MURDER FOR GOOD a completely unputdownable cozy mystery by HELEY VERONICA

Author:HELEY, VERONICA
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books cozy mysteries and crime
Published: 2024-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Friday, early evening

Back to the hospital. Thomas was no longer in A&E. He’d been admitted to a ward . . . but which one?

He was in Intensive Care.

Ellie clutched Rafael’s hand as they approached Thomas’s bed. He was hooked up to this and that piece of equipment. Heart monitor? Some fluid was dripping into a vein?

His eyes were closed. His skin looked pallid.

Rafael pulled up a chair and made Ellie sit down. At least there were no curtains drawn around Thomas’s bed, so he couldn’t be in dire straits. Or could he?

Thomas lifted heavy eyelids and smiled at Ellie. ‘It’s nothing serious. Be home tomorrow.’

Rafael vanished. Ellie held Thomas’s hand. He closed his eyes and slept.

Eventually Rafael returned with a nurse, who took Ellie a little distance away from the patient to deliver the bad news.

It appeared that Thomas had been nursing an ulcer for some time, but this was not in itself a major cause for alarm as he was a strong, healthy man in all other respects and could be expected to respond well to treatment. However, the nurse said he’d recently ingested something which had attacked the lining of his stomach and caused his condition to become more serious. Could Mrs Quicke think of anything he might have eaten recently which would have had such an effect?

Ellie shook her head.

Rafael shook his head, too.

‘What medication is he on?’

‘Indigestion tablets now and then,’ said Ellie. ‘Nothing else.’

‘No arthritis, joint pains?’

She shook her head.

Rafael asked, ‘Why do you ask about arthritis?’

‘Occasionally people have a bad reaction to something they can buy over the counter if they have joint pains. It has been known to upset the stomach.’

They looked back at the bed where Thomas lay, asleep or nearly so.

Ellie said, ‘He hasn’t complained of any joint pains. I haven’t seen him take anything except indigestion tablets. He does have a stressful job. It makes sense that he has an ulcer. What . . . ?’ She faltered, unable to ask what the prognosis was.

The nurse was brisk. ‘We should have it under control pretty soon. By tomorrow he should be feeling a lot better.’

‘You’re keeping him in?’

‘We’re monitoring him closely. When you go home it might be an idea to check his pockets to see if you can find any tablets other than the ones for indigestion. If you find anything, bring it in to us or, better still, telephone through to say what it is.’

Off went the nurse, professionally detached in manner.

Ellie propped herself up against the wall. ‘The nurse thinks he’s taken something he shouldn’t. I don’t get it. If Thomas had a pain, he’d say so, wouldn’t he?’

* * *

Rafael drove Ellie home at the end of the visiting hour.

He said she wasn’t safe to be let out on the streets on her own. She was glad of his support. Thomas was her rock but, as she’d sat by his bed holding his hand, she’d had the impression that he was drifting away from her .

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