can do?’
‘I’m afraid she’s critical,’ said Dewar. ‘She’s in Intensive Care at the Royal Infirmary. She has multiple injuries and nobody’s committing themselves about her chances.’
‘Have her parents been told?’
‘I’m sure the police will have done that.’
‘This is an absolute tragedy,’ said Malloy. ‘I must go there. I’ll go into the lab first and tell the others then I’ll come straight to the hospital.’
Dewar was about to warn him about the police guard but he stopped himself; he didn’t want to explain why. He would do it the other way around. He would warn the police to expect Malloy. ‘I’ll probably see you there,’ he said.
Grant was there by the time Dewar arrived at Intensive Care. He was talking to two uniformed policeman stationed at the doors.
‘Any improvement?’ asked Dewar as he joined them.
‘They say nothing much has changed,’ replied Grant. ‘Her parents are sitting with her. They’ve come down from Elgin.’
The two uniformed men sat down again on their chairs on either side of the door as Grant and Dewar entered the unit and looked in through the glass panel. They saw a scene played out every day in hospitals across the country as Sandra’s mother, tears running down her face, sat holding her daughter’s hand. Her father, equally stricken but barred from emotion by male custom sat on the other side of the bed with granite features. Only his eyes showed the pain he felt.
Sandra slept on, her broken body ventilated and monitored by machinery. Green lights, gentle bleeps and clicking relays said that it was doing its job. It would continue until Sandra’s brain was ready to take over from it or until such times as a decision was made that said it never would and a switch would be turned off.
Malloy arrived in an agitated state. ‘How is she? Has there been any improvement?’ he asked as the policemen on the door let him through.
Dewar put a finger to his lips and said quietly, ‘Her parents are with her.’
Malloy nodded and spoke in a whisper. ‘Oh God, this is awful. You didn’t say when it happened.’
‘Just after eight last night. She was cycling home,’ said Grant.
Malloy shook his head. ‘It could only have been about twenty minutes after I spoke to her.’
Dewar and Grant looked at each other. ‘You spoke to her?’ exclaimed Dewar.
‘She phoned me about half past seven.’
‘Why?’
‘She said she’d discovered something we should talk about.’
‘What?’ asked Dewar, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know?’ exclaimed Grant.
Malloy seemed puzzled at the effect what he was saying was having on Dewar and Grant. ‘No, I suggested it could wait till morning. I was going out last night.’
The accusing stares he was getting prompted Malloy to continue. ‘Graduate students are always making “discoveries”. It’s a fact of life. They nearly always turn out to be red herrings or some kind of artefact in the experimental system. I saw no reason to drive into the lab at that time.’
‘So you assumed that Sandra’s discovery had something to do with her research work,’ said Dewar, suddenly understanding Malloy’s attitude.
‘Of course,’ replied Malloy, looking surprised. ‘What else?’
Grant and Dewar ignored the question. ‘Did she seem upset at all when you said it could wait till morning?’ asked Grant.
‘Upset? No, I don’t think so, although … ‘
‘Go on.’
‘She did sound a little … ‘
‘Yes?’
‘It’s hard to say. She sounded a bit reserved, if you know what I mean. That’s the wrong word but I don’t know the right one. Inhibited maybe.’
‘Could that have been because she wasn’t alone?’
‘I suppose,’ agreed Malloy with a shrug. I just thought she was a bit disappointed I wasn’t going to come in straight away.‘
A commotion outside the door interrupted them. Grant went to investigate. The words ‘Why won’t you let me speak to someone?’ spoken with a French accent announced the arrival of Pierre Le Grice. The policemen on the door had turned him away. Grant calmed things down and brought Le Grice back in with him.
‘The others told me at the lab when I got in,’ Le Grice explained to Malloy. ‘I came straight here. How is she?’
‘Not good, I’m afraid,’ said Malloy.
‘And you. Why are you here?’ Le Grice asked Dewar.
‘I was concerned, just like you,’ Dewar replied, avoiding the real question.
Le Grice looked through the glass. ‘God, I hope you get the bastard who did this to her,’ he exclaimed.
‘We’ll do our best,’ said Grant not best impressed by the fiery Frenchman.
Sandra’s parents came out with their arms wrapped around each other in a search for comfort in their pain. Her mother kept a handkerchief pressed to her face as a nurse guided them gently through the door.
Malloy approached them saying, ‘Mr and Mrs Macandrew, I’m Sandra’s research supervisor. I think we met once before when Sandra came for interview.’ The conversation trailed off as Malloy went outside with the couple to offer his sympathy. Dewar and Grant moved to a corner to discuss the implications of Sandra’s phone call to Malloy before she was run down. Le Grice, finding himself alone, took the opportunity to go through and sit beside Sandra. He held her hand gently and spoke to her as if she were conscious and awake. The nurse with her smiled her approval. and busied herself elsewhere in the room.
On the other side of the glass partition Grant said, ‘So all we have to do now is find out who was with her in the institute last night when she phoned Malloy and we have our man.’
‘Or woman,’ agreed Dewar, recalling that there were two women on the list apart from Sandra. ‘That’s about the size of it.’
The two men lapsed to silence as they considered different things. Grant was thinking about arresting Sandra’s attacker. Dewar was considering the implications of someone having agreed to work for the Iraqis and wondering how far had they got.
‘A doctor wearing surgical greens came into the room and said rather angrily, ‘Look, I’ve been very patient. I know you all have good reasons for being here but if I see another official ID I’m going to throw up. This is my unit and I want you all out of here. You’re getting in the way of my staff. You’ll have to wait somewhere else. We’ll let you know if there’s any change.’
‘You’re quite right, we’re sorry,’ said Dewar. ‘It’s just that she’s a very important young lady at the moment.’
Predictably, thought Dewar, the doctor replied that all his patients were important.
Grant said, ‘Sorry Doc, but my men outside will have to stay.’
‘I accept that, but we must have room to move in here.’
Le Grice was called back from Sandra’s bedside and everyone was ushered out of the unit. Malloy rejoined them as Sandra’s parents went off with a nurse for tea and sympathy. ‘They’re in an awful state,’ said Malloy. ‘She’s their only child.’
As they moved away from the entrance to IC they heard the sound of an electronic alarm come from inside.
‘What’s that?’ said Malloy.
Dewar didn’t wait to discuss the possibilities, he rushed back into the unit to see feverish activity around Sandra’s bed.
‘What’s happened?’ he demanded, knowing that if he sounded officious enough someone would tell him.’
‘Ventilation’s failed,’ said a nurse bustling past him.
