PADS #39

‘Well, I was first on scene at 68 Hill Rise at about three o’clock this afternoon.’

‘It's the same address as victim number one. I mean Mr.Perrin.’ blurted out Rowlands.

‘Yes well done Rowlands, now please Karen, carry on.’ said Wyse.

‘Well, he was lying at the bottom of the stairs with his left leg at the most peculiar angle.’

‘A fracture then, was it femur, tibia or fibula?’ interjected Georgina who was widely acknowledged as the most knowledgeable with regards to the medical world, but remained a mystery as to why she hadn't pursued a doctors career with such encyclopaedic knowledge.

‘Yes everything.’ said Karen

‘Sorry I don't understand, what do you mean everything?’ responded Georgina.

‘All of his leg bones were broken his femur, his fibula, his tibia, every bone in his left leg was shattered. It looked like it had been stamped on by an elephant.’

‘But he had fallen down a flight of stairs, so it is quite possible to cause such injuries especially when one is of a certain age and what of his other injuries?' enquired Georgina.

‘No that's it, just one very smashed left leg.’ replied Karen.

‘Impossible!’ said Georgina, ‘such injuries would be associated with other trauma to the patient, they couldn't possibly be such severe isolated injuries. Are you sure you didn't miss anything?’

Although not intentional the conversation had now centred upon Karen and Georgina and both had set themselves ready to lock horns.

‘No, there was nothing else obvious,’ replied Karen whose shadow now sat forward and placed both hands firmly upon the ping pong table to lean past Elms, who was pretending not to be in the middle and wishing he hadn’t thought it was safe to sit back down at the table.

Georgina mirrored Karen's posture, ‘you've missed things before remember, obvious things.’

There had been many moments where silence had intervened upon the group through surprise or shock. However the silence now surrounding the room was made by people who didn't want to be part of the silence and didn’t want to be anywhere near the reason for the silence. Elms had stopped pretending not to be in the middle, by praying he wasn't in the middle and even Rowlands wasn’t going to interrupt this now very private conversation.

Karen sucked in a long breath, at least that's what Wyse had hoped the noise was as the only light source was coming from the projector screen and the Béla Lugosi lighting wasn't helping anyone’s imagination. He was therefore quite surprised not to hear raised voices and was instead nonplussed by the number of small scuffling noises emanating from the general direction of where Karen and Georgina were sitting.

Eventually the locker room light felt brave enough to reappear with tentative help from Carter and an oddly serene sight greeted the Society. Karen and Georgina were sitting quite politely with Elms in between them, as if nothing amiss had occurred. It was fortunate thought Wyse, no one was prepared to mention the fact Karen and Georgina had somehow miraculously swapped seating positions. They had also hastily applied some very convincing blusher upon their cheeks and readjusted their hair before the lights had come back on.

In fact the only person who looked like they needed to explain something was a stunned and bewildered Elms, who seemed to have been dragged backwards through a bush.

PADS #38

‘Why have you got so many feathers Miss Peterson?’ asked Wyse.

‘It's Karen all right, were not at school,’ said Karen.

Wyse had always found it difficult to address his colleagues on such an informal first name basis. He believed at work a professional dignified barrier should always be maintained. He could hardly be blamed for what people’s surnames were and had always maintained this was how colleagues should be addressed. Despite his best endeavours though, the female colleagues had somehow had engineered it so they were almost exclusively called by their first names, whilst male colleagues were called by their surnames.

This had led to some very uncomfortable mess room conversations, where if you had not known better the distinction between adults and children talking would have been based on what sex you were. Unfortunately thought Wyse, it was all too often the male colleagues who were viewed as children because of this distinction between first name or surnames.

Wyse would have also once argued that the Ambulance Service was definitely not like being at the school he had attended. He had though come to recognise many similar traits with what he had read of the current state of schooling today. Both teachers and ambulance officers were no longer respected by those under their charge, leading to a breakdown in order and discipline on a much broader spectrum, one which threatened to affect the very fabric of society. In fact the only real difference he could see, was that there wasn’t as much sex in the Ambulance Service. The use of proper titles when addressing colleagues, was therefore of paramount importance to maintaining standards.

‘Do, er, carry on Mi...Kar....’ stuttered Wyse, ashamed of himself under the steely gaze of Karen.

            ‘Those gits from South London must have stuck them on me, the place was covered in feathers. The dead man was lying on top of them. I thought it was odd how they kept on congratulating me for always being first on scene, gits they distracted me when they found the dog collar.’

‘The what?’ said Rowlands.

‘You know the white and black thing priests wear round their necks but it was pretty old, they found it in his pocket, I've been working all day with these feathers on my back, looking like a bleedin’ ostrich.’ said Karen removing them from her person.

‘Goose actually.’

‘What!’ fumed Karen.

‘They're goose feathers.’ replied Elms, hastily standing up and taking an involuntary step away from the ping pong table and more importantly Karen.

‘That's disgusting calling Karen a goose who is ripe for plucking,’ Rowlands gleefully added.

‘What!’ shouted both Karen and Elms in unison at Rowlands, who shirked away.

