Dead People Sleep: a gripping mystery thriller (a murder squad thriller Book 2) by Liam Hanson

Author:Liam Hanson [Hanson, Liam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books - crime, thriller and mystery
Published: 2021-01-04T16:00:00+00:00

Reece sat in a hospital boardroom that smelled of polish and musty old men. There was a table running along the room’s centre; a pull-down projector screen hanging from the ceiling at one end of it. He stirred his coffee, listening to the chairman express sorrow over the tragic “passing” of three of the organisation’s employees.

Others present in the room included the Executive Director of Nursing, the Medical Director, and a stern-looking woman from the Deanery. On Reece’s insistence, Dr Richard Wellman was there in the capacity of Clinical Director for Anaesthetics.

‘This has been truly terrible for all concerned,’ the medical director said. Dr Simon Underdown was a short, plump man with a rosy complexion. Reece had him pegged as something of a drinker. Probably something of an eater as well.

The nursing director, on the other hand, was a thin stick of a woman. Slightly kyphotic, and in dire need of a makeover. ‘Chief Inspector, how do you propose to keep our staff safe while you’re hunting this beastly man?’

Reece put the thumb end of a closed fist to his mouth and tried not to laugh at the woman’s pretentious manner. ‘We’ve a patrol car passing through the site several times a day, as well as a doubling of our usual on-foot activity.’

‘And you consider that enough, under the circumstances?’

‘It’s all I’m going to get,’ Reece said curtly, ‘given current budget restrictions.’

‘And what about further afield?’ the chairman asked. ‘The two nurses were killed at their homes, after all.’ He looked round the table as though seeking confirmation of his claim.

Reece nodded with the rest of them. ‘Staff should be encouraged to travel in pairs. Larger groups, if able.’

‘Do you have any idea who you’re looking for?’ Underdown asked. ‘I read you’ve been trying to trace the owner of a silver Volvo.’

‘We’re following up leads and getting closer,’ Reece said, letting his gaze settle on each of them in turn. ‘I’m willing to believe the killer works here at the hospital.’

The director of nursing almost slid off her seat. ‘Good Lord. You can’t be serious?’

‘You’ve a problem with security of drugs on that theatre suite,’ Reece said. ‘Both women were injected with the paralysing agent, Suxamethonium Chloride. We think they were then left to asphyxiate and die.’

‘There was nothing in the press about that.’ The chairman’s brow furrowed like ripple marks left in wet sand.

‘And that’s how it’s to stay,’ Reece said. ‘Kept within these four walls for now.’

‘Yes, of course, we understand.’

Turning to Wellman, the chairman said, ‘Richard – your opinion on this?’

Wellman was calm in his response. ‘I’ve previously spoken to the chief inspector, explaining why certain drugs need to remain available to the end-user throughout the entire course of a surgical list.’ He shrugged. ‘Besides, you can’t know for sure that the Sux came from our suite. Any more than it did from a neighbouring hospital, or veterinary practice for that matter.’

‘Fair point.’ The medical director looked decidedly less troubled with that. ‘It could quite easily have come from anywhere.

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