Page 43 of The Happy Family

‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘The doctor is very busy at the moment. In fact, we all are. It’s been a crazy morning.’

I sense an opportunity to possibly get some information about what has been going on with the two bodies I left behind.

‘I was wondering what happened. I heard the alarm. Is everything okay?’

‘No, far from it,’ the nurse replies, as I hope she is the kind of woman who talks too much and too fast before she has a chance to stop herself.

‘What’s happened?’

‘I shouldn’t say,’ she replies, which is no good.

‘I won’t tell anyone else. I promise,’ I reply, hoping to tease the gossip out of her. Can she resist?

‘Some lunatic from the local prison was here visiting a patient but she tried to escape. She killed the prison officer she was with. But she fought back and she died too.’

I make sure to seem staggered by that news.

‘Oh my god,’ I say, as aghast as I can be.

‘No one else at the hospital was in any danger,’ the nurse is quick to tell me, as if she realises it was a mistake to talk so freely and is now worrying I’m going to go straight to the newspapers. ‘It all happened away from any patients or members of the public.’

‘That’s a relief,’ I reply.

‘But that’s why we are all so busy this morning, so it’s going to be a while until the doctor can see you,’ she tells me.

‘I really need to get home. My baby needs me,’ I repeat.

‘I appreciate that, but I can’t let you go without being checked over by the doctor,’ I’m told.

‘Can’t you? If you do me this favour, I’ll do you the favour of not telling anybody about what you just told me. After all, I’m sure your bosses won’t be pleased to know you were just spreading some confidential information around that could reflect poorly on this hospital and its safety.’

The nurse stares at me as if I have just betrayed her, which I suppose I have. She thought I was trustworthy, but now I am blackmailing her with the information she told me in confidence.

‘I really need to get home to my child,’ I say, trying to emphasise the human element more, so the blackmail is not the only thing she is considering. ‘Please, just let me go home.’

‘Fine,’ the nurse says, shaking her head but looking like she’s ready to see the back of me, and I don’t blame her after what I just said. ‘But if the doctor asks where you went, I’ll tell him that you were supposed to stay. I’m not getting in trouble for you.’

‘Deal,’ I reply before I go to walk past.

‘Wait,’ the nurse calls, and I freeze, wondering what possible mistake I might have made that could have given away that I’m a killer about to walk away from the scene of the crime totally free.

‘Where did you leave your gown? I can’t see it on your bed,’ the nurse says.

Damn it. She’s asking about the gown. The one I have in my bag. The one with Gemma’s blood on it.

‘Oh, I got changed in a bathroom earlier and left it in there. There was a clothes basket. Is that okay?’

The nurse looks at me for a moment before shrugging and turning back to my bed to presumably tidy up after me. I don’t need to hang around to watch her do that.

I walk off the ward and get out of the hospital as quickly as I can.

When I make it outside, I call a taxi, noting the strong police presence over one side of the car park and hoping none of the officers there take any interest in me before I can get out of here. But they don’t, and when my taxi arrives, I leap onto the backseat and give the driver my home address, relieved when he drives us away and the hospital recedes quickly in the rear-view mirrors.

I’m glad to be away from that place.

I’m eager to go home and dispose of my bloodied hospital gown.

I’m desperate to go home and be with my family.