TRIXIE CHAPTER 23

He waited in his car till it was well after 10 am when the hospital was the busiest due to changing shifts of the hospital staff and visitors coming in to visit their loved ones. He put his purloined items in his bag of tricks and got out of his car.

He was careful not to show too much of his limp. He went inside, straight to the Male Restroom.

Thirty minutes later no one paid attention to the utility worker dressed in hospital blue overalls with his short black hair, a drooping mustache, and bushy eyebrows. He went to the utility room and took out a cart with a pail of rags. There were bottles and cans of detergent and cleaning liquid; it was also equipped with a bin covered with a big sheet of black plastic.
This was for collection of trash from the tall metal trash cans lined along the hospital corridors.

He pushed the cart along and went straight inside the lift and pressed the button for the 2nd floor.

"Hey, Hey." Someone's hand pressed the stop button inside.

Another utility worker looked at him and said, 'hey don't know you're not supposed to use this elevator, err..." he peered at Logan's ID on his uniform,
" Gomez?"

'Gomez' said, "Sorry, didn't know, I'm new here, was working outside most of the time."

"Never mind, just get out before the doctors see you. You use the elevator at the back, see go straight and you can see it. Remember, do not use elevators with blue doors, utility elevators are grey. Alright?"

"Yes, sir, thank you." 'Gomez' shuffled off with his utility cart.
He reached the elevator and went in, he pressed for the 2nd floor.

He took his time, he stood near the lift and he took a cloth and a squeeze bottle of detergent from the cart and started wiping the glass windows on the 2nd floor.

He made his way towards the room 502 where he saw the girl with the three men. He knew that at least one man had been seriously injured by him. He wondered if he was dead. He saw his face clearly when he tried to stab him; he knew him.
He saw that the door was closed and a 'No Entry" was posted near the door.

One of the nurses saw him and called out to him,
"Hey, you. What happened? We called for cleaning some time ago. Wait, I'll get the key."

'Gomez' froze, 'Shit, shit, they expect me to clean the room?'

He started to push his cart away; "Hey you, where do you think you're going?" the nurse came hurrying back.

"Umm.. not supposed to clean rooms, only wipe the glass windows and elevator doors." he said.

"No, way, we've waited for the janitorial staff for some time now; you have to clean it."
The nurse stood her ground with arms akimbo.

"I don't have the equipment to clean, just look inside, only rags and detergent to clean windows. Go and get someone else." He insisted.

The nurse didn't believe him and look into his cart, sure enough there was only rags and detergent bottles in the cart.
"You'd better go and call your people to come, otherwise I will complain to your supervisor.

"I don't know who to call, I'm new here, I've been sent here to clean windows and elevator doors only. I originally worked in the gardens and outside compounds. I'm sorry. If you call my Supervisor, you'll get me into trouble. I've got a family to feed."

He then got an idea, "What happened, don't you have regular cleaners?"

"Something happened in there, only this morning the Police let us clean the room, the regular cleaners have gone from their rounds."

"Okay…. Look I'll do what I can, but if the people needed to use the room….."

"Oh, never mind, the people have been moved to another room."

'Why thank you little missy, now I know they are not here.' He thought gleefully.
"Ok then, you call the supervisor, sorry I can't help you." He shuffled off with his cart to clean another part of the second floor. This way, he could find where they were moved.

The nurse gave his disappearing back a look of annoyance and left.

He saw people going up and down the corridors, doctors, nurses and even visitors to this floor.
He went further and he saw a man sitting on a bench facing room 502.

He was curious; he wiped the windows a bit nearer to the Room 502.

There's someone watching Room 502, probably a plain clothes policeman.

Maybe this was the room the little girl was in. He bided his time, after all, he's the window cleaner and he would wait and see who comes out or goes into that room.

ooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoo

The Doctor checked his injury and told Don that it was mending nicely despite the missing stitches. He again reminded him not to move his shoulder or hand. He gave instructions for the nurse to clean the injury and he told Don to "Stay in bed, young man, not walking out of the room, you are not, no, no, no."
The good doctor emphasized by shaking his finger at Don and after that he wrote something in the chart.
The nurse beside him smiled and took the chart that the doctor handed her.
"OK, I go off now and see you in two days' time."
Don thanked him and muttered 'hope not.'

The Doc went out leaving the nurse to clean and bandage his shoulder.

There was knock on the door and the nurse called out," Hold on."
She left Don's side and went to the door and told the person at the other side to give her another five minutes and she would be done.

She completed the bandaging, collected soiled bandages and she told Don that he had a visitor and she would send him in.
Don muttered a thank you and later David popped his head in and asked.
"Decent?"

"Yea, yea, come on in David."

ooOOoOoOoOoOoOoo

Meanwhile a window cleaner was looking with interest at the comings and goings of Room 502.

First he saw a tall Asian doctor coming out of the room.
Then he saw a tall bald African-American knocking on the door and waited while a nurse poked her head out and said something to him and went back inside.
The man waited and then he saw the person sitting on the opposite bench. He approached him and showed him something, the man on the bench talked to the bald man and he too showed him something. They shook hands and the nurse came out.

The nurse came out carrying a covered tray and the bald man popped his head in and went into the room.
The man on the bench did not move from his place.

He continued with his wiping and waited. And if anyone was curious, they would have noticed that the window cleaner was cleaning the same window for the past twenty minutes.

The window cleaner bent down to retrieved something from the bottom of the cart. It was a short metal rod. He took it and hid it on back of his trousers, covered by his shirt.

Tbc

A/N: My thanks to Mikis