Ken McClure: Deception

Luckily, the job with Sci-Med had come up at exactly the right time and it suited him down to the ground. He had been taken on as one of their medical specialist investigators, his past record having shown him to be not only a good doctor but also an extremely clever and resourceful individual who responded well in the face of adversity and danger. They liked the fact that he had been put to the test in real-life situations, a far cry from the planks and oil drum problems of staff ‘bonding’ courses.

Steven had already successfully covered a number of assignments for Sci-Med over the past five years and liked the way the organisation worked. Investigators were given their head and allowed to handle their investigations in the way they saw fit. Administration within the Inspectorate, was kept to a minimum and designed to support and help front-line people in any way it could, unlike so many government departments where administration had become an end in itself and sharp-enders were seen primarily as sources of information for the administrators to play with. ‘Job Appraisal’ seemed a good idea in theory. In practice it meant two people watching a third sharpen a pencil while demanding information about the process. How long does it take you? How often do you have to do it? How sharp does it have to be? Can’t you use a cheaper brand of pencil? Can you supply pencil costings for the year by next Thursday?

Not all of his assignments had had a criminal element to them. In fact, the majority of them had little or no criminal involvement attached to them at all. Typical of this was his very first job, which had taken him to a hospital in Lincolnshire where the post-operative death rate had risen significantly above the figures for comparable hospitals in other parts of the country. It was a situation where people in the area might not have noticed anything amiss and, even if they had, it was not an observation that the police would be well equipped to investigate. The Sci-Med computer however, had noticed the blip in the statistics and alerted the Inspectorate to take a closer look at the situation.

Steven had tactfully traced the problem to a consultant surgeon who had been simply getting on in years and had lost much of the skill that he’d once had. Being very senior and somewhat overbearing, other staff had been reluctant to point this out for fear of damaging their own careers. Steven had made sure that the man had been retired quietly and with as little adverse publicity as possible.

The assignment in Glasgow however, during which he had met Lisa, had most definitely had a criminal element to it. Two separate complaints from nurses who had worked at a private hospital in the city — Lisa had been one of them — had raised fears that several transplant patients had not been given compatible organs and had died because of this. This had led to an investigation, which had eventually uncovered a plot involving millions of dollars and murder in order to steal donor organs. The whole scam had been disguised as a charitable act and even had government support.

He had narrowly escaped with his life on that occasion but if truth were told, it was the air of uncertainty about what he was getting into that gave his job a certain edge, which he enjoyed. He never knew what was coming next. He had received a letter the day before from John Macmillan, the director of Sci-Med. It had simply said that there was an assignment waiting for him if he felt well enough to come back. There had been no threat or cajoling involved, just a simple statement of facts. If he wanted the job he should make contact, if not — no problem, maybe next time.

Steven wasn’t sure. He felt better than he had done for some time but he feared that he might still lack the motivation of old. This was why he’d come up to see Jenny the weekend before he was due to make his fortnightly visit. Jenny couldn’t fill the awesome gap left by Lisa in his life but she was a pretty formidable little character in her own right and he had the responsibility of being her father. In many ways this was the one thing he had not found himself being apathetic about. Objectively, he suspected that she might be the key to his rehabilitation. She was in fact, the one thing he now had to live for.

Jenny lived with Lisa’s sister, Sue and her husband, Richard in the Dumfriesshire village of Glenvane, in the area where Lisa and her sister had been brought up as children. Sue and Richard had two other children — Mary, a girl of seven and Robin, a boy of five and they all seemed to live — to Steven’s way of thinking — in glorious disarray. Richard was an easy-going solicitor — a junior partner in a firm over in Dumfries, specialising in property deals and Sue’s mission in life seemed to be to take on the troubles of all those surrounding her and sort them out. She was a much-liked and respected lady in the district — not least of all by her brother-in-law for taking on Lisa’s role in Jenny’s life so quickly and with hardly a second thought.

‘Well?’ persisted Jenny. She had learned to deal with the adult trick of looking into the distance and ignoring her questions. A good firm tug at the trousers and continual repetition of the question usually did the trick.

‘They really don’t do anything much, Nutkin. They just eat, sleep and... sort of be there.’

Jenny thought about this for a while before saying, ‘Is that what you do, Daddy?’

Steven looked down at her, taken aback at what she’d said. ‘What do you mean, Jenny?’

‘Aunt Sue says you don’t have a job at the moment... so do you just eat, sleep and be there?’

‘I do have a job, Nutkin. I’ve just been on leave for a while. I’ll be going back again soon.’

‘Will you still come and see me?’

Steven swept her up into his arms. ‘Of course I will; nothing could stop me ever doing that, Nutkin.’

Jenny looked at him without smiling. ‘Something stopped Mummy,’ she said.

‘That was different, Jenny. Mummy was very ill. She didn’t want to leave us. She just didn’t have a choice.’

‘Aunt Sue says she’s in heaven but she still cares about us. Is that what you think?’

‘Of course.’

‘Do you think she sees everything, Daddy?’

‘Shouldn’t think so,’ replied Steven, taking a sideways look at Jenny to see what was worrying her.

‘If I were to take Robin’s train without telling him and hide it, do you think she’d see that?’

‘I don’t think so, Nutkin.’ Steven saw the relief appear on Jenny’s face like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. ‘But Jenny...’

‘Yes Daddy?’

‘Give Robin his train back.’

Steven paid off the cab and walked smartly into the Home Office. It had been a while since he’d had any reason to wear a suit and being ‘in uniform’ again seemed to help in restoring his confidence and an air of normality to the occasion. He was welcomed by Miss Roberts, Macmillan’s secretary and asked if he wouldn’t mind waiting a few minutes as the man himself was on the phone. After declining the offer of coffee, they passed the time with pleasantries. Miss Roberts asked after Jenny and Steven enquired about her choral activities. Miss Roberts was a soprano in the South London Bach choir.

‘Hectic at the moment. We’re putting on a concert in two weeks time and we’re way behind with the rehearsals because of overbooking of the hall. In fact... ’

Miss Roberts stopped speaking when the door to the inner office opened and a tall man with silver hair stepped out. ‘Dunbar, good to see you,’ he exclaimed. ‘Come on in.’

Steven made a face at Miss Roberts to suggest that he’d catch up with her story later and followed Macmillan into his office.

‘So, how are you feeling?’