“Don’t worry, uncle,” Deontay told him. “Before I leave, I’ll introduce myself to the ward sister and make sure they know I’m your legal rep and give them a code word. That way, I’ll be able to call in and get updates every day without arousing suspicion.”
Chapter 4
Monday 10th January 2000
It was still dark outside her bedroom window when Melissa Smails awoke to find their black cat, Merlin, sitting on her chest, staring down at her with his big green eyes and purring loudly.
Meow, he said by way of greeting.
Merlin had recently taken to sleeping at the bottom of the bed, which she didn’t really mind, but he had also taken to waking her up when he wanted his breakfast, which she was far less enthusiastic about.
As she lay there, she could feel the reassuring outline of her partner’s large body pressed against her back, and she instinctively snuggled into him, siphoning off his body warmth. He was snoring loudly, and she elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to turn over. He licked his lips noisily, grumbled something in his sleep and then fell silent.
“Strewth, Merlin, why don’t you ever wake daddy up when you’re hungry,” she complained, rubbing the residue of sleep from her bleary eyes. As if offended by the reprimand, the snooty cat jumped off of her chest and wandered out of the room with a haughty swagger.
That cat has definitely got a serious attitude problem, she thought as she yawned.
Craning her neck, Melissa – Mel to her friends – squinted at the glowing red digits of the clock-radio on her bedside table. Her heart sank when she saw there were only nine minutes left until the alarm was due to go off. She badly needed to pee, but if she got up to use the loo now there would be no point in returning to her lush warm bed afterwards, so she pulled the 15-Tog duvet tightly around her neck and rolled over, determined to stay put until the alarm sounded. Unfortunately, her bladder was having none of it. When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go – right?
Mel, who had grown up in Australia, hated the harsh British winters; they were always cold and bleak and depressing, and it didn’t matter what shift she was rostered to work at the hospital, it was always dark when she woke up and always dark when she went to bed.
Mel was down to work an 08:00 – 20:30 hours shift today, and she consoled herself with the knowledge that at least she would get to see a few meagre hours of daylight, unlike when she worked the dreaded 20:00 – 08:30 hours night shifts that came around all too frequently. When she was on those, her sleep pattern meant that several days could pass without her seeing the sun at all, and after a while, the perpetual darkness made her go a little cranky.
Thankfully, after today’s shift, she had three whole days of glorious leave to look forward to. Dave, her partner of four years, was a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service. He was also going to be off, and they were planning to visit his parents in Cornwall for a couple of days, driving down first thing in the morning. It would probably be too cold to surf, even for a diehard like her, but she was looking forward to a brief respite from all the noise and pollution of the big city.
Despite needing to urinate, Mel was finding it harder than usual to drag herself out of bed today. It didn’t help that the flat’s ancient heating system had packed up on Boxing Day, and since then the place had been colder than an Eskimo’s igloo.
Despite Dave phoning their tight-fisted landlord every day, there was still no sign of the tradesman the wanker had repeatedly promised to send around to carry out emergency repairs. That was probably because the boiler didn’t even have a current safety inspection certificate; it didn’t just need repairing – it needed replacing, and a job like that would cost the skinflint they were renting the flat from more money than he was prepared to part with.
Their six-month tenancy was up for renewal at the beginning of March, but they had already decided not to stay on. The heating debacle was just the latest in a long list of things that had gone wrong since they had moved in. Not only was the property riddled with damp and falling apart, but the drains also kept getting blocked up. On top of that, one of her neighbours was a bit of an oddball and the other one was – if the pungent smell wafting out of his flat and the steady stream of callers was anything to go by – selling drugs.
As much as Mel would have preferred to remain cocooned in her lovely warm duvet, she began to worry that if she didn’t get up soon, she would end up wetting the bed.
Having delayed the inevitable for as long as she could, she timidly slid her feet down onto the cheap carpet, feeling around for her slippers in the dark and gasping as cold air engulfed her calves in its icy grip.
On Friday just gone, they had found an old electric heater in a utility cupboard while clearing it out. It was now plugged into the socket beside the bed, and Mel bent down and switched it on. She wondered why she was bothering; even when sitting directly in front of it, as she was now, the only way to tell that it was on was from the faint smell of burning it gave off.
Mel had showered before going to bed the previous night, so all she had to do now was slip out of her PJs into her work clothes, but she was dreading losing all the residual heat from her sleepwear while she swapped one outfit for the other.
As she
