Christian shook his head. “We’ve not been able to get hold of him yet.”
“Did you try his mobile?”
“And his home phone. I’ve tried a few times.”
Yuri frowned. “But—I saw Professor Diomedes earlier. He was here.”
“He was?”
“Yes, I saw him early this morning. He was at the other end of the corridor, and he seemed in a rush—at least, I think it was him.”
“That’s odd. Well, he must have gone home. Try him again, will you?”
Yuri nodded. He looked far away somehow; dazed, lost. He seemed to have taken it badly. I felt sorry for him.
Christian’s pager went off, startling him—he quickly left the room, followed by Yuri and the doctor.
Indira hesitated and spoke in a low voice. “Would you like a moment alone with Alicia?”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Indira stood up and squeezed my shoulder for a second. Then she walked out.
Alicia and I were alone.
I sat down by the bed. I reached out and took Alicia’s arm. A catheter was attached to the back of her hand. I gently held her hand, stroking her palm and the inside of her wrist. I stroked her wrist with my finger, feeling the veins under her skin, and the raised, thickened scars from her suicide attempts.
So this was it. This was how it was going to end. Alicia was silent again, and this time her silence would last forever.
I wondered what Diomedes would say. I could imagine what Christian would tell him—Christian would find a way to blame me somehow: the emotions I stirred up in therapy were too much for Alicia to contain—she got hold of the hydrocodone as an attempt to self-soothe and self-medicate. The overdose might have been accidental, I could hear Diomedes saying, but the behavior was suicidal. And that would be that.
But that was not that.
Something had been overlooked. Something significant, something no one had noticed—not even Yuri, when he found Alicia unconscious by the bed. An empty pill bottle was on her desk, yes, and a couple of pills were on the floor, so of course it was assumed she had taken an overdose.
But here, under my fingertip, on the inside of Alicia’s wrist, was some bruising and a little mark that told a very different story.
A pinprick along the vein—a tiny hole left by a hypodermic needle—revealing the truth: Alicia didn’t swallow a bottle of pills in a suicidal gesture. She was injected with a massive dose of morphine. This wasn’t an overdose.
It was attempted murder.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DIOMEDES TURNED UP half an hour later. He had been in a meeting with the Trust, he said, then got stuck on the underground, delayed by a signal failure. He asked Yuri to send for me.
Yuri found me in my office. “Professor Diomedes is here. He’s with Stephanie. They’re waiting for you.”
“Thanks. I’ll be right there.”
I made my way to Diomedes’s office, expecting the worst. A scapegoat would be needed to take the blame. I’d seen it before, at Broadmoor, in cases of suicide: whichever member of staff was closest to the victim was held accountable, be it therapist, doctor, or nurse. No doubt Stephanie was baying for my blood.
I knocked on the door and went inside. Stephanie and Diomedes were standing on either side of the desk. Judging by the tense silence, I’d interrupted a disagreement.
Diomedes spoke first. He was clearly agitated, and his hands flew all over the place. “Terrible business. Terrible. Obviously it couldn’t have come at a worse time. It gives the Trust the perfect excuse to shut us down.”
“I hardly think the Trust is the immediate concern,” Stephanie said. “The safety of the patients comes first. We need to find out exactly what happened.” She turned to me. “Indira mentioned you suspected Elif of dealing drugs? That’s how Alicia got hold of the hydrocodone?”
I hesitated. “Well, I’ve no proof. It’s something I’ve heard a couple of the nurses talking about. But actually there’s something else I think you should know—”
Stephanie interrupted me with a shake of her head. “We know what happened. It wasn’t Elif.”
“No?”
“Christian happened to be passing the nurses’ station, and he saw the drugs cabinet was left wide-open. There was no one in the station. Yuri had left it unlocked. Anyone could have gone in and helped themselves. And Christian saw Alicia lurking around the corner. He wondered what she was doing there at the time. Now of course it makes sense.”
“How fortunate Christian was there to see all this.”