Hathaway groaned, and opened his eyes. Not two nights in a row… at least he hadn't ended up in a dodgy club this time. It never ceased to amaze him just how much beer his boss could put away in a sitting when he put his mind to it. He felt around to turn off the persistent ringing of the alarm clock, and then realised that he had fallen asleep on the sofa, not in his bed. The persistent ringing was, in fact, his mobile phone. Grumpily, annoyed at having been woken up, he grabbed the handset.
"Hathaway," he grunted, "Oh…ma'am… yes ma'am… he's what? When? How…? I'm on my way there!"
Hathaway slammed the phone down, and dashed upstairs to get dressed. Barely moments later, there was a squeal of tyres as his car was forced into a gear and pealed out off the driveway. He was driving too fast, but he didn't care, as he wove in and out of early morning traffic – thankfully, it was still slightly too early for rush hour, and Hathaway knew a few shortcuts.
Recklessly fast and probably still slightly over the legal limit to drive, he pulled into the hospital car park to a scene of barely controlled chaos. There seemed to be uniformed officers everywhere, interviewing hospital staff, visitors and patients, and cordoning off a large area near to the entrance. Hathaway did not bother to park, merely abandoning the car as he slammed the door. Nobody met his gaze, except for one –Chief Superintendent Innocent. She cut easily through the crowd and reached him quickly, cutting the sergeant off in his path towards the entrance.
"What happened?" Hathaway demanded.
"We don't know," Innocent replied, succinctly, ignoring his blatant breach of protocol and slightly rumpled appearance, before expanding; "two nurses on a break saw a cleaner run out of the building, followed by Lewis. They didn't see where the woman went, but they said Lewis was after her for some reason. They weren't really interested, but then they say they saw a car come around the corner. Both of them agree it accelerated, and the driver made no effort to swerve or stop. Lewis was run down."
Hathaway felt his heart sink, and he straightened his tie in an unconsciously worried gesture.
"How is he?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
"He'll be fine," Innocent replied, confidently, taking Hathaway's arm and leading him towards the hospital, "he was lucky – two nurses immediately on the scene and a hospital right next to him!"
"I want to see him," Hathaway said, allowing Innocent to tow him towards the hospital entrance, "What the hell was he doing here, anyway?"
"You can't – at the moment he's still in emergency surgery," Innocent responded, with a shake of her head, "and we don't know why he was here. I've sent a uniform around to geriatrics to find out. I assume it was something to do with the Rogers case."
"He must have remembered something, or there was a new lead," Hathaway rubbed his jaw, thoughtfully, his mind racing, "ma'am, tell me – how is he?"
Innocent was leading him through the maze of corridors, which, as ever, were a hive of quiet activity.
"I managed to speak to one of the nurses who saw the accident," she answered, at last, "he's going to be out of commission for a while, it seems. The nurse said his right leg was clearly broken. He also had broken ribs, some internal injuries, and severe head trauma. The nurse says he was unconscious when they took him in. He's going to be in surgery for a while. He's lucky to be alive."
Hathaway suppressed a shudder that had nothing to do with his slight hangover. Suddenly, their murder case had just become more personal.
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Hathaway, unable to simply sit and wait, had thrown himself into the deep end of the enquiry. Several hours later, weary yet taut with tension, he found CSI Innocent sitting in the waiting area reading an out of date celebrity gossip magazine. When he entered, she tossed it aside quickly, looking slightly guilty at having been caught reading it.
"Report," she said, clearing her throat slightly and crossing her legs, leaning forward attentively.
"Inspector Lewis arrived here at 7:30 this morning, roughly," Hathaway replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "he spoke to the staff nurse – wanted to know something about the cleaner, a girl called Maria. As he was talking to the nurse, this Maria appeared. She saw the Inspector, and he recognised her. She ran off, he followed, and chased her outside, where he asked two nurses if they'd seen her. He stepped out into the road, where he was run down. The nurses agree that it looked deliberate and they both thought that the driver was a woman."
"The cleaner?" Innocent guessed, "But why?"
"I don't know," Hathaway admitted, "the Inspector knows something that we don't, ma'am. And he was damn near killed for it. I wish I knew what it was."
"Who is this cleaner, anyway?"
"A woman called Maria Brookville," Hathaway shrugged, "the name doesn't ring a bell at all. I can't find a photographic ID – there isn't one on the hospital personnel file. In fact, the hospital can't find her file at all."
"Lost, or stolen?" Innocent asked, perceptively.
