business but at least we’ve got that bastard Battleby. And her husband’s in deep trouble too, thank goodness. I’ve had enquiries from…well, on high. You might as well say from the office of the Almighty himself, namely the Home Secretary. Take it from me the press coverage isn’t doing the Central Office any good. They are as interested in knowing where he’s got to as we are and I gained the impression they wouldn’t be unhappy if the bastard was dead. Save sacking the blighter.’
By the time the Superintendent left he had been given permission to apply for a search warrant and to take any reasonable measures he felt like.
One of those measures had been to have the Rottecombes’ phone tapped. All he’d learnt was that the wretched Ruth Rottecombe had phoned her husband’s flat in London time and time again, and had done the same with his club and the Party Central Office, but no one had seen him.
Chapter 28
By the time they found Geriatrics 3 Wilt hadn’t been in Geriatrics 5 Mavis Mottram had had enough. So had Eva. They headed for the door only to be confronted by a formidable Sister.
‘I’m sorry but you can’t see him yet. Dr Soltander is examining him,’ she said.
‘But I’m his wife,’ squawked Eva.
‘Very possibly. But’
Mavis intervened. ‘Show her your driving licence,’ she snapped. ‘That will prove who you are.’ As Eva rummaged in her handbag Mavis turned on the Sister. ‘You can check the address. I assume you know Mr Wilt’s.’
‘Of course we do. We wouldn’t know who he was if we didn’t.’
‘In that case why didn’t you phone Mrs Wilt and let her know he was here?’
The Sister gave up and went back into the ward. ‘His wife and another dreadful woman are demanding to see him,’ she told the doctor.
Dr Soltander sighed. His was a hard life and he had enough terminally ill old people to attend to without having any interruptions from wives and dreadful women. ‘Tell them to give me another twenty minutes,’ he said. ‘I may be in a better position to make a prognosis by then.’
But the Sister wasn’t tackling Mavis Mottram again. ‘You’d better tell them yourself. They won’t listen to me.’
‘Very well,’ muttered the doctor with a dangerous degree of patience and went out into the corridor. He could see at once what the Sister had meant by ‘two dreadful women’. Eva was white-faced and sobbing and demanding to see her Henry. Dr Soltander tried to point out that Wilt was unconscious and in no condition to see anyone and aroused the fury of Mavis Mottram.
‘It’s her legal right to visit her husband. You can’t stop her.’
The doctor’s expression hardened. ‘And who may you be?’
‘Mrs Wilt’s friend and I’ll repeat that Mrs Wilt has every right to visit her husband.’
Dr Soltander’s eyes narrowed. ‘Not while I’m doing my rounds,’ he snapped. ‘She can visit him when I’ve finished.’
‘And when will that be? In four hours?’
‘I’m not here to be cross-examined by you or anyone else. Now kindly take your friend into the Waiting Room while I make sure my absence from the ward hasn’t resulted in any premature deaths.’
‘Presence more likely,’ Mavis snapped back and took out her little notebook. ‘What’s
