Chapter Forty-One

“YOU’D BETTER COME to my office,” said Louise Butler. “This isn’t something I want to discuss in the public waiting area.” Tim and Juliet followed her back to the lift.

“Take a seat,” she said wearily. “We’re going to have to be quite quick about this. I must get back to the patient soon. There’s also the question of confidentiality, although I have concerns that the young woman you’re interested in has been subjected to abuse. Perhaps you can advise me.”

“If you think that someone has put her life in danger, or that she’ll be in danger if she’s returned to that person, you have a duty to tell us all you can,” said Tim. Louise Butler gave Juliet a quick question-mark look. Juliet nodded. The interchange was not lost on Tim.

“OK. The woman who was sent here from Spalding’s Johnson Hospital earlier today is principally suffering from kidney failure. I’d say she’s been afflicted with it for some time. Undoubtedly she will have had symptoms several days ago, perhaps longer, and these have become acute. She’s now in a coma. It’s an extremely serious condition. Her case is so advanced that I’m worried all of her organs might shut down. If that happens, we probably won’t be able to save her.”

“Can you tell what caused it?”

“There are several possible explanations, but in her case there are other clues. Her gums are bleeding and some of her teeth appear to be loose. Her hair is in poor condition and her skin is unnaturally white. And she is very underweight, with under-developed muscles. She’s almost certainly malnourished. Putting all these things together, I think that she’s been living in conditions of acute deprivation for a very long time.”

“What do you mean by that, exactly?”

“It’s difficult for me to be more precise without straying into conjecture, but I think she’s been held in a confined space with no access to natural light, possibly for many years.”

“About how old is she?”

“She’s probably younger than she looks at the moment. The mother gave the year of birth as 1995 on the consent form provided by the Johnson Hospital. I’ve no reason to doubt that’s correct. Odd, of course, that no day or month was included. And the name the mother gave is also strange: Ariadne Helen, with Lucy Helen in the space for details of next of kin.”

“I understand the man who took her to the Johnson Hospital said he’d come to visit her here after he’d taken the mother home. Has he shown up yet?”

“No. We wouldn’t let him see her at the moment, anyway, unless he’s a relative.”

“Do you have the form the mother signed?”

“We have a copy of it. The Johnson Hospital kept the original.”

“Could you copy it again for us?”

“I’ll have someone do it, if you wait here. And now I really must go.”

Tim cleared his throat.

“Thank you very much, Dr Butler,” he said. “I suppose there’s no chance we could see this patient, is there?”

“None whatsoever,” she replied sternly. “It wouldn’t help you, in any case. She’s in a deep coma. If she comes round, naturally we shall allow you to speak to her then.”