Cross wanted to examine Sutton’s patient records so he and Ottey went back to his office with a warrant.
‘He’s with a patient,’ Diana informed them.
‘We’re not here to see Dr Sutton,’ said Ottey. ‘We have a warrant for his patient records.’
‘All of them?’ asked Diana, shocked at the prospect.
‘Specifically those who are now deceased,’ explained Cross.
‘Well, if you come back tomorrow I’ll have it organised,’ she replied.
‘Had we simply wanted to alert you to our need for the records we could have done so by telephone and not gone to the effort of coming here in person,’ said Cross.
‘Yes, that would have been preferable,’ she replied.
‘The fact that we’re here – our physical presence in your office – surely makes it abundantly clear that we need them today. Now, in point of fact,’ Cross said.
‘It’ll take a while to get them together,’ Diana complained.
‘We’ll be back in an hour,’ said Cross.
‘I might need longer,’ she replied defiantly.
‘Miss Coogan, from my brief observation of you and the way you run your office, I think you are an immensely organised person,’ said Cross. ‘Admirably so. I like to think of myself as similarly well organised, and as we are only talking twenty patients, the names and dates of death of whom I have detailed for you, I think that an hour is more than generous.’
‘Presumably you are working on the assumption that I will provide you with copies,’ she asked.
‘Correct.’
‘Then you need to factor in time for me to photocopy them,’ she said victoriously.
‘Oh, I did,’ he replied. ‘We’ll see you in an hour.’
*
When they returned, the files had been duly copied and placed in a folder. Diana provided them with a detailed inventory of the files she had copied, which she then insisted both detectives sign. Sutton was unavailable to see them, she informed them.
‘We haven’t asked to see him,’ Cross pointed out.
‘I know, but he’s unavailable,’ she repeated.
‘As I said, we haven’t asked to see him,’ Cross reiterated.
Diana looked at him disdainfully.
‘I trust you have everything you need,’ she said frostily.
‘We will have, if you’ve given us everything we requested,’ said Cross.
Ottey was sorely tempted to say, ‘Hey, guys, get a room!’, but she was fairly sure it would be wasted on the two of them.
‘How is Angie? The young woman I brought in?’
‘I can’t discuss patients with you, Sergeant.’
‘Did you manage to find a residential place for her? Can you at least let us have that?’ asked Ottey. Diana thought for a moment.
‘We did,’ she confirmed.
*
Cross went through Sutton’s patient files over and over again. He wasn’t looking for anything specific, just things that stood out as anomalies or mistakes, patterns. But nothing seemed particularly out of place. It was when Mackenzie brought him the coroner’s report for Sutton’s wife he’d asked for, that he found something. He read it thoroughly. Sutton had come home from work to find his wife dead. She’d taken an overdose. The verdict was accidental death, but there was something which caught Cross’s eye. Sutton had said ‘her last words were “thank you”.’ Something in the phrasing of this struck Cross as odd.