Volvo hitting the rear of the Range Rover as it tried to get me to stop or run me off the road, and then a particularly violent smash and the Volvo seeming to hook on under the rear tow bar, the loss of control, and the crash through the low dry stone wall at the side of the road. Finally, turning over, and the crashing and scraping sound as we careered down the embankment, a sudden jolt as the car slammed to a stop and the air bags exploding around me. The increasingly pungent smell of petrol as I come round hanging upside down with the seat belt biting in to my shoulder. Then mounting panic as the absolute fear of fire sharpens my senses, got to get out! The fight with the airbags, the struggle to open the door and undo the seat belt and then falling out on to the grass to crawl away up the slope. The explosion, I was lucky to be alive!
Am I seriously injured? I carry out an inventory. I seem to have both legs and arms, I am heavily bandaged around the chest, I can see OK, and I remember hearing the nurse so my hearing is OK. Everything seems to be there, so presumably not too bad although it is really sore to move much.
What a mess! It is a lie that you wake up in hospital having forgotten everything. I can remember everything only too clearly! I have to get out of here!
Gingerly, I swing my legs, one at a time, over the edge of the bed. Then I sit up. A flash of pain stops me in my tracks! Half sitting with one elbow on the pillow, I think, broken rib, it feels like it, maybe more than one. I gather the courage to move again and stand up, holding my upper body rigid so as to avoid the shooting pain.
Standing by the side of the bed I look down at the drip. Why do I have a drip? I can't believe that I have lost enough blood to justify that; it must be so as to administer a drug, a painkiller perhaps. Now what happens when you remove a drip? From watching those soaps on TV I think they just pull it out and put a plaster on. So I pull it out and with no plaster my right index finger applying pressure has to do.
Now what? Where are my clothes? In the wardrobe cupboard in the corner seems a reasonable guess although they were possibly too badly damaged in the crash to warrant keeping. I move over and open the door. No luck, except there is a dressing gown. Slowly I manage to slip this on and it fits! There's also a pair of towel slippers. I move across to the bedside where I find my wallet, watch, and some keys in the drawer. For some reason the ‘‘‘phone is not there. The watch tells me it is nine pm.
I carefully open the room door. I have to get out of here before they arrive! Outside there is a corridor with doors off to each side and the nurses’ reception desk is about 40 feet away to the right. In the gloom of the dimmed night lighting I can see what looks like a guy in uniform, a cop, slouching in a chair to the left of the reception, probably asleep. To the left the corridor ends in an emergency exit with a crash type door. Slowly I move out in to the corridor, there is nobody else around; presumably, only a skeleton staff at this time of night. Suddenly I hear movement and voices behind me round the bend further up the corridor so I open the first door and step in closing it behind me. Inside I sense there is someone in the bed, apparently asleep. As the movement outside comes closer I step in to the wardrobe and wait.
There is a rattle of a door across the corridor, the sound of a few words of conversation, then the door closing and the steps moving away. Miraculous if they do not notice my room is now empty! My luck is in, with miracles coming in twos. In the wardrobe is a man's suit! The trousers vaguely fit, with the legs rolled up, and the jacket also fits, 'though a bit loose. The hospital nightdress, under the jacket and trousers, looks like a polo necked shirt. All really quite presentable apart from the white towel slippers, but unfortunately there are no shoes. That cannot be helped and I move out in to the dimly lit corridor again. I look at my watch and see it is 9.30pm. Which day? Presumably the crash was a day ago and I have been here 24 hours. As I move over eagerly to the emergency door a flash of pain right through the left side of my chest brings me to a sudden halt and I scream silently through gritted teeth.
