Chapter 17

Frank was at the wheel, blocking the powerful aggravation that was seriously threatening to spill forth into a giant torrent of cuss words. He technically should not have been driving any faster than 30 mph, but he was pushing the car up to 35 and it still felt as though they were creeping along. He was grinding his teeth and his jaw was starting to complain.

"Be careful Frank, if the chains come loose, they could damage the car's axle and then we'd be stranded!" Nancy warned.

"What if we remove them?"

"Then we'll be sliding all over the place and risk getting bogged down and stuck."

Frank slapped the wheel. "Have you got your cell phone?" he asked Nancy.

"Only my regular one, the new one is still charging."

"That's the one I meant. Give the hospital a ring and tell them to check on Joe."

"Are you sure you want me to do that – what about your anonymity?" Nancy asked, surprise creeping into her tone.

"Do it. If you phone the hospital rather than Dad or Con then by the time they've realised and traced the call, we'll be long gone. It's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Okay." She found her phone and dialled the number – luckily, she'd had the forethought to save the number after her visit to Joe earlier in the week. After just a couple of rings, it was answered. She gave Joe's details and asked urgently that someone go to his room to ensure he was okay. The voice on the other end promised they would do so immediately and hung up.

They were now within the Bayport boundaries and were very close to the hospital grounds. Another ten minutes and they were pulling up behind the railings as they had earlier on in the evening.

Frank grabbed the binoculars and was out the car and vaulting the fence before Nancy had even exited the car. He trudged up the slight incline and positioned himself behind one of the larger trees, allowing it to partially conceal him from view. He turned his cap around and lifted the binoculars to his face once again.

Nancy appeared at his shoulder. "What can you see?" she whispered.

"There's a dim night-light on. Joe looks asleep and I think it's either dad or Con sitting on one of the chairs." He lowered the glasses and bit his lip. "I think maybe I overreacted," he muttered to himself.

"Whatever! You're not prone to melodramatics," Nancy disagreed, "and anyway, after what's been going on, you're entitled to the odd excess."

"There's movement." Frank suddenly said and raised the binoculars again. "It was Dad in the chair, he's just got up and is leaving the room. We'll just hang fire until he comes back and then we'll head back. It looks like they're keeping a close eye on him, which is a bit of a relief." He lowered the binoculars and wiped the lenses with his scarf before putting them back to his eyes and continuing to watch for another five minutes.

He felt Nancy place her hand against the small of his back to give him a calming rub and smiled down at her. When he returned to the glasses, what he saw caused his shoulders to tense. Nancy evidently noticed.

"What is it?" she asked.

"There's someone in the room…it's not Dad, it looks like an orderly and he's standing next to Joe's bed and…and…he's doing something to the intravenous bag…he's got something in his hand…" he shuffled sideways a couple of steps, trying to get better view. "…Crap – it's a syringe full of something!" he shoved the binoculars into Nancy hands. "Phone Dad, tell him to come back to the room!" he ordered and started racing towards the window.

Nancy sank down onto her haunches and threw the binoculars and her gloves down into the snow. She retrieved her phone and quickly selected Fenton's number. It was answered almost immediately.

"Nancy?" Fenton asked.

"Get back to Joe, something's happening in his room."

"On my way…" he said without questioning her and hung up.

Meanwhile, Frank was now reaching the building and could plainly see the 'orderly' had finished up injecting some sort of fluid directly into the bag and was now proceeding to squeeze it to force it into Joe's arm. The moment Frank was at the window, he began pounding on the glass and yelling his brother's name.

The 'orderly' spun around and immediately fled the scene.

Joe jolted awake, clutched at his side and was just in time to catch sight of the 'orderly's' legs disappearing around the door. He then looked towards the window and squinted. Because the night-light was on, he couldn't really make out who was on the other side of the glass, other than it was a male figure and he was in dark clothing.

"Joe – take the drip out of your arm!" Frank yelled stepping further forward so Joe could see him more clearly.

"Frank?" Joe asked, obviously still full of sleep and confusion.

"The drip – rip it out of your arm, bro!" Frank repeated and smacked the window again in earnest. "That guy added something to the bag – get it out of you!"

Joe shook his head, "What…my antibiotics?" and then finally must have registered exactly what Frank was getting at. He glanced up at the bag and then grabbed the edge of the tape and the line and wrenched it all free, followed by blood, which he stemmed with his hand once he'd thrown the offending article away onto the floor.

Frank's palm was still resting on the window and he gazed at Joe, waiting to see if anything would happen. He figured that some of whatever had been added to the bag must have entered Joe's bloodstream, even though it had only been introduced for a few seconds.

Joe, on the other hand wasn't feeling anything other than delight at seeing his brother on the other side of the glass. He swung his legs out of the bed for the first time since he'd been admitted and gingerly stood to approach, dragging the mobile heart monitor along with him, clipped to his finger. They were now standing eye-to-eye.

"You feeling okay?" Frank asked, less loudly this time.

Joe nodded and slowly grinned. "We got your message," he said.

Frank returned his smile. "Good, I'm sorting that stuff out. Joe, but you and Dad need to be extra vigilant. I'm…" he began, and then had to stop, unable to continue. He swallowed hard and then said, "…I'm sorry you got hauled into this, but I'm working hard on putting everything right..."

"I know you are, dude," said Joe. "You're no quitter."

"…and I didn't mean to freeze you out, but..."

Joe shook his head, "no buts, you have your reasons, I'm sure of that."

"Yeah." Frank rested his forehead against the glass. "Joe, go and hit the emergency button, you don't know what was put into your hand," he advised.

