A Body in Seaview Grange by Dee MacDonald (jenna bush book club TXT) 📗

Martinelli, appears to be at death’s door: vomiting and diarrhoea, and insists on seeing you. Obviously, she can’t come to the surgery.’ Here Denise sighed deeply.

Ten minutes later Kate was back in her red Fiat Punto and heading towards Seaview Grange, hoping against hope that whatever tummy bug Edina Martinelli might have, it would not be infectious.

As she entered the hallway the first person she encountered was a plump little middle-aged blonde with a vacuum cleaner, busily attacking the royal blue carpet. On seeing Kate she switched the machine off.

‘I hope you’ve come to see Miss Martinelli in Flat 4? I’ve been so worried about her.’

‘Oh dear, is she very poorly?’ Kate asked.

‘She seems that way to me. Come and see for yourself. I’m Sharon, by the way, and I do the cleaning. I’ll come with you and let you in,’ said the blonde, digging an enormous bunch of keys from the pocket of her overall. ‘She says she can’t get out of bed.’

Kate sensed genuine compassion emanating from Sharon which she thought surprising considering that Edina Martinelli had more or less accused her of attempted murder.

‘She’s got some kind of bug,’ Sharon went on, ‘but I think it’s more serious than that.’ She led the way upstairs and unlocked the door of Flat 4. ‘Let me know how you get on and if you need me to do anything for her.’

Kate thanked her and went in, then navigated her way round the velvet sofas to the open door which presumably led to the bedrooms. ‘Miss Martinelli!’ she called. ‘I’m Kate, the nurse, come to see you again.’

‘I’m here!’ croaked a weak voice from inside the first door she came to.

Kate entered a darkened space with the unmistakable stench of illness to find Edina Martinelli propped up in an imposing four-poster bed which filled most of the room. The woman was ill without doubt, waxen and wan against the pillows.

Kate was quite shaken at the change in her appearance. ‘Oh, Miss Martinelli! You do look under the weather! How long have you been feeling like this?’

‘Twenty-four ghastly hours,’ Edina replied, wiping her brow. ‘And I have nothing left inside me, nothing! I want to be sick and there’s nothing there, and I have these griping pains. Ohhh…’ She doubled up and let out a low moan.

‘I’m going to open up the curtains for a moment,’ Kate said, edging her way round the bed towards the window, ‘so I can examine you.’

Kate checked her pulse and blood pressure. There was no doubt that this wasn’t just an ordinary tummy bug; she was very ill, which was emphasised by the fact that her pulse was abnormally slow and missing the odd beat.

‘Have you eaten anything unusual in the last few days, Miss Martinelli?’

The woman groaned and gripped her stomach. When the pain appeared to pass she said, ‘No, I’ve eaten nothing different from usual.’

‘And what about your medication, Miss Martinelli? I see from your notes that you’re on digoxin. Do you think you might have taken more than you should have done?’

‘No, most certainly not.’ In spite of her obvious pain she was quite indignant. ‘I’m always extremely careful. I’m sure this is just a bug and will go away. Some medicine is all I need.’

‘Miss Martinelli,’ Kate said patiently, checking her pulse again, ‘I think we need to send you to hospital.’

‘No!’ Edina Martinelli shouted, then gasped with the effort. ‘No hospital! Absolutely not! Just get me some medicine!’ She breathed heavily. ‘My dear friend Hetty downstairs is away in Bournemouth at the moment, and she would normally look after me and now I must rely on you and Sharon. She’s the cleaner.’ Even in her weakened state there was disapproval in her voice. ‘I’m not at all sure after the stairs incident that I trust her.’

Kate renewed the half-empty jug on the bedside table with water and gave her something which she hoped, but doubted, would settle her tummy.

‘I’m going to come back later, Miss Martinelli,’ she said, ‘and if you’re no better then it’s hospital, and that’s that!’

‘No hospital,’ Edina repeated. ‘I shall be all right so you can go now. And close the curtains again, please.’

Kate felt very uneasy as she let herself out of the flat and headed downstairs. She found Sharon in a room which led off the hall and which turned out to be the residents’ sitting room. ‘They come in here if they want a bit of company,’ Sharon said, indicating half a dozen assorted armchairs and an enormous television. ‘How is the old girl?’

‘She’s not at all well,’ Kate said, ‘and she should really be in hospital, but she won’t entertain the idea. I’m going to try to come back later but, in the meantime, if you think she’s getting worse, would you please ring me?’ Kate gave Sharon her phone number. ‘But if you’re really worried then phone for an ambulance straight away.’ She watched, fascinated, as the cleaner entered the number into her bright pink mobile phone. Where had she got a phone like that?

Sharon looked concerned. ‘I can’t spend all day checking on her cos I got my work to do. But I promise I’ll pop in as often as I can,’ she added.

Kate spent the remainder of the morning worrying about the old woman. When she had her lunch break at one o’clock she approached Dr Ross’s room in the hope that he didn’t have a patient with him. Fortunately, he didn’t.

‘Oh hi, Kate,’ he said, getting up from his desk. ‘I was just thinking about getting myself a sandwich.’

Andrew Ross was a tall, lean Scotsman with kindly blue eyes who had a soft spot for Kate due to their shared experiences during the murder investigations in the spring.

‘Andrew, I’m awfully worried about Edina Martinelli up at Seaview Grange,’ Kate said, then proceeded to tell him of her concerns about the pulse rate and Edina’s refusal to go into hospital.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Tell you what, how