Dead Tide (DCI Jack Hawksworth) by Fiona McIntosh

Author:Fiona McIntosh [McIntosh, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781761046483
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2023-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Jack scanned the skies and to his delight found the two bright ‘pointers’, and he followed them upwards to pick out the five stars, one dimmer and smaller than the others, that featured on the Australian flag. He smiled. They did form the shape of a diamond lying on its side, high in the sky now, reminding him of the late hour.

He dipped his gaze back to the slow-heaving body of water in the distance. Everything around him at this level had been flung into grades of darkness, everything murky.

‘So, what do we know?’ he said aloud, but to the inner conversationalists. He smiled, allowing them free rein as he let his mind wander back to where it had been prodding: Jem Maddox.

Them being in the same place at the same time was hardly coincidental; Jem had forced his albeit willing hand. What she may not have known though was that their introduction was not coincidental either. Jack had deliberately made that happen to learn more about her husband without having to talk to him. He’d reasoned on his way to the clinic that if MultiplyMed was involved in something shady, then it was likely happening at the laboratory level. Some wily technicians, perhaps, who’d worked out how to override the system. But that had begun to make less sense to him. If someone like his student, Amelia, had lost her life due to careless procedures or over-zealous stimulation of her body’s natural cycle, then that had to be happening at clinician level. Mark Maddox – and people like him – had the knowledge of reproductive medicine, the ability to order human material . . . and the power to coerce others – or perhaps charm them. No lab technician that he’d become aware of in his interviews back home had anything to do with the couples seeking fertility treatment, other than a cursory introduction – and only if the client was conscious. They simply prepared the material and handed it through to the operating theatre. Once the hatch was closed, the responsibility was all in the hands of the qualified gynaecologist.

So, people at a much higher level had to be masterminding this, Jack decided. People like Mark Maddox, with status and wealth. He had a public profile as one of the most eminent obstetricians and gynaecologists in South Australia, perhaps even the country. Someone as well-known and respected as him would attract patients. And he had that extra ingredient that was hard to quantify but very easy to see, the sort of presence that drew attention and people to him.

Difficulty in getting pregnant meant clinics like MultiplyMed were enjoying a stampede of clients, and they rarely visited just once. Even Jack knew from his investigation that couples struggling to conceive were like jackpot winners if they received happy news within a couple of cycles. In other words, it was rare. Some were on a treadmill of cycles, always hoping, always disappointed. It was heartbreaking stuff. And this illegal syndicate was feeding into that heartbreak.

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