Death Before Time

by Andrew Puckett

  “Thanks,” said Jo. “We won’t split on you.”

  He watched them until they were out of sight.

  “D’you make a habit of taking tea with strange men?” he asked.

  She laughed. “I only did because he was so sure we wouldn’t.”

  “I’m not surprised they want to move him,” said Fraser. “What with no mains and no sanitation.”

  “You think he should be moved, then?”

  “No, he’s not doing anyone any harm.”

  They stopped talking as the path steepened through a thick belt of conifers. Twenty minutes later, they emerged from the trees onto the Wansdyke, and five minutes after that, they reached the car.

  “Can we drive back that way?” Jo asked, pointing to the scarp.

  Even though Fraser had done it before, it still felt like driving over the edge of a cliff. Below them, the sea of corn lay waiting.

  *

  He dropped her off at the car park an hour later.

  “I’ll check the patients again on the computer,” he said, “then I might as well go home for the night. I’ll phone the ward about mine in the morning and you can do the same for yours.”

  “What about Daniel Pope?”

  He shrugged helplessly. “He’s Singh’s patient and not on your list, so even if he did get ill, we couldn’t do anything.”

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll phone you tomorrow.”

  All right for some, she thought as she drove back to her room. Probably wanted to lick his wounds, she reflected with a smile; she rather liked Fraser, but had no intention of getting involved with him.

  Fraser drove home, still feeling stupid.

  Why had he done it? Did he like her, fancy her? Sure, who wouldn’t? But what him possessed of the idea that she’d succumb to his charms just like that? No, he’d made a fool of himself.

  *

  The next morning, Sunday, Jo rang the ward from her room.

  “Staff Nurse Tucker speaking.”

  Oh God, it would be her … “Hello Carrie, it’s Jo Farewell here ... ”

  “Oh, hello Jo, how can I help you?”

  Too late to back out now, “I was just a bit worried about Mrs Stokes in room four.“

  “Oh?”

  “She seemed very down when I left. Is she OK now?”

  “Mrs Stokes … oh yes, she’s fine. You take your job very seriously, don’t you, Jo?”

  “Yes, I suppose I do. Thanks, Carrie.”

  She switched the phone off and let out a sigh. She simply couldn’t go on doing that.

  She pottered around in the afternoon, had a meal in the canteen, then read in her room until midnight – she knew it was no good trying to sleep before the first night on duty.

  She took over from Sarah Howe.

  “Anyone I should watch out for?”

  “Yes, Mrs Stokes in room four – her chest infection’s developed into pneumonia and she’s very poorly …”

  Chapter 21

  “What?”

  Startled, Sarah began to repeat herself –

  “It’s all right,” Jo said, “I heard you. It’s just that I was worried about her and asked Carrie this morning if she was OK and she told me she was.”

  Sarah glanced round, then said quietly, “Strictly between you and I, Jo, I don’t think Carrie’s the most reliable member of staff we have here.”

  “I had the same impression,” Jo murmured. “How bad is Mrs Stokes?”

  “Not good. She’s on intravenous ampicillin, although it hasn’t really had time to work yet.”

  Jo went to look at her as soon as Sarah had gone. Lily wasn’t good, her temperature, pulse and respiration were all high and she was barely conscious - it was Rose Parker all over again …

  Jo went back to the office. There was no one around, so she phoned Fraser’s mobile number. He answered sleepily after four rings.

  She quickly told him about it. “I don’t like the look of it, Fraser.”

  “Have you got the cefataxin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Give her … ” he thought for a moment, “Give her two grams now intravenously, and repeat twice, four hourly.”

  “Four hourly?”

  “Yes. I’ll have a look at her when I come in and decide where to go from there.”

  “We need to talk.”

  “We will, tomorrow. Go and give her the first dose.”