Joe laughed. "But I feel fine!" he insisted, and then immediately pitched backwards onto the floor with an almighty thump.

Frank didn't see that the heart monitor had become instantly detached from Joe's index finger. All he knew was that the machine immediately flat-lined which set off a shrill alarm.

Frank immediately went into a crouch under the window and turned, leaning his back against the wall and covered his face with his hands. It wasn't so much he needed to hide; it was because he didn't want to see. "No…" he mumbled to himself, wondering if his living nightmare was ever going to end, wishing really hard.

Fenton had left in order to go and seek out the hospital staff member who had come to Joe's room to check on him. She had told him that someone had been enquiring after him, but after she'd left, it continued preying on his mind. It seemed strange that someone would phone to ask that type of question at that late an hour – and anyway, why would the nurse come all the way to the room to check on him when she could have just read his notes off the computer?

He was on the other side of the hospital and two floors up when Nancy's call came in. He'd been directed that way by the receptionist on their wing who'd said that the call had probably been taken by the main switchboard a couple of stories up and at the front of the building.

He opened his phone in order to call Con to bounce some thoughts around and almost immediately it started ringing. He could see from his screen that it was Nancy calling. He pressed the green button.

"Nancy?" he asked astounded.

"Get back to Joe, something's happening in his room."

"On my way…" he said without feeling the need to question her further. The tone of her voice told him all he needed to know – he'd made a mistake by leaving his youngest on his own!

He ran down the corridor, dodging gurneys, wheel chairs and other people and hit the button for the elevator. It just didn't seem to want to arrive at his floor, he could see it heading further up, stopping at each floor as it went. He abandoned that route and took to the stairs instead, hurdling them two at a time and exited onto his floor into an area he didn't recognise.

He stopped a member of staff to ask for directions and then ran where he was instructed, hoping he didn't get lost.

To his relief he finally recognised the corridor that led to Joe's room and slid rounded the corner to see his door ajar – not as he had left it, which had been solidly closed. Then there was a thudding noise that emanated from the room, followed by an alarm. He careened through the door and almost fell over his son who was lying flat out on the ground at the foot of his own bed.

The first thing he saw was that Joe's heart monitor was not now attached to his finger, secondly, he saw that the IV line that had been in the back of Joe's hand was now hanging free along with its bag, which was now forming a shallow puddle on the floor. He went to the emergency button and pressed it firmly before returning to Joe. He quickly put his head down and watched his son's chest rise and fall as he breathed.

Satisfied that Joe had probably only passed out he said, "Joe, come on son, wake up." and pulled his knees up to direct blood towards his head.

Almost instantly Joe started to respond and opened his eyes. "Ouch!" he muttered, pressing his hand to the back of his head. "I think I just had the biggest head rush ever!" he said. "That'll serve me right for getting up too quick."

"What are you doing, boy?" Fenton asked. "Are you trying to knock years off me? I leave you for five minutes and you're taking your IV out and going for a walk! What's the big idea?"

"I dunno…what am I doing on the floor?" Joe frowned in his bewilderment. "And what's that alarm all about?"

Doctor Lyndsey entered with two other staff at speed to find out, first why Joe's hard monitor was flat-lining, and secondly why Fenton had pressed the emergency button.

"What's been going on here?" he asked, and knelt down to see what damage, if any, Joe had done to himself. He carefully inspected his bandages but seemed content that all was well. He looked at the other two staff. "Help me get him back into bed," he requested.

"Joe," Fenton said, "I just got a phone call from Nancy telling me to come to your room. Why did she do that?"

"Nancy?" Joe asked. And then the pieces finally slotted into place and he remembered what had happened just before he was out for the count. "Dad, Frank was at my window!"

"You saw Frank?"

"Yeah, outside my window," Joe repeated.

Fenton turned and looked out across the parking lot. He couldn't see anyone there, but there was a line of footprints in the snow that led from the trees down to the road. He turned back, "Did he say anything to you?"

"He said there had been a man in my room." Joe allowed the two staff to help him to his feet. "I didn't see anyone – well, I think I might have seen someone's feet leaving – but Frank shouted that the guy had put something in with my antibiotics and he told me to pull the IV out of my arm. So I did." He was now being half lifted back onto the bed.

Doctor Lyndsey went immediately to the bag, switching off the alarm on the way, and started to inspect it. "Someone told you something had been added to this?" he asked.

"Yeah."

The doctor stemmed the flow of liquid from the line by manually tightening the valve, and then squeezed the bag until he found the puncture. "There is what appears to be a needle mark in the top of it," he confirmed. "Did your brother say what the substance was?"

"No, I doubt that he knew."

"How long was it in your arm after he warned you to take it out?"

"I dunno, couldn't have been longer than half a minute maybe."

Dr Lyndsey unplugged the bag and handed it to one of his assistants. "Take this through to the lab, I want a tox-screen done on it to find out what was added and I want it urgently." He turned to the other assistant. "Go and inform Security about the breach and tell them to search the hospital and grounds for suspicious characters." He addressed Joe again, "Do you feel strange in any way, light headed, sickly, are you in any pain?"

"Other than the back of my hand? No, not really."

The doctor turned to Fenton. "Whatever it was that was added should have been having an effect by now as it was infused directly into a vein." He turned back to Joe, "I'll take a blood sample from you and have it analysed – but be sure to tell me if you start feeling or sense anything is not right, okay?"

"I will," Joe promised.

"And no more walkabouts unless I say so!!"

"Jeeze – I feel like a school kid again!" Joe said and laughed.

Fenton opened up his mobile and began to formulise a text message.