his mail. He pretended that Jamieson was no longer standing there.
Jamieson said slowly and quietly, 'I want to know exactly what you did with the instruments you collected from CSSD yesterday.' He watched Thelwell carefully for his reaction.
Thelwell stopped reading, settled back in his chair and let out his breath in a long, slow sigh. 'My, we have been busy,' he said.
Jamieson waited for his answer.
'I brought them back here.'
'Where?'
'Here, to my department.'
'Why should a consultant surgeon play at being a hospital porter?' asked Jamieson slowly.
'Because this consultant surgeon cares enough about his patients to monitor the sterilising of the instruments to be used in their operations and then make sure that they are not tampered with before they are used.'
Jamieson found himself taken unawares by the directness of Thelwell's answer. He had to be careful. He wasn't dealing with a fool. Was the man just clever? Or very clever? Clever enough to pretend that he was investigating the very act that he could see he was about to be accused of?
'Tampered with?' said Jamieson.
'It occurred to me that this was a possibility,' said Thelwell.
'I see,' replied Jamieson. He tried to trap Thelwell by saying, 'So yesterday you brought the instruments up to the theatre from CSSD and put them away in the theatre instrument cupboard yourself?'
'Not exactly,' said Thelwell, walking round the trap. 'I kept them locked away in my desk overnight. I put them in theatre this morning shortly before the operation was about to commence.'
'And the instruments that already were in theatre?'
Thelwell unlocked the cupboard in the left pedestal of his desk and brought out the packs he had substituted. 'I was going to take them back to CSSD for re-sterilising.'
'Have you any reason to believe that instruments have been tampered with?' Jamieson asked.
'Just a precaution,' replied Thelwell. 'But I felt it was warranted. As the same thought has obviously occurred to you, you can hardly argue the point.'
Jamieson stayed silent.
Thelwell said, 'I can assure you that the instruments Evans dropped on the floor were absolutely sterile and had been under lock and key here in my office ever since they were removed from the autoclave in CSSD.'
'I see,' said Jamieson. He had not managed to trick Thelwell into lying or saying anything that might not conceivably be true. 'Perhaps we can compromise?'
'On what?'
'On an agreed procedure for sterilising and storing instruments and dressings,' said Jamieson.
'What do you have in mind?'
'I suggest that instruments are not stored in the theatres at all. I suggest that they are collected fresh from CSSD immediately before they are required.'
Thelwell thought for a moment and then said, 'Agreed.'
'I'll take these back down with me,' said Jamieson nodding to the packs from Thelwell's desk. Thelwell handed them over.
Jamieson returned to his room in the lab after setting up the new procedure for instruments with CSSD and the administration people. Moira Lippman asked if he had a moment to speak. He said that he had but then his phone rang. It was Macmillan from Sci Med.
'Time of death on the murder in Leeds last night has been set at some time between ten thirty and eleven.'
Jamieson thanked him and put down the phone. He had been hoping for a time of death after eleven thirty when Thelwell had returned home but that comfort had been denied to him. He tapped the end of his pen on the desk while he thought. Behind him, Moira Lippman cleared her throat to remind him of her presence.
'Sorry,' he said. 'I was miles away.'
'I repeated your tests on the Pseudomonas,' she said.
Jamieson smiled. 'What happened?'
'You were quite right. There were three significant differences in terms of biochemistry. In fact I did some extra tests and found two more.'
'Five?' exclaimed Jamieson.
Moira Lippman nodded. 'Very strange,' she said. 'In fact one might almost think that… No, it's silly.'
'What is?'
'No, really. It isn't worth mentioning.' With that Moira Lippman turned on her heel and left Jamieson alone again.
Jamieson reflected for a moment on how much he hated when people did that.
The first indication that all was not well in the post-surgical care ward in the Gynaecology department, came at three thirty when Hugh Crichton called Jamieson and said, 'You did ask to be kept informed of any other surgical infections breaking out in the hospital?'
'Yes.'
'It's beginning to look as if several women in surgical gynaecology who had their operations within the last ten days have developed fever and signs of wound infection.'
Jamieson closed his eyes for a moment then said, 'Go on.'
'There's not much more to report really. Samples are on their way down to the lab for bacteriology. I just thought you should know.'
'How are the women?' asked Jamieson.
Crichton cleared his throat nervously before replying, 'They are rather ill actually. It all happened very suddenly and their condition has been worsening all the time.'
'Thanks for telling me.'
Jamieson put the phone down and cradled his head in his hands for a moment while he thought. More infection and again in Thelwell's unit. If the damned Pseudomonas strain was responsible again the whole place would have to be closed down. There was no alternative. He went to talk to Clive Evans.
'I've just heard,' said Evans when Jamieson entered. 'The specimens will be here at any moment.
'So you will know by tomorrow morning if it's the Pseudomonas to blame?'
'Tomorrow for sure but we can do a few microscope slides on the specimens directly. We should be able to get an idea from them.'
'How long?'
'Half an hour.'
'Let me know as soon as you have a result, will you?'
'Of course.'
Jamieson was trying to call Sue for the fourth time that day and still without success when Clive Evans came into the room. Jamieson could see that he had the results of the primary tests. He replaced the receiver.
'I've just had a look at the stained slides,' said Evans.
'And?' asked Jamieson anxiously.
'I don't think it's the Pseudomonas.
'You don't?' exclaimed Jamieson.
'They're Gram positive cocci rather than Gram negative rods.'
'So what do you think?'
'All the indications at the moment are that it's a Staphylococcus infection,' said Evans.
'A different infection?' said Jamieson sounding bemused.
'It seems to be, but we won't know for sure until the morning when the cultures have had time to grow up.'
Jamieson turned away, wresting inside his head with the implications of what Evans had said. 'Another outbreak of post-operative infection in the same unit but caused by a completely different bug?' he murmured.
'That's how it looks,' said Evans. He could see that Jamieson was deep in thought so he said, 'If you'll excuse me, I've got things to do.'