  The graveyard shift had the least number of staff and the patients were nearly all sleeping. This should have been an advantage, but it also meant that every noise she made was magnified: the echo of her footsteps, the rumble of the trolley, the swish of the curtains …

  Lily actually seemed to get worse after the first injection and Jo was seriously wondering whether to ventilate her, but she improved slightly after the second.

  Come on, Lily, she silently willed her …

  Between times, she had plenty to think about - Carrie Tucker: was she just lazy, or something worse?

  By the time she prepared the third injection at 7:30, the patients were waking up. Lily seemed better and was conscious enough to complain.

  “Not another injection, please nurse,” she moaned.

  “Shh, it’ll make you better,” Jo whispered.

  She made sure the bleeding had stopped, then opened the curtains to find herself looking straight into the bright beady eyes of Mrs Bailey -

  Oh no…

  She forced a smile –

  “Good morning Mrs Bailey. How are you feeling?”

  “Better’n ‘er, that’s for sure.” She nodded at Lily. “Why’re you giving ‘er ‘n injection, then?”

  “I wasn’t.”

  “You was, I ‘eard you. An’ there’s s’posed to be two of you, in’t there?”

  “You heard wrongly – I was taking her blood pressure.” With another smile, she wheeled the little trolley away.

  Oh, shit … would she tell anyone? She might …

  Jo thought about it and when she handed over to Jackie ten minutes later, she tried for some damage limitation.

  “Mrs Stokes hasn’t been too good during the night, but she seems a bit better now – I’ve just done her obs and they’re all down a little.”

  “Thanks Jo, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  Jo went back to her room, waited until she was sure Fraser would have arrived, then bleeped him and told him what had happened.

  “Does Jackie know about your relationship with Mrs Bailey?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “If she tells on you, deny it, say it’s spite. It’ll be your word against hers.”

  “We do need to talk about it, Fraser - and Carrie Tucker.”

  “Go down to Tom at lunch time and I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

  *

  A couple of hours later, Fraser walked quietly into the room Lily shared with five others. He looked at the chart of one of Edwina’s patients and pretended to note something from it. Then, as he was walking out, he paused and casually picked up Lily’s chart … her obs were all still coming down. He looked up and smiled at her. She tentatively smiled back; she did seem better than Jo had described, he thought.

  At one, he drove down to the hotel. Jo was already there with Tom. He told them about Lily.

  “The thing is, Fraser,” Jo said, “Should she have more cefataxin now? Only I’d hate to see all my good work go to waste ... “

  “Ideally yes, but I don’t see how we can – not until you’re back on duty, anyway.”

  “Is she going to get better without it?” Tom asked.

  “I think so … she’s had three big doses – that ought to do it.”

  “Is ought good enough? Could you give her more if it came to it?”

  “I can’t - she’s not my patient, I had no business even looking at her chart.”

  Tom drew a breath and nodded. “All right,” he said. “Try and keep an eye on her, though.” He paused. “The next question: is it deliberate, is she another
victim?”

  “She must be,” said Jo. “We knew she was at risk, it’s happened at the weekend, like Rose, and the infection’s resistant to ampicillin.”

  Fraser nodded his agreement.

  “So what about Carrie?” Tom said. “I know you didn’t think so, Jo, but she does always seem to be around, doesn’t she?”

  “Bit of a coincidence,” agreed Fraser.

  “Yes it is,” said Tom, “So you’d better keep an eye on her as well, Fraser.”

  “How the hell’m I supposed to do that?” he demanded. “I’ve got no reason to be hanging around her.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Jo said sweetly. “She’ll probably assume you fancy her.”

  “Thank you so very much,” Fraser said between his teeth, kicking himself for falling into the trap.

  *

  He looked in on Lily again after another three hours. To his relief, she was sitting up, reading a magazine.

  As he turned to leave, Carrie and another nurse came in with the drug trolley. He went over and talked to one of Edwina’s patients, covertly watching the two of them as he did. They stopped at Lily’s bed, pulled the curtain round, and Fraser, remembering the film about the man with X-ray eyes, smiled wryly.

