Soiled Knickers

"Are you going to bring her back here with you?" Mum asked.

"I think I may have to, so assume that I am, would you?" I replied.

"Should I make up Andi's room for her?"

"Do you mean is she going to be sleeping with me, Mum?" I asked, "no she isn't so, yes, please, make up Andrea's room. I don't know what time I'll be back."

"Then take a key, just in case," she answered.

Mum went off to get busy preparing the room, while I retrieved my keys from the hall table, took a house key and walked out to the car. Rather than take the motorway with all its traffic, I went over the top to Barnsley, then Wakefield and up to Leeds. I pulled into the custody suite visitor's car park a little before nine o'clock.

once I got into the building, which was a matter of ring the bell at the visitor's door, wait for someone to answer the intercom, identify yourself wait for them to buzz you in and then walk across to the counter.

Judging by the three stripes on his uniform jacket arm, I guessed that this might be Sergeant Greenfield. I took a chance.

"I strode up to the counter.

"Sergeant Greenfield?" I queried.

"That's right sir," he replied, "and you are?"

"Parker," I said, "Dave Parker. We spoke earlier about my wife."

"Ah yes, Mrs Parker," he said, "if you would care to take a seat, someone will be with you shortly."

I took a seat on the back wall of the waiting room and settled in for what, I assumed, would be a long wait.

I was wrong. I'd only been there, certainly less than ten minutes, when a door in the side wall opened and a different sergeant in uniform stepped out and announced my name.

I walked across and he stepped aside to let me in.

Inside was a table and four chairs, all fixed to the floor. On the table was a tape recorder with two cassette slots, presumably for interviews.

Two of the chairs were occupied, one by Sally and the other by a young man in his early twenties who introduced himself as Steve Parkinson and his role as the solicitor appointed by the authorities to represent her.

"I'll leave you three to your discussion," the policeman said and exited by a door opposite the one through which I came in.

After he left, I sat down opposite them, Sally made to stand up but I raised a hand to stop her.

"What have they charged you with?" I asked.

"Assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent," Parkinson said.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I kicked him in the balls," she said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Peter, who else?" she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"He was threatening me," she replied, "we'd just finished a procedure on a small child. We were cleaning off in the sluice room and he started telling me that I was his now and that I should forget you. I don't think he realised I'd heard that recording."

"Recording?" Parkinson asked.

"I met with Mr Mortensen yesterday and had a brief discussion about the relationship between him and my wife," I explained, "I recorded the conversation."

"Did he know it was being recorded at the time?" he asked.

"No," I replied.

"Then it probably wouldn't be permissible in evidence," he said.

"No," I agreed, "but I'd be willing to bet he'd do anything to avoid his wife getting a hold of it."

"I'm sorry?" he said, a quizzical look in his eyes.

"Mr Mortensen is a sexual predator. He admitted as much to me yesterday. He enjoys it, it makes him feel like a big man," I explained, "now my job is to make him feel like the worm that he is."

"Ah," he nodded his head in agreement, "I see."

"So what happens now?" I asked.

"Now, you take your wife home and put her to bed," he replied, "then on Monday you present her at Leeds crown Court for trial."

"So soon?" I asked.

"All that will happen is that she'll be asked to confirm her identity and how she pleads," he said, "then unless the CPS raises an objection, which I doubt, she'll be remanded on bail for trial at a later date."

"So we're free to go?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, "I have to give Sally this."

He held out an A4 sheet of paper.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's the bail conditions," he said, "put simply, she has to reside with you and not approach withing one hundred metres of Mr Mortensen or any member of his family, or of Leeds General Infirmary, there are two exceptions to that, if she's called in for a meeting or in case of emergency and she or some close family member is admitted."

"A meeting?" I asked, looking at Sally, still dressed in theatre scrubs.

"I've been suspended, pending an internal investigation," she replied, "full pay until such time as I go on trial then without pay. There probably won't be anything happening until after the trial and then there'll be the GMC as well."

"What does it have to do with the GMC?"

"They tend to take a negative view of doctors attacking each other in the scrub room," she said, "there'll be a disciplinary hearing, I could be struck off."

"Right then," Parkinson said, "if that's all we can all leave."

