Please be aware: The content of this chapter may be upsetting to some people.

Chapter Nineteen

'In your own words, Nurse McCarthy, can you tell me what happened the night Mrs Iris Bowles died?'

DS Sally Donovan sat quietly opposite the young Irish woman, who oozed apprehension at finding herself in a police interview room, with a tape recorder running and video cameras trained on her.

Nurse Christine McCarthy had been called in by DI Lestrade's team to be interviewed in connection with the death of Mrs Iris Bowles and she was not coping well with the experience. She did, however, have the comforting presence of the on-call solicitor sitting beside her and she had been assured that – at this stage, at least – she was a witness not a suspect.

'I-I…well, I was on my own, you see, on the ward…'

'On your own?' Donovan interrupted. 'Were you the only member of staff on duty that night?'

'Er, no…not all night. There were three nurses between the two wards – the men's ward and the ladies' ward. But, when we do medications, that takes two staff, so that leaves one nurse on their own in the other ward,' Nurse McCarthy explained. 'Er…also…we take staggered meal breaks but that leaves one nurse on each ward.'

Sgt Donovan made a note of that then said,

'Do go on, please.'

'Yes, well, as I was saying…I was on my own in the men's ward, sitting with Mr Riceman…'

'Mr Riceman? Oh, yes,' Donovan consulted the notes she had made previously. 'That's the gentleman who died the same night, yes?'

'That's right, ma'am.' Nurse McCarthy insisted on calling the DS 'ma'am'. 'I was sitting with Mr Riceman because it was obvious that he was nearing the end of his time. So I was sitting with him, to keep him company because he didn't have anyone else, you see.' Nurse McCarthy gave the DS a beseeching look.

'Yes, I do see,' Donovan nodded, sympathetically.

'We'd contacted his family – he had a son and two daughters – but they didn't live very close so it was taking them a while to arrive. As it happens, they were too late. By the time they came, Mr Riceman had already slipped away.'

The nurse was clearly deeply distressed by that fact so Sgt Donovan gave her a moment or two to recover then asked,

'So, while you were sitting with Mr Riceman, what was happening to the rest of the patients?'

'Well, they were all asleep – the gentlemen, at least,' she replied, with an odd glance to the side, which did not go unnoticed by the DS.

'OK, so the men were all asleep but what about the ladies?' she asked.

'Oh, but I was on the men's ward…'

'Yes, I am aware of that, Nurse McCarthy, but you nurses worked as a team, did you not, between the two wards?'

'Yes, that's right,' the nurse confirmed in a small voice.

'So, were the ladies all asleep, too?'

'No…' the nurse whispered.

'How do you know that?' Donovan asked.

'Because Mrs Bowles…she was a bit of a night time wanderer…'

'What do you mean by that?'

'Mrs Bowles suffered from Alzheimer's. She didn't sleep well at night and she used to get out of her bed and go for a little walk around.'

'Did she really?' Donovan commented. 'That must have been difficult to manage.'

'Oh, dear Lord, it was!' Nurse McCarthy exclaimed. 'It was a terrible worry. We used to have to go looking for her. Sometimes, the security staff would spot her on the cameras and they'd ring us up and let us know where she was. Sometimes one of the porters would find her and bring her back.'

'So, Christine, where did she go that night?'

'She came into the men's ward.' She was whispering, again.

'So, what did you do?'

'Er, nothing…'

'Nothing?'

'Well, I could see where she was and she looked alright and I was busy with Mr Riceman, so I just let her be.'

'And the person on duty in the ladies' ward, didn't they miss Mrs Bowles?'

'I…I don't know. You'd have to ask them…'

'Yes, Nurse, I intend to,' Donovan replied. 'So, what happened next?'

'Mr Riceman passed away so I rang for the duty doctor to come and pronounce him deceased and I rang for the porter to come and take him down to the mortuary.'

'And then?'

'And then I took Mrs Bowles back to her ward.' That look was there, again - sideways, down and to the right.

'What aren't you telling me, Christine?' asked the DS, gently.

'Oh, God help me, I did my best!' the nurse cried out, wringing her hands in despair. Sally Donovan reached across and took the nurse's hand in both of hers.

'Tell me what happened, Christine,' she urged.

'Mrs Bowles…when I went to take her back to her ward…she had them in her hands…lots of them…'

'Lots of what?' Sally pressed.

Nurse McCarthy's voice was barely audible as she replied,

'The medicine cups, the ones we use to dispense the medication, she had loads of them.'

'Where do you think she got those cups from, Christine?' Donovan asked, quietly.

'I think…no, I know…she got them from the other patients. She's been going round, taking the medication from the other patients…'

'Just a moment…' Sally interrupted again. 'Are you saying that the other patients had medication with them? How was that? Isn't it all kept locked away?'

'Oh, yes, yes, it is,' the nurse explained, 'but, when we dispense the medication, we don't have time to make sure all the patients take their meds straight away – I mean, we try to but it's not always possible to see stand there while they all take their meds…'

'So what do you do with the medication?'

'We put it on the bed trays, mostly, with a drink of water next to it and we say, 'Don't forget to take your meds, Mr So-and-so, you know…?'

Sally was horrified but her facial expression gave nothing of her feelings away.

'And if the patients don't take their meds?'

'Well, when we have time, we go back and remind them, but that night…well, we were so very busy…'

'So you are telling me that Mrs Bowles had gone around and helped herself to medication left in the dispensing cups on the other patients' trays?'

'I didn't know that at the time!' Christine shrieked. 'I thought she'd just collected up a load of empties but then, later, when she died…well, I sort of realised that she must have found quite a few that weren't empty and…emptied them.'

'And did you tell this to anybody, nurse?'

Nurse McCarthy dropped her head into her hands and began to sob, quietly.

'Did you tell anyone, Nurse McCarthy?'

'No, no, I just kept it to myself,' the nurse wailed.

Sally looked at the clock on the wall.

'Interview suspended at… 11.23 hours,' she intoned and switched off the tape recorder. Turning to the PC standing back against the wall, she said,

'Get Nurse McCarthy a cup of tea, please, constable.'

ooOoo