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Nick’s CT scan showed no brain damage. He was making progress and was now sitting up and able to speak to Polly. He still looked a dreadful mess but she didn’t care, she was just so grateful that he seemed to be coherent and he wasn’t lying unconscious in a coma. They had transferred him to a medical ward and wanted to keep him in for the rest of the day at least. But they reassured Polly that he should be able to go home soon and continue his convalescence there. She left the hospital to return to their flat to have a quick shower and change her clothes. She also packed a small case with clothes for Nick and his wash bag. The clothes he’d been wearing on the night of the attack had been binned they were so bloodstained and torn.
She phoned BioQex to tell them the better news and said that perhaps in a couple of days people might be able to visit him at home. The police had been in touch with her to say that unfortunately, they were no closer to finding his attackers, they were working on the assumption it was a robbery and a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She’d also had a call from PC Dave Martin, he was enquiring about Nick’s progress. She was surprised that another police officer had contacted her but he told her it was more of a social call as he’d previously met with Nick on the night of his colleague’s accident. She thought that was really decent of him, a nice personal touch. He also told her that he had heard they would be putting out an appeal on Crimestoppers for witnesses but she shouldn’t get her hopes up, these cases were becoming all too frequent, though it was rare for Persford to have incidents of this type, up to now.
**
DS Andy Walters went into Persford General Library and headed straight for the help desk. He told the girl in attendance that he was interested in joining the library and wondered what identification they wanted to see.
‘Oh, it’s very straightforward, just two items with your name and address, utility bill, bank statement, something like that. If you don’t have those, some items of post to show that you live at that address,’ said the young girl whose name badge showed Carly.
‘I see, so you don’t need a passport or driving licence or anything like photo ID, then,’ he asked.
‘Well no, because a lot of people who need to use the computers don’t have documents like that and they can’t afford broadband at home, so we can’t ask for anything too stringent. So just bring those in and we’ll take a few details like name, date of birth, and then we can issue you with a card and a PIN number to use one of the computers if you need to.’
‘That’s great, just one more thing, do you monitor what sites people look at?’
The librarian’s eyes narrowed at this point, it was a strange request from someone wanting to join the library, she wondered what this man was intending to look up.
‘I’m not sure I can answer that,’ she said cautiously.
Andy Walters reached into his pocket and discreetly removed his warrant card and showed it to the librarian.
‘Oh, I see, why don’t we continue our chat through here?’ and she led him off in the direction of the offices, keyed in a code on the door and showed him through to where several staff members were chatting and drinking coffee.
‘Just through here sir,’ she said, ‘I think my manager is in today, I’d like him to be present when we discuss this.’
She knocked on an office door and went in followed by the police sergeant. After the introductions had been made and the sergeant had been shown to a seat, they began their discussion.
‘How can I help, Detective Sergeant Walters, wasn’t it?’ asked Jim Barford, the head librarian.
‘I’d like to know how much you monitor internet activity here?’ asked Andy Walters coming directly to the point.
‘Well certain sites like porn, extreme violence are blocked, but other than that people are free to access most other sites. I’m not sure what you had in mind?’
‘This must remain completely confidential,’ he said, looking at both the head librarian and his junior colleague.
‘We think that the drug scene may be starting to get moving in a big way in Persford and we are interested in people using public computers to access sites related to street drugs, particularly their synthesis and manufacture.’ Both his companions looked surprised.
‘Well, it’s entirely possible that they could look up those things, we wouldn’t block them necessarily.’
‘Could you search your browsing history to see whether that has been done recently in the last month say?’
‘We could but it would take a while, this is a huge library, lots of people use the computers because they don’t have printers at home and they need to have paper copies of things. You probably noticed there weren’t many terminals free when you came in. We certainly can’t check that ourselves, we don’t have the time, I would need to speak to our IT expert who covers all the libraries in the area. I don’t think he will relish the task though.’
