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Chapters (31)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Simon Brett
  3. GUILT AT THE GARAGE
  4. Dedication
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN

‘Which, your tone of voice suggests, is very unlikely.’

‘Perhaps.’

Dr Rawley stood up. ‘Well, I think that probably concludes our consultation, Mrs Seddon. I have given you a diagnosis of what is wrong with your knee. I have given you a couple of suggested treatments … which do not seem to fill you with enthusiasm. If you could settle up with the receptionist on the way out, that would be fine. I would normally say also sort it out with her if you want to book further appointments, but in your case, I don’t think that is going to happen. Is it?’

‘Probably not.’

‘No.’ He suddenly looked at her very intently. ‘Mrs Seddon, why did you really come to see me?’

Oh dear. She hadn’t planned for this. Was he really about to call her out as a fraud, whose not-very-painful knee was being used simply to further a criminal investigation? Carole floundered.

But, before she could give herself away, Dr Rawley revealed that his thoughts weren’t going in the direction she’d feared. ‘It’s a common syndrome that we doctors recognize well.’

‘Oh?’

‘A patient makes an appointment to consult about some minor condition … like, say, your knee … and then shows no interest in the treatments we recommend for it. And the reason for that is that … it wasn’t really the knee they had come about.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Frequently, there’s another, much deeper, anxiety that brings them to the surgery. Some life-threatening illness that they believe they may have contracted. Something so terrible to their mind that they daren’t talk to their closest family or friends about it. They make an appointment with a doctor either to get the all-clear or to have their worst imaginings confirmed.’

‘What, you’re saying they imagine they’re ill. You mean they’re hypochondriacs?’

‘Not necessarily. There might be a genuine cause for concern. And their worry about the secrecy of their condition might well lead them to make an appointment with a doctor who is not the one they see regularly … just as you have done.’

‘Well, I—’

He overrode her. ‘Quite often, it’s cancer they’re really worried about. I just wondered whether that might be the case with you, Mrs Seddon …?’

‘Certainly not!’ said Carole.

The bill she paid to the receptionist was, to Carole’s mind, pretty steep. She was glad she wasn’t about to book further appointments. But she thought she might possibly have got value for money in terms of information gained.

SIXTEEN