Snakes in the Grass (A DI Mitchell Yorkshire Crime Thriller Book 5)

by Oliver Davies

  I saw Stephen glance at me in my peripheral vision.

  “You never talk about your family,” he said, a cautious note in his voice.

  I pressed my lips together, my hand twitching in my lap. I didn’t want to talk about it, and certainly not while Stephen was still frustrated with me. Bringing up difficult topics in the middle of an argument, even if we’d put it on the back burner for the sake of the case, was never a good idea.

  “Not today, Steph.”

  “Alright.” He gave a nod, accepting that without question.

  Relieved, I settled back in my seat and closed my eyes. Despite the weekend having been pleasantly relaxing, I’d still struggled to sleep last night with my bumps and bruises, and I drifted into a doze as Stephen navigated his way through the light, late-morning traffic.

  The hospital car park was as busy as it almost always was, and we crawled around for a while before finding a space. I suppressed a grimace as I got stiffly out of the car, feeling worse for wear after sitting still even for that short time, and we headed for the hospital entrance.

  We caught the attention of the staff, and they quickly showed us up to where Robbie was being looked after. He wasn’t in the ICU, it relieved me to see, but in a lower-priority ward.

  I spotted Keira, sat beside Robbie’s bed, and the nurse left us to it. We went down the aisle of the busy ward towards Keira, who seemed engrossed in a book resting on her lap. It didn’t take her longer than a moment for her to register that we were there, and she looked up. Her expression was at first startled, before shifting into something more complex. She knew why we were here, of course, as much as I wish it could have been simply to give her our support.

  But her face cleared after a moment, and she put her book aside to come to her feet. Crossing the short space between us quickly enough that I didn’t have time to react, she wrapped her arms tightly around me. I looked over at Stephen helplessly, but he just gave me a wan smile.

  “Thank you,” Keira said, pulling away not long later.

  I looked down at her cautiously. Her hair needed a wash, and she wasn’t wearing make-up, which was unusual for her. Even when we’d been briefly involved in a fling together, I hadn’t seen her this vulnerable or so clearly ill at ease, and she’d not hugged me like that either.

  “Of course,” I said, after a too-long pause. It was inadequate, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

  Keira accepted it with a nod.

  “He owes you his life,” she said quietly, sitting back down in her seat and gesturing to a couple of chairs on the opposite side of Robbie’s bed. Stephen and I pulled them up and sat down. Keira reached out to take her brother’s limp hand. “I hope he’ll remember that when you speak to him.”

  I glanced at Robbie’s still, pale face. “Has he been awake today?”

  “Before I was here,” Keira said. “The nurses said he was lucid when they gave him breakfast, but he’s been out of it ever since.” There was a slight frown between her brows, and I tilted my head.

  “Is that normal?” I said slowly, before correcting my question to, “I mean, was he like that over the weekend?”

  “No, that’s the thing.” Keira looked up. “He was awake almost all day yesterday. He didn’t want to talk to me much, but he was conscious. I don’t know why he’s gone downhill again.”

  “Recovery isn’t always even,” Stephen offered, “he’s still healing.”

  She sighed. “Well, I’m sorry that he’s not-”

  We didn’t get to hear the rest of Keira’s apology. At that moment, Robbie jerked suddenly, his eyes flying open. I stared at him, shocked, and then he started screaming.

  “It hurts!” he yelled, over and over, “It hurts- It burns-”

  Swearing under my breath, I lurched to my feet and stabbed the button to call the nurse.

  “Go get a doctor,” I snapped at Stephen, who looked blank. “Get a doctor!” He hurried away.

  Keira looked horrified as Robbie continued to shout, starting to claw at his arm.

  “Robbie!” I said sharply, trying to catch his hand and stop him from doing any more damage to himself.

  “Do something, Darren!” Keira choked out.

  “It burns!” Robbie was yelling.

  I twisted back to see Keira looking terrified, but I couldn’t spare the time to comfort her. Robbie’s movements were wickedly strong in his desperation, and he managed to tear his hand out of my grip and, in one frantic movement, ripped his IV from his arm, still screaming.

