Thank God for coffee and the relative sanctuary of the station. Lockie’s reaction hadn’t been vehement like Leonore’s. I would have preferred it though if he’d yelled or argued or sworn. The sullen silence and hurt-laden eyes were far harder to stomach.
‘Fine,’ he’d said.
I’d told him his wife had been murdered, and I had kicked him and Angel out of their home, and all he said was ‘Fine’.
The only good news was that I’d managed to track down the rubbish truck before it offloaded at the tip. It would be an unpleasant job for some poor sucker, and chances were they wouldn’t find anything of interest, but it was a job that needed to be done. You never knew what got put out in the trash.
I’d also made another phone call, hoping I wouldn’t be stepping on any toes, but the person I wanted to speak to was out, so while I waited for him to return my call I’d been entertained by the trainee fire-truck driver having to make a second attempt at backing the fire engine into the station next door. He’d get heaps about that at smoko. The last call-out the volunteer brigade had attended was a fire caused by a poled possum. The dumb bugger had fried itself on some over-head power lines and set fire to the grass when its blazing carcass hit the ground. That happened a bit around here.
I snatched up the phone on just the second ring.
‘Shephard.’
‘Sam,’ the voice drawled, ‘that’s a very officious greeting.’
‘Alistair, nice to hear your dulcet tones. Is the old boy away on one of his trips again?’
Alistair Gibb was the junior pathologist at Invercargill’s Southland Hospital. He was also a close family friend. Way back in my youth, he would come and spend school holidays with our family on the farm, before being shipped back to boarding school. His parents were both professional folk without the time or inclination to spend the vacations with their son. He was in the same class as my older brother, Mike, so came home with us every holiday – kind of like looking after the class goldfish.
‘The boss went to Rarotonga and left me in charge of the kingdom. Silly him, eh?’ he said, with just a hint of a gloat in his voice.
‘Tut, tut, some people never learn.’
‘Tut, tut, yourself, sunshine. By the way, interesting little case you sent me. Lucky for you we were quiet. I was able to get on to it straight away.’
‘I wanted to talk to you about that. I have strong reason to believe this was not a suicide.’ OK, my reasons were not that strong, but I wasn’t going to let him know that.
‘Well, I’d have to agree with you there.’
It probably sounds crass to say, but I was delighted to hear my instincts had been proven correct, especially now the CIB juggernaut had rolled into action on my call.
‘You got my attention. What’s your verdict?’
‘Official cause of death is drowning, which you would expect considering you found her body in the river. She was alive when she went in. We’ve sent a blood sample away to ESR for an urgent Midazolam level – that’s Hypnovel – but it will be another twelve hours before it’s back. I would be prepared to put money on its being ridiculously high.’
‘Define ridiculous?’
‘Higher than what you’d expect from the number of tablets she swallowed.’
I didn’t say anything, so he continued.
‘Well, her stomach contents show she had swallowed perhaps five or six tablets.’
‘But there were thirty tablets missing from that new box. Why would there be so few in her stomach?’
‘That’s where it gets interesting. Granted, she could have vomited. Then she wouldn’t have been as sedated, and anyway, that’s not what I think happened.’
‘Get on with it, Sherlock.’
‘Seeing as she didn’t have many tablets in her stomach, and they weren’t that well dissolved, I paid really close attention to her skin. Sure enough, there was a puncture mark on her right buttock.’
‘Puncture mark? A needle?’
‘Needle. There was a tiny bruise. She must have moved when it went in. So, my theory is that someone made her swallow enough tablets to make it look the part, then injected her with a huge dose to knock her out. Given in higher doses, Midazolam is used as a general anaesthetic. She would have been out in five minutes, tops. There were no other signs of bruising, so she didn’t struggle. A few scrapes, which you’d expect from someone bumping along a river bottom, but that was it. She would have been completely unconscious. If, by chance, she was semi-conscious, she wouldn’t have remembered a thing.’
Well, she wasn’t remembering anything now.
‘You, sir, have been watching far too much Discovery Channel,’ I said, grateful for the fact my friend was a first-class nerd.
‘I know, but do I get full points?’ The gloat was very evident now. Deservedly so.
‘Abso-bella-lutely. If you’re right, which given what you’ve described, I have no doubt about, someone has gone to an awful lot of trouble to make this look like a suicide.’ I thought through the implications. ‘Why would they only make her swallow a few tablets?’
‘Have you ever tried taking more than two? Firstly, it would take too much time, and secondly, you’d get pretty bloated and horrible on all that water needed to wash them down before you got enough into you. Quite clever of them really. I have no doubt the drug they injected would have been the same as the oral tablets. They appear to have been quite determined to make it look like a suicide, even to the extent of trying to fool a post-mortem.’
‘The swallowed tablets, for the stomach contents?’ I asked.
‘Who would be able to get hold of Mizadolam?’
‘Midazolam.’
‘Midazolam.’ I corrected the word on the notes I’d been jotting down. ‘Who would be able to get hold of it in an injectable form? The tablets were from a forged prescription. Is the injection available on prescription too?’
There was a bit of a pause while he ruminated on that one.
‘Yes, but it’s not straightforward. They have to get special dispensation. I suppose it’s used in veterinary medicine. I wouldn’t know offhand, you’d have to check with a vet. It can’t be that easy to access. Then again, you can buy anything on the internet now – no prescription required, a credit card is all the authority you need.’
I made a mental note to do a search and see what websites came up.
‘What did you estimate as the time of death?’
‘Given the water temperature and conditions, my guess would be between ten a.m. and midday on the Tuesday. I’ll send you the full report as soon as it’s written up.’
‘Well, Alistair.’ He was quite particular about being called Alistair, not Al. ‘You’ve been a marvel. The boss better watch out; his job might be in jeopardy when he gets back from the sunshine.’
‘Of course you’ll put a good word in for me when I try to usurp him?’
‘Naturally,’ I laughed.
‘I’ll be in touch when that blood level comes through. I did mark it urgent, but you can’t expect miracles. You must keep me posted on any developments. I’m really curious. This kind of thing doesn’t happen around here.’
‘You’re right. It’s provided our bit of excitement for the month. Thanks.’
‘Oh, one last thing.’
Please, not another invitation for a date.
‘She was pregnant, three months.’
‘Jesus,’ was all I could manage.