He nodded. "Come this way."
They followed him into his office.
May saw that it was a small, functional room with a big desk, three chairs, ranks of filing cabinets, and framed pictures of the old and new hospital buildings on the walls.
Mr. Smith took a seat behind his desk and motioned for them to take the chairs on the other side of it.
"I realize that patient confidentiality is very important," May said. "So, I won’t ask for any names or specific information on the patients. But I would like to know if these three victims,whose names I will write down for you, have all been treated at this hospital in the past?"
May wrote down the three names and passed them to Mr. Smith.
He opened the computer and scrolled through his records.
May swallowed hard. This felt like such a big moment. It felt like they were on the verge of a major breakthrough. She glanced at Owen, seeing that his jaw was set, and his hands clasped tightly.
"Yes," Mr. Smith said. "All three were treated here at some time in the past three years."
"Did the same doctor or nurse treat all of them?" May asked.
"Only two of the three were admitted. One was treated as an outpatient for a minor issue," Mr. Smith said. "But yes. The two that were admitted were cared for by the same ICU team. Dr. Beech headed up the team. And two nurses, Nurse Hamilton and Nurse Keyes, were also part of the ICU team in both cases."
"Are all three working here now?" May asked, feeling as if she was treading on eggshells.
"Dr. Beech is still on our team, but he’s not here now. He just finished a twenty-four-hour shift in surgery and went home."
May nodded. That cleared the doctor, who would have been hard at work in the operating theater during the two most recent crimes.
"Nurse Hamilton was on his team yesterday from six a.m. to six p.m.," Mr. Smith continued.
That cleared Nurse Hamilton too. May wondered, with a frisson of doubt, whether they would end up having to interview other people at the hospital — cleaners, attendants, or even staff that hadn't had direct contact with the victims.
That would be a massive job and the leads would not be as strong.
"What about Nurse Keyes?" Owen asked.
"Nurse David Keyes is no longer with the hospital," Mr. Smith said firmly. "He was fired a month ago. And I can’t give you more info as there is a lawsuit pending."
He clicked the mouse decisively, closing the records file. But May felt exhilarated by what they had learned.
"Thank you," she said, standing up quickly.
The hospital manager had given them as much information as he was able to, and from it they had learned the very important fact that one of the nurses who'd worked closely with two patients had recently left under a serious cloud.
May knew that Nurse Keyes now represented a strong suspect and even though it was late, they had to pursue this new lead.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
May was convinced that Nurse Keyes was now a prime suspect. This nurse could hold the literal key to the murder. Both other members of the hospital team were cleared. Nurse Keyes sounded like a rogue individual, May thought. There was a definite note in the hospital manager's voice as he had mentioned the name.
And if this nurse had been fired, he might have harbored a grudge against the hospital. He might have been a disgruntled former employee. That grudge could have led him to seek out former patients and murder them — both ones that he knew well from a hospital stay and ones that he had learned about. After all, even though the third victim, Jenna, had only been an outpatient, she might have had contact with several staff members and nurses.
The puzzle pieces were starting to fit together, May thought.
"He could have been angry with the hospital for firing him," May said, as she and Owen rushed out of the lobby and headed back to their car.
And there was a lawsuit pending, one which the hospital administrator had firmly refused to discuss. Were there also criminal charges, May wondered. Mr. Smith hadn’t mentioned this, but it might be worth finding out whether this nurse had a record.
“Do you think that there might have been criminal charges?” May asked.