Twisted Justice

Chapter One Several new admissions and a death had kept Kelly Palmer busy since she’d signed on as the intensive care duty sister at midnight, which was the way Kelly preferred her shifts to go. With the end of her shift in sight, she was looking forward to a good sleep before coming back to do it all again. And, being Friday, she knew she’d need all the sleep she could get before returning to face the rush of patients Fridays always seemed to deliver. Kelly looked across the city skyline to the hills through the third-floor windows of City Hospital. The morning sky was heavy with grey rain clouds. She hoped it wouldn’t start raining until she’d reached her car, parked a two-minute walk away from the hospital in the West End of the city. She glanced at her watch. It was almost time for the morning shift to arrive. Kelly walked back to the nurse station from the bedside of the patient she had gone to check to start preparing for the shift change. As she gathered her notes, the elevator doors opened and the sound of bright voices drifted across to her. The nurses of the morning shift stepped onto the floor and walked towards the nurse station across from the elevators. Kelly greeted her replacement and went through the handover routine required to bring her up to speed on the status of the patients in their care. When she’d completed the handover, Kelly went into the staffroom. She slipped on her coat, took her handbag out of her locker, and checked her face in the mirror of her compact. Satisfied with her appearance, she headed for the elevator. Kelly stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the ground floor. While she waited for the doors to close, she pulled her mobile phone out of her handbag and switched it on. There were two missed calls. Both from Ian. She dropped the phone back into her handbag. She had no intention of returning Ian’s calls. She’d told him it was over and she’d told herself that, this time, she wasn’t giving into his puppy dog pleas. It had taken another fight with her sister, but she’d finally come to terms with the fact that Ian was never going to change, no matter how many promises he’d make. Besides, her sister had gone to great lengths to remind her that she’d heard them all before and that every time she’d forgiven him and let him back into her life, they’d ended up in the same place. In the end, she’d agreed with her sister that five years of living with Ian’s idea of how relationships worked was more than enough and decided there was no way she could put up with any more of his abuse. Now, having mustered up the courage to kick him out, she knew living on her own was better than living with him, even if he hadn’t yet come to terms with their new arrangement. She hoped he’d get the message soon and leave her alone, otherwise, she’d have no choice but to take her sister’s advice and get a restraining order. When she reached the foyer, she looked around to make sure Ian wasn’t waiting for her. There was no sign of him. She crossed the open expanse between the elevators and the main doors of the hospital and headed towards the parking station where she’d left her car. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked up into the sky. The clouds were black. A couple of raindrops splashed onto her face. She hurried across the intersection in front of the hospital, rebuking herself for leaving her umbrella in the car, and made her way to the laneway that led to the car park. At eight o’clock on a Friday morning, the city was coming to life but the West End, away from the commercial heart of the city, was still all but deserted. Businesses in the West End didn’t open until nine, and the little shops that serviced visitors to the hospital remained closed until just before ten, when visiting hours started. Kelly hurried down Grant Lane, hoping she’d get to the car park before it started raining in earnest. A man dressed in black swept past her on a bicycle. Kelly jumped; startled. She hadn’t heard him coming. She thought it had to be Ian. She took a couple of deep breaths and told herself to calm down. Once she’d recovered from her initial fright, she realized there was no way Ian would be riding around the city on his bike at eight o’clock in the morning. He started work at seven-thirty and, besides, he hated riding in the rain. She shook her head. It was just a man on his way to work. Kelly turned into the entrance of the car park and climbed the stairs to level one, where her car was waiting for her in bay 1-B, the spot outside the stairwell door she’d managed to secure when she’d first started working at City Hospital.