The Orchard Murders by Robert Gott

Author:Robert Gott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC050000, FIC014000
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Published: 2021-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

10

WHEN CLARA DAWSON left the hospital at 7.30 on Tuesday morning, there was no sign of Kenneth Bussell. She’d decided that if he’d been waiting across the street, she’d go up to him and ask him just what the fuck he thought he was doing. If he’d wanted to kill me, she thought, he’d have done it by now. Gerald Matthews’ death had, after all, been his gift to her. She’d felt brave about her decision all through her shift. She didn’t leave the hospital without trepidation, however, and she was relieved when Bussell wasn’t there to test her mettle.

By 8.00 am she was at the Magistrates’ Court. To her surprise, Inspector Lambert was waiting for her — but as police headquarters was across the street, perhaps she ought not to have been surprised. Lambert was there to make sure that the bureaucracy of the watch house didn’t prevent Clara from gaining access to Zachary Wilson. He had told them that Dr Dawson was coming, but he wanted to make certain she was admitted quickly.

He went with her to Wilson’s cell, and said he’d wait to hear her assessment. The prison officer slid back the peephole.

‘We don’t want to interrupt him if he’s taking a shit,’ he said, and immediately apologised when he saw the look on Inspector Lambert’s face. The officer peered into the cell, and began fumbling with the key to open the door.

‘Jesus,’ he said. ‘Jesus,’ and his voice had panic in it. He opened the door, and all three of them entered the cell. Wilson was hanging, his toes barely touching the ground, from the bars of the cell window set high in the wall. It must have taken some effort to accomplish this. He’d torn his bedsheet in two, twisted it into a rope, looped it around the bars, tied one piece to the other, formed a noose, and launched himself from the edge of the toilet bowl. Titus rushed to him and held him so that the sheet was no longer taut. The stink that came off him told Titus that he was dead. His body had evacuated its waste.

When Wilson had been cut down, Clara confirmed that he was dead and that the cause of death was most likely to have been asphyxiation by hanging. When Clara looked at Titus’s face, she couldn’t read the range of emotions that were playing across it.

‘I arrested this man,’ he said. ‘I hope to God he’s guilty, Clara.’

‘This isn’t your fault. If he’s not guilty, he’s another victim.’

‘Well, the public can feel safe now, can’t they?’ He spat these words out. ‘The newspapers won’t be happy. Fear sells more papers than comfort. Still, they’ll get a good 24 hours out of it.’

Later, in Titus’s office, when all the initial paperwork had been done, Clara could see that he was struggling to contain anger, frustration, and guilt. She hadn’t associated any of these emotions with Inspector Lambert, and it worried her.

‘I’m not letting some local constable deliver this news to Mrs Wilson.

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