‘So?’ I said.
‘Was this shooting of Miss Meer anything to do with your investigations?’
I knew it was a question I would be asked. But I hadn’t expected it to be asked quite so soon.
I was saved from the immediate need to answer by the appearance through the door of another dishcloth- wearing medic.
‘Mr Halley?’ he asked.
I stood up. My heart was thumping in my chest.
‘My name’s Mr Pandita,’ he said. ‘I’ve been operating on the lady with the bullet wound in her leg.’
‘Marina van der Meer,’ I said.
‘Quite so,’ he replied. ‘She’s now been transferred here.’ He cocked his thumb towards the double doors behind him.
‘How is she?’ I asked.
‘The operation went well. Now it’s a matter of time.’
‘What chances are we looking at?’ asked the Superintendent.
‘Reasonable,’ said Mr Pandita.
‘How reasonable?’ I asked.
‘She’s a fit young girl and obviously a fighter, otherwise she would have died in A amp; E, or even before. I give her a better than fifty-fifty chance. I don’t think there will be any brain damage.’
Brain damage!
‘Why would there be?’ I asked numbly.
‘If there was a lack of oxygen to the brain for more than a few minutes,’ he said, ‘then there would be damage. Even though her body was very short of blood for a while, her heart didn’t stop at any stage so she should be all right in that department. But her heart must have been pumping next to nothing round her so there’s always a risk.’
‘Can I see her?’ I asked.
‘Not just yet,’ he said. ‘The nursing staff are with her, making her comfortable and setting up all the monitoring equipment. Soon. But she’ll be asleep. We’ve given her a sedative to keep her blood pressure low. I’ll tell the staff you’re here and they’ll come and get you when they’re ready.’
I nodded. ‘Thank you.’
He disappeared back through the door and I sat down.
I looked again at my watch. It was only three thirty. How could time pass so slowly?
‘Where were we?’ said Superintendent Aldridge. ‘Ah, yes, did this shooting have anything to do with any of your investigations?’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I am presuming this wasn’t a random shooting,’ he said, ‘and that Miss Meer was specifically targeted by the gunman.’
‘But he would have had to wait there for ages,’ I said. ‘It was only by chance that Marina came out when she did.’
‘Assassins can wait for days or weeks to get a single opportunity if they are determined enough,’ he said.
And, I thought, if it was the same person who had attacked Marina in Ebury Street, he had had to wait for her then, too.
‘So, I ask again,’ he said, ‘do you think this has anything to do with your investigations?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘If you mean do I know who did this, then the answer’s no. If I did, I’d tell you, you can be sure of that.’
‘Do you have any suspicions?’
‘I always have suspicions,’ I said, ‘but they’re not based on anything solid. They’re not actually based on anything at all.’
‘Anything you say might be useful,’ he said.
‘Do you remember the jockey who was murdered at Cheltenham races two weeks ago?’
‘I remember that horse — Oven Cleaner — died,’ he said. ‘Now, that was a shame.’
‘Yes, well, a jockey was murdered on the same day. Then a racehorse trainer appeared to kill himself. Everyone, and especially the police, seem to think he committed suicide because he’d murdered the jockey.’
‘So?’ he said.
‘I believe the trainer was in fact murdered by the same man who killed the jockey and that it was made to look like suicide so that the police file on the jockey’s death would be conveniently closed. And I’ve been saying so loudly and often for the last ten days to anyone who’ll listen.’
‘What has any of this to do with Miss Meer being shot?’ he said.
‘Last Friday, I was warned that, if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, someone would get badly hurt. And now they have.’
CHAPTER 16
They finally allowed me in to see Marina around four.
First I had to don the regulation outfit of blue smock, with matching dishcloth hat. And I had to wear a mask over my mouth and nose. I wondered how she would know who I was, but I needn’t have worried, she was deeply asleep.
She looked so defenceless lying there, connected to the machines, with the tube still in her mouth. Her breathing was being assisted by a ventilator and the rhythmic purr as the bellows rose and fell was the only sound. A rectangular blue screen showed a bright line that peaked with the beat of her heart. Go on heart, I said to the machine, keep pumping.
I sat to one side, opposite the ventilator, and held her hand.
There were other patients in the unit but partitions rather than curtains separated the beds and these provided a fairly high degree of privacy.
I spoke to her.
I told her how much I loved her and how dreadfully sorry I was to have brought all this on her. I told her to fight, to live, and to get better. And I told her that I would get the man who had done this. And then we’d see. Maybe I’d take up gardening as a career, though one-handed gardening might be a problem.
And I asked her to marry me.
She didn’t reply. I told myself she was thinking it over.
A nurse came to tell me that there were some people to see me outside. Not more police, I thought. But it was Charles, and he had brought Jenny with him.
‘Hello, Sid,’ she said. She leaned forward and gave me a peck on the cheek. ‘How is she?’
Charles and I shook hands.
‘She’s doing OK — at least, I think so. The nurses seem optimistic, but I suppose they would. Certainly her colour is much better than earlier.’
‘Jenny picked me up from Paddington,’ said Charles. ‘I called her on the way up on the train and she wanted to come. You know, to give support.’
Or to gloat, I thought. But maybe that was unfair of me.
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ I said. ‘Both of you.’
I looked past Charles and was astonished to see Rosie still sitting on one of the chairs opposite the lifts.
‘Rosie,’ I said, ‘why don’t you go home?’
She turned and looked at me with sunken eyes. She was clearly in no state to leave the hospital on her own. There was no sign of the Superintendent or his sidekick. What were the police thinking of, I thought, to leave her here without help?
‘Charles, Jenny, this is Rosie,’ I said. ‘Rosie works with Marina. She was there when Marina was shot. She saved her life.’
