Page 193

Chapter 111

Theanaesthetist popped her head into Mukherjee’s office.

‘Surgery’s in thirty minutes,’ she said. ‘If you need to get set up it will have to be now. Once Doctor Mukherjee’s started, he won’t allow anyone else in.’

‘Thank you,’ Mathers said, getting to her feet. ‘I need to put a camera in the theatre as the surgery will form part of the evidence if we eventually get to court. It also means you guys can watch it live.’

After Mathers had left, Flynn said, ‘I assume we think he found a way to substitute the medication our victims were taking for his own doctored tablets? If I remember correctly, they were all taking something.’

‘Kane Hunt suffered from erectile dysfunction so was prescribed sildenafil,’ Bradshaw said. ‘Harrison Cummings was taking statins for hereditary cardiovascular disease, Karen Royal-Cross was taking a lipase inhibitor to treat her weight problem and Douglas Salt had high blood pressure. He took amlodipine every day to manage it.’

‘How easy would it be to do, Estelle?’ Poe asked.

‘Substitute their medication? That’s your field, not mine.’

‘No, I mean how easy would it be to manufacture these poison pills? Do we need to begin checking pharmaceutical laboratories or can it be done in a garage?’

‘Do you think drug dealers rent time at a lab when they manufacture MDMA?’

‘I suppose not.’

‘Or independent research companies go to GlaxoSmithKline when they need a small, no-frills batch of a prototype medication? Of course they don’t. They make the tablets themselves.’

‘Talk me through the process.’

‘It’s extremely easy,’ Doyle said. ‘Anyone with five thousand pounds and access to YouTube could do it. For pills, you need a template, but they’re available from any laboratory supply company.’

‘What do they look like?’

‘Like an ice cube tray with pill-sized compartments. You mix your medication into a paste, spread it across the template with a spatula then press them out using the gadget that comes with it. Let them dry for twelve hours and that’s it. As you might imagine, capsules are even easier. They are delivered disassembled, so all you need to do is fill one half with powder then press the two halves together. They’re designed to lock without adhesive.’

Henning Stahl cleared his throat. Everyone looked at him. Poe had forgotten he was there. Flynn hadn’t wanted to leave the journalist at Salt’s so she had brought him with her. He had found a seat in the corner and sort of disappeared. Poe suspected it was his ability to be the grey man that had made him such an effective journalist. He saw everything, he forgot nothing. And he was always scribbling in his notebook. ‘And, of course, we already know Frederick Beck has these skills,’ he said.

Doyle looked bewildered. ‘You know who the Botanist is?’ she asked.

‘Shit,’ Poe said. ‘I was going to tell you about him on the journey down, see if you knew why he’d targeted you, but your poison pill theory sort of hijacked the agenda. It’s been full speed since then.’

‘Freddie Beck killed my father?’

‘We think …’ Poe paused. ‘Wait, what the hell do you mean “Freddie”?’ he said.