‘That’s right. The first person I saw was one of the nurses I know and she soon got organised. They’re very efficient here.’
‘What time was it?’
‘When I got help? Some time after seven for sure. At least ten minutes past. My bus gets in at five past the hour, which suits me perfectly. Visiting is open here, but they tell you they prefer you to come after the evening meal, which is from six to seven. I think most visitors co-operate.’
Rose stood and stared at the place where she’d lain unconscious. ‘It’s fairly conspicuous.’
‘It is.’
‘I mean, you’d think somebody else must have noticed, if people were driving in for the seven o’ clock visit.’
‘Well, you would,’ Mrs Thornton agreed.
‘I can only suppose I wasn’t there very long.’
Mrs Thornton said, ‘Can we go back to the ward now? I don’t suppose David knows if I’m there or not, but I like to be with him and I don’t think there’s anything else I can tell you, my dear.’
Rose couldn’t think of anything else to ask. She felt guilty she’d brought the old lady out here for so little result. ‘Of course. Let’s go back.’
Mrs Thornton offered to let Rose walk ahead, allowing her to follow at her own slow pace, but Rose insisted on taking her arm. In the last few minutes the light had faded. ‘You want to be careful,’ Rose advised. She’d become fond of the old lady. ‘You won’t be all that easy to see in your dark clothes. They don’t all drive under the speed limit, especially if they’re late.’
‘Don’t I know it!’ said Mrs Thornton. ‘The other evening I was almost knocked down by some people in a white car just as I came through the main gate. I’d only just left the bus. I had to dodge out of the way like a bullfighter. Perhaps I was partly to blame for not being alert, but you don’t expect anyone to be driving so quickly in hospital grounds, unless it’s an ambulance.’
‘When was this?’ Rose asked eagerly.
‘Two or three nights ago.’
‘Could it have been the night you found me?’
‘Don’t ask. I come every evening,’ Mrs Thornton said with exasperating uncertainty.
‘Would you try and remember?’
‘One day is very like another to me.’
‘Please.’
‘Well, it certainly wasn’t last night, and I don’t think it was the night before, because I met someone on the bus who came in with me, the wife of one of the patients. It must have been Monday, mustn’t it?’
‘This white car. Was it coming into the hospital?’
‘Oh, no,’ said Mrs Thornton. ‘That was why I was caught off guard. The car was on the way out. You don’t expect a car to be leaving when everyone is arriving.’
‘You know why I’m asking?’ said Rose. ‘It may have been the car that brought me here. I can’t have been lying here very long, or someone else would have noticed me before you did. If this car was being driven away in a hurry, you may have seen the people who dumped me here. You did say there were some people in the car. More than just the driver.’
‘Well, I think so, my dear. I got the impression of a man and a woman.’
‘Anything you remember about them? Young? Middle-aged?’
‘My dear, everyone looks young to me. I think I’m right in saying that the man was thin on top – well, bald -so he was probably middle-aged. I didn’t see much of the woman, except to register that she was female. Dark- haired, I think. They simply raced through the gate and away. You could hear the car’s noise long after it vanished up the street. Do you know, it didn’t occur to me until this minute that they might have had something to do with you.’
‘Do you remember anything else about them? Or about the car? You said it was white. White all over?’
‘I think so. I’m sorry. A car is a car to me. I can’t tell you the make or anything and I certainly didn’t notice the number.’
‘Was it large? You mentioned the engine-note.’
‘I suppose it must have been.’
‘A sports car? Like, em…’ Rose cast around the rows of parked cars, ‘… like the green one over there, in shape, I mean?’
‘No, nothing like that. It was higher off the ground than that. More substantial, somehow.’ Now Mrs Thornton took stock. ‘Not particularly modern, but elegant. Have you ever seen
‘Yes, of course.’
‘His car-’
‘Yes! A Jag. Was it like that?’
‘No, dear. His car is red, isn’t it? Well, maroon.’
‘But the shape was similar?’
‘Not in the least. What I’m trying to say is that on the front of Inspector Morse’s car there’s a sort of emblem.’
‘The jaguar, yes.’
‘Well, this one had something mounted on the bonnet, but it wasn’t an animal.’
‘The figure of a woman?’
‘Oh, no. Definitely not a woman. A fish.’
‘That’s what it appeared to be. I only caught a glimpse.’
‘What kind of fish?’
‘I’m sure I couldn’t tell you. I’m no expert on the subject. A fish is just a fish to me.’
This was infuriating. ‘Like a shark? A dolphin?’
‘I don’t think so. Not so exotic as those.’
‘What colour?’
‘Silver, I fancy. But don’t hold me to that, will you?’
‘You couldn’t have confused it with something else?’
‘Quite possibly,’ Mrs Thornton blithely said. ‘I’m just an old woman who knows nothing at all about cars or fish.’
‘It’s so bloody frustrating, Ada,’ Rose told her companion on the way to the bus-stop. ‘There’s a fair chance that this white car was the one I was driven to the hospital in, but she can’t tell me anything about it except that she thinks it had a fish mounted on the bonnet. A
‘What’s wrong with that, petal? A fish on a car is pretty unusual.’
‘I’d say it is. Have you ever seen one?’
‘Since you ask, no.’
‘She’s very vague about it and she only caught a glimpse, anyway.’
‘Look on the bright side, ducky,’ said Ada. ‘Suppose she’d been a car expert and told you she saw a BMW five-series. You’d be no wiser, really. You could find hundreds of cars like that. If we can find a white car with a fish on it, we’re really getting warm.’
Seven
Back at the hostel a message was handed to Rose. She was to phone Dr Whitfield as soon as possible.
‘There you go,’ said Ada with a told-you-so smile. ‘Somebody cares. Just when you were saying that goddam hospital was only too pleased to be shot of you…’
