“The problem with being in here,” said Tabitha, “is that you feel ill almost all the time, one way or another.”
“When she rang, I could have said something else.”
“What?”
“That I’m not actually your doctor.”
“You’re my doctor in a way. You’re the doctor who lives in the village where I live.”
“You’d been there for a few weeks. You’re not registered with me. But it doesn’t matter. I’m here now. What do you want? Apart from examining your un-infected ear?”
Tabitha began a conversation she was getting used to, in which she told Mallon that she was conducting her own defense and it became gradually clear that he knew almost all of it already. What else did they have to talk about in Okeham? Then she told him about the CCTV footage.
“I saw you on it,” she said.
He looked faintly surprised. “What, me?”
“Yes, you. You think you got away from it all when you moved to Okeham, but we’ve got our own little piece of the surveillance society in front of the village shop.”
“I didn’t even know that we had CCTV in Okeham. So did it show me doing anything interesting?”
“You were running.”
“That’s not interesting; I run almost every day.”
“And I swim. Just a dip. It’s good for me. It improves my mood. I go swimming, you go running: we probably do it for the same reasons.”
“I do it as a way of thinking.”
“Then we don’t do it for the same reasons. I mainly do it to avoid thinking. On that day, I went for a swim at about a quarter to ten and on my way back, I met you.”
“Yes, I gave a statement about that.”
“I’ve read it. As far as I remember, you said I seemed distressed.”
“It was just an impression.”
“I was probably just shivering. But I’m not going to argue with you. People tell me I must be careful not to interfere with the course of justice.”
“It would be a pity if you got into trouble,” Mallon said in a dry tone.
“Is that a joke?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be unfeeling.” Mallon had been standing up. Now he half sat on the end of the couch.
“So, Tabitha, you didn’t have an earache and you’ve already read my very uninformative statement to the police. What was worth my taking an afternoon off from my practice?”
“Why did you take an afternoon off in order to see someone who isn’t even your patient?” asked Tabitha. “Is it interesting to take a look at the person who’s the talk of the village?”
“If you’re trying to get me on your side, then this is a pretty odd way to go about it.”
“Are you giving evidence for the prosecution?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I was just told that I should make myself available.”
“I suppose it puts me in the village, walking in the right direction.”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you think of Stuart Rees?”
Up to now Mallon had looked almost amused. Now he was visibly startled. “What do you mean? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I’m just asking.”
“I don’t even know why you would ask me something like that.”
“It’s like this,” Tabitha said. “When I first started thinking about my situation, there were several things which made it terrible. One of which was that people thought I had a motive for killing him. I was the”—Tabitha held up her fingers and made air quotes—“abused little girl. I had had my”—more air quotes—“innocence taken from me. And meanwhile, the person I was supposed to have a grudge against was the most popular person in the village. Then I started talking to people and it seems like I’m the only person who didn’t dislike him. Or at least, almost everyone turns out to have a reason for disliking him. But you know all about that. You’ve talked to Laura. Or rather, Laura’s talked to you. She said you were helpful.”
“I can’t say anything about that,” said Mallon.
“Was it about being ill or was it about something in her personal life? People talk to doctors about all kinds of things, don’t they?”
“It doesn’t matter how you rephrase the question, I can’t answer it.”
Tabitha couldn’t decide whether he was just being professionally correct or whether she had touched on an uncomfortable area.
“You were his doctor,” she said, “and then you weren’t his doctor.”
“People change doctors all the time.”
“Yes, when I lived in London, changing doctors was no big deal. But in a place like Okeham, changing your doctor is like moving house. Except that your old house doesn’t get offended when you move away from it.”
“It’s nothing like that. I’m not offended.”
“I just talked to Laura. She’s come to see me. She’s not someone who seems desperate to be liked, but I quite like her.” Tabitha waited for Mallon to make some kind of comment, but he didn’t, so she continued. “The way she talked about Stuart surprised me. People usually idealize the dead, especially when they’ve just died. But Laura wasn’t like that. The Stuart she talked about was someone difficult, a bit of a troublemaker, a stirrer.”
“She’s upset.”
“And I’m guessing that he didn’t just move doctors. I’m guessing that he made some kind of complaint about you.”
“I can’t comment on that.”
“You’re suddenly sounding like you’re already in court.”
Mallon stood up and gave a little laugh.
“All I can say is that if someone makes a complaint about you in writing, then murdering them isn’t going to be a very clever way of dealing with it.”
“So he made a complaint about you in writing?”
“It happens all the time. It’s part of the job.”
Tabitha now stood up as well.
“When they brought you in,” she said, “and they took you through door after door, locking and unlocking them with those big bunches of keys rattling, did it make you feel a bit
