August (7 page)

Quickly I jumped to the ground and ran for cover beside a tall cupboard, up against a wall.

I tried to shake some of the dust off my clothes, and wiped my face on my sleeve. So far, luck had been with me. But I couldn’t expect it to last.

Not far from my position, thudding feet were running up and down the corridors, voices were panicked and shouting. No doubt the staff were on high alert, wary of the criminal on the loose in the hospital. But they still mustn’t have realised I’d escaped through the ceiling, otherwise they’d be on me in a flash.

Desperate for an idea on my next step, I pulled open one of the cupboard doors. A row of nurses’ uniforms hung inside. My good luck was continuing! I wrenched out a pale-green shirt and pants, and pulled them on over my clothes. I ran my hands through my hair and took a deep breath.

Standing tall and straight, and walking with a confident stride, I made my way down the
corridor
, past dark wards with occasional pools of light over individual beds, past a nurses’ station where two ladies were engaged in deep
conversation
, discussing a patient’s medication, and past a security guard talking very seriously into his walkie-talkie. He didn’t even look up as I walked by.

I sidled into a lift and rode to the ground floor, dreading what I was going to find there. I braced myself when the lift doors parted.

Before me was an elderly guy snoring in a wheelchair, being wheeled by a woman who appeared to be his wife. I stepped out, and while holding the lift doors open for them, I used the opportunity to scan the ground floor, left and right.

There were cops in both directions. But there was only a matter of ten or so metres between me and the exit. Somehow I needed to just make it past the cops.

‘Thanks, dear,’ said the woman. ‘Actually,’ she said, backing out of the lift, ‘would you be an angel and mind him here for a minute or two while I duck into the ladies? Something’s going on in this place, and it’s making me
nervous
! There are too many policemen and women around for this hour of the night,’ she said with a chuckle.

‘Sure,’ I said, taking over the handles from her.

She smiled, then toddled down the hallway towards the toilets. I grasped the wheelchair firmly and steered it away in the opposite
direction
. This would be the perfect cover to get me to the exit.

I wheeled the snoring old gentleman casually past the reception area and towards the large, automatic double doors that led to freedom outside.

I passed the cops without any trouble. There
were five or six of them, huddled in a circle, busy making some sort of plan of attack … and all the while, letting their prey walk right on by.

When I reached the exit I turned the
wheelchair
around and parked it, before silently thanking the old guy asleep in it for the help he’d unknowingly given me.

Through the glass that separated me from outside, the bright lights of the hospital lit up a large circle surrounding the building and the stairs. Just beyond that, half-hidden in the
shadows
of the night, a line of cops waited. Their distinct silhouettes revealed that they were armed, in position and ready to attack.

For a second I thought about backtracking and finding another exit, but a quick look behind me showed that the cops I’d just passed were on the move–in my direction.

I took another deep breath and stepped
outside
the doors. I just had to reach the cover of darkness. How? I had no idea.

I pretended to look down at a non-existent watch on my wrist, in the hope that I could pass as an exhausted nurse leaving a late shift. There was a small gap between the line of cops and the reserved parking area, so I made a beeline for it.

I could sense one or two of the officers stirring, looking up to check me out. But it was when I only had a few steps left to go to reach the corner that I walked straight into Kelvin.

Kelvin!

‘Look out,’ he grunted before sidestepping, and moving on up the stairs, heading back into the hospital. He hadn’t recognised me.

I took another step down, preparing to jump and run for it, when I heard Kelvin’s roar from just a couple of metres behind me.

‘It’s
you!
’ he yelled. His footsteps instantly pounded back down the stairs after me.

I deftly jumped aside to dodge his grip as he tried to leap out and tackle me. I shoved him away and he tumbled down the rest of the steps,
crashing
into the cops below like a bowling ball hitting pins. I launched down the last of the steps in one move, propelling myself with the help of the right handrail. A couple of the cops, caught in the
collision
Kelvin had caused, swung their hands out at my feet as I landed on the concrete. I bolted as fast as I could over and away from them.

They scrambled to their feet, weapons raised, but I’d already made it into the dark.

I ran through the carpark, ducking and
swerving
around parked cars, leaping over speed bumps.

‘Stop, police!’ came a voice over a loudspeaker.

