Shattered: a gripping crime thriller by Heleyne Hammersley

Author:Heleyne Hammersley [Hammersley, Heleyne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books - crime, thriller and mystery
Published: 2021-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

22

Medical records might as well have been written in a foreign language as far as Kate was concerned. She recognised the names of some common ailments and a range of drugs, but the language seemed designed to baffle and confuse. Olivia Thornbury’s records showed that she’d been prescribed diazepam for muscle spasms, exactly as her partner had described. There was no mention of depression or anxiety and no suggestion that she’d been referred to local mental health services, either NHS or private. Scrolling back further through the PDF document that the GP had provided, Kate found the preliminary diagnosis of arthritis and the confirmatory X-ray and MRI scans.

She opened up Eleanor Houghton’s file. Again, nothing especially surprising. Antibiotics for a chest infection the previous winter, diazepam for ‘general anxiety’ and painkillers for an arthritic knee but, again, no referral to any other service. Peter Houghton’s records were even less helpful – it seemed he hardly ever visited his GP apart from a check-up every two years which revealed slightly elevated blood pressure and moderately high cholesterol both of which were treated with appropriate medication.

Kate looked up from her computer screen to check on her colleagues. Barratt and O’Connor were absent, still interviewing Liv Thornbury’s climbing colleagues, she hoped. Cooper was poring over CCTV footage and Hollis was sitting with his feet up on his desk flicking through the contents of the slim cardboard folder which contained the report of Julia Sullivan’s car accident. She’d given it a quick scan but left Dan to pick out the details and study the photographs, trusting him to find anything helpful.

An email pinged into her inbox. More detail from Julia Sullivan’s post-mortem. The cuts to her throat and wrists were consistent with a slim shard of the mirror found at the scene. There were no cuts or abrasions to her fingers, indicating that she hadn’t cut her own wrists or throat. Nothing that Kate hadn’t expected. There was also evidence of a healed fracture to the side of her skull. Not recent.

Sighing heavily, Kate scrolled through the rest of the report but there was nothing to move them forwards. It seemed likely, in Kate’s mind, that Julia had been drugged, probably using a spiked alcoholic drink and then, when she was drowsy and malleable, stripped and placed in the bath. She probably didn’t have much idea what was happening to her – at least, that’s what Kate hoped.

‘Dan,’ she called over to Hollis. ‘Anything interesting?’

Hollis looked up and pinched the bridge of his nose with his finger and thumb, scrunching up his eyes. Kate had a suspicion that he needed reading glasses, but vanity was still winning the battle with practicality.

‘Nope. Looks like a straightforward RTA. A delivery van pulled out of a side street on a green light, Julia Sullivan hadn’t seen the red light ahead of her and carried on straight into its path. She was taken to the DRI; the other driver was unhurt but a bit shaken. Seems like driver error on Julia’s part.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.