The Secret Patient

by Vaughan W. Smith

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Like spy games or detective games usually. I’d pretend that someone was carrying something important, and see if I could follow them without being noticed. Or I’d try and move things without them noticing.”

  “Ok. I guess that could be fun.”

  “Well how about we make up a game. Robin, that nurse there, is a spy. She’s going to transport a secret document to a hidden location. Can you follow her and find out where she’s going?”

  “What is she taking?”

  “It’s a newspaper.”

  “Hmm I dunno.”

  “It’ll be fun. I’m pretty sure I know where she will take it, and if you can lead me there I’ll give you five dollars to spend on the snack machine. Fun for us both.”

  “Yeah ok, but only if I’m a detective.”

  “Sounds great detective Sean. I think that’s our spy Robin on the move now,” Elizabeth said, pointing at the nurse station. Robin was carrying a single newspaper with her and walking with purpose. Sean stood up and crept over to watch Robin leave. Then he disappeared around the corner.

  “I hope this works. She took only one newspaper, it has to be to the mysterious patient,” Elizabeth thought. She sat there, impatiently drumming her fingers on the chair. The wait was killing her. Surely Robin wasn’t going that far.

  Five minutes later she saw Sean poke his head around the corner, then he ran over to her.

  “How did you go?”

  “I did it! She even went to a hidden location. Cool game,” Sean said.

  “Awesome! Please take me there.”

  “Ok follow me,” Sean said, his eyes bright with excitement.

  “First she went down to the end,” he said.

  “Shush keep your voice down.”

  “Ok,” Sean said, a lot softer. He then continued.

  “She went out through these doors.”

  “Ok good,” Elizabeth said, noting that they had now left the ward.

  “She turned right and walked down here,” Sean said and Elizabeth nodded. They walked down another corridor and around a bend. They came to a door.

  “She went in here and down the stairs,” Sean said. He paused for a moment before opening the door. Elizabeth followed him through.

  “Wow you followed her this far? I’m impressed.”

  “Yeah, I was super sneaky. She went through this door,” Sean said. They left the stairs and emerged in another hallway.

  “She turned right and walked down here. And then she went through this door,” Sean said. He stopped in front of the door. Elizabeth read the words on the door.

  “Admin only,” Elizabeth said, before trying to open the door. It was locked.

  “She had a key,” Sean said.

  “Wow that’s pretty interesting. Hey you did a great job Sean. Did you have fun? I had fun.”

  “Yeah it was pretty cool,” Sean said. Then he waited patiently in front of Elizabeth.

  “Oh right, yeah you earned your five dollars. Enjoy!” Elizabeth said, opening her wallet and handing the money over to Sean. Sean pumped his fist in the air and then ran off, back the way they had come. Elizabeth started to backtrack herself, then stopped. She noticed a couple of chairs with a good view of the stairs. She walked over and sat down.

  “I should keep an eye out for Robin,” she thought. It made sense that Robin would return the same way. She didn’t expect Robin to have a newspaper with her, but if she did see Robin then she knew this was a good spot to wait. Eventually Robin would retrieve the newspaper, and then Elizabeth could retrieve it.

  If nothing else the day had already been a major success. She had determined that the patient was hidden away in a different area. Confirmation would come when she retrieved the newspaper with the jumble message completed. From there it was just a matter of working out how to get in, and who had keys.

  “I could just watch that door all day and figure it out,” Elizabeth thought. But for now she had to wait for Robin to emerge. It didn’t take long. Within a few minutes she saw Robin enter the stairwell at a brisk pace.

  “Now I’ve verified Sean’s information, and determined that Robin returns the same way,” Elizabeth said to herself. She was very happy with the outcome. She walked back down the corridor to the locked Admin door and looked for another position where she could monitor it better.

  Elizabeth spotted a vending machine placed along the corridor near a bend. There was a fair gap between it and the corner, but she couldn’t see it from where she was. Elizabeth walked over and looked the space over. It was large enough to stand in, and due to the angle anyone following the route Robin had used wouldn’t see you. As long as she was relatively discreet she could monitor the door with relative safety.