  After a few moments, they came out again, wheeling the trolley. Carrie looked up and met his eyes. She beamed at him, waggled her fingers and mouthed hello before going to the next patient.

  Thanks Jo, Fraser thought …

  *

  When Jo came on at midnight, Lily was definitely better and slept the night through.

  Jackie came in at eight. Jo handed over, noticing as she did that Jackie seemed to have difficulty in meeting her eyes.

  When she’d finished, Jackie said, “Jo, we have to go and see Helen.”

  “What, now?”

  Jackie nodded.

  “Why?”

  “She’ll tell you when we get there.”

  It’s got to be Mrs Bailey, Jo thought, and as they walked in silence to Helen’s office, she went over all the arguments in her head.

  “Come in,” said Helen. Then, “Sit down, please.”

  Funny, reflected Jo, how the word please can turn a friendly sentence into a hostile one.

  “Staff Nurse Farewell, one of the patients, Mrs Bailey, has made a serious allegation about you, serious enough for it to come to me.” She looked at Jackie. “Sister?”

  “Jo,” Jackie said to her, “Mrs Bailey says she saw you giving Mrs Stokes an unauthorised injection on your own.”

  “Oh, what absolute rubbish!” Jo said with what she hoped was the right mixture of amusement and scorn.

  “So why is she saying it?” Helen asked icily.

  “I’ve no idea … what exactly did she say?”

  Jackie took over again: “She told us that yesterday morning you drew the curtains round Mrs Stokes’ bed and then she heard her say: Not another injection, please nurse. You whispered: Shh, it’ll make you better, and then she saw you coming out with a trolley loaded with injection materials.”

  “But you saw me yourself Jackie, at least, you saw me just afterwards – when I told you that she’d been poorly during the night and that I’d just done her obs. That’s what Mrs Bailey saw.”

  Helen leaned forward, her clear grey eyes locked onto Jo’s. “So why did Mrs Stokes say not another injection, please nurse?”

  Jo frowned … “She did say something like that, when I was putting the cuff on her arm ... she was still delirious, I suppose that’s what she thought I was doing.”

  “But you tried to silence her: Shh, it’ll make you better.”

  “What I said was: Shh, you’ll soon feel better.”

  “There are needle marks on her arms.”

  Jo shrugged. “She’s had blood samples taken most days, hasn’t she? Plus intravenous ampicillin, so I suppose there would be.”

  There was a silence while Helen continued staring at her ...

  Jo thought: Have they asked Lily? They must have and she couldn’t remember, or they’d have said …

  She made herself say, “Have you tried asking Mrs Stokes?”

  “She couldn’t remember,” Helen said shortly, then: “So are you saying that Mrs Bailey made all this up, Staff Nurse?”

  Jo said slowly, “She probably believes it – or at least, some of it … “

  She turned back to Jackie – “You remember she and I had a run-in the other day?”

  Jackie nodded. “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s probably it then, there’s a measure of spite in what she’s saying.”

  Jackie turned to Helen. “She’s certainly difficult Helen, and I can imagine her being vindictive. And it’s true that she had – er – a difference of opinion with Jo last week.”

  Helen was still staring at Jo … “How did that come about, Staff Nurse?”

  “She was complaining about the food, telling the other patients in the room that it wasn’t fit for pigs. I asked her to desist.”

  “Just that?”

  “She was trying to get the other patients to complain as well, so I put it quite firmly.”

  “In front of the other patients?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was that wise, d’you think?”

  Jo hesitated again ... time for some humble pie? “Perhaps not, Sister.”

  Helen said, “I’m not happy about this, Staff Nurse.” She paused, searching for words. “I don’t like complaints from patients.”

  Jo felt herself colouring. “I’m very sorry it should have happened, Sister.”

  “So am I. All right, you can go now. Not you, Jackie.”

  Jo walked slowly back to the ward. To wait for Jackie, or not to wait for her?

