Page 48 of Watching You

‘Midnight? You still there?’ Connie asked.

‘Give me a minute,’ Midnight said. ‘The electronic file is vast. I’m using AI to strip out anything that looks procedural and get me to the bones of it. Is Baarda not with you?’

‘He’s at St Columba’s which we’ve made a temporary command centre until we can locate the suspect.

We’re lucky the hospital gave us access to the complaint file at all.

Their first response was that it was privileged and we could only get it by court order or – get this – with Karl Smith’s consent. ’

‘So how did you get it?’ Midnight was tapping keys furiously as she spoke.

‘I let Superintendent Overbeck handle it. She knows all sorts of people, and they tend to be deeply afraid of her, which is questionable ethically but useful when it really matters. I suspect she called in a favour with a member of the hospital board.’

‘Okay, well this is what the superintendent got you. I’ll summarise.

Karl Smith lodged a complaint following the death of his mother during surgery.

She was taken to St Columba’s by ambulance having collapsed.

Paramedics confirmed that she’d had a coronary event.

Long section of medical history here. Okay, she was operated on and efforts were made to save her but her heart muscle and arteries had suffered severe damage.

Attempts were made to revive her, but there was literally no route for repair of the heart muscle.

A full review of her medical history was undertaken and a postmortem was performed. ’

‘What did that find?’ Connie asked.

‘Hold on, let me take a look. That’s in a separate folder. Here we go. Postmortem undertaken by Dr Ailsa Lambert.’

Connie sighed. ‘She was Nate Carlisle’s predecessor. I met her,’ she said. ‘Wonderful woman.’

‘I can tell – the notes are incredibly thorough. The conclusion was that not only had it been the original heart attack that killed Barbara Smith, but that there would have been literally nothing surgery could have achieved. In spite of that, the surgical team clearly tried for a sustained period to find a way forward.’

‘Pretty cut and dried then,’ Connie said.

‘There’s more. On inspection of the lungs, the postmortem showed multiple small tumours.

It looks as if the cancer had also spread to Mrs Smith’s lymph nodes.

The conclusion was that had the heart attack not caused her death, she only had a matter of months to live, it was just that the lung cancer hadn’t been diagnosed. ’

‘So what did the hospital do?’

‘Everything I’ve seen indicates that a medical review is undertaken first by a consultant within the hospital who has not been involved with the case.

If there are any red flags from that, the hospital undertakes a full review with interviews of staff members by an external committee.

Barbara Smith’s case was open and shut, so it stopped there.

I can see, however, that Ailsa Lambert invited the son and father to meet with her so that she could explain all the physical evidence, and for them to ask any questions they wanted.

It looks as if there was no response to that invitation.

The notes from the postmortem file indicate that no such meeting took place. ’

‘So they just laid the blame at the hospital’s door, didn’t get the answers they wanted from the preliminary enquiry, then decided it was all some conspiracy,’ Connie said.

‘You think they hid themselves away and let their anger fester until one day Karl decided to start visiting the hospital and found people to kill there? It feels like there’s a piece of the puzzle missing,’ Midnight said.

‘It really does, because none of the family’s anger was directed at the hospital itself. Nate Carlisle has confirmed that a cursory look at Karl’s father’s body showed that he had inhaled liquid and choked on a small item of food. Do you have access to those notes?’

‘I do,’ Midnight said with a new flurry of tapping.

‘Dr Carlisle’s assistant sent them over a few minutes ago.

He’d been bedridden for a long period of time – the mortuary managed to get access to his medical records.

Looks like his stroke occurred just a few weeks after Barbara Smith’s death.

It would have been while the hospital’s preliminary enquiry was taking place, in fact. ’

‘So Karl is at home grieving his dead mother, presumably, when suddenly he ends up also having to care for his father. His whole life was upended. That’s a lot of emotion to have to put somewhere.

You’d need someone to blame for that, right?

Midnight, are you able to get me the names of all the people on the surgical team who treated Barbara Smith? ’

‘Two seconds, here it is. The anaesthetist was Giles Polgood and the trauma surgeon on duty was Elizabeth Waterfall. They then called the duty cardiac surgeon who was—’

‘Stop,’ Connie said. ‘Elizabeth Waterfall also known as Beth Waterfall?’

‘It’s an unusual surname, so if you know of a surgeon there called Beth Waterfall, then I’m guessing it’s one and the same. Do you know her?’

‘Yes, we’ve met a few times. She’s newly in a relationship with one of the officers from MIT.

If Karl Smith is stalking her, though, he must be doing a good job of hiding it or I’m sure she’d have said something.

Could you check police files to see if she’s made any sort of complaint since the date of Barbara Smith’s death about anything happening either at the hospital or at home that she was worried about?

I’m going to call DS Lively while you do that. ’

Connie rang Lively’s mobile but got only his voicemail recording, then she tried Baarda but got the same.

‘Connie,’ Midnight said. ‘I’ve got something.

A couple of years ago, there was a complaint to the police but not by Elizabeth Waterfall, it was by someone called Molly.

She would have been in her early twenties, but she was accompanied to the station when making the complaint by Beth Waterfall, her mother. ’

‘Go on,’ Connie said.

‘The complaint was about a stalker, mostly online stuff. Damage to reputation, deep-fake videos, posting untrue allegations about her private life. It’s pretty nasty but the investigating officer reached the conclusion there was nothing that could be done.

