Chapter 22
Four hours later, Lucas had woken up again. He was feeling much better and, to Matt's delight, he wasn't going to be kept in over night.
"Well that's a lucky break; I don't have to explain to your doctor friend why I haven't brought you back with me if I go back tonight!" Matt joked.
"I bet she's going to want to poke and prod me a lot when I get back though. It seems like it's a favourite pastime of hers." Lucas grumbled.
"Sounds interesting," Matt remarked. "Well, this is Baz's room. Number 208." He noticed that Lucas had gone pale and was worried that Lucas might faint again, sat him down on a near by chair. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I… I don't know if I can go in there! I mean, after the fight and all… What if he never wakes up…? Or he wakes up and he's brain damaged or something… What if…?" Lucas put his face in his hands and began to cry. He looked heartbreakingly small and innocent that Matt couldn't help but gather the crying bundle up and hug him close to himself.
"Hey, you're worrying too much about the 'what ifs'. You know Baz. He's a survivor and he's gonna pull through this." Matt comforted. "Life is like an adventure playground and at the moment Baz is under a monkey bar and he can't quite do this monkey bar by himself and needs our help to get his head over the bar because this bar is a bit bigger than the other bars he's been handed before. He needs our help to reach down through the bars and lend him a helping hand. That's all. He'll be fine."
"What happens if he's not?" Lucas asked drearily, but the hope had returned into his eyes.
"He will. I'm sure about it." Matt reassured the youth.
"Stupid monkeys. Why can't they keep their bars to themselves?" Lucas asked, deadly serious.
"I don't know. You'll have to ask a monkey about that one." Matt replied, chuckling slightly. "You ready to go in now?" Lucas nodded.
***
Lucas was petrified. This was the closest he had been to Baz in the last couple of days and, even though he was unconscious, he was still nervous about the meeting. Emily and Barry were already inside. Matt and Lucas crept inside, not wanting to disturb the silence.
"Hey Lucas, how you doing?" Barry asked from Baz's bedside. "You gave me a shock when these two told me what happened."
"I'm okay now thanks." Lucas replied, walking slowly to where Baz lay.
He stopped when he could see the pale, lifeless form that was Baz. He was shocked. He didn't even know so much medical equipment existed and it was all connected to Baz. The teen had never seen him looking so quiet, it was almost unnatural. Retreating a couple of steps, Lucas bumped into Matt, who led him to a chair next to Emily. Emily hugged Lucas comfortingly, while Matt swapped places with Barry at the bed side. Matt gently sighed; he knew it would take a long time for Lucas to get used to being in the same room with Baz.
***
By the time visiting hours had ended, Lucas still hadn't plucked up the courage to go near Baz. He just sat in the corner, almost as pale and lifeless as Baz was and stared into space. He refused to even talk to anyone.
After being thrown out of the room, they were immediately confronted by two detectives. Lucas shrunk back behind the group. He knew from past experience that detectives wanting to speak to them usually meant bad news. He was right.
"Can we talk to you in private, please?" The first one asked.
They consented and were led into the relative's room again. Sitting down in chairs opposite the two detectives, they were questioned about the accident. Since none of them had been at the scene, the detectives went straight to the point.
"I think what happened to Mr Sunderland was no accident. I think that it was set up to make it seem like an accident, but we have found out otherwise." Benson, the first detective delivered the bad news.
"Not an accident? Who would want to hurt Baz?" Matt asked, shocked for the second time that day.
"Well, we found a couple of notes in the back of his pocket when he was brought in and, upon examining the box which fell on him was too heavy to have accidentally fallen down. It took two men to get it off him in the first place." Paulson added.
"Do any of you recognise these notes? These were found in his back pocket." Benson asked, laying out two notes in plastic bags on the table in front of them. They read "Keep what you value nearby, or YOU'll be the one to pay! And "Don't trust people to look after your valuables, they always come back damaged."
Emily, Barry and Matt all shook their heads to the policeman's question. Lucas stared intently at the first letter, too scared to say anything. The policeman noticed Lucas didn't say anything and asked him,
"Do you know anything about these notes? It might help us to catch whoever did this if you do."
Lucas snapped out of his trance and shook his head, too frightened to do anything else. His gaze remained fixated on the note. Benson didn't accept Lucas's answer but figured that he had put enough pressure on the kid already.
"Well, if you do remember anything, you can contact us on this number." Here he passed a business card to Matt. "I need a current address for all of you and I'm afraid you can't leave the country for any reason. Is that understood?" He sternly explained.
"Well, at the moment we're staying at the Ocean View Hotel for conferences. You can reach us all their." Barry explained, and gave their names and room numbers.
"Ok, I'll be in contact soon." They shook hands and the friends exited the room.
After they had gone, the policemen talked about their suspicions.
"I think that kid was lying when he said he didn't know anything about that note." Benson stated.
"Yeah, he definitely knows something. But what else can we do? If we put pressure on him, the others would have yelled at me for putting too much pressure on him. We just have to wait and see if he volunteers any information." Paulson snorted.
"Wolenczak? Why does that name sound so familiar? I've definitely heard that name before. Do background searches on all of them, but especially Wolenczak. I want to know why that name sounds so familiar."
Their discussion over, the pair walked out the room, knowing that wasn't going to be the last discussion they would have with them.
TBC…
Oops! I was reading back and I haven't said why the police moved the traffic. Well, it was because there was an accident on the road and the police were helping moving the traffic along and to clear up the accident. Sorry about the gaps in getting the parts up, only every time I type the log in psswd and addrs, it shuts down the screen.