address just as soon as I hang up. I want you to speak to the staff there, get some kind of idea of Foster’s state of mind.”
“Won’t the police be doing that anyway? The way things are between us and the cops at the moment, I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes.”
“Are they giving you a hard time?”
“I’ve had better.”
“Then this break might be just what you need. The doctor who called it in couldn’t get through to the incident line at the station house. Luckily for us he’s a US citizen, so rather than just giving up and trying again later, he called the embassy. Jennifer spoke to him just a little while ago.”
Ingrid hurried back to Gurley as her phone beeped with a new text message. She grabbed his arm. “We have to leave. Right now. I’ll explain on the way.”
One of the receptionists on the front desk of the Accident and Emergency Department led Ingrid and Gurley to a small room to one side of the main waiting area. This hospital seemed a lot older than the one they were just at. The walls were scuffed at the bottom and paint was flaking off some of the windows.
But the smell was just the same.
Three chairs were arranged around a desk on one side of the room. On the other side was an examining table covered in a long strip of blue paper towel, ready for the next patient. At one end of the table was a lamp attached to the wall on an extending arm. Next to that was a large round magnifying glass. Ingrid saw Gurley looking at the equipment and thought she heard him gulp.
“I hate these places,” he said.
The door opened and a young bearded man came in and introduced himself as Dr Daniel Obermast. “I hope I did the right thing calling the embassy.” He sat in the chair immediately in front of the desk and gestured for them to take a seat.
“Completely,” Ingrid reassured him.
Ingrid sat down but Gurley seemed reluctant to. Maybe he wanted to ensure he could make a fast getaway. He leaned up against a wall.
“You saw the man we want to question with his son?” Ingrid kicked off the interview. There was no point in wasting time on social niceties.
“I did. I’m certain it was him.”
“When was this?”
“Yesterday morning. Eleven-fifteen.”
“And you treated the boy?”
“I cleaned up his nose a little better than his dad had managed to and put two stitches into the poor little guy’s bottom lip.”
“Did his dad tell you how he sustained those injuries?”
“Skateboarding.”
“You had no reason to doubt that?”
“Not at all. I see so many cases each week. Badly scraped elbows and knees. Dislocated shoulders. And that’s just the adults!”
“Any other treatment?”
“I gave him a tetanus shot, as a precaution. Standard procedure.”
“And apart from his injuries, how did the boy seem to you?”
“Fine. I guess.”
“He didn’t seem scared at all? Coerced in any way? He was happy being with his dad?”
The doctor raked his fingernails through his beard and thought for a moment. “There was nothing obvious in his behavior to suggest he was here under duress.”
“Could he have been drugged?” Gurley asked.
“Drugged? No way. He was a little tired, I guess.”
Gurley pushed himself from the wall and paced across the room. The doctor twisted in his chair to look at him as Gurley then leaned against the other wall.
“Is everything OK? Have I done something wrong?”
“Not at all.” Ingrid glanced at Gurley, who had an unmistakable scowl on is face. “What about his dad? How did he seem?”
“Stressed, I guess.” The doctor turned back to face Ingrid. “Worried about his son. He said he’d managed to stop his son’s nose bleed, but the lip just wouldn’t quit. He seemed sorry he hadn’t brought him in sooner.”
“So he was nervous? Maybe a little jumpy?” Gurley said.
“Yes, but I assumed that was because he was worried about his son.” Obermast bent his head closer to Ingrid, almost conspiratorially. “Which is why I doubted myself when I saw the report on the news this morning. I don’t normally watch TV, but there’s a big screen in the waiting area. It’s there to keep the patients occupied. Sometimes they have to wait quite a long time before they get treated,” he explained.
“You doubted yourself?”
“The picture they showed on the news only looked a little like the guy I saw. So I talked to Margaret, on reception? She was pretty certain it was the same person. So