Glittering Gallows

Chapter 44

271 C Chapter 44 wenty minutes after she left Dr Herbert O’Donovan’s chambers, Katherine drove to the back of Tshwane Hospital and steered the car, a silvery Jaguar XJ, through a gate in a fence in the backyard of the institution. A signpost confirmed she wasn’t lost: DEPARTMENT OF FORENSIC SCIENCE (MEDICAL) PRETORIA GOVERNMENT MORGUE She found a vacant slot and parked the car facing the reception of a cluster of low, elongated buildings that were the morgue. The hospital’s mortuary, distinct from its detachment and prison-like raised windows and louvered refrigeration cabinets attached to it, was a couple of metres from the morgue. She locked the car by remote control and walked to the reception, her handbag dangling from the crook of her left arm. The hypnotic session with the psychologist had drained her of strength. But she couldn’t afford to rest when she had many questions pending in her head. The reception was a small crammed room with a large wooden counter behind which the receptionist, a Xhosa-looking woman in her mid-twenties sat filing her nails. The receptionist greeted her and put down a file. “My name is Katherine. I wish to see Dr Nancy Lefoka.” “Do you’ve an appointment with the doctor, ma’am?” She posed the question as if the doctor was an ordinary practitioner who served the ailing public. “No, but I’ve a referral letter from Surgeon Kingsley Housman.” “I wonder how that would help. Dr Lefoka isn’t a very flexible person. Have you met her before?” Katherine shook her head. “That explains it. Without an appointment it’s difficult to see her. She doesn’t tolerate disturbances.” T 272 “Could you let Dr Nancy Lefoka know that Katherine Makgunda, the premier’s wife, wishes to see her?” The words hissed out of her, the outburst shaming the speaker. The receptionist’s eyes flashed as recognition dawned on her. She picked a receiver and poked a number on a switchboard. For a long time she held the receiver against her ear without speaking. Katherine heard the switchboard dialling until it dropped the call. The receptionist cradled the receiver and looked up at her. “She’s not picking a phone right beside her. I’m sorry, ma’am.” “I must see her, young lady.” “Then I’ll risk it. Please follow the main passage until you reach a perpendicular one near the middle of this building. Turn right and count four doors to your right and enter. Don’t bother to knock. She won’t answer.” “What kind of a person is Dr Lefoka?” “She has worked with dead people for many years,” the woman’s voice was grave. “She hardly talks to us. She’s only comfortable among corpses.” “Is she good at her job?” “Many specialists say she’s the best forensic pathologist Pretoria ever saw. She does consultation services for many universities and hospitals in Europe. But she has a temper. Our morgue assistants are afraid of her. Medical students shun her. She usually works alone.” Katherine thanked her and left the reception. She followed the directions. A door from the reception took her into a well-lit long passage with many flytraps suspended from hooks in the wall. The air smelled of an industrial disinfectant. Before she reached the middle of the passage, an information placard written in red and hanging from the ceiling stopped her briefly: WARNING: PEOPLE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION NOT ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT -BY ORDER 273 She passed below the warning and turned right into another passage, nearly colliding with a stretcher bed on which a covered inert body lay. The man behind the bed continued wheeling it unapologetic of the near collision, and heedless of her. The attendant was in a blue overall, rubber gloves, a waterproof apron and gumboots. She stood aside and let him pass. His clothing was as bloody as the white linen covering the body. She followed him with her eyes until he vanished behind a bend. The directions finally took her to a stainless steel door with a Judas window. A label on the door said: AUTOPSY CLASS ROOM A. Through the door’s windowpane, she peered inside and held her bosom. The interior of the room was square and the size of about three standard classrooms fused together. Stainless steel cabinets, the unmistakable mortuary type, lined the...