"Could be either," Hathaway shrugged, "ma'am… is there any news on the Inspector?"
"Not yet," Innocent shook her head, "listen, I've got to go back to the station. But the minute you hear anything, I want to know."
"Yes, ma'am," Hathaway said, quietly, "and if you find that woman…?"
"You'll be the first to know," Innocent promised.
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"Sergeant Hathaway?"
Hathaway jumped and snapped awake, surprised by the nurse's entrance but even more surprised that he had managed to doze off in the uncomfortable, high-backed wipe-clean armchair the had been his perch for the last couple of hours. The nurse smiled at his confused, bleary-eyes expression.
"Your friend Mr Lewis is out of surgery,"
"He's not my friend, he's my boss," Hathaway said, quickly, and then realised that the first part of that sentence was not strictly true, and added, "how is he?"
The nurse's smile widened slightly, nodding as if she understood, "You can see him now, if you like."
Hathaway nodded, wordlessly, and gestured for her to lead the way. She led him through several corridors, and into a side room.
"The surgery has been quite successful, we think," the nurse said, chirpily, "the doctors have inserted a pin in his leg to straighten out and support the break – three fractures in all. The internal injuries will heal nicely, as will the three broken ribs. His dislocated shoulder has been reset – the only concern now is the head injury – a fractured skull."
Hathaway nodded – he heard the words, but it seemed to take him some time to process what she had said. In the background there was the soft bleeping of machinery, though he couldn't begin to work out what it was. He crossed slowly to the bed. Lewis was asleep or unconscious – Hathaway couldn't tell.
"Can he hear us?" he asked, quietly.
"I doubt it," the nurse replied, with a shrug, "he's still heavily sedated, and on regular doses of morphine for the pain. It could be a few days before he wakes up."
"A few days?" Hathaway repeated, incredulous, "But…"
He broke off. He knew Lewis had information that he desperately needed for the investigation. But… he shook his head.
"Never mind," he murmured, "would you give us a few moments alone? Thank you."
The nurse nodded, and slipped out. He closed the door and turned back towards the bed, crossing over to gaze down at his boss. His right arm was in a sling, and Hathaway felt a strange knot in his throat, wondering just how badly hurt the Inspector really was. There was a thick bandage around his head, and his right leg, though covered by blankets, was swathed in a cast – and these were just the injuries that he could see. He suddenly felt a strong urge to leave – if he could not talk to the Inspector, he had no wish to stay. He suddenly thought that maybe he should try to contact Lewis's son and daughter. Then he realised that he did not have their contact details. He decided that he would mention it to Innocent later.
Hathaway hesitated, uncertain of what to do. Unbidden, a memory rose in his mind – of a burning house, the stench of smoke in his nose, the acrid taste in his mouth, the certainty that he was dying as his consciousness slipped away, and then on waking up in hospital, weak, hurting, but alive…the relief of seeing a familiar face, a face that held no judgment against him and had been there for him… only later had he found out that his boss, who he considered to be slow and out of shape, had entered that burning building and carried him out, and sat with him until he had regained consciousness…Hathaway pulled back from the raw emotions the memory evoked.
He reached out, pulled up a chair, sat down, and waited.
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Hours passed, and Hathaway continued his vigil. He had no idea who the attacker was and if the woman had known Lewis, and had seen fit to try to kill him, then she might be capable of anything. He wished Lewis would wake up and tell him who it was. It was definitely the cleaner – Maria Brookville – but without any photographic identification, or better yet the woman herself, Hathaway had no idea who she really was.
He had tried getting the hospital staff to give a description, but, as one nurse had rather arrogantly put it, 'she was just a cleaner'. None of them had paid much attention to her, and in her blue uniform with a headscarf, he had not even been able to establish the colour of her hair.
Innocent had dropped by for a few minutes nearly an hour ago. She had advised Hathaway to go home, get some sleep, eat and shower. He had agreed to do so and then not moved. Innocent had also said that she thought Lewis had returned to the hospital as they had not obtained a statement from the cleaner after discovering the body.
Lewis had obviously spotted this omission, as the cleaner was the person who had most likely been the last person to see Anita Rogers alive. The address that they had for Maria Brookville was a small flat in a council block, and, when the uniformed officers had broken in, they found nothing – a squatter's paradise. Wherever Maria had been living, it was not at the address she had given to the hospital.
Eventually, exhaustion and hunger won out, and Hathaway stood up. He glanced down at Lewis, a heavy feeling in his chest.
"I'm sorry, sir," he said, quietly, "I'll be back as soon as I can…"