He stood, walked to the door on the opposite wall and pressed a buzzer beside it. A few moments later a police officer appeared and used his pass to let us out of the other door. In the car park, we said goodnight to the lawyer and I led her to the car. I opened the door for her and she got in then walked round and got in the other side.

"We'd better call in at Horsforth and get you some more clothes," I said, "nice as you look in those, you'll be needing a change at some time."

"Call in at Horsforth?" she asked.

"Yes, we're staying with Mum and Dad."

"Oh, Dave, please no," she said, "I'd be so embarrassed. Do they know?"

"Yes," I said, "they have both heard the tape. In fact about the only person involved who hasn't heard it is Mrs Mortensen. I'll be correcting that omission tomorrow."

"Dave, you can't," she said, "the injunction."

"That's on you, not me," I said, "and besides, I'm not going to see her. I'll call her, get an email address and email a copy to her."

"Dave!" she exclaimed, "you can't do that, the poor woman will be devastated."

"Sally, you need to learn to engage your brain before you speak."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What will she be devastated at?" I asked.

"At learning that her husband..." she trained off, "Oh, I'm sorry, yes, you're right. But that's different."

"Why is it different, because in her case it was her husband committing adultery, while in our case it was you?"

We'd arrived back at the house and I pulled into the driveway.

"Just get what you need for now until the weekend, we'll come back here Sunday evening rather than brave the Monday morning M62 traffic," I said.

"Will we be sleeping together?" she asked.

"No," I replied with more than a hint of finality.

She got out of the car and walked slowly towards the front door, while I got out and followed her. She stopped, which was when I realised, she didn't have her keys with her.

I let us in and ushered her upstairs while I went into the kitchen to make us a coffee. I needed one. What I really needed was that single malt that my father was about to pour for ne, but for now I'd settle for coffee.

She came downstairs just as the coffee was ready and we sat in the living room and drank it.

"I wish we could just forget all this happened and get back to how we were before," she said after a pause.

"I would think you do," I replied, "but Sally, you've never given me an explanation of why you just didn't say no to him. You knew you were married, I thought we were happy, but it seems it was only me. Now, I'm not sure I'll ever be happy again. I know it will be a long time before I trust you again.

"I did say no," she said, "but he just kept on suggesting, kept on digging at me."

"And finally he got you to say yes."

She nodded her head.

"Yes," she said, "I said yes. I thought that if I did once he'd stop."

"But then he used that one yes to pressure you into a repeat performance," I suggested.

"Yes, he told me if I didn't do what he wanted then you'd find out about the first time."

"All right, we're getting somewhere," I said, adding a silent 'at last, "now I have a question. I want one of two answers to it. Yes, or No, no explanations nothing else just a one-word answer. Did you ever at any time have sex with him in our bed?"

"No," she replied, "it was always either at work, in a hotel or at his house."

I looked at her.

"I swear, love, it's true," she said.

I looked at her again and decided that she was telling the truth.

"Thank you for that, at least," I said.

"Thank you," she said.

"What are you thanking me for?" I asked.

"I saw it in your eyes, you believed me," she replied.

"Shouldn't I have?" I asked.

"You should, it was the truth," she said.

"Then it was accepted as such," I answered.

We finished our coffee and I took the mugs into the kitchen, rinsed them and put them in the draining rack before I checked everything that should be switched off was switched off and we left for Cheadle. Given the time and I took the M62, M60, M56 route and we arrived in just under an hour. It was nearly midnight.

I carried her bag into the house and up the stirs with her following me. I think she was disappointed when I passed the door to my room and opened the door to Andi's.

Inside I put the bag on the bed and turned to leave, she caught my forearm to stop me.

"Can't I sleep with you?" she asked.

I shook my head, ignoring the pleading in her eyes.

"If nothing else," I replied, "not until I see a negative STD test."

"What for?" she asked.

"Well, given the state of those knickers you'd been wearing, I'm assuming you didn't use condoms," I said, "and we don't know who else he was having fun with at the same time."

She dropped my arm then and I left and went to my own room. I don't know whether it was instinctual, but as I closed the door, I locked it. I had no desire to wake up next to her. While I was in the bathroom taking care of ablutions, I also locked the connecting door that led to my brother's bedroom.

