The laughter was cut short when Jamieson noticed the look on Evans' face and he realised that something was wrong. 'Something's the matter?' he said.
Evans nodded. 'I knocked on your door to tell you that one of the women in ward eight has died and two more are deteriorating fast. The antibiotics aren't working.'
'This is crazy,' said Jamieson. 'Surely we can't have a second infection immune to treatment. Are you sure it's not the Pseudomonas again?'
Evans shrugged apologetically and said, 'I can only say what I found on the slide. It definitely looked like a Staphylococcus infection. 'I suppose it's possible that the Pseudomonas is still lurking there. We won't know for sure until the morning.'
Jamieson sighed in frustration and said, 'I suppose we'll just have to bite the bullet until then.'
'Fraid so,' agreed Evans.
Jamieson thanked Evans for bringing him the news and showed him out.
'What does he do?' asked Sue.
'Clive Evans? He's the bacteriologist at the moment until they appoint a replacement for Richardson. He has the room next door.'
'It sounds as if your infection problem is getting worse not better,' said Sue.
Jamieson nodded and told her about the eight women who had developed infections in the last twelve hours.
'Eight!' exclaimed Sue.
'Within hours of each other.'
'Did they all have their operations on the same day?' asked Sue.
'I thought of that,' said Jamieson. 'No they didn't and so far I haven't uncovered any other common factor.'
Sue went through the options that Richardson and the ward sister had already considered and then lapsed into silence for a moment while she tried to think of another idea. Jamieson switched on the electric kettle to make coffee.
'Why has it taken so long this time for the infection to develop in these women?' Sue asked. 'I seem to remember you saying that the others developed the illness within hours of their operation.'
'They did,' agreed Jamieson. 'But this time Evans thinks it's another bug to blame.'
'This isn't a hospital,' said Sue. 'It's a septic tank!'
'But it's not,' replied Jamieson.
Sue looked puzzled.
'Everything is spotlessly clean and sterile and no one can find where the contamination is coming from. That's the real problem. It appears to come out of the blue.'
'No ideas at all?'
'One,' replied Jamieson a bit reluctantly.
'Well, I'm waiting.'
'It could be deliberate,' said Jamieson.
Sue looked aghast, as if she couldn't believe her ears. There was a long silence before she whispered, 'You can't be serious.'
'I wish I wasn't,' said Jamieson. 'But if we can't find the source of the infection after all the tests that have been done I have to consider the possibility of deliberate sabotage.'
'But how?' asked Sue, her mind rebelling against the notion. 'Why?'
'At the moment I'm considering the possibility that the instruments used in surgery have been deliberately interfered with.'
'But that is absolutely awful!' exclaimed Sue. 'Surely there has to be another explanation? Who in their right mind would do a thing like that?
'No one in their right mind,' said Jamieson, putting emphasis on the word, 'right'.
'You mean someone mentally deranged? On the staff?' Sue asked, her eyes wide with horror.
'Frankly I don't know what I mean right now but certain things need explaining.'
'Like what?'
'Like why does a consultant surgeon take it upon himself to collect surgical instruments from the sterilising department and keep them in his office overnight and why does the same consultant surgeon lie about going to choir practices in the evenings when he is doing no such thing.'
'You have been busy,' said Sue. 'I take it we are talking about Mr Thelwell?'
Jamieson nodded.
'Have you tackled him?'
'About the instruments, yes'
'And?'
'He said he took them to prevent them being interfered with.'
'Then he thinks the same as you?'
'Or he is doing the interfering,' said Jamieson.
'A surgeon?' exclaimed Sue. 'You think that Mr Thelwell is infecting his own patients?'
'I said that it's a possibility I'm considering,' replied Jamieson. 'I have to and apart from anything else, the man clearly has a problem. He's quite paranoid.'
'But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's psychotic,' retorted Sue.
'No,' agreed Jamieson. 'But he is a liar. He's been telling his family that he has been going to choir practises when he's not.'
'So, he's having an affair,' said Sue. 'I don't see what the missed choir practises have to do with the deaths in the hospital.'
'They haven't,' agreed Jamieson. 'It was the deaths outside the hospital I was thinking about.
Sue looked at Jamieson for a moment as if he had gone mad. She searched for words but remained speechless for a long moment until finally she managed to protest. 'You can't mean it! You are talking about the murders in the city?'
'He's a surgeon. The bodies have been dissected. He is paranoid to the point of being clinically borderline in my opinion and he lies about where he's going in the evenings. He interferes in the supply of sterile instruments to the theatre and the body of the last victim was found in the incinerator of this hospital. Food for thought?'
'Is he still operating?' asked Sue.
'No I had to suspend him when Richardson found the infecting organism in his swab but when he gets his final clearance from the Public Health Lab there's nothing I can do to stop him.
'If you're really serious about this, can't you have a word with the police?' asked Sue.
'I need something more than bad feelings before I go to the police about a consultant surgeon and pillar of the community,' said Richardson.
'But what about these choir practices he says he goes to?' said Sue. 'Where does he really go? '
Jamieson nodded and said, 'That's something I intend to find out very soon.'
'You mean you are going to follow him?' asked an astonished Sue.
'Exactly that. He doesn't know that I know about the choir practice lies. That gives me an edge.'
'You don't think you're taking this detective bit a little far?' said Sue. 'Maybe the professionals should do this sort of thing?'
Jamieson nodded and said, 'I know what you mean but it's a simple enough thing to follow Thelwell just once to see where he really goes. If I find out anything, I promise I'll hand the whole business over to the police.'
Sue smiled. 'All right,' she said. 'Just once.'
At Hugh Crichton's suggestion, Jamieson and Sue moved their things to a second floor room in the residency rather than have her move out into the apartment that Sue's father had arranged for her. Ostensibly this was so that Jamieson could remain on hand in the hospital at all times and still be with his wife but Jamieson's slight resentment of Sue's father's involvement in their lives had played a part in the decision. This was not mentioned. As yet, Jamieson had never openly complained to Sue about her father's constant involvement in their marriage because he knew that it would sound ungrateful after all Sue's father had done for them during his long stay in hospital but the potential for trouble in the future remained.
