Steven smiled and agreed that it must have been odd. ‘You must remember Carol Bain?’
‘ Oh yes,’ said Samantha. ‘I actually bumped in to her last year when she came to visit one of the patients. A nice woman.’
Steven looked at her for a moment as if challenging her assessment.
‘ Oh, all right,’ laughed Carol. ‘She was a right cow who related more easily to dead bodies than she ever did to live ones. She seemed to resent me from the word go, so let’s say I never found her particularly helpful.’
‘ How about John Merton?’
‘ Clever chap, good at his job, taught me a lot but not enough to make me want to stay in lab work. From what I could see, he did most of the covering up for Dr Lee.’
‘ I understand you worked on the Julie Summers case?’
‘ I was on the team,’ agreed Samantha, ‘but I didn’t do much.’
‘ Would you remember who did what?’
Samantha thought for a moment before saying, ‘As I recall, it wasn’t a particularly difficult case in forensic terms because of the semen found on the dead girl and the perfect match they got with the man from the village. I think Carol did most of the DNA work on it although John did some as well. Dr Lee pottered around with fibres found on the dead girl’s clothes. I remember he got a match with fibres also found on the accused man’s clothes but then it turned out that they came from furniture in the accused man’s house and there was no dispute about the girl having been there — I think she had baby-sat for them in the past?’
Steven nodded.
‘ The pantomime really got under way when most of the samples taken at the scene of the crime got chucked out and everyone started running around like headless chickens. Luckily the semen match was so strong that it didn’t matter too much. Dr Lee wouldn’t admit it was him who discarded the samples but everyone seemed to know it was.’
‘ What did you personally work on?’
‘ I was put to work on the scrapings found under the dead girl’s nails,’ said Samantha.
Steven felt his throat tighten but he gave no outward sign of the surprise he felt at this unexpected revelation. ‘What did you do exactly?’ he asked.
‘ I was asked to type the blood that had been found there.’
Steven sensed a certain reluctance in Samantha to continue. ‘And?’ he prompted.
‘ I screwed up,’ said Samantha, casting her eyes downward and self-consciously rubbing her forehead as if still embarrassed at the memory.’
‘ In what way?’ asked Steven.
‘ I concluded that the blood was group “O” negative but it turned out I’d used distilled water instead of saline in the agglutination tests and got false negatives. The blood was actually “A” positive.’
‘ Someone checked your findings?
‘ I was very junior. Someone always checked my work.’
Steven nodded.
‘ John Merton was very kind about it and blamed the bottles being on the wrong shelves. Thank God it wasn’t Caroclass="underline" she would have shouted my mistake from the rooftops. Anyway, it was that experience that made me decide that lab work wasn’t for me.’
‘ But the scrapings were definitely analysed before they were discarded?’ asked Steven, going for the key question with baited breath.
‘ Oh yes,’ said Samantha, lifting a weight from his shoulders without realising it. ‘Everything was done.’
Steven had to accept that his theory about the examinations not being done was wrong. Lee may not have carried out the work personally but the work had been done and that was the important thing.
‘ Did Dr Lee himself get involved in the analysis of the scrapings?’ he asked.
‘ I think he did,’ replied Samantha, destroying what was left of the Dunbar theory. ‘I don’t think he was very good at DNA work but he liked to go through the motions and John was always on hand to keep him right.’
‘ What was the final outcome?’
‘ The scrapings confirmed David Little as being the murderer.’
Steven smiled at Samantha and said, ‘You have been a tremendous help. In fact, you’ve just told me everything I needed to know.’
EIGHT
Steven had a lightness in his step as he left the hospital and walked back to the car. He no longer had the feeling of trying to run in soft sand. Samantha Styles had told him exactly what he needed to know; that the material found under Julie Summers’ fingernails had confirmed the case against David Little. He could return to London with an easy mind.
Steven checked out of the hotel and drove to Edinburgh airport where he returned the hire car to Hertz before booking himself on the next British Airways shuttle flight to Heathrow. He was standing in the lounge looking out at the rain sweeping across the main runway when his mobile rang.
‘ Yes?’
‘ Peter McClintock.’
‘ And just in time to say good-bye,’ said Steven. ‘I’m at the airport.’ He expected McClintock to be pleased and come back with some kind of a joke but there was a short pause before the policeman said, ‘I thought you should know that Ronnie Lee’s gone missing.’
‘ Missing,’ repeated Steven.
‘ And his wife’s blaming you.’
‘ How in God’s name could he go missing? He didn’t look as if he could stand up let alone go missing.’
‘ His wife told Grampian Police that he was greatly upset by your questions yesterday and didn’t seem himself last night. When she got up this morning his bed was empty. She thinks he must have wandered off somewhere in his pyjamas in the middle of the night. The temperature dropped below freezing last night in the highlands. She’s been screaming harassment to anyone who’ll listen.’
‘ Who’s listening?’
‘ Luckily, no one at the moment but Grampian Police thought we’d like to be kept in the picture,’ said McClintock.
Steven considered for a moment before making a reluctant decision and saying, ‘I’ve just changed my mind about leaving. I’ll stay until they find him. Let me know as soon as there are any developments.’
Steven cancelled his shuttle ticket and went back to the car hire desk.
‘ Change of heart?’ asked the girl.
‘ Couldn’t bear to leave,’ said Steven, filling in the paperwork all over again. He saw no point in travelling back across town to the hotel where he had been staying so he checked into the airport hotel instead and called Sci-Med.
‘ Any idea where he might have gone?’ asked Macmillan.
‘ None at all.’
‘ But he was disturbed by your visit?’
‘ He was more angry than disturbed,’ said Steven. ‘I really wasn’t hard on him.’
‘ So where the hell has he gone?’
‘ I don’t think he was in any physical condition to go very far,’ said Steven. ‘I’m surprised he made it to the front door.’
‘ I don’t wish to pre-empt matters but did he strike you as the suicidal type?’ asked Macmillan.
‘ Far from it,’ replied Steven. ‘He was full of bitterness and resentment. He genuinely believes he got a raw deal when they forced him into retirement. According to him, everything that happened was just down to either circumstances or the fault of other people.’
‘ I think they call it “being in denial” these days,’ said Macmillan.
‘ If you say so,’ said Steven.
‘ And his wife?
‘ Standing by her man. She seemed to share his view. Neither seemed to acknowledge that being permanently pissed could be a drawback for a forensic pathologist.’
‘ This could get very messy,’ said Macmillan. ‘Let’s try to minimise the fall-out if this woman starts stirring things up all over again. I like to maintain good relations with our police colleagues wherever possible.’
Steven grimaced as he put the phone down. ‘Easier said than done,’ he murmured.
Steven remained on tenterhooks for the next couple of hours, not knowing what to do but feeling uncomfortable about doing nothing. He snatched up the phone when it rang. It was McClintock.
‘ They’ve found him. He’d dead.’
‘ Shit,’ said Steven.