‘Miss Donlan,’ he grinned, ‘how are you? I haven’t seen you for a while.’ His accent blended Indian consonants and Mancunian vowels.
Agnes explained why we’d come. He listened politely, rolling a thick fountain pen between his fingers and frowning slightly. When she’d finished he nodded once.
‘Of course I no longer have Mrs Palmer’s notes. As you know, I treated Mrs Palmer for the fall, the shoulder, and that was mending fine, but she was keen to move into sheltered accommodation. I didn’t see her again, she transferred to Dr Goulden. I’m sorry to hear she’s so poorly.’
I asked him if Lily had ever shown any signs of dementia.
She hadn’t. But neither had she had any acute illness that could have led to dementia-like symptoms. He recommended that we ask Dr Goulden to make sure there was no adverse reaction to drugs she was prescribed. ‘It’s a common enough problem,’ he said. ‘All drugs have side effects and sometimes switching to another similar drug can bring great improvements. I must say I am surprised that she is so ill. I would agree it seems very sudden and if she were my patient I would be reviewing the drugs very carefully.’
As Dr Goulden claimed he was.
There was nothing else he could tell us. I drove Agnes home and she invited me in.
We sat in the front room, peaceful and homely. It still had the original fireplace with its ceramic tiles showing dog roses and rosehips, and a picture rail ran round the room. Agnes had decorated in warm colours, gold and peach and a spicy brown. She lit the coal-effect gas fire and we pulled our chairs up close. From somewhere else in the house a clock chimed, a sound from the days before time was measured in bleeps and digital displays.
‘Is that it, then?’ She looked into the fire.
‘You can always get a second opinion – about Lily’s condition now. I think you should consider that. Or a transfer. See about her changing back to Dr Chattaway, perhaps? Talk to Charles about it, he might need to make the request.’
She nodded then turned to look at me. ‘And you. What do you think?’
‘I’m not a doctor,’ I objected.
‘But you have an opinion?’ Her dark eyes glittered.
‘I don’t know. I don’t like Dr Goulden but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know his job. I can’t make a medical judgement, and the whole thing seems to hinge on that. Maybe it just happened more quickly for Lily, maybe the drugs do need looking at again like Dr Chattaway suggested. Either way there’s not much I can usefully do at the moment. You need more medical help, not a private investigator.’