Adrian McKinty: I Hear the Sirens in the Street

She shrugged. “A Biblical verse perhaps? ‘No Sacrifice Too Great’.”

I looked at Crabbie. He shook his head. He had no idea either.

“Go on, Doctor,” I said.

“The victim’s head, arms and legs were removed post mortem. He had also been circumcised, but this had been done at birth.”

She paused and stared at me again.

“Cause of death?” I asked.

“That, Detective Inspector, is where we get into the really interesting stuff.”

“It’s been interesting already,” Crabbie said.

“Please continue, Dr Cathcart.”

“It was a homicide or perhaps a suicide; either way, it was death by misadventure. The victim was poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” Crabbie and I said together.

“Indeed.”

“Are you sure?” Crabbie said.

“Quite sure. It was an extremely rare and deadly poison known as Abrin.”

“Never heard of it,” I said.

“Nevertheless, that’s what it was. I found Abrin particles in his larynx and oesophagus, and the haemorrhaging of his lungs leaves little doubt,” Laura continued.

“Is it a type of rat poison or something?” I asked.

“No, much rarer than that. Abrin is a natural toxin found in the rosary pea. Of course it would need to be refined and milled. The advantage over rat poison would be in its complete lack of taste. Like I say it is very unusual but I’m quite certain of my findings … I did the toxicology myself.”

“Sorry to be dense, but what’s a rosary pea?” I asked.

“The common name for the jequirity plant endemic to Trinidad and Tobago, but I think it’s originally from South-east Asia. Extremely rare in these parts, I had to look it up.”

“Poisoned … Jesus,” I said.

“Shall I continue?” she asked.

“Please.”

“The Abrin was taken orally. Possibly with water. Possibly mixed into food. There would have been no taste. Within minutes it would have dissolved in the victim’s stomach and passed into his blood. It would then have penetrated his cells and very quickly protein synthesis would have been inhibited. Without these proteins, cells cannot survive.”

“What would have happened next?”

“Haemorrhaging of the lungs, kidney failure, heart failure, death.”

“Grisly.”

“Yes, but at least it would have been fairly rapid.”

“How rapid? Seconds, minutes?”

“Minutes. This particular strain of Abrin was home cooked. It was crude. It was not manufactured by a government germ warfare lab.”

“Crude but effective.”

“Indeed.”

I nodded. “When was all this?”

“That’s another part of the puzzle.”

“Yes?”

“It’s impossible to say how long the body was frozen.”

I nodded.

“Are you sure about that freezing thing? There are plenty of ways a bit of skin can come off somebody’s back,” McCrabban said.

“I’m certain, Detective. The cell damage caused by freezing is consistent throughout what’s left of his body.”

“And so you have no idea when all this happened?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It is beyond my capabilities to state how long he was frozen for.”

“So you’re not able to determine a time of death?”

“I am afraid that I am not able to determine a time or date of death. Although I will continue to work on the problem.”

“Poisoned, frozen, chopped up, dumped,” McCrabban said sadly, writing it down in his notebook.

“Yes,” Laura said, yawning. I gave her a smile. Was she already bored by death? Is that what happened to all pathos in the end? Or was she just bored by us? By me?

“The rosary pea. That is interesting,” McCrabban said, still writing in his book.

“Our killer is not stupid,” Laura said. “He’s got a little bit of education.”

“Which more or less rules out the local paramilitaries,” McCrabban muttered.

“They’re not that bright?” Laura asked.

“Poison is far too elaborate for them. Too elaborate for everybody really around here. I mean what’s the point? You can get guns anywhere in Northern Ireland,” I said.

McCrabban nodded. “The last poisoning I remember was in 1977,” he said.

“What happened then?” Laura asked.

“Wife poisoned her husband with weedkiller in his tea. Open and shut case,” McCrabban said.

“So what do you think we’re looking at here, then? A loner, someone unaffiliated with the paramilitaries?” I asked him.

“Could be,” McCrabban agreed.

“Do us a favour, mate, call up a few garden centres and ask about rosary pea and get cracking on ‘No Sacrifice Too Great’, will ya?”

Crabbie wasn’t dense. He could read between the lines. He could see that I wanted to talk to Laura in private.

“You’ll walk back to the station, will you, Sean?” he asked.

“Aye, I’ll walk, I could do with the exercise.”

“Fair enough,” he said and turned to Laura. “Nice to see you again, Dr Cathcart.”

“You too, Detective McCrabban,” Laura said.

When he’d gone I walked to her and took off her mask.

“What?” Laura asked.

“Tell me,” I said.

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me what’s going on,” I said.

She shook her head. “Ugh, Sean, I don’t have time for this, today.”

“Time for what exactly?”

“The games. The drama,” she said.

“There’s no drama. I just want to know what’s going on.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What’s going on with us?”

“Nothing’s going on,” she said.

But her voice quavered.

Outside I could hear Crabbie start up the Land Rover.

I waited for a beat or two.

“All right, let’s go to my office,” she said.

“Okay.”

We walked the corridor and went into her office. It was the same dull beige with the same Irish watercolours on the wall. She sat in her leather chair and let down her reddish hair. She looked pale, fragile, beautiful.

The seconds crawled.

“It’s not a big deal,” she began.

I closed my eyes and leaned back in the patient chair. Oh shit , I thought, that means it’s going to be a really big deal.

“I’ve been offered a temporary teaching position at the University of Edinburgh,” she said, her voice sounding like it was coming from the bottom of a coal mine.

“Congratulations,” I replied automatically.

“Don’t be unpleasant, Sean.”

“I wasn’t.”

“It’s in the medical school. First year class on basic anatomy with a cadaver. To be honest, I need the break, from, from—”

“Me?”

“From all this …”

It didn’t have to be about me. Anybody with any brains was getting out. The destination wasn’t important. England, Scotland, Canada, America, Australia … the great thing was to go.

“Of course.”

She explained why it was an exciting challenge and why it didn’t necessarily mean the end of us.

I nodded, smiled and was happy for her.

I completely understood. She would leave Northern Ireland and she would never come back. I mean, who tries to get back on board the Titanic ?

Furthermore her sisters were out of high school and her parents were in the process of moving abroad. The only thing keeping Laura here were her ties to this shitty job and to me and both of those were severable.

“When are thinking of heading?” I asked.

“Monday.”

“So soon?”

“I signed a lease on an apartment. I need to get furniture.”

“What about your house in Straid?”

“My mum will look after it.”

“What about the hospital? Who’s covering for you here?”

“The other doctors can pick up the slack in the clinic and I’ve asked one of my old teachers to do my autopsy work in the interim. Dr Hagan. He’s coming out of retirement to do me this favour. Very experienced. He worked for Scotland Yard for years and he taught at the Royal Free. He says he’ll be happy to cover me for a few months. He’ll be much better at this kind of work than me.”