  Blood spattered up from where he’d pulled it out and hit me in the face, spraying over my shoulder. I didn’t let myself think about it, pulling a clean, still-folded handkerchief from my pocket and pressing it against the wound. Robbie was still yelling and writhing on the bed, clearly in unbearable pain, and I had to hold tight to his arm to keep the compress in place.

  It felt like too damn long before two nurses, and a doctor finally hurried over, Stephen behind them. Keira stumbled back out of the way to let them work, and I showed a nurse where the damage on his arm was so that she could take over. They were already rushing to sedate him, and I stared in silence, feeling shocked as the medics moved around and my ears rang.

  “He pulled it out?” a nurse asked me as the doctor was running urgent checks on Robbie’s vitals.

  “Aye, yeah,” I fumbled for a response, looking down at the bloodied, fallen IV as I spoke. “He said it was burning.”

  The nurse’s expression crumpled up into the same confusion that I was feeling, but she and the doctors wheeled Robbie’s bed away before I could try to ask her what had happened.

  If Robbie died now, we’d have no more answers for the case. Keira would lose her brother. I could only hope that it wouldn’t come to that.

  Sixteen

  Stephen stood at my side, a solid presence amongst the chaos. The doctors and nurses had disappeared off with Robbie and, though she tried to go with them, Keira wasn’t allowed to follow. I shared a glance with Stephen. Whatever the hell had just happened, there would be no talking to Robbie today, as much as we needed to. I turned my attention to Keira.

  “Have you got someone who can sit with you? Just for the rest of today, until you hear back about Robbie?”

  Usually, she was so put together that I would never have asked her such a question, but she seemed fragile now, and I wanted to know that she wouldn’t be alone whilst she returned to herself. I wanted to suggest that she head home for a while, but I knew she wouldn’t want to leave until she was certain that Robbie would be alright.

  “I’ll call a friend,” she said, before shaking her head helplessly, her gaze moving away to fix on the space where Robbie’s bed had been only moments ago. “What happened? He was in so much pain…”

  I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea why Robbie had bolted awake like that, screaming bloody murder. Even in the river, when he’d been beyond panicked, and his face had been a rictus of fear, I’d not seen that look on him. He’d clearly been in agony.

  Something itched on my face, wet but quickly drying, and I reached up without thinking. My fingers came back bloody, and I all but recoiled from them.

  “Here, mate,” Stephen said gently, holding out a clutch of paper towels. He must have moved away to fetch them, but I hadn’t seen him move. I gratefully scrubbed the blood off my face, using some of the water from the jug on Robbie’s bedside table.

  As I worked to get all of it off my face and my shoulder, the image of Robbie ripping the IV from his arm repeatedly played in my head.

  “He’d said it burned,” I said aloud, going still.

  “Yeah?” Stephen said, giving me a puzzled look. Keira looked similarly lost.

  “He said it burned, then pulled the IV out,” I said urgently, tossing the soiled paper towel into the nearest bin before I dropped into a crouch beside the fallen IV. I didn’t want to pick it up in case there was some evidence on it, as I was beginning to suspect.

  Keira swore quietly behind
me, and I startled, finding her looking over my shoulder.

  “You think something was in the IV,” she said, always fast on the uptake. I gave her a nod.

  “Stephen, can you go get something to put the needle in? It’s evidence. And get the fingerprints kit, too, okay?”

  “Got it,” he said, heading off down the ward.

  I wanted to go and talk to hospital security, but I was reluctant to leave Keira on her own right now. She told me that her friend was on her way, and I resolved to wait until she arrived. Stephen ended up returning first, and I left him to gather up the evidence and stay with Keira.

  I went to the reception desk to ask about seeing security, eager to know if there were any cameras that covered Robbie’s bed. I’d been to this hospital before, wanting to see the CCTV feeds, but both the staff on reception and the security folk were ones I didn’t recognise.