Once I'd finished, I got myself into bed and, surprising myself, fell asleep. I woke up once, thinking I could hear someone trying the door handle, but if they had, they went away before I awoke fully and if it was Sally, she never mentioned it the following morning when I walked into the kitchen at eight o'clock to find her and my mother busy preparing breakfast.

"Morning darling," Mum said as I walked in.

"Morning Dave," Sally almost echoed her.

"Morning ladies," I replied, before pouring myself a coffee and sitting down.

"What have you got planned for today?" Sally asked.

"I need to go back to Leeds," I said, "so if you give me your locker key, I'll call into the hospital and pick up your things."

"Would you," she said, "thank you. I'll get you the key after breakfast."

Breakfast was Poached Eggs on toast and afterwards I go elected to clear up and man the dishwasher.

While I did that, Mum and Sally disappeared and my wife came back a few minutes later and handed me a key.

I pocketed the key, went upstairs to my room and got the things I needed to take with me and set off for Leeds. Once again, given the chances of holdups, I took the Barnsley, Wakefield route rather than the Motorway and arrived at Leeds General Infirmary. I went in through the staff entrance and walked the maze of corridors to the Operating suite where I found the doctors' changing rooms. I found May Chang, one of Sally's best friends and a fellow surgeon.

"Dave," she said, surprised, "what are you doing here. You know Sally's..."

"Yes, I know," I interrupted her, "she's with me at my mother's."

"You know why she was suspended?" she asked.

"For kicking her lover where it would do most good," I said, "yes."

"You knew about her and Mortensen?" she asked.

"Not until day before yesterday<" I replied, "listen, have you got ten minutes, would you like to get a coffee, maybe you can fill some things in for me."

"I'd love to have a coffee," she said, "but I won't tell tales on my friend, not that I have any to tell."

"Ah, but you do," I replied, "what I want to know about is the incident yesterday. But first, can you pop into the changing rooms and get Sally's things from her locker?"

"Of course," she said, smiling, "I assume you have the key?"

I took out my keys and removed it from the ring."

"Back in a couple of minutes," she said.

She came out a few minutes later carrying a patient's property bag containing Sally's things.

"I emptied the pockets of her white coat since that and her pager belong to the hospital. Everything else is in there."

"Thanks May," I said, "now, about that coffee."

"I'm just on my way to lunch, do you mind the staff canteen and me eating while we talk."

We walked down to the staff dining room in the basement and found a table. I placed the bag of Sally's things on it and we went to the counter where she ordered lunch and I got us two coffees.

"Were you there when the thing blew up yesterday?" I asked.

"Yes, we were all in the scrub room, cleaning up after repairing a hole in the heart on a little girl of three," she said, "Peter had been niggling at Sally all day and suddenly she turned on him."

"What? Attacked him?"

"Yes, but only verbally," she said, "then he grabbed her and almost yelled at her."

"Grabbed her?" I asked.

"Yes and by the throat, everybody was yelling at him to calm down and let go. Then he started screaming 'I own you bitch, body and souls, don't forget that, you're mine.'."

"So he grabbed her and was choking her?"

"Yes, and she kicked him, just as two of the other male surgeons started to pull him away from her."

"So, when she kicked him, she was defending herself from attack," I said, a statement, which she took as a question.

"Yes," she replied.

"Yet they arrested her and not him," I said, "has he been suspended too?"

"No," she said, "but then again, he is in hospital at the moment."

"So you think he will be?" I asked.

"No, the old boy network will close ranks around him and Sally will be hung out to dry."

"Would you be willing to go to court and testify to what you saw?"

"It would be difficult; we have been told by the board that we're not to discuss it with anybody."

"Yet you're discussing it with me. Look, May, if we can find a way for you to give evidence without it affecting your career would you do it?"

"In a heartbeat, I'd love to see that pig taken down."

"Then I'll be in touch, does Sally know how to contact you without coming through the hospital?"

"Yes," she replied, "tell her good luck from me."

"I will and thanks," I stood and picked up the bag, "we'll be in touch."

"Ask Sally to ring me, would you?" she said.

