Tedd and Todd's secret (6 page)

"Why did you do that?" Lance asked, intrigued.

"Now the hair," he murmured to himself.

"Are you going to tell me why? Come on, I don't like being ignored. What's happening?"

"I've got it!" Aidan exclaimed, pulling himself away from staring at the head and turning to his partner. "Did Mrs Black say whether her husband had family in London?"

"I didn't ask her about that," Lance answered defensively. "She's too knocked up by what's happened to answer any more. I just kept my questions to the murder."

"Go back and find out if William had family in London, in particular, a twin brother."

"What?" Lance asked, frowning. "What gave you that idea? I leave you a few minutes alone with this head here and you've gone nuts. You haven't been drinking, have you?"

"Stop playing the fool and do what I asked you to. It might lead to a good clue about who cut our friend's head off here."

CHAPTER 4

"Look, doctor, it's nothing personal, but I'm out of here," James White said, getting out of the bed. He'd made up his mind that the hospital wasn't for him. "Give me something decent to wear and I'm on my way."

"I can't let you go, Mr White," the doctor explained patiently. "We still don't have all the results. We still need a blood test and your blood pressure has to be taken."

"You don't seem to be a bad bloke so I won't tell you what I really think about all of this," James said, walking to a wardrobe in search of something to wear. The only thing that he had was a hospital gown which zipped up from the back. "Where are my clothes?"

"You'll get them back later. Now, get back into bed. You can't walk around the hospital like that."

"Shit! You're not even half as healthy as I am," he said, dodging the doctor and making for the door. "I've been locked up here for a day since the accident, putting up with all sorts of questions and stupid medical tests. If you think this stupid gown is going to stop me walking out of here, you don't know me very well. My clothes are as important to me as my respect for your medical opinion is. There's no way I'm staying here."

At that point, the sexiest nurse that James White had ever set eyes on entered the room and he completely lost the thread of what he was saying as a flood of his favourite sexual fantasies poured out of his head as he looked at the collection of curves that had just walked in. He was in the bed with her, running his hand over…

A strong tug on his arm brought him back to reality with a jolt. He hadn't even noticed that the nurse had led him back to the bed and was taking his blood pressure. James couldn't, or rather didn't want to, miss even the smallest detail of that moment. He knew his mouth was half open and hoped he wasn't drooling.

"I'll take this opportunity to visit other patients seeing as you've gone quiet," the doctor said, accustomed to the effect the nurse had on patients. "I'll drop back later, Mr White."

"Yes, yes. Whatever you say, doctor," James mumbled, turning his attention back to the nurse as the door closed. "And when does your shift end?"

"I've still got a good while to go," she answered indifferently.

"I can wait. We could have a drink when you finish."

"I've already got plans," she answered, securing the cuff around his arm and preparing the syringe. "Another time, perhaps."

"Is it because I'm short? You can't have everything. If you take off your shoes, maybe…" James said, leaning to one side and closing an eye while he calculated her height.

"Stay quiet, Mr White!" the nurse ordered, pulling him back to his previous position.

"We could go to the cinema. Sitting down you won't notice the height difference. What do you think?"

"I would like to but I told you I've already made plans," the nurse said, extracting the syringe and yanking the armband off. She put cotton wool around the prick mark and taped it. "And your height's got nothing to do with it. I like men with a sense of humour. There, we've finished."

"Wait! Don't leave it there. I'm the funniest man in this damn city. I swear it. Just let me know where you'd like to go. Give me a clue."

"Maybe. I'll think about it," the nurse said, opening the door. "I'll drop in later. See you then."

"Rest assured, I'll be here," James called after her in case she couldn't hear him as the lock clicked shut the other side. "I guess I'll be here. I'm not going to move from this bed."

Despite everything that had happened in his sanitary jail, James rubbed his hands energetically and rolled over on his back on the bed, going through his seduction routines. He discovered he didn't have as many as he would have liked. And his tendency to beg had to go. That hadn't brought him much luck in the past, even though he only resorted to begging when everything else had failed. It's what you do when you've got no dignity and lack options. In a desperate situation anything's better than nothing. But surprisingly his style seemed to have gone down well with the nurse. The smartest move would be to play the funny man like he'd promised her.

The thread of his thoughts was cut sharply as another sensation invaded his mind and body.

"Here we go again."

He got up and walked to the mirror on the back of the wardrobe door. He wasn't surprised to see himself dressed in an elegant white suit. He ran his hand softly over the suit sleeve and sighed deeply.

"In the end, what can I do? There's no point resisting."

James White went to the door, played with the handle, and pulled lightly. The lock opened as if it were made of paper and bounced on the floor. James calmly left the room.

The chubby security guard nearly swallowed his coffee when he saw Aidan Zack's battered car again. For the second time in a day he'd have to put up with the insult of seeing the detective put his curious vehicle in a no-parking zone. It was a wonder the pile of dented metal on wheels was still drivable.

Aidan Zack and Lance Norwood got out and walked towards the entrance. The guard approached them with a grim look on his face.