  Elizabeth walked over to the cafeteria to get herself a sandwich. She opted to go with the cheese and salad option again. She also made sure that she got coins in change from the cashier. Elizabeth then returned to the vending machine, and loitered in her spot. She ate the sandwich too quickly, so that she could concentrate on her stakeout.

  Two hours passed, and Elizabeth’s legs started to feel sore and uncomfortable. Not a single person had stopped near the door, let alone entered it. She was about to go stretch her legs when she heard footsteps. She peeked around the vending machine and saw Robin dutifully marching towards the Admin door. She pulled out a set of keys from her pocket, unlocked the door and then pulled it closed.

  “Here we go,” Elizabeth whispered. She had to wait for Robin to emerge again so she could plan her next move. But after waiting this long, a few minutes was no problem. She stepped back slightly, to be less obvious. She heard footsteps approaching from nearby, so she started digging through her wallet looking for coins.

  “Excuse me, are you using the machine?” a young man asked her.

  “Yeah, but you go ahead I’m finding my coins.”

  “Cheers, ok thanks,” the man said, putting coins into the machine and eyeing off the selection. Elizabeth stepped to the side to look past him and saw Robin walking down the hallway with what looked like a newspaper. Elizabeth threw her wallet back into her bag and set off, leaving the man to his selection.

  As expected Robin entered the stairwell so Elizabeth jogged a bit closer, paused outside and then opened the stairwell door. It opened quietly, so she stood still waiting to hear where Robin was. She heard a creaking and a door slam, and then bolted up the stairs. Elizabeth couldn’t risk losing the newspaper. When she reached the next level up she carefully opened the door. The coast was clear, but she could see Robin further down turning the corner.

  Upping the pace Elizabeth started to catch up, but maintained her distance. Soon they would be in range of Dean’s room and then she would have a valid reason to be there if discovered. She saw Robin leave the newspaper in the recreation area and then continue on to the nurse station.

  “Almost there,” Elizabeth thought as she went directly for the newspaper. She snatched at it and then walked directly to Dean’s room. She entered without knocking, and leaned back against the door clutching the newspaper to her chest.

  “Winning lotto numbers in there?” Dean said.

  “You would not believe the last twenty-four hours. This newspaper could be the key.”

  “I’m all ears, fill me in.”

  “Let’s see here,” Elizabeth said, walking closer to Dean and unfolding the newspaper. She flipped straight to the jumble, saw that it was filled in, and then handed the open newspaper to Dean.

  “This is the jumble again,” he said.

  “Yes, now look at the question and answer.”

  “Oh nice one. Ha-ha that’s fantastic! Hang on, some of these letters are also underlined.”

  “I bet those are the reply to my message.”

  “Very clever, I love it. Witchdoctor, dear me. That’s too good!”

  “Thanks, I like it. So let’s see here, the name given is Sterling. Sounds like a real name, I’ll have to do some digging.
”

  “That’s two doctors you need to look into,” Dean said, reminding Elizabeth of her promise.

  “I haven’t forgotten, don’t worry. Oh and I have even better news.”

  “Hit me.”

  “I’ve found where the patient is.”

  “ROCK! You’re on a roll!”

  “It’s behind a locked door, but that’s just details.”

  “That’s something to work with at least. How’d you do it?”

  “I followed Robin. I guessed from the earlier message that she takes him a newspaper each morning. And she did!”

  “Very clever. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

  “I almost didn’t. But it was so obvious, it was staring us in the face the whole time.”

  “That’s just how things are. Wow I’m amazed. Brilliant progress. I really needed that today.”

  “Oh, is there something wrong?”

  “I got an update. We’re talking weeks rather than months.”

  “I’m sorry Dean. I...”

