hospice.'

He stiffened. 'It was bad for the kids, seeing their mum like that.'

'They knocked on the door one day. Asked to see her. They said they knew she was ill but it was important.'

'They?' asked Helen.

'Stephen Gair and the other man. He talked like a doctor.'

'What was his name?' asked Helen, as my heartbeat went into overdrive.

Caroline shook her head. 'I never knew.'

'What did he look like?' I asked. Helen shot me a will you let me handle this? look.

Caroline turned to me. 'Tall,' she said. 'Very tall; big shoulders, fair hair. Apart from that I can't remember'

'It's OK,' said Helen. 'We can come back to that. Tell me what happened.'

'I took them up to see her. It was hard for her, talking to anyone, but she made a big effort.'

'What did they talk about?'

'They made her an offer.' This time Mark was talking. 'It was between them. We told her she didn't need to do it, that we would take care of the kids.'

Oh, for God's sake, how could Helen stay so patient?

'What was the offer?'

'That she would take part in some trials of a new cancer drug. She would have to go away, to a hospital on the Shetlands where the trial was taking place. They said there was no guarantee that she'd respond to the drug but that it had been developed for the advanced stages of cancer and there was always a chance.'

And in return?'

'In return the drug company would set up a trust fund for the children. Entirely for their benefit. The money is completely controlled. It's released monthly for things like school uniforms for Jamie and childcare for Kirsty. We get none of it.'

I looked around the room, at the immaculate leather sofas, the stereo equipment, the widescreen TV. I remembered the new people-carrier in the driveway.

'And Cathy agreed to this?'

'She didn't have to,' insisted Mark.

'Yes,' said Caroline, 'she agreed. It was the worst thing for her, worrying about the kids, about what would happen to them. They had no one, apart from us, and she knew we didn't have a lot of money. She felt it was the only thing she could still do for them.'

'I do understand,' said Helen. 'What happened next?'

'Stephen Gair set up the trust fund, making Mark and me trustees. We signed the papers the next day and the first instalment of money was paid. They came for her a couple of days later.'

'Who came?'

'That man, the doctor, in an ambulance. And a nurse. They told her she was going in a helicopter. He said we could visit once she was settled.'

'When did you see her again?'

Caroline shook her head. 'We didn't. She died just over a week later. I had to tell Jamie. He thought his mummy was going away to get better.'

'Where was the funeral?'

Caroline's face took on an angry look.

'There wasn't one,' said Mark. 'Gair came to see us; said it had been part of the arrangement. Cathy's body would be used for research, donated to medical science, he said.'

'So you never saw her again?'