It was the beeping sound that woke him.
Brian thought the bed didn’t feel right. Something about the angle. He opened his eyes. The light was bright, too bright to be his room at home. There was a machine next to the bed emitting beeps. It was all lights and numbers.
He tried sitting up to have a look around. Not a good idea. The movement made his head hurt. His right leg hurt, too. It was attached to something solid lower down in the bed but he couldn’t see what it was. He collapsed back onto the pillow.
Where the hell was he?
A woman dressed in white came in and did something that stopped the beeping noise.
‘Where am I?
She left without answering his question, as if she hadn’t heard him.
A few minutes later, a man dressed in a grey suit appeared at the end of his bed. Brian had no idea who he was.
‘Where am I?’
‘Somewhere safe,’ said the man. ‘You’ve had a lucky escape.’
‘What are you talking about?’ said Brian.
‘You were fished out of the river with a rope around your leg.’ The man sat down on the chair next to the bed. ‘Want to tell me how you got into the river, Mr Waterman?’
Brian closed his eyes. He’d never thought skimming a few hundred grams every now and then to sell on the side would lead to Rozza throwing him off the Maynard Bridge with a fifty kilogram weight tied to his leg.
‘Who are you?’
‘Detective Sergeant Redden,’ said the man, holding out a card Brian couldn’t read. ‘You’re lucky whoever dropped you in the river doesn’t know much about knots. Want to tell me who that is?’
‘I jumped,’ said Brian.
‘You know they’ll try again, don’t you, Mr Waterman?’
Not if I can help it, thought Brian. Besides, Rozza would owe him one if he didn’t rat on him, and that would cancel his debt. In fact, he’d have something over Rozza for a change.
‘Don’t know what you’re talking about, Sergeant. I’m the one who didn’t tie the knot properly.’
Detective Sergeant Redden handed Brian a card. ‘If you change your mind, you can get me on this number.’
No chance of that, thought Brian, as the policeman left his room.
Ten minutes later, the nurse came back in and adjusted his bed so he could sit up. ‘Your wife is here to see you, Mr Waterman.’
‘I don’t have a wife,’ said Brian, but she’d already gone.
A young woman dressed in black with a scarf covering her hair came into the room and leant over the bed. ‘Hello, Darling. What have you done to yourself this time?’
Before Brian could respond, she placed a hand over his mouth and leant down close to his ear. Brian felt a sharp pain in his neck.
‘A gift from Rozza.’
‘What?’
But she was gone.
The machine beeped loudly. Its light display a flat line.
Featured image photo by Jair Lázaro on Unsplash used under Unsplash licence