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‘Andy, have you a minute?’ asked Shani.
‘Sure, pull up a seat,’ said Andy, looking up from his computer.
‘It’s nothing very exciting but I went over to the scrapyard, the one we think is retaining plates from scrapped cars.’
‘Useful visit?’
‘Yes, well, I had a look around, KarCykle, it’s called. It’s a reasonable outfit although the blokes weren’t that helpful. The boss wasn’t there that day but they gave me a current list of employees and for the last five years.’
‘I bet there were a few.’
‘Yes, they have quite a turnover. They showed me their record keeping. It looked in order but it’s going to be really hard to prove that anyone kept the old number plates. There were cars waiting to be scrapped which still had their plates on them of course and it would be easy for someone to turn a blind eye whilst someone removed them.
‘Well, perhaps your presence will have made them realise we are on to them if that person still works there.’
‘I ran the current names through the system. Nothing particularly interesting apart from one, Craig Lawton.’
Andy thought for a few seconds, ‘Never heard of him.’
‘No, well he’s not such a bad boy. Cautioned for affray about four years ago, a few speeding offences, nothing major. However, this is the interesting bit, he used to work at Alpha motors.’
‘Did he really. Well, once more the Radford Empire pops up again. It’s like all roads lead back to that one person.’
‘Do you want me to go back and speak to Lawton, now we know that?’
‘Why not? Take Dave with you. Exaggerate the seriousness, that sort of thing. He might get nervous. At the very least it might stop him from doing it again.’
‘OK, will do. I’ll get back to you.’
‘You know, Shani, I live in hope that at some point I’ll be able to convince the Superintendent who’s behind all this.’
Shani smiled encouragingly. She hoped so too but she was less optimistic than her colleague.
**
Dr Young began her consultation. She had Ron’s medical records from his GP.
‘So, I see that approximately five years ago you had some mild episodes of angina and your blood pressure and cholesterol were high. You started on low dose aspirin, blood pressure medication and a statin, correct?’
‘Yes, I also lost a stone in weight, gave up smoking and changed my diet.’
‘Excellent. That stopped the episodes?’
‘Yes. My doctor did say that the arteries could be narrowing but it wasn’t followed up at the time as I felt much better.’
‘But now you have recurring episodes of angina and are using glyceryl trinitrate spray. How often?’
‘Occasionally.’
‘Which means, how often?’
‘Quite often,’ replied Maureen.
‘Thank you, I can answer for myself.’
‘I’m sure your wife only has your best interests at heart, Mr Radford.’
‘My fiancée,’ corrected Ron.
‘My apologies.’
‘So, I think we need to investigate further. I’ll just check your blood pressure now and listen to your heart.’
Ron rolled up his sleeve and tried to remain calm whilst the doctor took the measurements.
‘I see. Well, your blood pressure is still too high. Not dangerously but higher than is advisable. I also want to run an ECG before you leave here and take some more blood samples. One of these will be sent for an eGFR which stands for estimated glomerular filtration rate which will check how your kidneys are working. You’ve not had one of these in the last three months have you?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Ron.
She made some notes in her folder.
‘I also want to you to have a CT coronary angiogram. Dye is injected into your veins and then detailed X-rays are taken of the heart to see whether your arteries are narrowing or blocked.’
‘Oh, goodness, is that really necessary? I don’t feel that bad.’
‘I wouldn’t be suggesting it if it weren’t. We aren’t short of patients. The procedure only takes about twenty minutes but you will be in the hospital for a few hours as there is preparation and recovery. You will need to be given drugs to make the heart beat at a particular rate so that they can get good images. It can take a while to adjust the medication.’
Ron sighed. He was a busy man and the idea of not being in total control didn’t sit easily with him.
‘If you insist,’ Ron said sullenly.
‘I should emphasise that at the moment you have what is called stable angina. However, it often progresses to what is termed unstable angina.’
‘I assume that’s harder to treat, is it?’ asked Ron.
‘It certainly is. The other name for it is a heart attack.’
