Read And None Shall Sleep for Free Online Page B

like our patients, you know, but ...’ She passed her hand across her brow. ‘I feel so responsible. He was ill and he was my patient. I feel really guilty.’
    â€˜OK, Yolande,’ Joanna said finally. ‘You can go home now, to bed.’
    There was no doubting the relief on the nurse’s face.
    When the door had closed behind her Joanna turned to Mike. ‘Get the other two nurses on duty that night interviewed, will you? One of the PCs can do it. I’ll talk to them later. Ask them to concentrate on the basics, times, anything seen, anyone say anything. Perhaps they can find out whether Selkirk actually did use the phone. Ouch.’
    She winced as a sharp pain travelled up her fingers along her arm. ‘I want to get out of here. Take me round to his house, Mike. I’d like to meet his wife.’
    She stood up and looked around the shabby room with its bare floors and flaking paint, a huge, oak desk in the centre smothered with stacks of papers. The cottage hospital was a strange mix of vintage NHS and modern science. A computer stood in the centre of the desk, three green telephones side by side, silent now.
    Mike crossed to the window and spread his meaty hands across the radiator. He stared out across the car park and the neat lawns. ‘I wonder where he is,’ he said. ‘I wonder how he left without anyone hearing him. If he was taken, why from here?’ He turned around. ‘The whole thing is so ...’ He fumbled for the right word and as usual couldn’t find it. ‘So unnecessary.’
    â€˜Well, we aren’t short of possibilities,’ she said. ‘A mistress, a boyfriend, a haven, the old memory loss.’ She laughed. ‘A sudden brain storm ... Depression.’ Her mood changed suddenly. ‘Or maybe he had an enemy. Then again we might never find him. We might never know the answers to any of your questions. He might join the rank and file of the Missing Persons Register. Who knows?’
    A sudden mood of depression washed over her. Perhaps it was a combination of delayed shock from her accident – or the anaesthetic. Or even the realization that even in hospital one might not be safe if someone wished you harm.
    The Selkirks’ house was beautiful, authentic Georgian red brick with neat white paintwork, a pillared portico and pleasing symmetry. The drive was gravelled and free of weeds and the borders neat and still colourful.
    Mike drew the car to a halt then walked round to open the passenger door. ‘And don’t expect this sort of fancy treatment to carry on once you’re out of plaster,’ he warned.
    She grinned and thanked him. The door was flung open and a big, handsome woman in a floral dress with bright auburn hair crunched across the gravel towards them. ‘Have you found him yet?’ She had a deep, booming voice and sounded angry as though a child were playing truant from school. Angry, Joanna noted, not worried, and she scrutinized the woman’s face. It was heavily lined and deeply sunburned. Joanna could picture her crewing on a sailing dinghy somewhere hot with a relentless sun beating down. Perhaps it was the heartiness, the strength behind the firm, deep voice, the heavy, rolling walk in inappropriately smart patent shoes.
    â€˜Mrs Selkirk?’ The woman eyed her plaster cast with suspicion.
    â€˜I’m Detective Inspector Piercy,’ Joanna said. ‘I think you’ve already met Detective Sergeant Korpanski.’
    The woman nodded. ‘Have you found Jonathan yet?’ she repeated impatiently.
    â€˜I’m sorry. Nothing so far. But we’re working on it. I’ve abandoned my sick bed to look into the disappearance of your husband, Mrs Selkirk,’ Joanna felt compelled to add. ‘We are concerned.’
    â€˜Oh dear,’ Sheila Selkirk said without a trace of sympathy. ‘I am sorry’
    â€˜Do you think we could come in?’
    The three of them