Ken McClure - Tangled Web

‘Just supposing it wasn’t a heart attack,’ said Mary.

‘You mean it could have been murder?’ said Gordon who had been thinking along the same lines.

‘It would make a lot of sense.’

‘They’ll be doing the PM today so we shouldn’t have too long to wait to find out,’ said Gordon.

‘But if it should turn out that he was murdered,’ said Mary. ‘And he didn’t do the cloning... who did?’

‘Ranulph Dawes,’ replied Gordon without hesitation.

‘The cytologist? The man you asked to help you?’

‘Thanks for reminding me,’ said Gordon wryly. ‘But if it wasn’t Thomas it must have been Dawes. Everything points to that now and suddenly a lot of things would become clearer. Thomas knew something strange was going on in the clinic but he didn’t know exactly what until he saw the ICSI figures from the American lab. Coming just after the heated discussion on human cloning, he must have put two and two together and realised what Dawes had been up to. That’s why he looked the way he did when he watched Dawes demonstrate his skills at the microscope. Not many people have the necessary expertise to even attempt a cloning but Dawes had.

‘You must tell the police this,’ said Mary.

Gordon said, ‘Let’s wait for the PM result first. If French says it was natural causes then we’re back to square one. Even if it turns out to be murder, there’s still going to be a problem getting proof,’ he added. ‘Anne-Marie’s body and the suspect foetuses that Thomas had in his freezer have all been destroyed. Dawes has had time to clean up absolutely everything.’

Subconsciously, Gordon put a hand up to the lump on the back of his head. It prompted Mary to ask, ‘Painful?’

‘Not really, just a dull ache.’

Mary moved closer and indicated that he let her examine it. He bent forward to let her fingers probe the area gently. ‘The swelling’s gone down quite a bit,’ she said. ‘But if it’s troubling you...’

Gordon was acutely aware of Mary’s closeness. Her perfume filled his senses and her touch was awakening feelings in him that he’d almost forgotten. He raised his head slowly and turned to face her. ‘It’s fine,’ he said softly, and kissed her gently on the lips, tracing his fingers slowly down her right cheek. There was only the slightest hesitation before Mary responded and they embraced hungrily.

‘God, I think I’ve wanted to do that since the first moment I saw you,’ murmured Gordon.

‘I bet you say that to all the girls,’ murmured Mary as Gordon kissed her neck.

Gordon looked at her and saw the smile he’d wanted to see from the time of their first encounter. Any lingering doubts he had about his feelings for her and whether it was a good idea or not, disappeared like snow in summer. ‘I want you,’ he said. ‘God, how I want you.’

Mary put a finger up to his lips and held it there. ‘I need a little more time,’ she said softly. ‘Just a little more. Is that all right?’

Gordon smiled and nodded.

‘But don’t feel discouraged...’ Mary smiled broadly and they both laughed.

Gordon got in to find a message on his answering machine from Charles French, asking that he call him back. ‘Well, well,’ muttered Gordon, wondering why on earth French would be calling him. He dialled the number.

‘Dr Gordon? Thank you for returning my call.’

Gordon recognised the sound of someone trying to be ‘nice’ even if it was a struggle. ‘What can I do for you, Doctor?’ he asked, feeling intrigued.

‘Look, I appreciate that you and Chief Inspector Davies don’t exactly see eye to eye over a lot of things,’ began French. ‘But I don’t think that should be allowed to sour our relationship, do you?’

‘Quite honestly, I didn’t think we had one,’ said Gordon.

‘Well, no, I suppose I meant that, as two medical men, we naturally have a strong professional bond...’

‘I’m really not sure I understand what you’re getting at, Dr French,’ said Gordon.

‘This business with the Palmer child’s body,’ said French awkwardly. ‘I know what I did was technically wrong, a gross error of judgement on my part, but my intentions were good and in no way did I imagine it was going to lead to the destruction of Crown evidence. You do accept that, don’t you?’

‘I don’t think what I accept or don’t accept has any relevance in this case, Doctor,’ said Gordon. ‘I really don’t see why you’re telling me this.’

‘I suppose I wanted to know if the Palmer defence team are planning to make a big thing out of it,’ confessed French.

‘I really couldn’t say,’ said Gordon.

‘Does that mean that they’re not actually aware of what has happened as yet?’ asked French, a hopeful note creeping into his voice.

So that was it, thought Gordon, French was trying to minimise the fall-out as far as he was concerned from the destruction of Anne-Marie’s body. ‘Not from me,’ he said.

French gave a small but audible sigh of relief before continuing, ‘Are you planning to tell them?’

‘They have a right to know,’ said Gordon, stalling for time, he hadn’t fully thought this through although now that French had brought up the subject, he supposed that John Palmer’s defence team could make trouble over the unavailability of the body for any further examination.

‘I understand from Chief Inspector Davies that you, yourself admit to being in the mortuary at Caernarfon General with the express purpose of carrying out an illegal procedure on the body?’ said French, more haughtily now.

Gordon smiled to himself as the threat entered the negotiations.

‘After I had refused you access...’ continued French.

‘Presumably because I’m not a member of the same golf club as you and Carwyn Thomas,’ said Gordon.

‘That is outrageous!’ spluttered French.

‘I agree,’ said Gordon calmly, ‘What you’re suggesting, Doctor, is that if you go down for screwing around with Crown evidence, you’re going to make sure that I go down with you. There, that didn’t take long to say, did it?’

‘There was absolutely no criminal intent in what I did,’ protested French.

‘Me neither,’ said Gordon, matter-of-factly. ‘I simply wanted a small tissue sample for DNA fingerprinting.’

‘DNA Fingerprinting?’

‘I had doubts over the true identity of the child.’

After a short pause, French said, ‘You don’t need much in the way of biological material for DNA fingerprinting.’

‘Very little,’ agreed Gordon, immediately wondering why French had said something like that.

‘Then it would still be possible.’

‘Pardon?’

‘I could let you have a pathological specimen taken from Anne-Marie Palmer at post mortem,’ said French. ‘I still have a range of lab specimens taken from her. If it would help mend fences between us, I am prepared to let you have access to what you need without asking too much.’

Gordon was excited at the prospect but not so excited that he couldn’t see that he and French would now be colluding. His concern was quickly overruled by deciding that he’d be doing what was right. If there was the remotest chance of obtaining sound scientific evidence relevant to the case, it had to be taken. Medical facts were definitely preferable in court to John Palmer’s lawyers introducing legal arguments over technicalities. Apart from that, John’s luck was so bad that the judge at his trial would probably turn out to be a member of the same golf club as French and Thomas.

‘Perhaps I could pick up a sample in the morning?’

‘Of course, and if by any chance you should be able to get the information that you want from the sample...’

‘I can’t make promises, Doctor, but I have no wish to see you get into trouble for the sake of it.’ Gordon decided that this would be an opportune moment to ask French about the post mortem on Carwyn Thomas.