"Police business," Aidan proclaimed before the guard could warn them. "The car better be here when I get back."

"And without a scratch," Lance added.

The guard was lost for words. After they'd walked out of hearing range Lance said, "If I was a big bastard like you I'd scare the shit out of everyone too."

"I doubt it," Aidan mumbled to himself as he entered the hospital.

"I heard you," Lance said, following him in. "OK. We're here again. Let's concentrate on the job in hand. Do you really think this idea of yours about them being twins makes sense?"

"If it bothered you so much, you could've stayed at Mrs Black's house, looking for clues. Or all the other stuff that police do to make sense out of investigative work."

"Are you kidding me?" Lance asked, surprised, trying to keep up with the big man. The hospital was full of people and the smell of medication hit him as soon as they entered. "That's what real detectives do, that's why you are better at that. I just came along to keep an eye on you and see if you wanted to check yourself in. You belong here. They say the psychiatric wing isn't too bad."

Although he wouldn't admit it, Aidan knew that Lance was as curious as he was to see if they were on to something about James White, the miraculous survivor of a traffic accident, and William Black, the poor computer technician who had been decapitated. They didn't have to look any further than their surnames, Black and White, to get the feeling that something was going on. It could have been a coincidence, but if it was, it was a big one. Not to mention the fact that William Black was dressed in black when he was killed and James White walked away from the worst traffic accident in living memory dressed in white, without a scratch.

Nevertheless, the most amazing thing was their physical similarity, except for the colour of their skin and eyes. It had taken Aidan some time to realize that Black and White were identical, given the fact that Black's head wasn't on his shoulders. But when Susan Black showed him photos of her husband he could see that they were indeed identical.

Mrs Black had explained to them that her husband didn't have any brothers. Aidan found that hard to believe, given that such similarity was not likely to be the product of chance. But she'd insisted there was no twin brother. So, in Aidan's mind in the end it came down to whether she actually knew about the existence of the twin. It wasn't something that he could have debated with her. However, he'd seen James and talked with him and had no doubt that he was right.

When he told Lance he knew he'd committed a grave error. His jokey partner didn't let up after that. Aidan was hallucinating. Mental problems did that. It was the reason he'd come with him to the hospital, to keep tabs on him.

As they continued down the corridor Aidan saw two nurses in front of White's room examining an object that one of them was holding in their hands with great attention. Something was wrong for sure. He covered the rest of the distance, quickly followed by Lance who was having trouble keeping up. A quick glance inside the room told Aidan that White wasn't there.

"Where is Mr White?" Aidan asked without introducing himself, showing his badge. "Police."

"We don't know," one of them said.

Lance caught up and was on the point of saying something but was struck speechless by the beauty of one of the nurses.

"And who might know?" Aidan snapped, seemingly immune to the charms of the woman before him, which only confirmed to Lance what he'd been saying all morning.

"No one," the nurse answered. "He's gone. We left him locked up in the room, but somehow he found a way out and left the hospital."

The nurse showed them the object that they had been looking at when Aidan arrived. He studied it for a couple of seconds. The iron lock had been forced. A quick inspection of the marks on the door showed that the lock had been placed this side of the door. Which raised the question of how James White had forced it if he'd been locked inside. Somebody could have done it in the corridor but the marks didn't back that up. It had been opened from the other side of the door. That was clear enough. What wasn't clear was how.

Aidan remembered James White complaining about being held against his will, and the insolent attitude that had gone with it. The detective had put it down to the knock on the head that James kept talking about and remembered him saying that he knew Aidan from somewhere. Thinking he'd never see him again Aidan hadn't paid too much attention to him. He regretted that now. Too many things were happening. And he was convinced that James White was involved.

Without getting involved in the mystery of James's leaving the hospital, Aidan turned Lance away from his new-found obsession with the nurse. He decided not to share his doubts with him for the present. What he had in his head now would only add fuel to the fire of Lance's opinion of his state of mind. And what was worse, given the thoughts that were raging through his head, he couldn't be sure that Lance's opinion of him was unfounded.

"Do you know if they took a blood test?" he asked the nurse.

"Yes. I took it," she answered. "He asked me out while I was doing it."

"That doesn't surprise me," Lance said, as Aidan's elbow impacted on his ribs.

"Good. That blood is requisitioned," Aidan informed her. "Tell the doctor or whoever is responsible that someone from the police will collect it."

The nurse shrugged her shoulders and walked off with her companion. Lance was still getting his breath back after the dig in the ribs so Aidan slipped his mobile phone out of his pocket and rang Fletcher. The pathologist was in a bad mood and still in William Black's flat arranging the moving of samples to the laboratory. Aidan could hear a lot of orders and disagreements at the other end. Aidan's request didn't please him too much but he agreed to send someone to collect the blood sample and compare it with William Black's.

"Are you still going on with this idea about them being twins, then?" Lance asked, opening the lift door. "You're going to miss this old pathologist. He's the only one who acts on your hunches."