  “It’s ok love. When it’s your time, it’s your time. I’m really torn though. Part of me wants to just end it now, why drag it out? Another part of me can’t let go. It wants to see your investigation out, to try a crazy cure, to find something.”

  “I promise you Dean, that you will see an end to this investigation and you will have the chance to try a crazy treatment. You just have to hang in there.”

  “Oh don’t you worry about that. I can be a stubborn bastard when I want. But just don’t get any silly ideas that you can drag this thing out. The clock is ticking.”

  “I know, I’m on it,” Elizabeth said. She heard a knock and then turned to see a woman dressed in a yellow outfit enter the room. She was pushing a metallic trolley which smelled like chicken soup.

  “And here’s my lunch. Good day to you,” Dean said, addressing the woman.

  “Good day Dean. Today is chicken soup.”

  “My favourite.”

  “He says that every day,” the woman said to Elizabeth, laughing. She pulled out the tray and set it on Dean’s tray table.

  “Enjoy,” the woman said before leaving.

  “I better leave too,” Elizabeth said.

  “Wait a moment. I just had a thought.”

  “Yes?”

  “So you have a problem with a locked door correct?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “What’s something that a person behind a locked door needs three times a day?”

  “Food?”

  “Bingo. Do you think the nurses are not so busy that they can wait around to let the lunch lady in?”

  “Hang on, so you think she has a key?”

  “Yeah I reckon. Sounds like an opportunity to me.”

  “You could be right. I’m going to go scope out the door for a bit. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “You do that. See you tomorrow,” Dean said. Elizabeth left the room, a jumble of emotions tumbling through her head. She was excited at the progress of the investigation, and her contact with the patient. But she was shocked by Dean’s news. It was one thing knowing that he had a terminal illness, but it was something else seeing the end come into focus.

  It was a big responsibility that she had taken onto herself, and she hadn’t even captured any of his story yet. But for now she had to focus on the two things that he wished for: progress updates and an alternate treatment.

  “Nothing like a deadline to keep you motivated,” Elizabeth thought. It was the mantra of a reporter, but now with an additional layer of grim truth to it. She just had to follow up on her lead, and watch that door like a hawk. Once she understood who had access and when, she could come up with a plan.

  But she couldn’t spend any more of the day at the hospital. She had to return to work and complete the editing stack that was left to her. Otherwise George would start asking questions, and she didn’t have a lot of good answers.

  12

  Contact

  Elizabeth spent the afternoon in a flurry of activity. She needed to finish off George’s pile of edits and deliver them by the end of the day. Which she managed, just before five o’clock. She bundled up the pile and took it over to George, triumphantly dumping it on the only spare space on his desk.

  “I expected it sooner, but thanks,” George said.

  “Quality takes time.”

  “Always with the excuses. Now go find your fun story,” George said, waving her off. Elizabeth happily returned to her desk. She could start her research on the doctors at Royal Monterey.

  “So did you approve of my changes to the jumble?” Alan said, as she sat down.

  “Yeah, and you’ll be happy to know I got a response.”

  “Show me,” Alan said, sitting on Elizabeth’s desk. She knew that he wouldn’t move until he saw it. So she fished out the newspaper and showed him.

  “Nice, I like the use of the underlines. Very logical. So where’s your reply?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Aren’t you going to let him know that you received his message?”

  “I hadn’t really planned on it, but I think you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. Well here’s the deal: you come up with the question and answer now, and I’ll devise the jumble tonight.”

  “Sure, give me a minute,” Elizabeth said, grabbing her notepad. She chewed the end of her pen and stared into space, then scribbled the question and answer on the pad. She looked at it for a minute, then handed the pad over to Alan.

  “Ha-ha wow you’re getting good at this. Classic! I’ll enjoy this jumble. Look for it tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Alan, will do.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Alan said, ripping the page out of the notepad and then leaving.

  “Lucky he reminded me. Oh well, I’ll find the patient soon anyway so it won’t matter,” Elizabeth thought. Now she had to focus on what she had delayed for so long, searching for doctors.

