A Fatal Verdict Read Online Free PDF

...’
    ‘Attempted murder, disguised to look like suicide,’ said Tracy, completing his thought.
    ‘Exactly. In which case, we assume, until persuaded otherwise, that a serious crime may well have been committed here and get a SOCO team over here straight away to do a full examination. I want you, Bill, to put a guard on the door, make sure no one - including the owner - comes in or out until they arrive, okay? I’ll get on the phone to them right away. And then I think you and I’d best get over to the hospital and start asking a few questions, don’t you, Trace? If that young woman’s still alive maybe she can solve some of these mysteries for us. And if not ...’ He sighed, contemplating a long night’s work ahead, and the emotional strains it was likely to bring. ‘Well, either way, there’s going to be her family to contact, as well.’

4. Phone call
     
               
    The phone call came when Shelley’s mother, Kathryn Walters, was on the treadmill. A bouncy, energetic woman in her late forties, she had joined the health club three years ago after a cruel comment from her husband, and had found it so compulsive that she now came three or four times a week, as often as the demands of running her home and business would allow. She valued it equally for the warm comforting afterglow of the endorphins flooding through her brain, and for the physical results whose evidence she saw every day from her mirror and weighing scales. A determined woman, she had joined battle with the forces of ageing and was convinced that, for the moment at least, she had them well and truly on the run. Life, for Kathryn, had always been a struggle for achievement, and now that one daughter was married and the other settled at university she had time and energy to expend on herself.
    She had just completed ten minutes power walking and had switched the machine up to jog when her phone rang, its little extract from Don Giovanni, in her handbag on the floor in front of her. She always brought her small handbag in here with her; there had been a spate of thefts a few months back and she didn’t trust the lockers. Anyway her eldest daughter Miranda sometimes rang from America on Sunday nights and she wouldn’t want to miss that, wherever she was. So even though she was nicely warmed up, skin glowing and breath coming smoothly, she stopped the machine and picked up the phone, just in case.
    ‘Hello?’
    ‘Kath? Thank God you’re there.’ Kathryn recognized the voice of Jane Miller, a friend who was now a senior nurse in Accident and Emergency. The next words turned the sweat on her skin to ice. ‘It’s Shelley - she’s here in Casualty. It’s very serious, Kath, you’d better come at once.’
    ‘Shelley? Why, what’s happened?’
    ‘I can’t say for sure, but she’s lost a lot of blood. They’re doing all they can but it’s serious, Kath. It seems she cut her wrists.’
    ‘What? Shelley - no!’ At the tone of her voice heads turned on the exercise machines, some concerned, some irritated, others blankly incurious. Kathryn snatched up her bag and began to walk towards the changing room, her phone still at her ear. ‘What do you mean, cut her wrists? Has there been an accident?’
    ‘It’s hard to say, Kath. She was found in a bath. Look, where are you? Is there anyone who can drive you?’
    ‘I’m at the gym. No, that doesn’t matter, I’ll be OK.’ She was in the changing room as she spoke, fumbling for the key to her locker when she thought, what the hell am I doing, I don’t need to change, I’ll go as I am. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes, Jane, I’m at the Swallow Chase. My God, Jane, how is she? How bad is it?’
    ‘It’s quite bad. She’s lost a lot of blood. They’re giving her a transfusion now. Her boyfriend’s here, at least.’
    ‘Christ, no! Not him!’ Kathryn was in the car park as she spoke, still in her tracksuit and trainers, squeezing the button on her keys to unlock the