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‘E xcuse me; can I speak to the nurse in charge please?’
The girl sat behind the desk continued to chew gum without looking
up from her screen.
‘Hello? Are you deaf?’
She looked up at Graham and huffed.
‘What? I’m in the middle of something. The ward is that way and you have one hour of visiting time left, and the toilets are down that corridor’ she said pointing in the opposite direction.
‘I know where the ward is, my wife died here recently, now can you get the head nurse for me please, or at least someone in a position of authority?’ snapped Graham.
‘You’re a very rude man’ said the woman as she picked up the phone and dialled.
Harry felt uneasy being back in the hospital and was keen to get out as soon as possible.
‘We’re both been through a stressful time, he doesn't mean to be rude to you dear, we just wanted to have a word with whoever is in charge of the ward’.
The woman smiled at Harry.
‘Of course, I understand. What was your name?’ smiled the woman. ‘I’m Harry Smythe and this is Graham Leyton. Our wife’s recently passed in this ward and we just wanted to speak to the head nurse about something, that’s all’.
‘No problem Mr Smythe, I’ll let them know’.
She then looked over at Graham.
‘See, that’s how you speak nicely to people’.
Graham had a sudden urge to ram her head in to the computer screen but was distracted by a commotion on the ward.
‘Get that thing out of my ass’ came the bark from behind a curtain. ‘I’m afraid it needs to go in Mr Jackson as we need to find out what is wrong with you’.
‘If you put that near my ass again I will push as hard as I can. I have very loose bowels you know’.
Graham and Harry both screwed their faces up as a nurse emerged from the curtain looking red faced.
‘Sorry, someone else is going to have to do that, I’m going for my break’.
‘Is someone going to help him?’ asked Harry to the woman behind the desk.
‘I wouldn’t worry about him; he shouts and complains every day.
We’ll get round to it eventually’.
Harry walked to the curtain and poked his head around.
‘Hello, do you need any help? My name’s Harry and I heard all the commotion’.
‘Are you a doctor?’
‘No no, I’m here to speak to someone as my wife died here recently, actually my friend is with me as his wife passed the day after’. The old man sat up in his bed and opened his eyes wide.
‘They both died in here?’
‘Yes, although it was from being attacked by some teenage yobs, but
my friend has questions he wants to ask the nurses. Can I get you
anything?’ asked Harry.
‘Come in and close the curtain’.
Harry sat down by the bed and closed the curtain behind him.
‘There is something bad going on here’ said the man gripping Harry’s arm.
‘Something bad? What do you mean?’
Before the old man could answer the curtain was pulled open by a doctor.
‘Come on Mr Jackson, this poor man doesn't need to hear your silly stories. Are you going to let me do this examination now?’ ‘I think he is quite worried about something doctor’.
The doctor closed the curtain and walked Harry back to the desk.
‘I wouldn’t take what he says too seriously. He has dementia and
comes up with these crazy stories to people. We are hoping to get him
in to a room to himself so he can be more comfortable and not disturb
anyone. Mr Smythe I presume?’
Harry shook the extended hand.
‘Yes, how did you know?’
‘The nurse called saying you wanted to speak to me? You must be Mr Leyton, nice to meet you both. Would you like to come in to my office?’
They both nodded and followed the doctor to a small room at the end of the corridor.
‘Take a seat; I’ll be back in a moment’.
Harry and Graham sat down at the small table in the corner of the room.
‘Where’s he bloody going?’ asked Graham as he poured a glass of water from the jug on the table.
‘Can you pour me one please? Something the man said on the ward has made me a little worried’.
‘Why, what did he say’ asked Graham as he put his empty glass back on the table.
‘He said there is something bad going on here, and before he could say any more the doctor interrupted him’.
‘Sod this, I’m going to find out what the hell is going on’ said Graham as he walked towards the door.
‘Good idea’ said Harry as he took a sip of water.
Graham paused just as he was about to reach the door handle. ‘Are you ok?’
‘No, I’m feeling a bit...faint’.
Harry went to get up but Graham closed his eyes and fell backwards in to his chair.
‘Oh my god, Graham’.
Harry then also felt the room start to spin as he fell unconscious on to the table.
‘Wake up; we’ve been here for two hours’.
Kyle opened his eyes and saw Carl standing over him.
‘Shit. No one’s come back though have they?’
‘Not yet. We need to find somewhere to hide so we won’t get spotted’.
‘Can you not wave that shotgun around so much, it makes me nervous’.
Carl laughed as he swung it over his back.
‘Come on, there must be somewhere we can hide in this place. Ah, this’ll do’.
He opened a cupboard door in the hallway of the flat, revealing a pile of towels.
‘How the hell are we both going to fit in there?’ asked Kyle.
‘We’re not, I am. You can find your own hiding place’.
There was a sudden knock on the door that made Kyle jump. Carl snuck around to the window and saw two police officers stood at the door.
‘Shit. Police’
‘Is there a back door to this place? There must be a door down to the shop’ said Kyle darting his eyes around the flat.
‘We have a job to do so we need to stay here. Ignore them; they’ll go away in a minute’.
They hid in the cupboard until the knocking stopped.
‘Reckon they’ve gone?’ whispered Kyle.
‘Not sure, I’ll check’.
Carl walked to the front door and looked through the spy hole. There was no sign of anyone. He slowly opened the door and poked his head out.
‘Get down on the floor’ came a voice from above.
Carl looked up and saw one of the police officers jump down from the
roof and grab hold of him.
‘Hey, get off me’.
The second officer appeared and grabbed Kyle as he came out to see what was going on.
‘What are you doing, get off’.
The officers put handcuffs on them both.
‘You are both under arrest on suspicion of impersonating a police officer. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence’. Carl looked at Kyle and shook his head.
‘We’ve had reports that the two of you are pretending to be police officers to gain access to this premises. Do you want to tell us anything about that?’ asked one of the officers. Both Carl and Kyle said nothing.
‘You do realise that you were breaking and entering as well? It’ll be much easier for you if you were straight with us and said what is going on. Carl isn’t it?’
‘How do you know my name?’
‘I believe we’ve had a run-in before young man. We also want to
speak to some youths regarding an attempted murder that took place
in the shop below this flat recently, don’t suppose you know anything
about that either?’
They both said nothing.
‘Ok, we can talk some more at the station’ said the officer as they frogmarched Carl and Kyle to the waiting car.