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.