The videos were posted anonymously, websites would pop up then disappear, the servers were international and social media sites wouldn’t disclose user information.

Overall, it was impossible to prove it was the work of just one person.

Several names came up during the investigation. ’ She went quiet.

‘Midnight?’

‘Yeah. One of the names listed was Karl Smith, no other details known. Various spellings of it and alternative surnames were also used. No other identifying details and it’s a common name. Police were unable to trace where the harassment started so no suspect was ever found.’

‘Oh crap. I take it there was never any arrest?’

‘Nothing. The file was closed when no further complaints were made after a year. It was him, wasn’t it?’

‘I think so. And because the complaint Karl made about his mother’s death was decided during the preliminary enquiry, Beth would never have been made aware of the complainant’s details. Stay right there. I need Beth’s personnel file.’

She called DS Salter.

‘Christie, you’re on speaker with Midnight and me. Are you at the hospital?’ Connie demanded.

‘Yes. All quiet here, nothing coming up on the surveillance. You okay?’

‘Has Lively ever mentioned Beth’s daughter to you?’

‘Only once. I asked if it was just him and Beth at the house and apparently she had a daughter who passed a while ago. Lively hadn’t wanted to pry but he got the impression it might have been a suicide.’

‘Oh, hell. That’s why the complaints stopped. Listen, I think Karl’s real target is Beth. He believes she was responsible for the death of his mother, and it looks like he started out targeting Beth’s daughter as revenge. Do you have someone from the hospital admin team with you now?’

‘I do.’

‘Good. Is Beth working right now or should she be at home?’

There was a pause.

‘She’s not on duty. I have her mobile number on the screen. We’re trying to contact her,’ Salter said.

‘Don’t scare her. She needs to either get straight to the hospital or the nearest police station, or stay at home and lock all the doors and windows.’

‘Have you told Lively?’

‘Couldn’t get hold of him. I need you to email Beth Waterfall’s HR file over to Midnight immediately, and don’t take any shit from anyone about privacy.

This could be a life-or-death situation.

Midnight, stay on the phone to me while I drive.

I want to know everything about Beth Waterfall that might help me negotiate with Karl when we find him.

Christie, get me Beth’s address. I’m getting in the car now.

Tell Baarda to meet me there, and make sure you have a team ready to go in but not until I say so. Keep trying to get hold of Lively.’

‘On it,’ Salter said. ‘And Connie …’

‘Yes?’ She was already running for the door, car keys in hand.

‘Two things. The carer said she could sometimes hear Karl talking to his mother, arguing, as if she was still alive. He sounds really deranged. And second, Lively’s in no condition to fight.

I know he’s acting tough, but I’ve known that man a long time.

He’s in pain and he hasn’t recovered. If it comes down to it, I’m not sure he’ll be any match for a younger man who’s out for blood. ’

Connie reached her hire car and started the engine.

‘Then we’d better get to him before Karl Smith does, because if he could kill his father, he really didn’t plan on making it home.’

Connie fed the address into her satnav and raced off as Midnight received and digested Beth Waterfall’s personnel file.

‘How long have we got?’ Midnight asked.

‘I’ll be there in seven minutes. What have you found?’

‘Beth Waterfall is fifty-five years old. She trained and has always worked in the Edinburgh area. She’s been at St Columba’s since it opened four years ago.

Let me see … divorced. She’s involved with two charities at the hospital.

There’s a mentoring scheme for female staff that she set up to encourage women to apply for promotions and new opportunities.

That won an award from Women in Business. ’

‘Anything about her daughter?’ Connie asked.

‘Beth reported that her daughter had died – no details other than that it wasn’t at St Columba’s – this was thirteen months ago.

She took some leave but ended up coming back really quickly.

The HR department was concerned about it and asked her to consider getting counselling.

There’s no note about the outcome of that. ’

‘Anything to do with being harassed at work?’

‘Ooh,’ Midnight said. ‘Not exactly, but this is weird. Beth was suspended on full pay pending investigation about a year ago because a video went viral of her talking about certain patients not deserving NHS care because of their lifestyle choices. Looks like a big deal. There are several entries about it. Beth’s reaction was to explain that it was a deep fake—’

‘Like the ones her daughter was subjected to,’ Connie said.

‘Exactly. The hospital brought in an expert who confirmed it. Beth’s suspension was stayed but by then she had to go off sick.

She’d dislocated her arm, fractured a rib and had a head injury requiring a CT scan from an injury when she was out running.

She spent a brief period in hospital for that.

She needed physio before she could operate, but again, she got herself back on her feet and returned to work. She’s tough.’

‘As tough as they come. I can see why Lively’s fallen in love with her. Anything else in the records that might help me?’

‘Only that a few staff members expressed concern for her over the past year, having lost her daughter and still working at full capacity. It seems she took virtually no compassionate leave, went back to work and just never talked about it. She’s obviously been through hell.

No pressure, Connie, but you have to save her.

There’s a limit to what anyone should have to endure,’ Midnight said.

‘I agree, but also because Lively will never forgive me if I don’t. I can’t be the person who lost him the chance of true love. Everyone deserves their happy ending. Wish me luck,’ Connie said, slamming on the brakes and throwing open the car door.

Midnight never got the chance.