‘Shut the door.’
He picked up the phone on the desk and got through to someone, identified himself and asked whether Mr Simcock were still in the hospital. The reply riled him. ‘In theatre? When will he be through?.. Well, how long has he been in there? Listen, as soon as he’s through I need to see him, matter of urgency. I’m in his rooms. Make sure he gets the message, will you?’ They must have agreed, Goulden grunted thanks and replaced the receiver.
‘Sit down,’ he said to Agnes, pointed at a chair with the knife. Began to dial again.
I was trying to recall the layout outside the room. The lobby with its waiting area had been two sets of double doors from the main corridor. The other way I’d seen another set of swing doors and a fire exit sign. Off the lobby were three or four doors, probably leading to small rooms like this, all on the same side. The best chance would be to head back for the main corridor where there were more likely to be people about. If we went in two different directions Goulden wouldn’t know who to chase. But he still had the knife. He was leaning, half sitting on the desk now and pressing the blade of the knife against the edge, cutting little lines in the wood.
I looked over at Agnes and smiled, be brave. She returned a small smile.
‘Douglas? Ken. I’m at the hospital waiting for Matthew. Listen, Angela’s had the police over. They’ve found out about the medication…Eh?…Yes, she died yesterday. Bloody bad luck…No, it was pneumonia, nothing to do with the experiment. But the coroner’s requesting a post mortem. I rang pathology earlier to see when we could collect and they’ve been told not to release anything. You better get yourself over here…’
He’d sounded fairly collected so far but Douglas obviously wasn’t playing ball. ‘Lay low? Christ, they won’t leave it now, you know…I don’t know what it might “accomplish”, maybe bugger all.’
I caught Agnes’ attention and with tiny movements of my eyes, fingers and head tried to brief her – you that way, me this. She nodded slowly once. She was game. Now all we needed was a chance.
Disgusted, Goulden began to barrack his brother-in-law. He slid off the desk – it was easier to argue standing up.
‘You were more than willing to use the Unit. You supervised the medication there, referred them for scans, lined them up for Matthew. Don’t play the innocent. You’re up to your ears in this shit, Douglas, and we’re all going down together…Of course I can’t pull the bloody records…If you get your arse over here maybe between us we can try a bit of damage limitation.’ Douglas Montgomery’s reply didn’t please him. He broke the connection. He paced round between Agnes and the window, still keeping an eye on me.