Bacchus and Sanderson (Deceased) (31 page)

William looked over Ben’s head at Annabel who grimaced and shrugged.

“Penny Morton was Jonas’s fian
cé
e. I’m taking Annabel to see her for two reasons. First, she is the one I tasked to work on Jonas’s diary and even though she has had little success so far, I want her to be involved at each stage. Second, I don’t know Penny Morton. I’ve no idea how she will react to discussing Jonas. It’s along time ago, but she has never married or had another relationship with a man since Jonas. I want Annabel to add a female perspective and be there to defuse any male orientated problems. I need you to keep looking at CHC and also to have a look at the number strings in Jonas’s diary and see if there is anything obvious that has been missed so far.”

Ben nodded and said,

“Good point. I have been making progress with the CHC angle and have a number of lines of enquiry. Can I see you both later when you get back from the hospital and I should have something to tell you?”

“Of course come around to the house after seven and I’ll get some wine and I’ll even cook my speciality risotto alla pescatora.”

             
Ben squeezed out from his chair at the desk and slipped past William to stand next to Annabel. He picked up the photocopied sheets in front of her and flicked through them idly before putting them in the document feed of the industrial sized copier William had installed and ran another copy off. The two hundred and fifty sheets ran through in under five minutes giving Ben a chance to explain why he needed his own copy of Ernest’s diary.

“I have kept asking myself why we have dad’s diary as well as Uncle Jonas’.” Turning to Annabel he gestured at the growing pile on the copier and said,

“Haven’t you wondered? Have you read it yet?”

Annabel shook her head and said,

“I decide to work backward, expecting anything useful to be closer to his death date than in the dim and distant past. Brilliant man he may have been, but a dreadful diarist. I don’t think it was ever meant to be for anything other than as an aide memoir for his personal use.”

Ben paced around the cramped floor space of the office.

“So on that basis, there must be something in there that we will find useful or will point us to something that will. Red herring’s weren’t his style. If you don’t mind, I thought I’d read it in my spare time and see if I can glean anything from it. I knew Dad better than anyone and might be able to pick up any nuances or clues that you might miss. If we could ask him what he left it for it would be far easier.”

William smiled and patted his arm. Keeping Ernest’s presence in limbo secret was becoming awkward. William wanted to share Ernest’s existence with Ben. He thought they would both benefit from meeting again. How was he going to offer a logical and cogent argument to Ernest that would allow him to share his secret with Ben?

“As you said maybe you’ll see something. I’ll ask him in my prayers and see if we get an answer. I’m going to the hospital for a check up and I’ll also see if I can persuade anyone to tell me a little more about Ernest’s death. Annabel you can escort me to the door as I have a little something for you to do. See you this evening Ben.”

             
They walked in silence down the stairs, out into the bookshop and then into the sunshine on Long Street. Taking Annabel’s hand William steered her across the road. They continued to walk in silence to the car park where William had parked the Audi. When they arrived at the car William stood and looked at her for a moment and then came to a decision.

“How do you feel about contacting Ernest and Juanita?”

“I’m sorry?” she said, stunned. “Say that again.”

“We need to know why we have Ernest’s diary. Was it mixed up with the other papers he was working on when he died? Are we supposed to have it for reference? What’s in it that we need? I can’t speak to him today because of hospital and then dinner with Ben this evening. You know how it’s done. Explain that I’m busy and we need to know ASAP as things have started to move apace. Ok?”

Annabel looked on the verge of tears. Without looking at William she asked,

“Okay. I just think about them? In my mind ask them to appear and they’ll appear? That simple?”

William nodded,

“That simple. If they don’t appear, off spooking elsewhere, that’s fine I’ll try and contact them later. If you can find out before Ben arrives tonight, we can incorporate it in our plan.”

“Is Jemima coming tonight?”

“I don’t know.” William opened the boot and put his leather satchel in.

“How do you feel about her? I’m struggling with the Cortez connection, but she has proven Jonas was killed and hinted that Ernest was despatched in the same fashion, and Ben loves her. A compelling reason by itself.”

Annabel shrugged,

“I like her. I love Ben and she makes him happy. But can we be sure she isn’t a plant to help Felicity find out what we are doing? I don’t know. Does it matter? I don’t think so. As well as liking her, I trust her. Don’t ask me why, intuition maybe, but I think she has severed her ties with her family and I do think she’s committed to Ben.”

Annabel leaned across and kissed William on the lips,

“Have a good hospital visit and drink with your friend. I’ll see you at the house later. I think I’ll invite Jemima to show her we like and trust her.”

***

             
William approached the main entrance of Yeovil hospital with mixed feelings. The last time he had been here was on the wrong end of a near fatal heart attack. The care had been exemplary and the after care, rehab and follow up visits again superb. For a small town hospital, Yeovil outperformed many big city institutions.

             
Today William felt very uncomfortable for two reasons. First, because he was here to have on going minor chest pain assessed. Dr Frederickson in his thorough Scandinavian way had opted for a better safe than sorry approach and referred him back to the Cardiology team for their opinion. The other reason for his discomfort was that he had lied to Annabel. William remembered her concern when an appointment for the cardiology department had come through and he and left it on the table for her to see. He hadn’t known how to tell her he was in pain and worried so, he had lied.

“Just a routine follow up appointment.” He had said, fingers crossed behind his back, in the vain hope that by doing that he was negating his deceit.

