Chapter 18
As it happened, Julia had plans to see a doctor that very afternoon.
Dr Sean O’Connor, to be specific. Now that the days were longer, there was time to fit in a walk after work.
They had made an arrangement for Julia and Jake to come over to Sean’s.
He would come straight home from the surgery, put on his walking shoes, and they would head out with both dogs.
Letting herself in with her own key felt more natural now, and less fraught with Meaning-with-a-capital-M.
Jake, of course, trotted in as if he owned the place, and greeted Leo with excited snuffles and yelps, before eating the last three biscuits in Leo’s bowl.
The dogs had only just settled down when Sean arrived home and set them off on a fresh wave of exuberant welcoming.
‘Hello, chaps… Hello…’ he said, pushing his way through the doggy blur. Greeting Julia with a smile, he put down his shopping bags and gave her a hug. ‘You get your shoes on and I’ll put the shopping in the fridge,’ she said.
It was a quick turnaround, and within minutes they were out the door.
The two of them fell into step, and Julia relaxed into the rhythm of their walking.
The light was bright and soft, making the green of the spring leaves zing and the neighbours’ sandstone walls glow golden.
When they reached the field, they slipped the dogs from their leashes and let them run.
The dogs chased each other, Leo, quick and lithe, and Jake, lively and clumsy.
‘How was your day?’ Sean asked. ‘How was the retail business at Second Chances?’
‘Oh, very good. The busiest we’ve been in months, maybe since the pre-Christmas flurry with our Feel-Good Christmas campaign. And it was full of intrigue.’
‘Full of intrigue, eh? Do tell… Did Diane find another prosthetic finger?’
‘No, thank God.’ Julia laughed and shivered at the recollection. ‘In fact, there were two big developments today. There’s a fun thing and a not fun thing: which do you want first?’
‘Fun thing first.’ She did admire Sean’s decisiveness. She felt sure she would have dithered a moment herself, weighing up the options unnecessarily.
‘It’s rather a lovely thing, in fact. It seems Wilma has a romantic interest.’
‘Wilma? Well I never! That is good news. I have sometimes wondered if she might be lonely.’
Julia felt a rush of warmth for this kind man who had given thought to an acquaintance’s state of mind.
‘It’s early days. They haven’t met in person yet, but they have been chatting a lot. And I must say, I haven’t seen her this cheerful for a long time. Maybe ever. She made scones.’
‘Scones? Dear lord, she must be smitten. Do they plan to meet up?’
‘Yes, it’s on the cards. I think they’re both a bit nervous, to be honest. A bit of text messaging and online flirting is fun and low-stress, but presenting your whole human self to another person is scary, especially when you’re no longer twenty-five,’ said Julia, slipping her arm through his.
She remembered her first date with Sean, which was also her first first date in over thirty years.
She’d fretted about what to wear, what they would talk about.
‘Diane and I encouraged her to go ahead and make a casual arrangement, like a walk or tea. I should think it’ll happen soon,’ she said.
‘I dare say you’ll keep me informed,’ he said with a nudge. Julia did tend to bring home a lot of news.
‘The other thing is less fun, more weird. Hayley popped in, and there’s news about Esmeralda Gray. I was going to tell you all about it when we got home, but…’
Julia gave Sean a quick rundown of her conversation with Hayley, and the discovery that Esmeralda had a high level of insulin in her blood.
‘So what do you think about the theory that she had got dizzy and she fell and drowned, and the whole thing was a terrible accident?’
Sean was serious now, in conscientious doctor mode.
‘Well, it’s true that high insulin levels can cause dizziness, and even loss of consciousness.
That’s why it’s so important for diabetes to be monitored and controlled.
If it’s not, there’s an increased risk of falls and car accidents, and things like that. ’
‘And drownings, too?’
‘Well, I would imagine that would be rare, but not impossible.’
They stopped talking to cross the road.
‘But the question I would ask is: why was her insulin so high to start with? She was a professional woman living in a country with good healthcare. If she was diabetic, it should have been well managed. In which case, she wouldn’t have fallen, and possibly, not drowned.’
‘You would think so, wouldn’t you? Perhaps you could have a look at the forensic report; you might see something.’
‘I’m sure the forensic people know what they’re doing. There could be other explanations.’
They reached the fence on the far side of the field and leaned against it, their backs to the setting sun. The dogs had slowed their chase and were trotting calmly about, following smells and looking for rabbits.
‘Well, the thing is,’ said Julia, ‘Hayley is worried that this new superintendent, Lance Frederick, has decided that this death is an accident, and that it has nothing to do with the death of Basil Crow. Even though they worked together.’
‘I must say, it does seem as if that connection is the obvious one to explore.’
‘Exactly. But as a result of his conviction that this is an accident, he has forbidden Hayley to follow that line of investigation. He has taken his eye off the forensic oddities and put Tabitha and her ridiculous parking dispute with Crow back in the spotlight.’
He nodded. ‘Ah, I see your concern.’
‘Of course I’m concerned about my friend, but I’m concerned about Esmeralda too.