  “What’re you looking for?” the woman asked me as she led the way back to the security team’s office.

  “Any sign of tampering with a patient.”

  When we were in front of the computer, I explained when Robbie had come into the hospital and which ward he was on. We started with today’s CCTV and worked backwards, both of us watching the fast-forwarded footage. I hoped I was wrong about there being something in the IV and that something else, like an allergic reaction to a drug he’d been given, was the cause. But if I was right, I was going to have to start worrying about Robbie and Keira’s continued safety.

  “Here,” the security guard said suddenly, startling me. I’d been watching the video, but not too closely. The video was paused on a scene that showed Robbie lying in bed Sunday night, and a nurse stood beside him, having just finished giving him a sponge bath, which was why I’d briefly looked away.

  “What is it?”

  “Here, watch.” The security guard tapped her nail against the screen before replaying the clip.

  I focused closely, even though it felt like an invasion of Robbie’s privacy. The male nurse pulled the curtain closed around Robbie’s bed, but the angle of the security camera meant that it could see in, regardless. After the nurse finished washing Robbie, he took a step towards Robbie’s IV and seemed to fiddle with it. I’d first assumed that he was adjusting the flow, or checking that it was functioning, but I narrowed my eyes now.

  “He’s doing something to it,” I said, sure now.

  The security guard gave a non-committal hum and played the video again. We both leaned in towards the computer monitor, and I realised, on the third repeat, that the nurse got something out of his uniform pocket. He moved too quickly and competently for me to see what it was, turning his body to cover what he was doing.

  “Do you know who this nurse is?” I demanded urgently.

  “No, but we’ll find out,” the security guard said darkly as she picked up the phone on her desk.

  “Who’re you calling?”

  “My superior. This is a serious matter. We’ll need a security guard stationed by the patient’s bed.”

  “Get hold of the patient’s doctor first, will you?” I told her hurriedly. “Whatever’s in that IV, his doctor needs to know that they can counteract it properly.”

  “Yeah. Good point.” The security guard seemed startled, but she did as I asked, putting the phone to her ear.

  “I’ll be getting the station to provide an officer for protection,” I told her before she got caught up in the phone call. “And can you send that footage over to me?” I continued, putting one of my business cards on her desk. She nodded. “Thanks for the help, appreciate it.”

  I saw myself out as she was talking with her boss, explaining the situation and trying to get in contact with the doctor handling Robbie’s care. I called the station as I headed up to Stephen and Keira, hiding a wince at the stiffness in my legs, though they’d loosened up since this morning.

  I spoke briefly to Gaskell and, after I’d pointed out the salient points, he agreed that Robbie was key to getting answers and agreed to send a pair of constables over to keep a watch over him.

  Rounding up the call, I stepped into Robbie’s ward and headed over to where Keira and Stephen were standing. Robbie’s hospital bed was still missing, and there was something awful about the empty space, Keira’s expression tight with both worry and anger. She twisted to look at me as I came over.

  “What’s happening? Who’s trying to hurt him?”

  “We don’t know yet,” I said, glancing over at Stephen. “Officers are coming from the station to keep an eye on him.”

  “But I’ve been here all through visiting hours-” she started.

  “There’s CCTV from outside those hours, Keira,” I said, trying to break it gently. “Someone interfered with his IV.”

  She sat down heavily. “Who?”

  “A male nurse. I couldn’t see his face. We’ll do all we can to find out-”

  “I can’t believe this, I- A nurse? Really?”

  She was shaking her head, and I felt helpless, unsure whether it would be better to comfort her or give her some privacy. Under normal circumstances, I was certain that Keira would loathe being seen as emotional as this by her work colleagues, but nothing about this was normal. I was about to reassure her, no matter that she might resent me for it later, when her friend finally turned up.

  “Keira, honey,” the red-haired woman said, swooping over to wrap Keira in a hug. She spared a glance at Stephen and me. “It’s alright. I’ll take it from here.”

  “We’ll be by the phone if anything comes up,” I told her, giving her a grateful look before we left the women alone.