              Checking his watch, William saw he still had forty minutes to go before his appointment, which would give him the time he needed to track down the nurses who had been on duty the night Ernest had died. Ben had hacked the hospital duty rosters for the night of his father’s death and narrowed the choice of nurses who could have worked on Ernest to three. April Talbot and Donna Smith who where student nurses and Sister Sandra Blacken, who had been team leader for that night shift. He thought that the students would have been the ones left to deal with a dead body rather than the sister in charge
,
so had decided to talk to them first. Unsure who he should ask, he had decided to go to the main reception and ask where he could find the two nurses.

“Both of them are on EAU.” Seeing Williams blank look he had added,

“Emergency Assessment Unit. Shift change is in ten minutes so if they’re working today now’s a good time to catch them.”

The door to the ward was locked shut allowing only card-carrying staff or visitors with the numeric code to open the doors. The door opened and a pretty nurse emerged chatting to a colleague. She held the door open for him, but instead of walking through William took a leap of faith and said,

“Donna Smith? April Talbot?” The nurses looked a little surprised but nodded and Donna asked,

“Donna Smith, can I help you?”

William exhaled with relief and held out his hand,

“My name is William Bacchus and you cared for my father when he was admitted to A&E after having a massive heart attack. I’d like to have met him.”

April looked confused and looked at Donna,

“I’m sorry, you’d like to have met him?”

William nodded,

“I was the result of an affair he had with my mother many years ago. He had decided to get in touch with me to introduce me to my brother Ben Sanderson after his wife died. Events overtook him and we didn’t meet, although I did receive a letter from him along with a significant bequest.”

William held out a copy of the letter he had first read a few months before in the guest bedroom at Freddie’s,

“Please read it. It’s the only way I can show you I’m not delusional.”

Donna took the letter and scanned the first couple of pages passing each page to April once she had finished it. As they read they exchanged a long look.

“Ok Mr Bacchus, how can we help you?” said Donna

“This may seem like an odd question, but did anyone take any blood from Ernest?”

“The usual tests were done, why?” April asked.

“No one checked to see if he had anything he shouldn’t in him? Non pharmaceutical drugs maybe?”

Donna answered for both of them,

“We answered a weird call on his mobile from a deranged woman demanding to speak to Ernest and throwing all sorts of threats around. When I told her he had died of a massive heart attack she didn’t sound surprised, just said, ‘That was quick; his longevity has already been affected.’ and hung up. She had hinted that he had been killed, murdered. Ernest’s death had been called as a heart attack and that is what would go on his death certificate.”

April continued,

“We searched his body for any needle marks that hadn’t been made since he had arrived with us. Nothing. So I decided to take some blood and Donna gave it to a friend in the pathology lab. That was the last we heard of it. I afraid we moved department two day’s later and it was forgotten.” Turning to Donna she said,

“Did you hear back from John?”

“No I’ll call him now and see what showed up in the sample.”

William looked at his watch and groaned,

“I need to be in Cardiology in two minutes. Would you mind calling me later if you hear anything from your friend? Anything at all?”

“Sure. Couple of hours should do it.”

“Thank you.”

***

Tiny Jonson shifted his considerable bulk and eased his way to the bar as William came through the door of the Digby Tap in Sherborne. William thrust his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out his ringing iPhone. He caught Tiny’s eye and indicated that he wanted a pint of bitter.

“William Bacchus.”

“Hi, it’s Donna, from the hospital.”

“Hi Donna, thanks for calling me. Did you have any luck with your friend in the pathology lab?”

William could hear the sound of rustling paper as he waited for Donna to arrange her notes and tell him what she had discovered.

“John did a tox screen on the day I sent him the sample of Ernest Sanderson’s blood. He sent the results to back to me in A&E. At least he thought he did. It didn’t leave the lab, lost in a welter of paper. I asked him to print me another copy of the report.”

William waited for her to speak, to tell him the results of the toxicology screen, to confirm his worst fears. Nothing.

William, struggling to calm his impatience, said,

“What did it say?”

Donna apologised,

“Sorry, April’s just arrived and is scanning the report.”

William heard a voice in the background say,

“Shit, no wonder his heart packed up.”

“Donna?”

“Sorry. Right, your father wouldn’t have needed a heart condition to be killed by the amount of cocaine in his system. The quality was also unusual, medical grade, so pure; even a tiny amount would leave you bouncing off the ceiling for a week. In the quantity Ernest had, well he couldn’t have survived. I’m sorry. If it helps, John said it looked like Colombian; Colombian pure.”

William paused to regain control and then said,

“Thank you. It means a lot to know. Thank you.”

William walked across the bar to the corner table that Tiny was dwarfing. Smiling, he eased himself onto the banquet seat picked up his pint of bitter and took a long swallow.

“You look like you needed that. How have you been keeping?” Tiny asked.

William put his glass on the table and took a deep breathe.

“Let me give you a very truncated update since we were lying side by side in Yeovil Cardiac Care.” William said.

He ran through receiving his inheritance from a father he hadn’t known, meeting Ben, his evolving relationship with Annabel, the book shop and a brief outline of the challenges Ernest had set him.

Tiny whistled in amazement flicking his fingers in appreciation of William’s good fortune.

“Lots of good news, which is fantastic, though I’m guessing, out of the ordinary even for a vicar. My last couple of months haven’t been as momentous, but have been satisfying. After the heart attack
,
I took it as a sign that the door security was becoming too strenuous for a man of my age and health. So I have taken responsibility for leading some of my brothe
r’
s younger and more challenging parishioners down a path straighter and narrower than they are used to. Some of them are little shits, but with a combination of enthusiasm and control they are becoming less challenging. Next week we have our first field trip to Brownsea Island. I have zero tolerance on any form of trouble with the police. If one fails they all loose the trip. So they keep each other out of trouble.” Tiny sat back in his chair with a curious expression on his face and took a huge swallow of cider.