It’s awful what happened to her. We should find out exactly why and how she died.
If it was an accident brought on by a medical condition, then that’s awful, too.
Maybe she didn’t get proper care. And if it wasn’t an accident… I think we should be sure.’
‘If Hayley wants me to look at the report, of course I will,’ said Sean.
Julia pulled out her phone and found the photograph she had taken in Second Chances. She handed it to Sean.
‘You have a picture of the report on your phone?’ His bushy eyebrows shot up. ‘It doesn’t seem like the correct protocols were followed.’
‘Hayley showed it to me. Please, take a look. It’ll be between the three of us. Promise.’
‘The things I do for you, Julia Bird,’ he said, giving the phone back to her. ‘Let’s go home, and I’ll read it.’
The dogs had been given their treats and immediately settled down for a nap.
It was a squash, the two of them in Leo’s bed, but they snuggled in companionably, Leo’s back tucked into Jake’s chest, with Jake’s muzzle resting on Leo’s shoulder.
Their chests rose and fell, and gentle snoring was soon emanating from the pile of dogs.
Sean had poured the spicy lentil and vegetable soup he’d made the evening before into a pot and put it on a low flame on the stove to heat up.
Julia gave him the phone and the two of them sat down.
He put on his glasses and read slowly and carefully, his eyes squinting as he scanned the screen, his thumb moving the photograph up and down.
He paused from time to time, thinking. She watched with as much patience as she could muster.
She got up and stirred the soup slowly so it didn’t catch. She sat down.
Finally, he lowered the phone and spoke in a calm, measured tone.
‘I would say that there are some… anomalies in the blood work. I’m not an expert in the field, but I would suggest that they take these results to an endocrinologist to dig a little deeper.
Either her diabetes was very poorly managed, or there was something else going on. ’
‘Like what? What kind of something else?’
‘There are a number of possible scenarios. Perhaps she got confused about the dosage. Or she was somehow given the wrong prescription. Or there might have been some other medical issue she wasn’t aware of that had complicated her condition or affected her treatment. I can’t say.’
Julia took her phone back. She used her finger and thumb to enlarge the photograph so she could read it.
She wasn’t sure why, or what she was looking for.
She’d read it a couple of times and the figures were as good as meaningless to her.
Even the commentary was jargon-riddled and oddly uninformative.
At the end of the document was a short list of the things that were on or about Esmeralda’s person when she was found.
Her flask, her glass jars, a sun hat. A handbag with a bunch of keys, a wallet containing two bank cards and ￡23.
50, a packet of tissues (open), a pink lip balm.
Julia read the list and felt a sadness settle over her.
‘Did you see the list of her personal effects?’ she asked Sean quietly.
‘No, I didn’t read it. I was looking at the blood work.’
‘Her little personal items… Her tissues and her lip balm. It seems so sad when it’s written down on the form.’
‘Were there sweets?’ Sean seemed suddenly alert.
‘It doesn’t say anything about sweets. Maybe she didn’t have a sweet tooth.’
‘That’s surprising. Most diabetics carry glucose tablets or even regular sweets in case of a sugar drop. And there were no medical items? Test strips, things like that?’
‘There’s nothing like that on the list.’
‘You know, Julia, I…’
But Julia already knew what he was going to say. ‘You don’t think Esmeralda Gray had diabetes, do you?’
Sean shook his head. ‘No. I don’t think she did.’
By mutual agreement, they tried to keep their phones out of sight and out of use when they were together of an evening.
It was a good system that made for better and more focused communication, which is why Julia felt a tad guilty sneaking her phone out of her bag.
Sean was busy setting the table and insisted he didn’t need help, but even so…
Julia sat on the sofa and put Esmeralda Gray’s name into the Google search bar. Fortunately, it was an unusual name, and every result was related to the woman whom Julia had found dead.
Already, on Facebook, there were expressions of shock and sadness at Esmeralda’s passing. Colleagues from the environmental office and from the local council, friends and neighbours, a cousin in Glasgow and some more in Portugal all sent prayers and condolences.
There was a post from the Social Singers, which turned out to be an amateur choir in Hayfield.
They shared a video of themselves singing ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’, which Julia was about to click on when Sean came through from the kitchen.
‘Ah, well there you are,’ he said, glancing at the phone with a knowing smile.
‘I was on the phone,’ she admitted, dropping it back into her lap. ‘I was just thinking about Esmeralda, and I wondered about her life, her family and friends. I was looking at Facebook.’
‘Any news?’
‘Nothing that I can see. Sorry I got distracted.’
‘That’s no problem,’ he said kindly. ‘I was fine, there wasn’t much to do.
Come on, let’s go to the table before the soup gets cold.
I want to chat to you about plans for the weekend.
There are one or two nice things on. Let’s have a look at them and if there’s something we like the look of, I’ll book tickets. ’
‘That’s a lovely idea. I have been wanting to get out and about and see some more cultural things. And it will be nice to forget all about the sad state of things for a little bit.’