The Touch of Innocents (1994) by Michael Dobbs

Author:Michael Dobbs [Dobbs, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007397785
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 1994-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

People forget, but not systems. They are built to retain, to store the myriad details of life. And, as Daniel was discovering, of death.

After dropping Izzy off at the hospital he had driven to the Coroner’s Office, with no idea of what he was searching for except, with the assistance of his press credentials, to test the version of events she had been given.

And for all the world it seemed to be correct. The Coroner himself was not available, it was not a full-time post, so the wizened clerk with the leathery skin and bottle-black hair informed him. But she offered her own help, delivered in a prim manner and pedantic voice which he later discovered was the legacy of half a lifetime of schoolteaching before her early retirement to the less stressful and considerably quieter enclaves of the Coroner’s Office. On medical grounds, at her doctor’s suggestion. She wore no ring.

‘A baby girl,’ Daniel explained. ‘Unknown identity. Died in a car accident.’

She retrieved a slim manila file from a locked cupboard, wiping it meticulously with a bright yellow cloth although nothing in the office bore any trace of dust. ‘You’re not the first to enquire, as it happens. A lady from the social services just last week. Strange accent. Forin, I believe.’ She pronounced the word with particular emphasis. Very English.

So Katti hadn’t ducked out …

‘Sad case. The baby had died in a car accident. Death certificate, after post-mortem.’ She shuffled through the few forms in the file. ‘All here, the paperwork … Cause of death, sub-dural haematoma – a nasty bang on the head. Here’s the Coroner’s “E” certificate, releasing the body for disposal.’ She read. ‘Cremated.’

‘No trace of family?’

‘It seems her mother was in the hospital, in a coma. Inquest adjourned. No other traceable relatives, all the usual enquiries were made.’

‘But the body was disposed of even though the mother was still alive in the hospital?’

‘In a coma, young man,’ she insisted in schoolma’amly fashion. ‘And not expected to live, according to the doctor’s report. Little point in waiting.’

‘Even so, it seems a little hasty, to dispose of the body only a couple of weeks after death.’

‘Just what the forin lady suggested. So I took the trouble of enquiring from the Coroner himself. There’s no mystery. Our mortuary facilities were simply overflowing with …’ – she hesitated in search of a more delicate word – ‘unfortunates. It’s quite common for them to be stacked two to a tray, and sometimes even that’s not enough. We really do need expanded facilities but, you know, the cuts …’

Cuts, the last resort of the bureaucrat, the eternal explanation for inadequacy. The same cuts that had produced the new A&E wing at the hospital, the indoor sports complex with Olympic-size swimming pool, and an additional primary school. But no new fridge facilities at the mortuary. The dead have no votes, he reflected.

‘So on rare occasions the Coroner, most reluctantly, is forced to issue his “E” simply to make room, you see. Unless the police have questions or suspect foul play, which was not the case in this instance.

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