STRANGELY, MELVILLE-Briggs's death seemed to act as a starter's pistol and, all at once, things began to move more swiftly.
When Rafferty got back to the station, it was to find that Staff Nurse Estoce had finally decided to tell them the truth about Charge Nurse Allward's habits on night duty—he had been the one who had rung Linda that night, as they had suspected.
When Linda had told him about the row with her parents, he'd promised her a bed for the night in exchange for a freebie. Staff Nurse Estoce had heard him on the phone arranging it. Yet, she was adamant that the girl hadn't turned up and had assumed that she had changed her mind. She had thought no more about it till the next morning when Melanie Wilks’s body had been found.
But Rafferty didn't have time to dwell on this news