  She had two doctors to look into: Malburn and Sterling. Malburn was the harder option, as Lucy hadn’t been confident of the name and Dean had gotten nowhere with his questions. So she decided to start with Sterling.

  She brought up the Royal Monterey Hospital website on her computer, and navigated to the list of doctors. She searched for Sterling and found an entry.

  “Here we go,” she whispered. A photo and biography came up for a Doctor Mathew Sterling. He was the head of the Research department at the hospital. Elizabeth looked up the Research department to find out more.

  “What are you guys working on?” she thought. But there was nothing specific on the page. But it did have a list of doctors. She scanned through the list looking for anyone familiar.

  “Doctor Malberg!” Elizabeth said, slapping the desk with her hand. It was too close of a coincidence. They had been looking for a Dr Malburn, who didn’t exist. This had to be the person that Lucy was talking about. She looked at Dr Malberg’s profile and saw his picture. She didn’t recognise the face, but then she had only really dealt with nurses at the hospital. Nothing on his profile jumped out at her as important.

  “It’s fine, maybe it’ll mean something later. For now I think he’s our guy,” Elizabeth thought. She was so happy, she had found a proper lead for Dean. She had found Dr Sterling too, the link to her patient. There was nothing actionable immediately, but she at least had a name to investigate. But she might even manage to get herself access to the patient in the near future anyway.

  With that win behind her, Elizabeth felt like it was time to head home. It had been a long day, but fruitful. Tomorrow she would need to stake out the secure area in the hospital, and find a way in. But tonight she could rest and plan. Elizabeth grabbed the stack of story tips and shoved them in her bag. She could read through them in the evening and shortlist a few story ideas.

  Elizabeth sat in front of the television at home, eating pasta and flicking through the list of story ideas from the public. It was the usual selection of t
ips: ranging from missing persons, to aliens, to drug trafficking and even police corruption. There were probably some great stories in there, and from the least likely tips too. But she was too tired to process them properly, and put the pile aside. She felt herself falling asleep on the couch, so she went to bed.

  The next morning Elizabeth packed all the story ideas into her bag and then went straight to the hospital. She had to observe the routine of who went in and out of that special admin door. If Dean was right then her best bet was targeting the food delivery staff. If they had a key, they were probably the easiest way in. But she wasn’t sure exactly how she would approach the problem.

  She took up her previous position at the vending machine, and started her stakeout.

  “I’ve probably missed the breakfast delivery, but maybe I’ll see them coming back for the tray,” Elizabeth thought as she checked the time. Within half an hour her suspicion was confirmed. A woman pushing a metal trolley sidled up to the door, and picked up a bundle of keys off the trolley. She mechanically wound through the keys until she found the correct one, then opened the door. She then pushed against the door, and turned to use her back to leverage it open. Then she used her free hands to grab the trolley and reverse into the secure area.

  “Dean was right! I’ll have to get a better look at that key,” Elizabeth thought. But she had a way in. She glanced at her watch so she could roughly time how long the woman was in the area. That would give her an idea of the distance and the schedule. At the four minute mark she saw movement at the door, and decided to walk closer. The woman opened the door inwards, and then pushed the metal trolley out in front of her. Elizabeth quickly stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding the trolley.

  “Sorry,” the woman said, and continued moving. Elizabeth said nothing, but used the opportunity to slip into the door before it closed. She felt excited, but also surprised that she had found a way in already. Her success also caused another problem: she had no idea of how much traffic this area had, and when the nurses would return.

  “Gotta be quick, in and out this time,” Elizabeth said to herself. She looked ahead and saw a fairly normal looking corridor. It ended at a T junction. She rushed down to see what was there. As she reached the junction, she looked left and right to pick a path. It looked like an older disused ward with the same structure as the one she had so thoroughly investigated upstairs. To the right there were a small number of rooms, then big doors. To the left were rooms as far as she could see. She chose left and walked with purpose.