‘Let’s wait and see what he says.’
I was filling the watering can when the doorbell rang. If I’d been back out in the garden I probably wouldn’t have heard it.
Dr Ken Goulden was on the doorstep. My stomach lurched. I wanted to run. How the hell had he got my home address? He was bigger than I remembered, built like a rugby player.
‘What do you want?’ I was hardly civil.
‘Just what do you think you’re playing at?’
I opened my mouth but it was a rhetorical question.
‘I don’t know what your game is, Miss Kilkenny, but you’ve been making wild allegations, upsetting staff at Homelea and interfering in business that doesn’t concern you.’ His jaw was taut as he reined in his temper.
‘But it does concern me,’ I replied. ‘It concerns me a great deal actually. Mrs Palmer was being given enough drugs to make-’
‘You’ve no right to go around meddling in medical affairs,’ he said fiercely. ‘You stay away from my patients, is that clear?’
‘Those tablets were dangerous,’ I retorted. ‘Doesn’t that concern you?’
‘Mummy, who is it?’ Maddie called from the kitchen.
‘Just someone from work. You go back in the garden.’
‘I want a drink.’
‘I’ll be there in a minute.’
‘Mistakes happen, human error,’ Goulden said. ‘It’s regrettable but that’s no reason for this sort of vindictive harassment. I’ll be speaking to my solicitor. I have a reputation to think about and I’m not going to let you jeopardise that with your cheap innuendo and your wild accusations.’
Bloody hell! What on earth had Mrs Knight said to him? ‘I work with facts,’ I began, my anger mounting. ‘You prescribed those drugs, your wife’s firm supplied them and when we came to you worried about Mrs Palmer you did nothing-’
He didn’t let me carry on. ‘You stay away from my patients.’ He pushed his finger at me, emphasising the words. ‘Any more harassment…’
‘Mummy?’ Maddie was coming down the hall.
I moved to go in. Goulden grabbed my wrist, his hand large and hot. ‘Do you understand?’ he hissed at me. I could smell whisky on his breath. It mingled with a citrus aftershave. ‘Any more meddling from you, missy, and my brief will be down on you like a ton of bricks. We’ll do you for theft, trespass, defamation, libel, the works. Your feet won’t touch the ground.’ His nostrils whitened and his cheeks reddened as he spoke. ‘You can kiss goodbye to all this.’ He jerked his head towards the house. ‘You won’t know what’s hit you.’
‘Let go.’ I enunciated clearly through clenched teeth.
He dropped my wrist and I moved inside, slammed the door shut. My wrist ached. I was as livid as I was scared. The arrogant, bullying bastard. To come here and threaten me. Just wait, I thought. The police will soon be knocking on your door, matey, asking awkward questions.