But it must have been the dialysis machine she saw. And it was removed rapidly, within hours of Malnyk’s accident. Why? Because they did not want the police following the dialysis machine back to the doctor. But why? Why, why, why, why? Was one of Jonathan Wrigley’s doctor friends involved with the ampoules somehow? Why? What could a doctor possibly want with radioactive capsules?
He fished the fob out of his pocket again, struck by a thought. Originally he had needed confirmation that he and Wendy Wrigley had located the spot where her husband had killed himself, and not been looking in the wrong place. By the time Callintree gave him the crime scene pictures, they were irrelevant – he had already been forced to tell Wendy what he had found, all the clues that led to her husband’s suicide. It all added up; he had solved it. She was happy. They had been in the right place.
But now he stood in the darkened hallway of his home, staring at the fob.
He went to the PC and turned it on, slotting the fob into a USB socket that hung from the back of the tower. It showed up on the desktop with the warning,DANGER: Think before opening outside sources like this.He had spent enough time thinking. He clicked.
When he saw the crime scene photos arranged like a grid on the screen, he breathed a sigh of relief. That was the very spot. Well, he knew it must have been. He saw Callintree had not included any close-ups of the doctor’s body – a serious crime if he had done, never mind sackable offence – so the most he saw of Dr Wrigley was a flash of white clothing in the corner of some shots. He killed himself in a white suit, in order, they assumed, to be found faster.
There were more than two hundred photos on the drive. They covered that patch of forest from all angles. Outward, looking from the tree; and then focused on the place where the body lay. He looked at the trunk of the ash and began to zoom in.
His jaw dropped open as he stared.
Chapter Forty-Four
Edward needed to act fast. He jumped from the computer and grabbed his phone. The message to Kim! He opened WhatsApp and saw – thank God – the ticks against the message were still grey, so she had not seen it. He deleted the text as the doorbell rang.
Ah, Stevie would help. He could see the blonde frizz just above the line of the frosted panes in his front door. He threw the door open before she could ring the bell again, startling her.
‘Did your dad bring you?’
‘Yes, he’s—’
The car engine revved on the road. Edward rushed past Stevie into the darkness, almost pushing her, trying to catch the car. ‘We need him to take us … Hey! Hey, vicar!’
He sprinted towards the rear lights as they receded, hoping the man in the front seat might look at his rear-view mirror, see the shape in pursuit and stop the car. But he did not. Stevie was walking towards him down the street.
‘“Hey Hey Vicar” was a Sixties song, wasn’t it?’
‘Wendy,’ was all he could say.
‘What? Get your breath back.’
‘Wendy … the photos of the scene …’
‘Man, you need a cup of tea and a sit-down. What the fuck is wrong with you? You look like Heart Attack Jack.’ Then, with unusual softness, she asked: ‘What’s eating you, Edward?’
He barely heard the words, relying on the movement of her lips. ‘Come upstairs to my wall,’ he said. ‘Quickly.’
She did as requested, the stairs creaking under their feet. Almost to herself, Stevie said: ‘You know, when this place goes off the cliff, you may not get a warning? You’ll just get creaking like this.’
‘I lost my hearing aid if you’re speaking,’ said Edward in front of her. ‘I need to face you. Apologies.’
‘How does a person lose a hearing aid?’ muttered Stevie.
In the Post-it room, Edward went through his routine. He switched on the spotlight and picked up a laser pen. ‘Take a look at the words on the squares. Remember what you said?’
‘No,’ said Stevie a little bolshily. ‘You’ll have to be more specific.’
He turned on the laser pointer and a red dot appeared in the circle of the ‘O’ of TOPPINGS. ‘I’ve focused on this side, because I thought we were done with the Wrigley case.’
‘Um, I thought we were too.’
‘Well, I took her to that spot in the forest and found the tree. I know it was the right tree, by the way, because I looked at the crime scene photos just now. In the forest I found the hole drilled into the tree and used Wendy’s spoolie to get at what was inside.’
‘You did. You told me.’
The laser dot had swept left to the word ‘Spoolie’ now.