  Wait, it’s what she’d have done in normal circumstances.

  Jackie came back five minutes later and Jo pounced -

  “Jackie,” she hissed. “Why couldn’t you sort it out with me? Why involve Helen? And why bounce it on me like that?”

  Jackie waved her into the office and shut the door.

  “Because Helen told me we had to play it that way.”

  Jo blew out her cheeks. “But how did she know about it?”

  “Mrs Bailey came out with it on the ward round yesterday morning. We shut her up, then Helen and I questioned her about it afterwards. I’m sorry Jo, it’s obviously a storm in a teacup …”

  So why didn’t Fraser warn me? Oh … he wouldn’t have been there, Mrs B is one of Singh’s patient …

  Jackie was looking at Jo closely … “You haven’t done something else to upset Saint Helen, have you? She does seem to have it in for you.”

  Jo shrugged helplessly. “I’ve got the same feeling … the only thing I can think of is that she did seem suspicious of me because I dropped a grade to come here.”

  “But it’s only natural you should want to move with your fiancé.”

  “Does she often take against people like that?”

  “Not usually, no.”

  Jo let out a sigh. “Just one of those things, I suppose.” She smiled. “Thanks for sticking up for me, Jackie.”

  “That’s all right. I wish I could have done more.”

  Jo walked back to her room deep in thought. Lit a fag as soon as she’d shut the door…

  It wasn’t just one of those things, there had to be a reason for Helen to dislike her so obviously … did she suspect something between her and Fraser, had she seen her handbag on his bed that time?

  But how would she have known it was hers - ?

  She jerked as though electrified –

  Or was it because Helen knew that Mrs B was telling the truth …

  Everything pointed to it, her body language, the way she’d stared at her so relentlessly, the way she’d set the trap.

  So how did she know?

  Because Lily hadn’t died as she was supposed to - that’s how …

  She called Fraser.

  Chapter 22

  “Fraser? It’s me, Jo – can you
talk?”

  “I’ve got about five minutes.”

  “It’s Helen – I’m sure of it.”

  For a moment, he couldn’t speak, then: “But how … d’you have evidence?”

  She told him about Mrs Bailey and Helen’s interrogation. “It was the way she went for me, the way she looked at me … she knew I’d given those injections.”

  Fraser tried to pull his thoughts together. “So it all comes down to the way she looked at you?”

  “You weren’t there, Fraser – she knew.”

  He said carefully, “You’ve told me before how she dislikes you, and I’ve had the same impression. Are you sure it wasn’t just her dislike?”

  “Yes, I am sure. We have to go and see Tom about it.”

  “Yes … I’ve got to go for the ward round now. I’ll try and get an early lunch – will you be in your room?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll ring you in an hour and a half, two hours. OK?”

  He put the phone down, ran his hands over his face …

  Could she be right, just when he’d made his made up that it wasn’t Helen? He took a breath, stood up and went to meet the others.

  Helen smiled when she saw him. He smiled back.

  No, it wasn’t her. It was just bad chemistry – they simply didn’t like each other.

  The ward round went slowly, uneventfully. When it was over, Helen got him on his own.

  “Are you still OK for tonight?”

  “Sure.”

  “No darts matches or other pressing engagements?”

  “No,” he said with a smile. “Eight?”

  “I’ll look forward to it.”

  Edwina made no problems about him taking early lunch.

  She said, “I’ll do this morning’s clinic if you’ll do this afternoon’s.”

  “Thanks, Edwina.”

  Actually, he reflected as he went back to his office, she was getting the better deal by some margin – the afternoon clinic was always worse than the morning’s. He phoned Jo.

  “I’ll come over to you,” he told her, “And we’ll go in your car. Less conspicuous.”

  She was waiting for him and they went quickly to her Mini. He sat low in the seat with his head down until they were clear of the hospital.

  “No second thoughts?” he asked her.

  “No. How about you?”