‘Do you think he did a’—I tried to be delicate—‘a less thorough job than you might have?’

Doc Caldicott caught my gaze. She could see what I was trying to ask, but while some things can be stated others need to be hinted at.

‘At the time, I had the distinct impression that the sergeant thought since Dr Gilbert was, er, older that he must be senior to me. Of course it wasn’t true. Dr Gilbert had done half the study I had.’ She paused. ‘Look, in a small town, everyone pitches in where they can. There’s a bit of civic pride when we can handle these things in-house and not send them to Melbourne. Over the years, George has done his fair share, but he usually gets the … easier jobs—heart attacks and such.’

‘Did you see the Millards when they were in the morgue?’ Wozza asked.

Doc Caldicott turned on a large tap with her elbow and started scrubbing her hands. ‘I remember seeing the bullet wound in the deceased male and wondering how Dr Gilbert could have called it a close-range injury. I would not have concluded suicide. I did try to raise my concerns with Sergeant Wheeler, but he just wasn’t interested.’

We thanked her.

She nodded over at Merv’s body. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I get the tox screen back,’ she promised.

We escaped before the morgue assistant gathered all Merv’s insides into a big garbage bag for repacking into his middle. We both knew it would happen. Didn’t need to stay and witness it, though.

The morgue was at the rear of the hospital. On the way through to the general wards, Wozza and I had a hurried conversation.

‘They could have been murdered!’ I said the minute we cleared the morgue.

‘This is a total fuck-up,’ said Wozza. ‘What was Wheels thinking getting Wonky George to do the post-mortems?’

‘Was it a gender thing? Or did he want the less competent doctor because there was something to hide?’

‘What do you think?’ Wozza panted, his voice strained

Glancing at him, I slowed my pace a little. ‘He chose the best man for the job and got a result that served no one.’

Once we got to the front entrance again, I checked Matthew Bunting’s room at the reception desk. Room 6 turned out to be the same room he was in when we’d last glimpsed him on Saturday.