  Despite everything that had happened, my stomach was complaining as we walked back through the hospital, and we made a detour via the cafeteria. The food there wasn’t exactly Michelin starred, but it was edible and filling, and Stephen and I ate in the car.

  Afterwards, I badly wanted a coffee to wash the food down, and we went back to the station via Costa Coffee. I bought a normal black coffee, plus an espresso, and mixed the two. Stephen sent me a judgemental look as he sipped his latte, and I ignored him.

  “They better find out who that nurse was,” Stephen said darkly as he drove. “What kind of a sick-?”

  “They might have just been wearing the uniform.” I took a sip of scalding coffee and savoured the bitterness. “I mean, he could hold key information. And we believe that the witness for the original case could have been killed off, don’t we? Georgina’s suspicious death? The killer might very well have stepped in to do the same to Robbie, right before we got to talk to him.”

  “Keira’s in there now. Is she in danger?” Stephen asked, running a hand over his short-cropped hair. “What if the killer thinks Robbie could have told her something?”

  I hadn’t thought that Keira could be endangered too.

  “I’ll call her.”

  I got her on the phone and told her to stay with her friend and to watch out for anyone that looked suspicious, even if they were dressed in medical uniform. Fear was evident in her voice, and I hated to scare her more.

  “An officer will be there soon,” I promised her. “One from Hewford. They’ll look after you and Robbie, okay?”

  We arrived back at Hewford as I finished up the call, my forehead wrinkled with a deep frown of concern. I knocked back the last of my coffee, lamenting that the station didn’t stock the same quality coffee beans that Costa did, and tossed the cup in the bin outside the front doors. We headed up the stairs, my expression tight as I made my achy legs do what I wanted, and settled back at our desks to review what we knew now.

  “So, we didn’t actually get to talk to Robbie,” I said, thinking aloud, “but we learnt that someone, most likely the killer, wants him out of the picture badly enough to poison him. Is it really just that he could have information for us? He must know something incredibly important in that case.”

  Stephen took a sip of his coffee, which he hadn’t finished off in the car. I couldn’t stand lukewarm coffee, but
he didn’t seem to care.

  “So,” he said slowly, “do we think that Robbie’s not our guy at all?”

  “I’m not saying he’s not involved, but he could be an accomplice, or he could be being blackmailed. We don’t know. The killer wouldn’t want him talking to us, would he?” I rubbed my nose. If my theory was right, I wished that Robbie had confided in us before he got hurt, but I understood why he wouldn’t.

  “If he’s an accomplice, he could still be loyal to the killer.” Stephen sighed, looking tired.

  “I guess he could be a copycat killer, and the real killer wants him gone,” I said doubtfully, but the theory didn’t ring true. “But I reckon it’s simpler than that.”

  “God, this case, man,” Stephen sighed.

  “I know.” I gave a humourless laugh. “So, we can’t rule out that Robbie was helping the killer by choice, sure, but it’s simpler that he was being pushed into it, right?”

  “Why was he doing those articles, then?” Stephen’s mouth twisted in apparent disgust. “He seemed to be- be picking the victims! That’s just sick.”

  “Aye, it’s not clear yet, is it?” I grimaced. “We still need to speak to him, to get some straight answers out of him, so-”

  A ringtone that I didn’t immediately recognise interrupted me.

  “Is that your-?” I started, but Stephen was already shaking his head.

  “That’s your mobile, mate.”

  I fumbled my phone out of my pocket and saw Sam’s ID pop up on the screen. I wasn’t sure whether to be worried or pleased to see it.

  “Hello?” I said neutrally, hoping that she was calling to say that she missed, or to talk about meeting for dinner.

  “Darren?” she said, the shake in her quiet voice putting paid to my hope that this was nothing more than a social call. “I don’t know what to do, can you come to mine? Please?” She sounded on the verge of tears.

  “What is it? What’s wrong? Talk to me?”

  “I- I forgot something. Paperwork. I came home after lunch a-and there’s a thing, Darren.”