Taboo by Casey Hill

Author:Casey Hill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9780857202390
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2011-07-07T05:00:00+00:00

Reilly bent over the microscope, peering at a blood sample. She’d expected to find something simple, anaemia maybe, but this was beyond her normal range. She checked the slide again, before referring to the medical textbook lying on the desk alongside her.

Julius was working nearby and Reilly called out to him. ‘Julius, could you come here a minute?’

He looked up and dutifully hurried over. ‘No problem.’

‘You used to work in a hospital lab, right?’

His face fell. ‘Don’t remind me,’ he said with a roll of his eyes. ‘Running the same bloody tests all day long – if you’ll pardon the pun.’

Reilly smiled. It was rare for the ultra-serious Julius to attempt a joke, never mind such a lame one. ‘Well, with that in mind, take a look at this for me, would you?’

Julius bent over the slide, made a minor adjustment, and studied the sample for a moment. ‘That’s unusual. Whose blood is it?’

There was a brief pause. ‘That’s classified for the moment.’

‘Oh.’ He straightened up, looked at Reilly for a second and then nodded. ‘I get you.’

‘So what do you see?’

‘It’s a transferrin saturation test, yes?’

Reilly nodded. ‘What do you reckon?’

‘Well, it’s a very high transferring ratio, possibly too high, actually.’

‘That’s what I thought.’ Reilly pondered over this for a moment. ‘So at the hospital, if you had a sample with such a ratio, what kind of check would you order next?’

He chuckled. ‘I never thought my days at Queen’s would come in so useful. Well because the transferrin isn’t completely reliable, I’d likely order a serum ferritin test next – might be more conclusive.’ He looked at Reilly for a moment. ‘You want me to run one for you? I could fit it in this afternoon.’

She nodded. ‘I’d appreciate that. Thanks, Julius.’

‘No problem.’

She handed him the vials of blood. ‘Oh, and one other thing—’

‘Yeah, keep it quiet,’ he said, gently. ‘I get it.’

Reilly smiled as he headed back to his workstation, and said a prayer of thanks for competent, discrete staff.

She was just heading back to her office when the phone rang. She looked at the display. Speak of the devil …

‘What’s up, Chris?’

‘Well, I don’t want to rush you but I was just wondering—’

She didn’t want to admit that the results so far were frustratingly inconclusive. ‘Nothing definitive yet, but I would think you’re likely to survive the next twenty-four hours at least.’

‘Ha, you’re a great source of comfort,’ he quipped. Then he paused. ‘Well, thanks anyway, but it’s not the only reason I’m phoning. I’ve got a strange one for you.’

‘Go on.’ Reilly walked along the hallway in the direction of her office.

‘I’ve just left the Redmond house – Debbie Redmond says that she’s been playing the scene of her husband’s death over and over in her mind.’

‘Well, that’s perfectly normal.’

‘Of course. But she reckons she’s come up with something.’

‘OK.’ She paused, her interest piqued.

‘She says that the sheet, the one Jim supposedly hung himself with, isn’t theirs – says she’s never seen it before in her life.

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