Chapter 14

George, can we meet again. I’d like to update you and I need some advice.’

‘Sure Andrew. Same place, same time? Tonight is okay.’

‘See you there.’

Andrew hung up the phone. He knew that he had to speak to Pathology but he did not know Arthur Hughes very well and he knew he could not approach him as easily as he had done Walter Long. He hoped that George Edwards could help with that task.

This time Andrew was the first to arrive at The Royal. He ordered a double scotch for himself and took the liberty of ordering the same for George. He was sitting at the table, having taken a small sip of his scotch when George Edwards arrived.

‘Thanks for the scotch Andrew. Just what I need,’ George said as he sat down. Andrew waited for George to have a sip of his whisky and proceeded to update him on everything that had occurred since they had first met.

‘I guess you didn’t take my advice to keep this between the two of us Andrew,’ George said. ‘But you did the right thing. And this Brendan fellow seems quite bright. I assume he can be trusted.’

‘I’m sure he can George.’

‘So, the next step is pathology. Your last stop really. If you draw a blank there, then I think it’s all over. I assume you need my help getting to Arthur. He is not an easy man to know but I know him well and we go back a long way. I’m sure I can help and also fairly sure that if there is anything to find out, that Arthur Hughes is your best bet. Let me tell you a bit about Arthur and then you’ll understand why.’

George took another sip of his whisky. Andrew did the same, sat back and listened.

Arthur Hughes was the Director of Anatomical Pathology at Prince Charles, a position he had held for five years. He was in his late forties, divorced with two children who he had not seen for years. He was not a happy man. For as long as he could remember, he had lived in the shadow of his father, Conrad Hughes, Sir Conrad Hughes actually.

Conrad Hughes was a brilliant man. He graduated from Medicine at the top of his class, initially pursued a successful career as a Consultant Physician, when in his mid thirties he retrained in pathology, being awarded the gold medal on completion of his training.

He was appointed Director of Pathology at Prince Charles at the age of forty. He had done pioneering work in the field of liver diseases, had numerous publications on the subject and had authored the definitive textbook which was considered to be the bible of liver diseases. His work earned him a knighthood, one of the last bestowed by Queen Elizabeth before the Australian Government replaced it with their own honour system.

He was a hard act to follow and a man to whom Arthur had never had the courage to say no. As a consequence, he studied medicine. Had he had it his way, he would have pursued a career in fine arts. His school marks were borderline and he would not have been accepted into the medical course at Melbourne University were it not for the influence of his father.

He completed the medical course without any particular distinction and this was followed by an equally undistinguished hospital residency. To no one’s surprise, he entered the pathology training program and passed the final examination for the Royal College of Pathologists on his third attempt. No gold medal there. This was followed by an appointment as Staff Pathologist at Prince Charles in the last year of Conrad Hughes’ reign and no doubt again due to his influence.

Despite himself, Arthur found that he enjoyed the work and gravitated to anatomical pathology where he did competent, although not brilliant, work and where he was in due course appointed to the position of Assistant Director.

It gave Arthur enormous satisfaction that his appointment to the position of Director of Anatomical Pathology occurred well after his father had retired from the hospital and was so stricken with Parkinson’s disease that he no longer wielded any influence at Prince Charles.

Arthur liked to believe he was appointed on merit but in fact knew that the appointment was facilitated by Jeffrey Harris, a long time close friend of his father’s. Were it not for Jeffrey Harris’ intervention, Arthur would have no prospect of being appointed, a fact no lost on him. He was now in Jeffrey Harris’ debt rather than his father’s which was only marginally more palatable.

‘You can see Andrew,’ George continued, ‘Here is a man who is indebted to Jeffrey for his position. This is a man of weak moral fibre and in my opinion, if Jeffrey asked him to send out false pathology reports, he would have readily done so. As I said, if there is something to this conspiracy theory of yours, then Arthur Hughes is the man most likely to tell you.’