I made a quick left and dropped to the ground, taking cover behind a parked van. Cautiously, I peered around the back bumper bar and then snapped back immediately. Only a few metres away, Kelvin was striding along in the shadows, checking around every car, but what had made me jump was the gun in his hand! Didn’t the other cops realise he was a fake?

Not far behind him, the real police were
closing
in. They’d fanned out, covering wide ground. Their torches zigzagged over the bitumen, searching for a sign of me.

Frantic, I scrambled sideways like a crab, scuttling from car to car, crouched down,
keeping
ahead of Kelvin, and keeping ahead of the police. I was tracing the high fence
surrounding
the hospital grounds, searching desperately for an opening so I could get out, but finally the inevitable happened. I reached the end of the line of cars … There was a tree, and then there was nothing but the exposed bitumen of the emptied lot. I’d run out of cover.

The barking of police sniffer dogs approached.

I’m doomed!

I had nowhere to hide! Keeping low, I
stumbled
across the uneven ground, then took cover behind the lone tree. A few metres away, the
fence separated me from the road into the
hospital
. It was too high to scale. I peered around the tree and saw Kelvin checking under the last of the cars.

Not far behind him were two German shepherds pulling ferociously on chains, held back only by the strength of the two cops behind them.

I turned to Kelvin again. He stood up, looked around, then stared my way.

The headlights and the red tail-lights of the traffic were only a matter of metres away, but the problem was that they were on the other side of this never-ending fence.

The back of the building wasn’t far away, but I’d need to break cover to try and make it over there.

I had to escape. I had to find Gabbi. The only hope she had of staying alive depended on my escape. I had no choice but to run for my life and hope no-one would shoot me in the back.

‘There he is!’

The dogs barked wildly and the police shouted as I ran, chest thumping, praying I’d get out of there alive!

The sound of a thousand sirens began blaring, and the screeching of a fast-approaching vehicle forced me to throw a split-second look behind me.
An ambulance had screamed into view, speeding up the carpark from behind me. The driver was crazy, almost taking out half of my pursuers as it sped towards Casualty at the back of the
building
–the spot I was headed.

The manic ambo caused enough of a
disturbance
to get me safely around the brick corner of the building, but as I continued running, it skidded around the corner, past me, and spun out, stopping in front of me.

I was caught like a deer in headlights.

The driver jumped out and ran to the back of the vehicle, flinging open the doors.

I had no time to waste on figuring out what to do. I’d have to run past him and hope my
pursuers
would lose me, for a few seconds at least, behind the ambulance’s bulk.

As I ran past its wide-open double doors, a strong hand lunged out and grabbed me, and before I knew what was happening, I was slammed against the ambulance. Winded, I gasped for breath.

‘Quick, Cal!’ The paramedic who’d grabbed me spoke in a low, urgent voice. ‘Get onto the stretcher! Let’s get you out of here!’

‘What?
Who are you?’ I gasped.

‘Do you want to get out of here or not? Just do what I say!’

The stranger let go of me and pulled a stretcher out of the back of the ambulance, and lifted up the white sheet that was spread across it.

I hesitated. Was this another plot? I had Kelvin, the cops, two German shepherds, and hospital security chasing me, and now a
stranger
was offering me eleventh hour help. Before I could make a decision, the stranger grabbed me, threw me onto the narrow bed, and covered me with the sheet. I struggled, but he pushed me down again.

The shouting and barking of my hunters was almost upon us.

‘I’m Nelson Sharkey. I’m here to get you out of this place! Shut up and be still if you want to stay alive!’

‘Release the dogs!’ shouted a voice.

The stretcher started moving and I was shoved into the back of the ambulance. The doors slammed shut.

Within seconds the ambulance, with me inside it, rocketed away.

The yells and cries of those searching for me faded. The thumping of my heart eased. I grasped the edge of the stretcher with both hands as we hurtled away, siren blaring.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened! I lay under the sheet, weak with relief.

I’d been saved! By the ex-detective who’d offered me help ages ago on my blog! I’d pretty much ignored him, unable to trust anyone, and then just when everything seemed hopeless, Nelson Sharkey had come through for me!

Nelson Sharkey’s voice called out from the front of the ambulance.