CHAPTER 10
On orders from their superiors, the team left to the psychiatric clinic without him. William walked around the office, trying not to think about the medication he'd been taking. His hands were trembling, his eyes began to twitch and he was sweating from excitement. William was lucky to have such a clever assistant. Bridget sorted his papers without asking any stupid questions, although he saw her cast disapproving looks at him every so often. She was nice to him and Carol too and the three of them had a good relationship. However, William's thoughts had soon turned to other matters - he needed to find a way of getting into the clinic. Tom was in the office though, and William couldn't leave without his permission.
'Listen, I can't stand it anymore! I have to be there,' William blurted out from the threshold, bursting into the office. Tom gestured to a chair. 'I'm sure the problem is there, and the trail leads there, so we must interrogate everyone. I'm concerned our guys won't.'
'They will,' Tom answered. 'Or are you gonna ask them stupid questions? They have worked with you for ten years, they know their job and they also want to figure it out. Plus, there are two more assistants with them, and they're gonna be watching staff reactions from the side. If they notice anything, they'll tell us. I wish we had got permission to shoot video, but they can do it later again. For now, they need to take formal statements.
'No video? It's a pity. Have you spoken to the prosecutor?'
'Yes, and the judge. They don't mind. Formalities take a lot of time, as everything's so complicated. Carol's girlfriend Tina Laiton has testified and whilst the transcript of her phone conversation with your wife confirms that you and Carol didn't have an argument on that day, it's only that day. It seems that Carol felt sorry for you as she was frightened you might end up arguing with her mother. By the way, some things with this haven't happened yet. The prosecutor will come and pick the body up, she's banned the autopsy. She's an awkward woman.'
'Have you spoken to her?' questioned William.
"Yes. She believes you're the one to blame for everything and has even hinted that you killed Carol, or at least set it up." Tom looked over the documents again. "Relax, William. We can't just speed through everything. You're unsettling people with your nerves. I too see something's up. At the moment, we've got to get Huston's reports from the clinic and hopefully we'll find some useful evidence there. There is another problem emerging however. Mayor Schaaf and Governor Newsome predict state quarantine and even along the coastline. Everything might take longer as a result.'
'This is just surreal. Is it really that serious? What about the virus though? The police have to keep working.'
'Yes and no. This emergency is no joke and if introduced, you'll have to wear full PPE uniforms while controlling the city's movements rather than investigating this case, believe me. Besides, from tomorrow, everyone must wear a mask.'
'It sounds really bad,' said William with an air of doom.
'Yes,' confirmed Tom. 'Plus, we have to deal with your daughter's death as soon as possible. Especially with her hair being in the house. They can't find Woodruff anywhere either.'
Nothing happened till six. The department worked by the book. William, with Tom's permission, requested a document from an archive in New York showing all Woodruff's cases. It turned out that this wasn't an easy task, especially due to the fact that the archive promised to give an answer 'in the order of priority'. This seemed quite strange considering that the archived documents had been digitised and obtaining the right ones would only take a short time. It appeared that New York was also short staffed. It seemed like everything was going against William, as if people knew his every move before he'd even taken them and that he was being slowed down by some divine intervention. William understood that this wasn't true and that these were just circumstances beyond his control. It didn't fit in his head that a virus could cause such a moral panic. However, the chain of random events didn't end there.
Sergeant Huston called closer to six. His team returned to the office with a large amount of preliminary data. They needed to process and sort everything so that in the morning they could make up a kind of a mind map for initial analysis and preliminary conclusions. It determined the further plan of their investigation.
'Don't worry, Jimmy, you've got two reliable assistants — me and William - and we'll prepare the documents for you properly, no arguments. Don't be a martyr. You have a wife and two children. Bill and I have an office and two rooms, so who will cope better with your piles of paperwork?
'I agree,' admitted Jimmy.
'Didn't you notice anything strange?' asked Tom, not taking his eyes off the sergeant. 'Posters on the walls, toys on the tables, monitors, all sorts of random stuff?'
'Everything's just white and cold and stuff is laying around everywhere. That's understandable though. Sure, they're now able to mobilise staff, but they're a private clinic. There's nothing else left to say about it really, apart from the fact they're at complete peace, like in 'The Silence Of The Lambs'. When I went, I saw flowers in pots on the windowsill in just one room and just one large flower at the entrance, a bit like a palm tree, but without a trunk. Is this strange?'
'No', Tom answered, with a wide smile. 'Talk to him,' he nodded towards William, raising his finger.
An hour later, handing over the documents and answering many questions from William, Sergeant Huston was about to leave, but he suddenly stopped and added in a serious voice:
I'm sure an exhumation is our number one priority, even without obvious evidence and the opposition of Tory Blackhouse. I have already requested samples from the repository and as luck would have it, some hair remained. For some reason, they thought that hair would be enough to store DNA. There are no nails, no ash, no bones, nothing, but Sam Bryson from the examination department advised us to compare the hair with our samples. It may be that they are different and then we'll have enough reason to apply for an exhumation. Besides, if they match, then it's witchcraft. The truth is out there, as the saying goes! Justice will prevail,' he grinned.
'Told you he's cool', the inspector added when Huston left.
'Justice hurts,' William muttered, his mind elsewhere. 'Hey Jimmy!', he shouted, but the man was nowhere to be seen. 'Why did he say that?' he asked, turning to Tom. The inspector simply shrugged and raised his eyebrows.
'That's odd, that's one of your sayings,' Tom sighed and began reading the documents Huston had left. 'Sit down at the computer. Evidence has been compiled into the database. We've got work to do, so get the coffee, it's going to be a long night.'