Blood on the Marsh (DI Susan Holden 3)

Another two phone calls, nearly thirty deleted emails and some fifty minutes later, Holden and Fox entered the staff room of Sunnymede Care Home. Almost immediately Paul Greenleaf appeared, obsequiousness personified. Holden ignored his offer of coffee: ‘We need to speak to Ania Gorski again.’

The smile that had been plastered across his face faded. ‘She’s not in trouble is she? She’s a very good worker.’

‘Where is she?’ Holden was giving no ground, and no information either.

‘You’re in luck, actually.’ He tried another futile smile. ‘She’s working days this week. I’ll go and find her, shall I?’

/> ‘Just a minute.’ Holden held up a hand. ‘If last week Ania was on nights looking after Mrs Wright, who was on the day shift before her?’

Something flashed across Greenleaf’s face, a look of surprise, maybe even alarm. At least, that’s what Holden thought she saw. ‘It’s not quite like that. In the daytime patients tend to move around. They aren’t confined to their rooms.’

‘But let’s suppose Mrs Wright chose to stay in her room last Tuesday.’ She spoke briskly, and with irritation in her voice. She hated being patronized, and she hated it when people didn’t answer her questions. ‘Wasn’t there a nurse allocated to look in on her, make sure she got a meal?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘So who was it?’

‘It would have been Bella Sinclair.’

‘Well I’d like to see her after Ania, in that case.’

There was a noticeable hesitation. ‘I’m afraid she’s off work.’

‘Off work? Why’s that?’

Again Greenleaf hesitated. ‘Actually, she’s been suspended.’

‘Suspended?’ Holden’s head jerked up as if it had been yanked by a puppeteer. ‘When did this happen?’

‘Last Thursday.’

‘And why has she been suspended?’

Holden felt she could smell Greenleaf’s anxiety. He was still standing, near the door, his body half turned towards it, as if desperate to be allowed to leave. ‘She was accused of stealing some money from Mrs Wright.’

Holden nodded, remembering the conversation with Maureen and Jim Wright. But she continued as if it had never occurred. ‘From Mrs Wright? How much? Why haven’t you already told me about this?’ She could feel her pulse hammering in her neck. She tried to slow herself down. ‘And when did this occur?’

‘Fifty pounds. Mrs Wright’s son, Jim, gave her fifty pounds on the Sunday when he visited her. But there was no sign of it when they collected her possessions on Wednesday. So they made a complaint.’

‘Why do you think it was Bella who stole it? Couldn’t it have been someone else?’

‘There have been other issues with Bella. Another of our patients, a Mr Day, had bruising on his upper arms that we weren’t happy with. So we took the decision to suspend her until we could investigate both matters fully.’

‘Who is “we”?’ Holden was letting nothing pass. Fox felt a burst of pleasure. This, he realized, was what he had missed most of all, seeing his guv doing her impression of a terrier with behavioural problems.

‘I was required to report it to head office.’ There were globules of sweat on Greenleaf’s forehead, and very little conviction in his voice. ‘Ultimately it was they who implemented the action.’

Holden felt the bitter taste of bile in her throat. She knew what it was like to be suspended and she knew too where her sympathy lay. What the hell did he mean by ‘ultimately’? It sounded like a cop-out to her. He had reported the woman, knowing what it would mean, but he didn’t have the balls to accept responsibility. Still, right now, she had other priorities.

‘When you’ve found Ania,’ she said, signalling the end of the session, ‘I’d like you to go and get me Bella’s contact details. In fact, while you’re about it, print me off a list of contact details of all your staff. My sergeant will come with you. Also, he needs to know which of those staff were in the building for any reason on Monday and Tuesday of last week.’

‘As you wish.’ Greenleaf turned quickly away and left with Fox, chuckling, in his wake.

Ania appeared two minutes later. Holden had placed a chair in the centre of the room, and she waited for her to sit down on it.

‘Thank you for coming.’ Holden smiled, hoping to set the woman at ease. ‘I just have one or two details to clarify. On Friday, you told us that after you found Mrs Nanette Wright dead in her chair, you put her flask in her cupboard. Is that correct?’

‘Yes.’