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Post date: 24-Aug-2015 15:46:35
Here I describe how we finally solved my first murder case. To read about how it all started, see My First Murder ..........
The following week, we had a breakthrough in the case. We discovered that a former patient on the ward where Nurse Parry worked had put in a complaint, saying that he had been denied pain-relief following his operation. The incident had happened during the period when Sister Catherine Spencer was working there, and it turned out that she was the nurse who had signed for the diamorphine that the patient claimed he had never been given.
That set us off on the path of further investigation of Sister Spencer’s private life and in particular her boyfriend, Graham Lawson. We discovered that he had progressed from cannabis to harder drugs and it did not take long to establish that Spencer had been supplying him with diamorphine from the hospital stock. From there it didn’t take us long to discover that Susan Parry had become aware of an occasion when Spencer had signed for a dose of diamorphine and then ‘forgotten’ to give it to the patient; and after that everything started to fall into place. Soon we had Catherine Spencer and her boyfriend under arrest and it wasn’t long before we were in a position to charge her with the murder.
I was pleased that Paige took the trouble to go over to the nurses’ home before the news was released to the public, to tell Angela and the others that they were no longer under suspicion. He asked me to go with him, which seemed odd at the time, but I discovered afterwards that it was all part of his plan.
We waited for them in the housekeeper’s office. When they were all there Paige stood up to address the group.
‘I wanted to speak to all of you,’ he said, looking round at their expectant faces, ‘because I know how difficult it has been for you over the past few weeks, knowing that we have had to treat you as potential suspects in the murder of Susan Parry. I wanted you all to know that you are none of you any longer under any kind of suspicion, and I hope that we shall not need to question any of you again.’
He paused to let the news sink in.
‘Please, Inspector,’ Jill Saunders asked, ‘does this mean that you know who killed Susan?’
‘Yes Nurse Saunders, it does. I’m prepared to tell you who it is because the press will no doubt soon get hold of the information, but I’d like to emphasise that anything I say to you now is to be treated as strictly confidential. I’m sure that, as nurses, you understand what that means. Not a word of what is said here to anyone outside this room – and especially nothing to any newspaper reporters. Do you understand?’
They all nodded eagerly.
‘Very well,’ he continued, ‘I can inform you that Sister Catherine Spencer has been charged with the murder of Nurse Susan Parry. I can also tell you – and this is where you must remember not to repeat what you’ve heard – that she has signed a confession, which makes it clear that she was acting alone. We are therefore not looking for anyone else in connection with this murder.’
There was a short silence while they all considered this news.
‘But why did she do it?’ Jane Bentham asked at last, voicing what they had all been thinking. ‘What had she got against Susan?’
‘Sister Spencer had been stealing diamorphine from the ward stock and she was afraid that Nurse Parry had discovered about it. She killed her to prevent her telling anyone.’
‘So is Catherine Spencer a drug addict?’ Jane asked in astonishment. ‘She didn’t behave like one. I’d never have guessed.’
‘No. she wasn’t stealing for herself. She took the drug to give to her boyfriend.’
‘But how did she manage it?’ Jill asked. ‘Drugs like diamorphine are very carefully monitored. Someone would have noticed that it had gone missing.’
‘But it was recorded as having been given to the patients,’ Angie broke in. To my surprise, she had already worked out how Spencer had managed to keep her thefts secret for so long. ‘She wrote up in the patient notes that she’d administered it, but she just pocketed the phial instead. That’s why that patient complained that he hadn’t been given any pain killers.’
‘That’s correct,’ Paige agreed. ‘She usually only played that trick once with each patient, but she made a mistake with that one and he was left without any pain relief for twelve hours following surgery. When he put in his complaint, it helped us to put two and two together.’
‘So let me get this straight,’ Elaine said slowly. ‘Catherine was stealing diamorphine from the ward and Susan got wind of it and threatened to expose her?’
‘I don’t think it was a strong as that,’ I intervened to stop them thinking that the dead nurse had been a blackmailer. ‘As far as we can tell, she didn’t make any threats. She thought that Sister Spencer had forgotten to administer the drug to one patient. She talked to her about it and they went and gave it to him. But she was thinking of reporting the incident as a ‘near miss’ because Spencer shouldn’t have written up the notes until after she’d actually given the drug.’
‘And Spencer was afraid that if the incident was investigated, other instances when she’s purloined the drug instead of giving it to a patient might be found out,’ Paige continued.
‘So then, a few days later, she waited for Susan to come off her night duty and went in and stabbed her to death in her bed, before going on duty herself?’ Elaine asked. It looked as if she must have been keeping her own notes and wanted to check what we said against them.
‘That’s right,’ Paige confirmed. ‘Working in Theatres, it was easy for her to take away a scalpel from the autoclave one evening and to return it to the hospital the following morning. Her nurse training enabled her to inflict a fatal wound to the heart – something which is not nearly as easy as most people think. She locked the door when she left, using Parry’s key, which she replaced on the bedside table when she came in with the rest of you that evening. None of you noticed her putting it there, because you were all too busy looking at the body.’
He looked round at the four faces in front of him.
‘Now, that’s all I want to say to you. Remember what I said about not passing this on to anyone else. I’m sorry it has taken so long, but I hope that you can all now sleep easy again.’
They got up to go, but Paige called Angie back.
‘Nurse Wheeler! If you wouldn’t mind staying just for a couple of minutes, Constable Johns has one or two loose ends to tie up and he’d like to ask you some questions.’
He left the room, ushering the other nurses ahead of him. We were left alone. For a moment or two, I couldn’t think what to say. Paige hadn’t mentioned to me that he was going to do this. I wondered what he was expecting me to say to Angie.
‘I wanted to ask you,’ I began, still trying to think of something to say. Then I had an idea and tried again. ‘There’s a police dance next week. I was wondering if might be willing to go with me.’
Angela looked surprised for a moment and then burst out laughing.
‘Is that what the inspector meant when he said you had some questions for me?’
‘I don’t know, but that’s the only question on my mind at the moment.’
‘Oh Peter! Of course I’d love to come, but how did inspector Paige know you wanted to ask me?’ ‘Oh, nothing much gets past him.’