‘Enough.’ demanded Wyse, ‘now Karen please put the cannulas away and explain to us about what happened to Mr.Barker and the feathers.

PADS #37

Wyse had already dissolved the Society and had made it quite clear nothing would make him change his mind but here laid out before him were two murders he knew it was his destiny to solve. To abandon the victims to memory and allow the perpetrator to escape was unthinkable but to change his stance now might have serious consequences for his group of fledgling detectives. Applying pure reasoning to the problem a solution clarified the situation, taking a deep breath he started.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, I have decided to reopen the case. We are now investigating file zero zero one and zero zero two and there is to be no blame attached to Karen for the earlier confusion and the premature closure of the case.’

‘What blame?’ came an indignant voice from the darkness.

‘Now then there’s no need for thanks. I officially announce PADS, is now once again in full operational service.’

Not a whisper or a murmur emanated from the group, ah he thought, they are fighting their emotions, battling with their inner demons, a tear escaped from his eyes and rolled gently down his cheek as the lights came back on.

‘Are you crying?’ said Carter.

‘No, of course not it just...’

‘Ahh...tissue!’ exploded Rowlands in a dramatic fashion picking up a small number of white feathers off Karen’s fleece and quite obviously throwing them into the air, ‘it’s those feathers you've got stuck on the back of your fleece, they're affecting everyone its probably allergies.’

‘Yes, the feathers.’ Wyse said, plucking one of the white feathers from the air.

Looking down he noticed the source of the feathers did indeed seem to be coming from Karen’s fleece, which was hung on the back of her chair. It looked as if it had been tarred and feathered for some heinous crime against fashion, which of course, all National Health Service uniforms were guilty of.

PADS #36

‘Doctor was Dr. Toms.’ said Carter, with a slight deferential nod towards Karen which was met with a noncommittal grunt.

‘Also a member of the Praetorians.’ this time the nod from Carter was directed towards Marina and was met by a silent giggle.

The bullet points were filling up, Dr.Toms, Praetorians, bucket on head. The squares changed on the screen, details of victim number two now filled the box next to Mr. Perrin’s details and the bottom two squares had merged into one large box with bullet points as the similarities were entered.

‘Now victim number two Sebastian Barker, Dr. Tom again and the Praetorians as well. No crime scene pictures I'm afraid,’ accused Carter glancing at Karen, ‘and manner of death, unknown?’

Wyse read Karen’s patient report from, it was immaculately completed. Every box had been marked precisely within the square and all the patient details were clearly completed, if nothing else her paperwork was exceptional. The friend who they had met that morning now had a name, Sebastian Barker. It was disconcerting to think his last memories of the man would be the emotional mess he had abandoned at the cottage in the early hours, a man who desperately needed to help and he had simply walked away.

‘I didn't know it was going to be a murder and definitely, no way could I have known it was related to the priority one purple plus text message.’ defended Karen.

A general ambiguous noise and disapproving shaking of heads flowed around the ping pong table.

‘Anyway, the ambulance crew who turned up were from South London and you all know what they're like, especially if I had started to take pictures of the scene and all,’ continued Karen, ‘they’re impossible to deal with.’

At this a muttering of approval and general head nodding swept vigorously the other way round the ping pong table, creating a very disappointing Mexican wave. After a few moments silence surrounded the room.

Up until that point a momentous amount of pressure had been swelling within the room taking everyone along the roller coaster ride of detective manship but the head of steam which had built up had quickly fizzled out. It required someone to either stoke the boiler again or call for the end of the line. Even in the darkness Wyse knew all eyes were turned upon him, waiting for his decision.

PADS #35

The arguing between Elms and Rowlands was threatening to turn violent, at least by Elms who had started shouting and was leaning menacingly forward whilst Rowlands although holding his ground  had started to squeak.

‘They shared the same doctor.’ piped up Karen.

The confidential papers which had started the argument had been separated and spread round the rest of the group who had  ignored the escalating debate between Elms and Rowlands. They were busily examining the paperwork and furiously making notes, which they passed to Carter who continued tapping on his laptop.

‘And they were both members of the Praetorians.’ said Karen.

‘The what?’ queried Marina.

'Um, Praetorians a religious lot I guess, that's what's been entered for their religion it's all on the form.’ replied Karen.

‘Right, I've entered all the information onto the laptop and it’s also accessible from our web site.’ added Carter with a smirk as he tapped the keyboard and the room was plunged into darkness once more.

The projector screen flickered back into life and two columns displayed details of each man and their manner of death. Wyse was grateful for the sudden darkness and illumination which distracted him from having to ask Carter about the web site but also the effect upon the two arguing combatants which bought them to a sudden ceasefire. Although it seemed Elms had been dragged down by both Karen and Marina, whereas Rowlands had simply slumped down into his chair.

Carter resumed by reading aloud from the screen, ‘Our first victim Jack Perrin, aged eighty two.’

Carter leaned back into his chair casually tapping the laptop and split the screen into four displays. One contained the details of Jack Perrin and the adjacent square contained a still picture of the murder scene. The bottom two squares held a close up of Mr. Perrin, with bucket on his head in one and the final fourth square contained several bullet points which were magically filling in.