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

Kate felt a flood of relief; what a lovely man he was!

Within minutes they were driving up to Seaview Grange in his old Jaguar but, as they approached, flashing lights could be seen ahead.

‘What on earth…?’ Kate leaned forward in her seat.

‘Looks like the medics have beaten us to it,’ said the doctor as he pulled up at the gate. The ambulance was parked at the front door, and a stretcher was being loaded in by two young paramedics. He leaped out of the car and bounded across, Kate right behind him, catching only a glimpse of Edina Martinelli, who appeared to be unconscious. The doctor chatted briefly to the paramedics before they roared off, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

He turned to Kate. ‘Apparently, she’s in a coma, so you were right to be worried.’

‘I must see Sharon,’ Kate said, ‘because she would have called for the ambulance.’ She walked into the hallway, ahead of the doctor, where some shocked-looking people were huddled together and all talking at once. They stopped and turned round when they saw Kate and the doctor.

‘You’re too late,’ a fat bald man said.

Sharon, still in her overalls, came forward. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t ring you, Nurse, but I checked on her like you said and, to be honest, I thought she was dead and I got a helluva shock. Don’t think I’ll ever get over it!’ The others looked at her admiringly, and Sharon was plainly enjoying her brief heroic status. Alongside Sharon was the extremely obese man accompanied by an equally well-padded woman whom Kate suspected was the jealous wife Edina Martinelli had referred to. And, by way of contrast, standing back slightly, was a gaunt gangly man with long grey hair and piercing dark eyes.

‘At least it’ll be quiet now until she comes back,’ said the fat woman. She pointed to the door on the right, which was Flat 3, according to the sign. ‘We live in there,’ she said. ‘The doctor knows us but we haven’t met before, Nurse, have we? I’m Gloria Pratt, and this is my husband, Ollie.’

Ollie extended a hand. ‘I help Miss Martinelli out with odd jobs now and again.’

‘Yes, my Ollie can tell you, that woman could screech away from mornin’ to night, couldn’t she, Ollie? And poor Mr Crow here’ – she indicated the gangly man – ‘lived right through the wall from her upstairs and could hear her all the time, couldn’t you, Mr Crow?’

Mr Crow nodded but said nothing.

‘Mr Crow here is a writer and needs peace and quiet,’ Gloria went on, ‘but you don’t get it, do you, Mr Crow?’

This, then, was the man who Edina Martinelli had suspected of posting the poison pen letter through her door.

Mr Crow turned to Kate, extending a bony hand. ‘Cornelius Crow,’ he informed her in a deep voice. ‘Dear Edina does like to air her vocal cords on a regular basis. “Use it or lose it” she’s constantly telling us.’

‘Hetty will be shocked,’ said Sharon, pointing across the hall to Flat 1. ‘She’s Edina’s best friend, but she’s away in Bournemouth at the moment looking after her sister who’s poorly. I haven’t got a phone number for her so I can’t let her know.’

Andrew Ross turned to Kate. ‘We may as well go back,’ he said, ‘and I’ll phone the hospital later this afternoon to see how she is.’

As they seated themselves in the car, Kate said, ‘Wasn’t that Crow fellow weird! Miss Martinelli told me he writes horror and crime stuff.’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ the doctor said with a grin, ‘horror mainly, with lots of murders.’

‘My God, doesn’t he look the part!’ Kate exclaimed. ‘Like someone out of a Hammer Horror film!’

When Edina Martinelli had first mentioned that she’d suspected Cornelius Crow, Kate thought she was accusing him merely because he was a crime writer and that she was being somewhat fanciful and a little overdramatic. But, having seen the man, now she was not so sure.

Four

The afternoon was so hectic that Kate barely had time to think about anything other than the patients in front of her. It was only when she was finally leaving at 5 p.m. that she saw Andrew Ross deep in conversation with Denise at the reception desk. When he saw Kate he beckoned her over.

‘Bad news, I’m afraid,’ he said sadly, laying his hand on Kate’s shoulder. ‘Edina Martinelli died this afternoon at twenty-five minutes past three.’

For a moment Kate was speechless.

‘There’s going to be a post-mortem,’ he continued, ‘because apparently they suspect some sort of poisoning. I’ve checked all her records here and we’ve never prescribed her anything other than the digoxin which she’s been on for years, the occasional laxative and some antihistamine.’

‘When will they be doing the post-mortem?’ Kate asked.

‘In the next day or two, and normally the result takes a week or so,’ he replied. ‘I’ve asked the consultant to get in touch with me as soon as he hears anything.’ For a moment he looked troubled. He cleared his throat before speaking. ‘I spoke to her consultant and, given that this came about so suddenly, and factoring in her abnormal heart rate, there’s concern about how much digoxin she was on.’

‘Will we be in any trouble?’ Kate asked.

‘Let’s hope not,’ Dr Ross said, but he looked distinctly worried.

Kate sighed. ‘It’s hard to believe she’s gone when I saw her just this morning,’ she said. ‘I should have ignored her protestations and called for the ambulance there and then, shouldn’t I?’

‘No, Kate, I doubt it would have made any difference at that stage.’ The doctor smiled. ‘I suggest you go home and have a couple of glasses of wine and put it out of your mind.’

The last thing Kate would be able to do was put it out of her mind. She could only recall Edina informing her that someone wanted to kill her. Had that