Ultimate Dilemma (Justice Again Book 2) by M Comley (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

The paramedics lifted his unresponsive body onto the stretcher. Nadia hurriedly checked around the house, collected her bag, made sure her phone was inside and followed the men out to the ambulance.

“Do you want to hop in the back or bring your own car?”

“I’ll come with you, if that’s okay?”

“Of course. Jump in.” Her hand shook as she reached out for her father’s gnarled fingers. Arthritis had set in a few years ago. He was only fifty-five but had worked with his hands all his life. He was a carpenter for a local sawmill.

“Dad, Dad, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

He groaned, but his eyes remained closed, a pained expression twisting his features. Her heart felt heavy. She wished she could rid him of the pain.

The ambulance got under way and started up its siren once more. The noise blocked out any further attempt of Nadia speaking to her father.

Her sister’s face drifted into her mind. She’d be distraught by the news if he didn’t pull through. Stop thinking that way, of course he’s going to make it. But all that blood…can he really survive losing that amount?

The voices in her head went back and forth until the ambulance drew to a halt outside Accident and Emergency. Her father was whisked through the corridors, the paramedic giving the awaiting doctor and nurses the facts about his vital signs.

“Nadia, what are you doing here?” Maureen, the nurse, asked.

“He’s my dad, please, do your best for him.”

“Oh my…of course we will. You’d better wait in the family room. Let the doctor give him the once-over, he’ll come and see you soon.”

Nadia stopped dead. “Can’t I go with him?” She reached out a shaking hand.

“No, you know you can’t. The doctor will drop by and see you soon,” Maureen insisted.

Nadia stood and watched her colleagues push her father up the corridor. Hopelessness descended and cast a cloud over her. Her shoulders slouched, and she made her way to the family room at the end of the hallway. It had recently been brightly painted to help ease the waiting families’ doom and gloom.

She picked up a magazine to distract herself, flipping through the pages. None of it registered. Her mind lay elsewhere, with her father. What will I do if he dies? She mentally kicked herself for asking the question.

She glanced at her watch numerous times over the next thirty minutes or so, until the doctor finally came to give her the news she’d been waiting for.

“Nadia, you don’t know me, I’m Doctor Morgan. I’m going to give it to you straight. Your father is a very ill man. To be honest, we’re unsure whether he’ll make it or not. We’re in the process of giving him a blood transfusion. Does he have any illnesses we should know about that could possibly hamper his recovery?”

“No, nothing, he’s always been fairly fit.”

“I see. Well, that should make his recovery straightforward then. He’ll be going down to surgery to repair the damage to his neck soon.”

“Thank you, Doctor. What you’re really saying is not to count my chickens just yet, right?”

“Correct. I always err on the side of caution. You’d do well to do the same, for now. You don’t need me to tell you he’s in safe hands. Try and get some rest. Would you rather go home and we’ll call you with an update?”

“No, I’m going nowhere, not until I know he’s going to be all right.”

The doctor left the room. She collapsed into the chair and covered her face with her hands, unable to hold back the river of tears that flowed for the next ten minutes. Her fighting spirit deserted her for the time being. Once her tears had dried up, she thrust back her shoulders and turned her gloomy thoughts to more positive ones, promising only to look on the brighter side of the predicament she and her father found themselves in.

But one question remained prominent in her mind…who did this? Two actually: who and why? Why would anyone attempt to take her father’s life in such a callous way? Was it an intruder? How did they get in?

The doctor came to get her an hour later. By that time, her mind was as tired as her body had been when she’d left work almost two hours before. He escorted her to the recovery room where she held her father’s hand until she drifted off to sleep.

She was awoken by the sound of the ventilator alarm going off. She shot out of the chair and hovered over him. “Dad, Dad, stay with us.”

His eyes flickered open. She squeezed his hand and bent her head to listen to what he was attempting to say.

“I didn’t mean to do it…”

“Dad, do what?”

The machine flatlined.

He’d gone.

1

Katy and Charlie said farewell and left the station. They hadn’t even reached their cars before the night desk sergeant bellowed for them to return. Katy made a point of looking at her watch. It was gone midnight—she and her partner had already put in a fifteen-hour shift and were both exhausted.

The sergeant shrugged. “Sorry, ma’am, thought you’d want to hear about this one.”

“Go on, I’m waiting with bated breath.”

Charlie sniggered. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

Katy turned to look at her. “For the record, I wasn’t. I was more concerned about getting home to my saint of a husband.”

“Oh right, yes, of course,” Charlie mumbled.

Katy thumped her arm. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I can handle it if you want to go home.”

“No way. It would be playing on my mind anyway, so I might as well stick around.”

“Now that’s settled…” Ray said. “We received a call a few hours ago about a man having his throat cut. I didn’t bother you about it back then in case it didn’t come to anything, but now…”

“Don’t tell me, the guy has since died, hence you getting the Murder Squad involved.”

“Exactly. The hospital called it in. The daughter is still over