Gray Salvation by Alan McDermott Read Free Book Online Page B

asked.
    ‘I’m an engineer,’ Gray said, being as vague as possible. ‘Can I get you guys a drink? Coffee?’
    Frank and Sue followed him through to the kitchen, where he tried to put Melissa down, with little success.
    ‘She’s still at that clingy age,’ he apologised, trying to prise her arms from around his neck. Eventually he gave up, and Sue jumped in to do the honours. She took a bag of roasted beans from the hamper and had a jug of strong coffee ready minutes later.
    ‘What about you guys?’ Gray asked. ‘What do you do?’
    Frank explained that they were both retired, and their two children had long since grown up and flown the coop. ‘We lived in Maryland all our lives, but decided to spend our twilight years somewhere warmer.’
    Frank had been in insurance, it turned out, while his wife had been a schoolteacher.
    ‘If Melissa needs any home schooling, or you just want to get away by yourself for a few hours, you know where to find me,’ Sue said with a smile.
    Gray thanked her for the offer and pressed her about the local schools. Sue took great delight in explaining the American education system, and half an hour later he had the names of three local preschools that would take Melissa when she hit three years of age.
    Melissa began to fidget, and Gray explained that he needed to get her down for her nap. Thankfully, his visitors took the hint. They made him promise to pop round whenever he or Melissa needed anything.
    Once they were gone, Gray took his daughter up to her room and set her down on the camp bed, covering her with one half of the open sleeping bag, and he sang her a lullaby until her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
    Back downstairs, he went through the hamper and found tinned ham, jams and a bottle of red wine, as well as a loaf of bread that was still warm and a bag of sweets that he pegged as Melissa’s.
    The first hurdle was now out of the way. He’d met his new neighbours, nobody had died, and although Sue’s voice grated on him and Frank seemed duller than dishwater, he felt confident that he and his daughter would enjoy their new lives in Florida.

Chapter 8
    20 January 2016
    Veronica Ellis hurried along the hospital corridor, following the signs that directed her to the major trauma unit. Once she reached the nurse’s station she asked for Hamad Farsi and was directed to a private room, where she found two uniformed officers chatting outside the door.
    She flashed her ID and asked if anyone else had tried to see the patient.
    ‘No-one except hospital staff, ma’am.’
    ‘Okay, keep it that way.’ She opened the door, then turned back to them. ‘His parents will be coming down from Oldham today. Write down your phone number and I’ll send you their pictures. Apart from them, no-one gets in. Understood?’
    Both men nodded, and Ellis entered the room.
    Farsi’s was the only bed in the room, and other than a side table and one chair, the rest of the space was taken up with medical equipment. A nurse was in the middle of taking his blood pressure and looked up when Ellis entered.
    ‘How’s he doing?’
    ‘He’s doing well,’ the nurse replied. ‘It was touch-and-go when he first came in, but we managed to stabilise him.’
    Ellis stood by the side of the bed and looked down at Farsi, who looked anything but well. A bandage covered his skull and a plaster cast covered one side of his body from the waist down.
    ‘What happened to him?’ Ellis asked. ‘I mean, what damage has he sustained?’
    Her voice cracked just a little as she gazed upon the unconscious figure on the bed. Tubes emerged from Farsi’s arm, and his face looked terribly swollen, as did his chest.
    ‘He broke his pelvis in three places and fractured his skull. There was severe internal bleeding, but the surgeons brought it under control.’
    ‘How long before I can talk to him?’ Ellis asked.
    ‘Not for some time, I’m afraid. He’s heavily sedated, and further surgery is scheduled for three