‘Oh I see,’ replied Andy sounding as though his bubble had just been burst.
‘It would help if we knew what we were looking for, key phrases, names of particular drugs, etc.’
‘I can help you there,’ replied Andy, his mood suddenly brightening, ‘We are particularly keen on knowing who has looked up details about PCP, phencyclidine, also called angel dust, and its synthesis.’
‘I’d better write this down, I’m not familiar with street drugs,’ replied Jim Barford with a wry smile. ‘Now what day is it? Thursday. Well, I’ll get in touch with our IT guy and see what his response is, but I think it will be next week before you will get any sort of response, or even later, it’s his call really.’
‘Anything at all you can do will be most appreciated,’ replied Andy, ‘here’s my card, I can be contacted on this number during work hours, but I’ll add my personal mobile, so anything at all at any time, please give me a call.’
‘Will do, I’m quite shocked by what you’ve told us, and Carly, not a word of this to our colleagues just at the moment.’
‘Many thanks, that’s great. Super library you have here, I think I might consider joining myself, that’s if the job ever lets me have spare time,’ he added laughing.
‘Carly will see you out, I’ll be in touch,’ and Jim stood to shake hands.
On the way back to the station Andy thought he’d had a very useful morning, he would contact his colleague in the drug squad just to keep him in the picture. It was very much a long shot but you never know, sometimes the job produced surprises, every avenue was worth exploring.
**
Polly returned to the hospital with Nick’s clean clothes and a sandwich for herself. As soon as she approached his bed Nick demanded her phone.
‘I need to make a call to the police, give me your phone please Polly,’ asked Nick agitatedly.
‘What do you want to speak to them about? They phoned me actually just after I left you, they’ve not got any further information, but they will put out an appeal on Crimestoppers.’
‘I need to speak to the police, it wasn’t a mugging, it was made to look like it, it was a trap, I was set up. Zac wants to kill me! Give me your phone!’
‘Nick, Nick, please calm down, people are looking,’
‘Give it to me, it’s attempted murder not a mugging, Zac is trying to remove me from the scene, I know something about him!’
‘Shush, please Nick, you’ve had a shock and you’re not feeling well, it’s not surprising you are getting all mixed up, you need to rest.’
‘OK then, I’ll go to work there’s something I need to do first, that would be best and when I’ve done that I’ll go to the police station in person. Give me that bag of clothes and pull the curtains round.’
With that Nick started to get up off the bed, he still had a cannula in his arm where they’d put him on a drip. Polly tried to hold him back, pushing him back on to the bed, uttering calming words although she was close to tears to see him in such an agitated state.
‘Get out of my way!’ shouted Nick, and he pushed her, causing her to stumble against the chair and lose her balance so she fell backwards, trying to grasp the curtains to steady herself. Polly fell backwards into the ward on the floor between the rows of beds, the chair which she’d stumbled against knocked into the table belonging to the adjacent bed, which itself moved on its wheels and banged into the drip stand supplying the neighbouring patient, setting off an alarm. Two nurses came running, along with an orderly who had arrived to collect another patient to take him down for a scan. Nick was restrained and held back onto the bed whilst the sister in charge at the desk paged a doctor. The doctor arrived and authorised a sedative which was duly administered through Nick’s cannula. After about thirty seconds the nursing staff felt they could relinquish their hold on Nick as he was becoming drowsy. He was mumbling words which sounded like police, and Zac as he fell back into a deep sleep.
Polly was distraught, embarrassed, and frightened for the future. She kept apologising to the staff who reassured her that they were used to this behaviour and it was probably the trauma of his attack playing out again. They would discuss his behaviour with the registrar responsible for Nick and decide the best course of action. In the meantime they suggested Polly went to the restaurant or outside to get a change of scenery. Nick would be asleep for at least a couple of hours. Yes, but what when he wakes, Polly asked herself as she walked out of the ward, trying to ignore the stares of the other patients and visitors, how am I going to cope.
