Chapter Fifty-Three – DCI BeckleyThursday 6 January 2016. 00.20 hours
Accident & Emergency overflows with admissions. A teenage boy presses a b****y cloth against a gash on his head while staring at a teenage mother and her screaming baby with total contempt. Its high-pitched wailing reverberates around the room, irritating my ears.
To her right, a frail pensioner clutches hold of her arm; its surface weeping from a superficial burn.
I hate hospitals, I hate everything about them; their stench, their lack of privacy and the endless wait. It's hard to describe the way I feel right now, knowing that you could be lying in a bed here fighting for your life.
I pluck out my badge and press it against the glass reception window to bypass the queue.
“Can I help?”
I stare back at the clerk, a
