The Graveyard Shift by Maria Lewis

Author:Maria Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781915523099
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2023-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Tinsel was pretending to be asleep. She knew that as soon as she was awake, people would temper the things they said to her. So it was easier to keep her eyes closed and listen. She learned more that way.

She had been brought into Royal Melbourne Hospital hours ago, refusing to leave Malu, so they both rode in the same ambulance together. They had to be separated eventually; it killed her when the nurses pried Tinsel’s hand from his strong grip as they arrived at the emergency department.

He was in a critical condition but still alive, so she counted that as a small victory. Her injuries had only been superficial, yet not for lack of trying. There was a wound at the back of her head that required ten stitches and her left wrist had a minor stress fracture from when she fell, however, it wasn’t bad enough that she would need a cast. A doctor had set it for her in a brace and after a few weeks of taking it easy, they could reassess and remove it.

There were a handful of other cuts and abrasions – her slashed calf requiring only butterfly stitches, which was a relief. Yet it only took one look at Malu’s dried blood coating the fabric of Tinsel’s dress for her to understand how lucky she was. Two nurses had gently cut her out of it, the remnants of the gown lying crumpled on the floor for less than a minute before the gloved hand of a police officer slipped under the curtain to extract it. It was needed for evidence, she heard someone say, unable to see through the white material that had been drawn for her modesty.

After being given a hospital gown and a towel, she was led to a small cubicle where she showered and used the soap from the dispenser to wash away the grime and dirt of the car park as well as some of the blood. It stung, a lot, but the pain was dull thanks to the Entonox gas she had been given in the ambulance. The emergency worker assigned to her had sensed she might be on the verge of a panic attack and handed her the mask. She had sucked down several breaths without question.

It kept her calmer than she would have been, limping through a hospital packed with police and staff members in the tissue thin frock they had given her. Even her underpants and bra had been taken. Tinsel kept crossing her arms over her chest subconsciously. She was whisked away to be examined properly, poked, prodded, stitched and finally told to rest.

An officer was sent to take her official statement and she had hoped it would be Detective James, as the last time she had seen him was leaving the radio station. Instead, it was a detective she didn’t know, with the woman telling her Diraani and James were both still at the scene.

She was also told that Rushelle and senior management at 102.

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