Chapter 6: Another attempt on George's life
A few hours later, George emerged from the operating room where he had the lodged bullet removed from his shoulder. He was then placed in a room where a nurse and doctor will be monitoring his condition once every two hours.
By then, only Higgins, Doctor Grace and Jackson were at the hospital, waiting for George to wake up. They were all seated on a bench at the reception, a few rooms away from George's room.
It didn't take long for the three of them to fall asleep on their chairs.
A few moments later, Higgins has woke up, unable to get some sleep from thinking about his friend and colleague.
As Higgins got up and looked around, he was planning to use the nearby washroom when he spotted a figure in the shadows near George's room.
The figure looked around and then took out something that looked like a thin tube before entering George's room.
Higgins frowned. "That's odd. Isn't George's room supposed to be off limits to visitors?" He wondered.
Armed with his baton, he quietly made his way to George's room.
As he enters, he was shocked to see a man about to inject something into George through a needle!
"Hey you, sir!" He shouted as he stormed towards the man.
The man looked up and saw the approaching constable and tried to race out of the room, but Henry stood in his way, so he then tried to use the needle on him.
However, Henry managed to knock the needle off the man's hand by using his baton, causing the needle to break on the floor.
At this moment, Emily and Jackson woke up from the glass shattering coming from George's room.
"What was that?" Emily asked. "And where's Constable Higgins?"
"George may be in trouble. Come on!" Jackson replied before he and Emily raced towards George's room.
The duo entered to see Higgins in a scuffle with a man, with broken glass pieces that once formed the part of a needle shattered around them with a pool of liquid.
"Higgins!" Jackson shouted. "What's going on?"
"Help me first, Jackson!" Higgins replied urgently.
Soon, the man that attempted to inject something into George was subdued by Jackson and handcuffed as Emily went to check on George.
"What happened, Constable Higgins?" She asked.
With a hint of anger in his voice, Higgins replied, "This man was trying to inject poison into George!"
Later in the morning, George's room was filled once again by lads from Station Houses Four and Three, along with Inspector Brackenreid and Detective Murdoch.
"Good thinking, Higgins." Brackenreid praised once Higgins finished his account on what had happened in the early morning.
As the lads took the man into custody, Higgins turned to Murdoch, "You know, sir, I've got a feeling that there's someone who is conspiring with these two men to kill George."
Murdoch nodded. "I agree, Henry. Two attempts on George's life on the same night is something beyond a coincidence."
"We better find the bloody coward that planned this." Brackenreid huffed angrily. He then turned to the lads and added, "I want two men guarding Crabtree's room at all times until we get to the bottom of this bloody business!"
Back at Station House Four, the lads were doing their work as usual with two constables on guard at George's room when the chief constable arrived. He has been informed of the events that has transpired by Inspectors Davis and Brackenreid.
The new chief constable has replaced Chief Constable Giles following the uncovering of Giles' past and involvement in the murder of a constable back in 1881. He appeared to be quite young, with much of his dusty-brown hair chased away by the grey. While neither Murdoch nor Brackenreid have much interaction with the man since his promotion a few months back, they learned that the man is more reasonable than Giles despite his no-nonsense personality when it comes to policing.
As he arrived at the station house, all of the lads noticed that he was accompanied by Constable Lawson.
"As you can all see, gentleman, Constable George Crabtree was shot yesterday evening at the park and just this early morning, there has been another attempt on his life." The chief constable begin. "As Inspector Brackenreid and Detective Murdoch suggested, having two failed attempts on the constables life in the same night is something beyond a coincidence. That certainly tells me, and I'm pretty sure all of you will agree, that there is someone out there that wants Constable Crabtree dead."
He then turned to Brackenreid and Murdoch and said, "I want you to make apprehending the man behind these murder attempts your top priority, gentlemen. I want you to show that coward that attempting to take the life of an officer of the law will not be tolerated!"
The chief constable then turned to Lawson and added, "In the meantime, Constable Gregory Lawson from Station House Three will take Constable Crabtree's place in the station house until he is fully recovered and the mystery cleared up."
After booking the man that was caught attempting to inject poison into George, Murdoch decided to pay a visit to the hospital again, accompanied by Higgins and Lawson.
Doctor Grace was sitting in George's room the whole morning and was still praying that he wakes up when the trio arrived.
"Doctor Grace." Murdoch said as he, Higgins and Lawson entered the room. "How's George doing?"
"He's condition has improved a little bit, but there's no telling when will he get out of his coma." Emily replied.
Murdoch nodded. Before he could say something, three figures entered the room.
Turning, Murdoch noted that they were the Brooks'.
"Detective Murdoch." Edna said as she saw Murdoch.
"Mrs. Brooks." Murdoch nodded. Looking at Simon and Archibald, he added, "Sergeant Brooks, Simon. How are you?"
"We're doing alright." Sergeant Brooks replied. "As soon as we received the news on George getting shot, Simon insisted that we come see him."
It was then that the trio noticed that Emily was also there. "Uh, who's the lady with Uncle George?" Simon asked.
Turning to Emily, Murdoch realized that the Brooks haven't been introduced to Doctor Grace.
"Oh, um, Doctor Grace." Murdoch says, getting Emily's attention. As Emily looked at Murdoch, he gestured to each of the Brooks and said, "I will like you to meet Sergeant Archibald Brooks, his wife Mrs. Edna Brooks and his son Simon Brooks. They're all friends of George."
Turning to the Brooks, he added, "Sergeant Brooks, Mrs. Brooks, Simon, I'll like you to meet Doctor Emily Grace. She's the city's coroner and is also a friend to George."
Each of the Brooks offered their hand to Emily as Archibald said, "It's nice meeting you, Doctor."
"Likewise, Sergeant Brooks." Emily nodded as she shook hands with Archibald.
It was then that Edna said to Archibald, "Archie, Simon and I are going to step outside for a talk with the doctor."
"Alright, suit yourself, Edna." Archibald nodded and then nodded at Emily, who then got up and joined Edna and Simon outside.
Wonder what is Doctor Grace going to talk to Edna and Simon about?
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