At the door I stand and look to see if it is alarmed. It appears to be wedged open. As I open the door and move on to the balcony steps outside I can see why. This is smoko's corner, where everyone comes for an illicit cigarette; there are butts everywhere. I am on the third floor and below me through the gloomy wet night I can see that I am overlooking the car park, the main entrance to the building appears to be on the other side. It takes me 20 minutes of stop-start effort to get down 6 flights of stairs to the ground. The exercise is gradually loosening the muscles and by the time I reach the bottom I can walk nearly normally providing I hold my chest rigid to avoid the shooting pains. There is no one around and as I pass the other floors I can see that all lights have been dimmed for the night. I wish it would stop raining! At the base of the steps I look around and wonder what to do. I am not exactly mobile so I need transport. I have no skills related to breaking in to and starting a car in the car park and it would be pushing my luck too far to hope someone has left their keys in the car.
I move around towards the front of the building. Here the entrance is a blaze of light making the concrete of the driveway and entrance porch to the Accident and Emergency unit glisten in the incessant rain. I slump down just out of sight behind a hedge, glad of the rest, and contemplate what to do. Above all I have to get out of here quickly, but plainly I cannot walk out and I am getting soaked! While I am sitting there an ambulance enters the driveway, lights flashing and pulls up outside the doors. The driver gets out and together with a colleague from inside the vehicle they quickly push a stretcher inside. Could I steal the ambulance? Did the driver leave the keys? Before I could answer the question the crew return. Opportunity gone. The ambulance moves off and it is quiet again.
Suddenly a car screams in through the gate, gets the bend wrong on the drive and takes a whole strip of carefully nurtured roses with it. It navigates back on to the drive and screeches to a halt outside the entrance. A man jumps out of the drivers’ door and runs round to the rear passenger door shouting as he goes. The door opens and a woman can be seen sitting there nursing someone or something on her lap. The man runs in to the doorway yelling as he goes and seconds later reappears with two staff and a stretcher trolley. What looks like a young girl is loaded on to the stretcher and all disappear inside with the man gesticulating and talking at the top of his voice.
In the meantime, there is a car, engine running. Miracle three?
I feel guilty but I am in the drivers seat quickly and off down the drive at a rate of knots. I quickly get on to the by-pass and then on to the motorway. I now need to find somewhere to rest up. A hotel and some shoes!
CHAPTER 4
Gerry Dawson, a balding middle-aged, anonymous looking and apparently innocuous civil servant has had a bad day. Beneath his calm exterior he is absolutely bristling with rage. The target had nearly been killed and then he had disappeared and there was no clue as to his whereabouts. An icy call a few minutes ago had made it clear that they did not approve of failures like that and he felt worried!
Earlier he had learnt that Martin Lever had been in a car smash the previous night; the vehicles had caught fire and the police and ambulance called. One man was dead, (possibly his contractor), and Lever in hospital. The police involvement would make things difficult. Now he had just heard that before they could get to him, Lever had disappeared from the hospital. It seemed he might have stolen a visitor’s car.
His PA knocked on the door and entered with a sheaf of papers and photos. Included are Images of a shadowy figure, (presumably Lever), outside the hospital. Pity that security staff were not looking at the monitors! He told Anne to find out where Naismith was and tell him to get in as soon as possible. In the meantime leave him and close the door. His demeanour made it clear that despite the hour she should stay until he said she could go.
He took a ‘‘‘phone out of his pocket and sent off a text message. Five minutes later and his ‘‘‘phone buzzed with the reply. He closed the Lever file he was reviewing, grabbed his jacket, and left.
Down stairs in the car park he got in to his car and drove out in to the evening gloom. It was raining, and the reflection of the street lights gleamed from the wet road surface. In 10 minutes he was down at the city wharf and in to an open space used as a car park. At this time of the day it was nearly empty with one car at the far end and another standing isolated in the centre.
He drove over to o ne end that overlooked where a lock linked the canal to the harbour, and got out. It had stopped raining and it felt fresh. He took a deep breath and looked at his watch, 10.30pm. As he looked up a set of headlights entered the other end of the car park and moved towards him, pulling up next to his car. He got in to the passenger seat. The car was full of cigarette smoke and he coughed violently before getting the window open and cursing the driver
