Brick by Conrad Jones

Author:Conrad Jones [Jones, Conrad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
Publisher: The Thriller Factory
Published: 2016-07-25T04:00:00+00:00

19

At the hospital, the Evans family had to leave Bryn and were taken through the ward by two armed officers. The lights were low, only the odd murmur from sickly patients could be heard. They walked by the nurses’ station and the ward sister looked up from her paperwork for a moment. She smiled at Barbara Evans, a mother empathising with another; the gesture said, ‘Good luck. I hope your family survives this unscathed’, all in a split second of eye contact. Barbara nodded and returned her smile, the message received and appreciated. They pushed through a set of doors into a brightly lit area that was fitted with comfortable seats and vending machines; its sole occupant sat with his elbows on his knees, a cup of tepid coffee-like liquid in his hands. He didn’t notice the strange group appearing as he stared into the cup looking for the answers to a million questions. ‘Why couldn’t they cure it? Why had it come back? Why had it chosen his daughter in the first place?’

Simon looked at him and felt for him. Anyone that was drinking vending machine coffee at that time of the night while the hospital slept was too scared to go home in case their loved one died. The lonely man’s agony was similar to his own; a loved one in life threatening peril, the family helpless to protect them. No amount of money could help the grieving man; all he could do was wait.

Above the door an exit sign pointed to their left but the officers ignored it and turned right. When they reached the main corridor they skirted by the public lifts and reached double doors that were covered with plastic dust sheets. The policemen lifted the plastic and opened the doors, allowing the family inside. They headed through a newly constructed wing, as yet unoccupied. The odour of paint and polish mingled with dust and plaster. Thick tape crisscrossed the window glass and electrical cable hung from the ceiling tiles waiting to be fastened to light fittings. Their footsteps sounded louder than they should against the newly laid floors. Simon was nervous as he listened to his parents panting. A hundred yards on, they pushed through some double doors into a dimly lit corridor and made their way silently for fifty yards to the next set of doors. The lights of the city twinkled below, filtering through the dusty glass, casting long shadows inside. Barbara and Robert were struggling with the pace, their breathing heavy, loud and laboured. Robert kept wiping sweat from his brow with his sleeve, his sons glancing at him each time, worried that he might keel over at any second. Simon and Mark flanked them, patiently guiding them behind the policemen. Mark looked around nervously, agitated at leaving his younger brother behind yet eager to get his elderly parents to safety. Simon appeared cool, a calming influence on them all.

“The service lifts are at the far end of the ward opposite this one,” one of the officers said over his shoulder.

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