Hastings Hospital

Jack Howard, Police Constable form London, a veteran of over 27 years, he wasn’t interested in promotion, quite content to stay on the beat. He was only looking forward to seeing out his last 18 months before retirement.

When the opportunity arose of a transfer to the quiet coastal town of Hastings he jumped at the chance. It will be perfect for him, no more murderers, drug dealers and rapists to deal with. Looking after a few country bumpkins would be nice and easy plus the location was ideal for him to look for a nice retirement house.

He settled into his new surroundings quickly. On his first full week he was stationed at the small local hospital; unlike the larger towns it wasn’t full of drunken youths knocking lumps out of each other, the hardest things he had to deal with was taking statements from traffic accident victims. Three days into this job he was sitting in his little office drinking his fifth cup of tea of the night and dreaming of what he would be doing once he left the force. Little did he know a chain of events was about to start which would shatter those dreams.

"Officer! Officer!" A shout came from down the corridor "Please come quickly!" Jack grudgingly got his large overweight frame up from the comfort of the chair and headed towards the call.

As he turned the corner at the end of the corridor he saw a group of five nurses standing outside a doorway. "Okay ladies what’s the problem?" Jack asked in his best calming voice.

"There’s been a terrible accident," one of the nurses replied. "It’s Mr Jenkins; one of the patients from Ward B, he’s fallen down the stairs. He’s dead, a broken neck. He seems to have walked out the ward and went into the stairwell by mistake; maybe he was looking for a toilet or something. He is, or rather was, quite old and got confused very easily."

Jack opened the stairwell door to have a look and then sighed to himself. The body of an old man crumpled up, head at a strange angle with his eyes open but totally without life. He wasn’t sighing about the poor man it was much more selfish than that. So much for his peace and quiet, now this would mean lots of statements to take and forms to complete.

"Right ladies, I need to get these stairs locked off whilst we wait for the coroner to come." Jack says as he walks back over to the nurses and then points to the nearest one "Can you deal with that?" She nods and walks off. He now looks at the first nurse he spoke to, "Can you come back to the office with me? I need to start getting some details together." She also nods and starts to follow Jack as he turns around and goes back down the corridor.

They arrive in Jacks office and he offers her a chair whilst he picks up the phone to call the station. The phone conversation is short; the other three officers on duty have been called out to assist a disturbance in the next town. Jack arranges for the Coroner to attend plus for some officers to assist him as soon as they are available.

Jack opens his notebook, introduces himself to the nurse and asks her to tell him all she knows. She takes a deep breath "Hi Jack, my name is Carol Seally, I’m the Senior Nurse for all these wards. The nurses on duty now started their shift at ten p.m. At around half one Clare, that’s Clare Burton one of my girls, came over to my work station and told me she had found Mr Jenkins. After I checked him I called you."

"Mark Jenkins had not been in the area long. He was 69, in for a simple prostate op; he also had early Alzheimer’s and got confused very easily. Now looking back we should have kept a better eye on him."

"Okay thanks Carol," Jack said as he rose from his chair "if you could sort out Mr Jenkins records that will save a bit of time later. You can go now but can you ask Nurse Burton to come and see me please."

Jack interviews the rest of the nurses and it all seems to match up, a simple accident. So that he could finish up his reports and be all set when assistance turned up he went to see the Ward where Mr Jenkins set off from.

Ward B was one floor up and Jack used the lift as the stairs were now sealed off. He quietly went into the ward as all the occupants were still asleep, it was still only four in the morning. He found Mr Jenkins bed; it was the second nearest the door meaning he could have easily got out the ward without disturbing anyone. Jack walked along the corridor to the stairwell. He could see a problem; the route went right past the full length window of Senior Nurse Sealy’s office.

Jack was standing at the window and could see her at the rear of her office with her back to him. He knocks on the door, she replies and he enters.

"Hello again Carol, do you mind if I ask you a couple of more questions?"

"No problem Jack, please sit down, I’m just making a coffee would you like one?" Jack nods and gladly rests his feet.

"Nurse Seally," Jack now seems a bit more serious "I have noticed that Mr Jenkins route would take him by this office and in clear view of the window. Were you in your office all night, if not what times and where were you?" Jack takes a large gulp of his coffee, he is not enjoying this as he has taken a bit of shine to Carol but he did need the answers for his reports.

Carol starts to talk about being so busy checking all the wards and staff that she was hardly ever in her office. Jack slowly begins to feel light headed and this causes his eyes to start to close. Carol spots this and gets up from her seat and takes the cup from Jacks hand.

"My dear Jack." Carol is now washing out the cup. "Yes I did spot Jenkins walking about. He didn’t know what he was looking for; I just gave him a little help to get to the bottom floor. I don’t think you realize how hard it is for low pay people like nurses to be able to afford to buy a house these days. The prices are flying up with guys like Jenkins snapping up all the property just so they can retire near the sea. Oh Jack, you didn’t see me yesterday but I did see you. You were looking in the estate agents windows in the high street, enough is enough."

Jacks eyes closed never to open again.