Ken McClure: Tangled Web

Gordon and Mary accepted the offer with heartfelt thanks.

‘Good, then I’ll know where to find you,’ said Le Clerc approvingly.

The policeman left and Gordon and Mary were shown to adjoining rooms on the third floor of the clinic. It had started to rain outside and puddles of water were reflecting the lights of the traffic as Mary came back through to join Gordon in looking out of the window. ‘We’re going to need some toilet things,’ she yawned. Her night duty and today’s mad journeyings were catching up with her. ‘Maybe we can find a supermarket open?’

Gordon seemed very distant. Mary asked him what was wrong.

‘I’m having second thoughts,’ Gordon confessed. ‘I’m thinking that maybe I’ve underestimated Trool: maybe he will change his plans in the light of the police visit.’

‘How so?’

Still looking out of the window, Gordon said, ‘The police may have spooked him into doing something earlier than he’d planned.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like getting rid of Anne-Marie.’

‘But he’s so close to the operation,’ she protested. ‘All this planning, all this waiting... Surely he’ll keep his nerve!’

‘All he needs are her eyes,’ said Gordon. It sounded brutal and it shocked Mary.

She looked at him in horror. ‘You mean he’ll remove her eyes and then get rid of her body as a precaution?’

Gordon swallowed and said, ‘That has to be the plan in the long run anyway. The police may just have persuaded him to do it sooner rather than later.’

‘But surely the eyes alone will be proof of his guilt,’ exclaimed Mary.

Gordon shook his head and said, ‘I think not. By any scientific criterion the eyes are his daughter’s own eyes. Anne-Marie is a clone, remember.’

‘My God, do you think he could actually get away with it?’ exclaimed Mary.

‘He could pretend that he’d managed to clone his daughter’s eye tissue in vitro and grown it up in the lab.’

‘But I thought that was impossible?’

‘It is but he could claim a breakthrough. Without the existence of Anne-Marie as evidence, no one could prove otherwise.’

The phone rang and Mary picked it up. After a brief conversation in French she put the phone back down and said, ‘That was Inspector Le Clerc. The Trools checked out of the hotel about an hour before the police got there. They did not leave a forwarding address.’

‘Oh shit!’ Gordon’s worst fears seemed to be about to come true. ‘Did he say what they’re doing about it?’

‘Just that they were doing their best to find them.’

Gordon started to pace nervously. ‘We’re going to be too late,’ he muttered. ‘Too damned late.’

Mary could think of nothing positive to say. There was nothing they could do as far as she could see, but enforced inaction was not going to make the waiting any easier. ‘Maybe we could start ringing round all the hospitals and clinics in Paris?’ she suggested, but her voice faltered as it occurred to her just how many of them there must be. ‘Maybe not,’ she conceded. The suggestion however, triggered off another thought and she said, ‘But we could ask their hotel!’

‘Ask them what?’

‘Ask them if the Trools made any telephone calls while they were staying there. Surely they must have called this other clinic at some time?’

‘Brilliant!’ said Gordon. ‘But we’d better get the police to do it; the hotel won’t give out that kind of information to us. You call them; your French is a lot better than mine.’

He stood by anxiously while Mary called the police and asked to be put through to Le Clerc. He watched her expression change from excitement to disappointment. She put down the phone and said dejectedly, ‘They already thought of that. The Trools did not use the hotel phone at all.’

‘Damnation,’ said Gordon. ‘But it was still a good idea. Try to come up with another one!’

The pair of them sat fidgeting, willing the phone to ring and bring them news, while outside the rain beat against the window. It was to be another thirty minutes before the phone did ring but even then, it wasn’t the police with more news; it was Dr Balard.

‘Mrs Trool has just arrived to visit her daughter,’ he announced in an exited whisper.

Gordon’s throat tightened and he felt the beginnings of a cold sweat break out on his forehead. ‘We must speak to her,’ he said. ‘Can you arrange it?’

‘Come down and wait in my room. I’ll see to it that she comes here before she leaves the clinic.’

‘We’ll be right down. You’ll inform the police?’

‘Of course.’

Gordon turned to Mary and said, ‘Sonia Trool is here to see her daughter. We can’t afford to just let her walk away. We must try to find out from her where they’re holding Anne-Marie.’

‘Something tells me that isn’t going to be easy,’ said Mary.

‘It might be our only chance,’ said Gordon.

Gordon and Mary waited for over forty minutes in Balard’s office before voices outside the door told them that Sonia Trool was about to be shown in. Balard indicated that they stand against the back wall to the side of the door and they did so before a knock came and Balard said, ‘Come in.’

‘You wanted to see me, Doctor?’ asked Sonia Trool as she came in, confident and looking as elegant as ever.

‘Actually, we did,’ said Gordon, pushing the door closed and standing in front of it. Sonia turned and looked shocked but only for a moment. She smiled and said, ‘Dr Gordon, what a surprise. What brings you here?’

‘This is Dr Hallam from Ysbyty Gwynedd in Wales; we’ve come here to take Anne-Marie Palmer back home with us. Where is she?’

‘I’m not sure I know what you are talking about, Doctor. Wasn’t Anne-Marie Palmer the baby who was murdered by her father back in Wales?’

‘No, she’s the baby you and your husband paid Ranulph Dawes to clone so that your child could have her sight restored,’ said Gordon. ‘Now, where is she ?’

‘This is bizarre,’ protested Sonia. ‘I’ve never heard such nonsense in all my life.’ She made a move towards the door but Gordon blocked her way.

‘Let me past,’ she demanded.

‘Where, Sonia?’

‘Dr Balard, would you please call the police!’ said Sonia.

‘They are already on their way, Madam,’ replied Balard, ill at ease with what was going on in front of him.’

His reply brought another little flicker of uncertainty from Sonia but again she recovered well and said, ‘Good, then I’ll be able to have these people charged with keeping me here against my will.’

‘Do you deny that your child is here to have her sight restored?’ Gordon asked her.

‘Of course I don’t deny it,’ retorted Sonia. ‘A donor has become available and tissue is being flown in.’

‘From where?’

‘I didn’t ask,’ replied Sonia. ‘I... find that sort of thing just too upsetting.’

‘And you are such a sensitive soul, Sonia,’ said Gordon.

Sonia’s eyes flashed with anger.

‘Where’s James?’

‘Mind your own business,’ snapped Sonia.’

The police arrived and Le Clerc came into the room.

‘Inspector, these people are harassing me. I wish to leave,’ said Sonia, making a move towards the door but finding her way still blocked, this time by Le Clerc as well as Gordon.

‘Not just yet, Madam,’ said Le Clerc. ‘I need you to answer a few more questions for me.’

‘She won’t say where they’re holding the child or where her husband is,’ said Gordon.

‘Then perhaps you would be kind enough to empty out your handbag, Madam,’ requested Le Clerc politely.

‘This is outrageous,’ stormed Sonia, who looked for a moment as though she might explode but on seeing that Le Clerc seemed less than impressed with her histrionics, she capitulated quietly and emptied her bag out on Balard’s desk.