The Innocent Ones by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912973071
Publisher: Hera
Published: 2019-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty

Dan trudged through the hospital, wincing at the movement of the stitches in his side and the aches everywhere else.

He hated hospitals. Always had. They reminded him of lives ending, not of being saved. Misery, illness, grief. He knew that was the circle of life, and he couldn’t fight against it, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with.

It wasn’t just that though; the hospital in Highford had darker memories, because he’d walked the same corridors when his mother was ill, cancer destroying her body until she finally succumbed. He remembered the numb feeling, almost disbelief that it had to happen to his mother. His father internalised his grief: he just went out more, got drunk more. Dan threw himself into his working life and pushed away closeness, because he hadn’t properly worked out how to deal with something good coming to an end. All he’d been left with was the realisation that they do.

He saw the same look in the eyes of those he passed.

As he thought of the events of the night before, he knew that his pessimism was well‑founded. All he had left to do was visit the town centre to see what was left of his business.

The doctors had advised him against leaving, but he needed fresh air more than he wanted to be monitored.

The corridor opened out as he got near the exit, and there were shops and a cafe, somewhere for the hospitalised unhealthy to stock up on sweets and cakes. He kept on walking through, desperate to get outside, when he saw someone he recognised. Zoe Slater, the prosecutor who was running the case against Nick. There might be an experienced barrister for the trial, but Zoe did all the legwork behind the scenes.

He’d known Zoe throughout his career. They’d qualified at around the same time and had seen each other grow as lawyers. He remembered advice Zoe once gave him, passed down from one of the older prosecutors: in court you’ll make a fool of yourself just as much as you get older, but you’ll care less about it. They’d had fall-outs, it was the nature of the job, but they got on most of the time, and there was mutual respect. She was the prosecutor he didn’t like to see when he walked into a courtroom, because she was shrewd and smart, but was always glad it was her when there were gaps in the proceedings and conversations turned to the mundane and the gossip.

Zoe was at the enquiry desk, and it looked as if she’d come straight from the office, in her suit, not off-duty casuals, her long dark hair hanging forward as she spoke to the woman behind the computer monitor.

Dan came up behind her and said, ‘Hi Zoe. Are you visiting someone?’

She turned, surprised, and was about to smile her welcome when she noticed his injuries.

‘I’m here to see you, but, hell, I didn’t think you’d be this bad.’ She held up her hand. ‘Don’t give me the you should see the other guy gag.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.