Marcus Todd cropped up again in a local newspaper discussing the recent Dignitas documentary. It prompted Cross to go back and see him as he’d been intending to for some time. Something about Todd’s reaction to the film seemed quite genuine. That what Sutton was advocating by his presence in Switzerland was dangerous and that Todd, as he had said to Cross, felt Sutton’s motives were self-promotional. The detective wondered whether the documentary might have been a step too far for Todd and that he might be willing to divulge whatever he had held back in their first interview. Todd was pleased to see Cross again until he learnt that Sutton had now become a person of interest in the case. He then became much more circumspect as the reality of the situation dawned on him – that what he said could have serious consequences for the therapist. It was no longer a game of media ping-pong in which accusatory soundbites were traded like verbal punches over the airwaves. Cross had noticed this about people when he revisited them to discuss someone related to an investigation. Once that individual had become an actual person of interest in a case, people behaved in one of two ways. Like Todd, they would become more reticent and less gung-ho now the situation had become serious. Or they were carried away with the fact that they always harboured suspicions about the suspect and let loose with often unhelpful conjecture and long-harboured theories. Todd was taken aback at this development. Clearly shocked that someone in his profession could be suspected of something as heinous as killing one of his patients.
‘I left with the feeling at our last meeting that perhaps there was something you were reluctant to say to me,’ Cross began.
‘Can he really be a suspect?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘That Dr Sutton’s a suspect, yes, but at this stage no more than that.’
‘I see. Then, well, I did feel reticent saying this at the time but as you say, things have changed. After my patient committed suicide he said something I found odd and hard to forget.’
‘Which was?’ Cross pushed.
‘That after all she’d been through it might be said that she was better off where she was. That an end had been put to her suffering.’
‘I see,’ Cross replied.
‘This was before he became such a messianic ambassador for assisted dying, or state-sanctioned murder, as it should be called,’ Todd said bitterly.
‘His wife committed suicide, I understand,’ said Cross.
‘She did. He claimed it was some sort of epiphany.’
‘In what sense?’
‘I don’t know,’ Todd replied. ‘He said it presumably because he felt it was a good dramatic and enigmatic soundbite. He didn’t elaborate.’ Cross waited for Todd to go on. But he said nothing further.
‘Dr Todd, now is not the time for having any qualms about disclosing anything you think is relevant, whether or not incriminating.’
‘Well, my concern is not just the high mortality rate in Sutton’s patients, which as you know I informed your colleague about a few years ago, but, more significantly in my opinion, the proportion of his patients’ death certificates he actually signs.’
‘Why is that odd? They were his patients.’
‘Families tend to call their GPs when a loved one has died. Not the deceased’s counsellor,’ said Todd.
‘But he is a doctor.’
‘Sure, but he wasn’t acting as their doctor. He was acting as their therapist. But one thing really stood out,’ Todd continued. ‘A lot of his patients live alone. It’s quite common in recovering addicts. They come out of rehab, and some will go through a halfway house, but they will mostly end up living alone for a period of time.’
‘What are you saying?’ Cross asked.
‘I’m sorry; lost my thread. Who called Sutton to let him know about the death? Who was there?’ Todd asked.
‘Presumably whoever found the body,’ said Cross.
‘And that’s just it.’ Todd was emphatic. ‘Sutton was often the one who discovered his patients dead, concluding they had taken their own lives. But it happened too often. Statistically, the number is way out of the norm.’
‘It doesn’t fit the pattern?’ said Cross.
‘What do you mean?’
‘The statistical pattern.’
‘Exactly.’ Todd nodded. ‘Which takes me back to my patient, Jodie. Sutton discovered her body in her flat. It was him who called me. When I arrived, he’d already signed the death certificate and the undertakers had been to collect the body. I remember thinking it was very quick.’ Something dawned on him at that moment. ‘You think he might have killed her.’
Cross was puzzled by this as he thought their entire conversation was surely predicated on this possibility. But the enormity of the situation was just beginning to dawn on Todd who looked up at Cross with an expression of horror.
‘Oh no. Surely not. Are you thinking he may have killed them all?’
‘I cannot say, but I will say that, bearing in mind how media-friendly you appear to be, I would ask that you keep this conversation to yourself.’
‘Of course.’
Cross resisted the idea of going straight to Sutton and asking him about the information Todd had given him. Obviously it was a major point of interest, but it didn’t go as far, yet, as to make Sutton a person of interest in the case more than anyone else. He wanted to do more digging before meeting Sutton again, in order to be more prepared for what he anticipated would be a tricky and demanding interview.