Read Online The Body in the Boot: The first 'Mac' Maguire mystery by Patrick C. Walsh - Free Book Online

in the hospital lobby. She was very like her mother and Mac had thought her the most beautiful creature in the world. She wore a white doctor’s coat over a loose sky blue blouse and dark blue trousers. Her auburn hair was held in a bun, for safety reasons she always said. She liked having long hair but her little patients just saw it as something to swing on. She had eyes of a strange colour, a sort of blue-green, which Mac found enchanting.
    He gave her a big hug and then introduced Tommy. Mac could see that Tommy probably wouldn’t make a good poker player as his face all too clearly showed his pleasure at meeting his daughter.
    ‘I’ve arranged for you to see Dr. Wilkins before he starts seeing his outpatients so we only have about ten minutes,’ Bridget said. ‘Sorry Dad I meant to ring yesterday but I was so tired when I got home I fell asleep on the sofa. But there was me worried that you might be sitting around with nothing to do and you’ve got a case already. Tell me all about it.’
    It took most of the ten minutes to give a sketch of yesterday’s events. In re-telling yesterday’s events Mac found it quite a strange tale himself. At the end she took them both up in the lift one floor then down a maze of corridors into one of the outpatient clinics.
    She tapped at a door and a voice said, ‘Come in’.
    Bridget went inside. A few seconds later she opened the door for Mac and Tommy.
    ‘Dad, text me when you’re finished and I’ll see if I can make some time for us to have a coffee.’
    Dr. Wilkins was sitting behind a desk piled with folders. He stood up and shook hands with Mac and Tommy and gestured for them to take a seat. The neurologist, who he knew must be at least in his early forties if not older, looked so young too. He sighed, everyone was looking younger lately, a sure sign of old age his mother used to say.
    ‘Dr. Wilkins, this is my colleague Detective Constable Nugent.’
    ‘Yes, your daughter said you were working with the police on something. How can I help?’
    Mac told him about Henrietta Lewinton’s condition.
    ‘I’ve certainly never heard of anything quite like that before. It sounds like it might be some sort of catatonia or coma, there’s even a rare sort of migraine which can render a person paralysed for a while, but none of them would affect the vital signs in the way you describe. I’ll ask around my team if you like.’
    ‘I’d be grateful if you could. Whatever that girl has been given might hold the key to not just her case but the suspected murder of five other girls.’
    ‘By the way who is the girl under?’
    ‘Dr. Ludmilla Tereshkova,’ Mac answered.
    ‘Lilla? I know her quite well. I’ll give her a ring and see what she’s found so far. It sounds like an interesting case.’
    Tommy passed a card over.
    ‘Thanks doctor and please call this number immediately if you do hear anything.’
    ‘I will. Detective Nugent, mind if I have a quick word with Mr. Maguire before you go?’
    ‘Of course,’ Tommy said.
    He left them to it
    ‘How have you been Mr. Maguire? I know we have an appointment in a couple of weeks but as you’re here…’
    Mac gave it some thought.
    ‘I’m not too bad if I’m honest. I think I needed to be doing something, something to take my mind off things. I’m really surprised I’ve found the energy to do anything, before this case all I wanted to do was just sleep all day, but yesterday I put in a full shift.’
    ‘Pain is a strange thing. Tell me how do you envisage your pain?’
    ‘It’s like water,’ Mac replied without hesitation. ‘Every moment of every day is like trying to wade through water, the pain makes it harder to do everything. I feel like I’m constantly putting up a barrier of leaky sandbags while the waves are crashing on the other side and sometimes the waves are just too big, they smash the barrier down and I start drowning.’
    ‘That’s not a bad analogy. When people ask me about pain, I always say