“Right, well I’ll go get this Doctor then shall I - to come and say her piece - to all of us? As far as we’re concerned Seb you are family.” I sigh in relief, watching Mac disappear in the direction of the doors, and feel Nathan pat my shoulder in comfort again.
“Where was she?”
I look at Nina’s anguished face and understand her worry. “She was on her way home from work and apparently some idiot ran her off the road, or so the coppers are saying. When they arrived at the scene – hers was the only vehicle there.”
“So how do the police know she was run off the road?” Abby interjects.
“Because, Abs, there were witnesses – apparently a dog walker described a car tailing her before the bridge on Wagon Lane and then a couple of other witnesses described a dark car driving alongside of her, racing, until they met oncoming traffic. She was shunted into a wall so the idiot could save himself.”
“Oh my poor girl. Are the Police here?”
“Don’t worry, Nina. I’ve spoken to them and there will be an investigation, but I just wanted to be here for Lu.”
“Of course, hunny – we can sort all that out later. Broken cars can be fixed but bones are more tricky.”
“Seb can I have a word?” I look up as Abby waves me over and we excuse ourselves, moving a little further down the hall. “I need to tell you something.”
“What’s up Abby?”
“Ok. Lu and I met a few days ago and she was worried – she’d been feeling a bit freaked out about being watched, you know?”
“No, Abs I don’t – what are saying?”
“I don’t know whether I should tell you – maybe we should wait until Lu wakes up and then she can discuss it with you. It might be nothing… this was a bad idea. I think I’ll wait…”
“Abby! - For fucks sake - your killing me here. What is the problem? If you have information that could shed light on what’s happened tonight, spill it now - we’ll deal with any repercussions later.” I soften my voice as I assess her pale face. “Please, Abs.”
“For weeks she’s felt like she’s being watched – at first she thought it was all in her head, then she started noticing a car, a dark car, parked outside her house. She’s felt she was watched at your house on a few occasions, and at the party at the Ashton – it was all starting to stress her out and she mentioned it to me yesterday for the first time. She said she thought things had gone missing and that maybe someone had been in the house? You don’t think this is something to do with it, do you? Oh God. I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything yesterday.”
My skin blisters with goosebumps as her words wash over me. What the hell had Lu been hiding from me? Is this what she’d been trying to tell me? I shake off my own concerns and out on my best brave face, slipping an arm around Lu’s best friend in thanks for her breaking the girl-code and give her cheek a kiss as we walk back to the others. “Thanks for telling me Abs – I’ll look into this. It’s probably nothing to worry about but I’m glad you told me.”
“Do you think?”
“I don’t know but I’ll get to the bottom of it. I promise.”
With a weak smile she nods. “Oh and there’s something else…”
More, really? “Right?”
“That same day Lu told me she was pre…”
Suddenly, the commotion to our right, drowns out any words Abby is trying to communicate, as Mac returns with the surgeon, interrupting any further discussions. All current conversations are forgotten.
“Right, are we all here? I have a surgery that can’t wait, so I’ll get right to it if that’s OK.” We all nod in rapt silence. “Ok. Ms Myers suffered a dislocated wrist and a difficult fractured scaphoid, which we have re-set in surgery - it will heal nicely - now it has been put back into place. She has minor cuts and bruises, which have been stitched where necessary, in particular to her temple, where we had one of our plastic surgeon team sort her wound - it should heal with minimal scarring. When she was admitted, she was initially unconscious, due to a nasty bang to the skull, we will monitor her for the after effects of that and she has a nasty concussion, but I am not concerned about swelling to the brain… now.”
“Thank God for that.” Nina’s interruption says what everyone else is thinking.
“However, on admittance her blood pressure was dangerously low and all her observations in A&E led us to a possible internal bleed. We reacted quickly and in Theatre we finally localised the bleeding and its culprit. We resolved things and her blood pressure returned to a more manageable level.”