"She will, if I have to stand over her while she does it," I agreed and walked out of the canteen, back to the car park and climbed into the car.

I deposited the bag of Sally's stuff on the back seat and picked up the notebook that was back there, opened it and made a note about May and about Peter having his hands round Sally's throat during the 'incident.'.

My next visit was likely to be a little more stressful.

I pulled up outside the house in Roundhay, which compared to mine in Horsforth was more in the category of Mansion and parked on the street.

I got out of the car, opened the back door and picked up the two things that I would need here, then locked the car and walked up the driveway to the front door. There was an intercom unit on the right door surround and I pressed the button.

After a few moments, a soft Scandinavian voice said 'Hello,'.

"Mrs Mortensen," I said, "I'm Dave Parker. I have something I promised to your husband and I wonder if I could leave it with you?"

"Yes, of course," she said, "I'll open the door for you, when you hear the buzzer, turn the handle please and come in."

There was a brief buzzing noise and I opened the door and stepped inside.

"You're the Gentleman who called night before last," she said, "who my husband had to go court and see."

"Yes," I said.

"You have something for him?" she asked, "if you give it to me, I will see that he gets it. He is in the hospital you know; he was attacked at work yesterday."

"Yes, I know, it was my wife who put him there," I said, eliciting a look of horror from her, "please, don't worry, I mean you no harm and bear you no ill will, I just wanted to return these to you."

I put my hand in my pocket and took out the plastic bag containing the knickers, "They are yours, aren't they?"

"She loo0ked at them as if they were a cobra about to strike.

"They," she began, then stopped, "they look like the style I favour, but the ones I buy are from C and A in Denmark."

"These are C and A," I replied.

"Why do you have them?" she asked.

"Because two days ago, I found them in the laundry basket at my home."

"Why would my underwear be in your laundry basket?" she asked.

"Because my wife put them there when she took them off to come to bed with me," I answered.

"Let me see them," she said and held out her hand.

I passed them to her and she opened the bag and took them out, handling them gingerly as if she expected them to try and bite her.

She inspected them thoroughly and after maybe three minutes looked at me.

"Yes, they are mine, but what is this purple spot?"

"that's the result of the Acid Phosphatase that I had a friend in the University Forensic department do," I said, "it shows."

She interrupted me.

"It shows the presence of human semen," she said, "I was a forensic scientist before my children came along. I take it a DNA test showed that it's not yours."

"That is correct," I said.

"You strongly suspect that another test would prove that it is my husbands, don't you?" she asked.

"I do, in fact I'm almost certain of it," I said, "one of my reasons for coming here today was to ask you if you had a hairbrush of his that I could take a few hairs from for comparison."

"I can do better than that," she said, "how about a full DNA paternity test from two years ago?"

"You had a paternity test done, on your own husband?" I asked.

"No, the mother of his child did," she said, "your wife is not his first little adventure."

"Ah," I said, "I see. Thank you, but I wouldn't know what to do with it."

"Do you have the test result for the sample in these?" she asked, holding the knickers up.

"Yes, it's in my car," I replied.

"Then if you could please get it, I can interpret it. In the meantime I'll put coffee on, or would you prefer tea?"

"Whichever you're having," I replied and set off for the front door.

I was back a couple of minutes later, buzzed the door, she unlocked it and I walked back in. The hallway where we'd had our earlier conversation was empty.

"Through here," she shouted and I followed the voice into a large, modern kitchen, where she sat at a pine-topped table. Two mugs of coffee were sat in the middle of it with a milk jug, sugar bowl and spoons.

"I didn't know how you take it, so please help yourself," she said.

"Black," I replied and took out the papers I'd received from Pete at the University.

She had a virtually identical chart on the table in front of her and a book beside her, it was closed, with a bookmark in it, but I recognised the book.

"May I?" I asked as I reached out and picked it up, it was my Aelfwynn.

"He is a very good author," she said, "I believe he is local to here."

I smiled slightly.

"Very," I said, "do you have a pen I could borrow, Mrs Mortensen?"

"Please, it's Jutta," she replied, handing me a ball pen.

"And I'm Dave," I answered as I opened the book and started to write.

"To my good friend Jutta, a true lady and excellent coffee maker, with best wishes."