SPOILERS!!!
The novel starts with Sam, one of the detectives, finding a body floating in a lock. It is a woman who has no identification on her, so the pathologist can't really confirm that she has suffered an accident or has been murdered. When Kate is at the scene, she gets an urgent call from her boss, telling to come at once as one woman has confessed to killing her father and she is asking after Kate.
The woman's name is Caroline Lambert, and she says that she knows Kate because an acquaintance of her went to school with her. Caroline then tells her that her father had cancer, and she describes the humiliation and tribulations the man went through and how he begged her to help him die. Caroline didn't want to do it, but after a very terrilbe incident, she simply left a glass of whisky and a vial of morphia with him. She went to bed and the next morning her father was dead.
Kate thinks that this is a clear-cut case of mercy killing. However, when she goes to the house where the man died, a neighbour, Brenda, who hints that he and Dennis had a relationship, claims that his daughter killed him because she came back for something. Kate discovers that Caroline's sister, Jeanette, went missing thirty years ago, and Caroline left after her mother died and didn't return until recently. Another strange thing is that when she attends the postmortem, the pathologist says that it is odd that this man was given so strong painkillers when it seems that his cancer was not so critical, and part of the tests are missing from the documents. Kate starts investigating, but the hospital is not forthcoming and Dennis's doctor is on holiday, so Kate talks to another doctor, who seems to take a shine on her.
The book alternates between the investigation and November when Caroline returned to look after her father, who was in hospital for a bit. There are two letters from someone signed J (maybe her sister who went missing?), and it is clear that Caroline came back to take her revenge because her father treated her and her sister and mother terribly. What I don't understand is why get into all this trouble when Dennis was already dying.
In hospital Caroline talks to the nurse in charge of her father, Maddie Cox. At some point Maddie drops a chip with GA, and she knows she can use this information. The next day Caroline asks to talk to Maddie, and she tells her that she noticed that she is in Gamblers Anonymous and she needs to find a group as she has the same problem. Maddie feels uncomfortable and tells her that this is a personal matter, and if she needs to find a group, she should use the Internet. Caroline apologises, but she is determined and finds the group which Maddie goes to, and she tries to befriend her. As Caroline has money from an inheritance, she offers her money to pay off her debts, but Maddie refuses. It is some days later when she overhears Maddie talking on her phone that she offers the money again, and this time Maddie is too desperate and accepts.
When Dennis is to be discharged, Caroline asks her to write a prescription for more drugs for her father as she fears that he can be in pain. Even though Maddie tells her that she can go to Dennis's GP, Caroline insists and hints that she owes her, and it is then that Maddie realises that she has fallen into a trap. So she agrees to write the prescription.
Caroline uses the drugs to make her father sleepy and groggy. Her problem is her neighbour who keeps turning up, but she confronts her and tells her that she is going to send her lawyer to her. Then when the drugs run out, she goes to find Maddie again, and this time her threats are more direct, and Maddie agrees to give her another prescription.
In present time a young man turns up at the police station, claiming that the woman found in the lock is his mother. It is Ethan, Maddie's son, and Kate soon realises that the unknown woman is Maddie Cox. When she starts looking into the case and talks to the hospital, she realises that Maggie was the nurse looking after Dennis when he was in hospital. She tells herself that it is a simple coincidence but she has the hunch that coincidences usually lead to something.
No comments:
Post a Comment