Death Before Time (18 page)
“Oh?”
“She seemed very down when I left. Is she OK now?”
“Mrs Stokes … oh yes, she’s fine. You take your job very seriously, don’t you, Jo?”
“Yes, I suppose I do. Thanks, Carrie.”
She switched the phone off and let out a sigh. She simply couldn’t go on doing that.
She pottered around in the afternoon, had a meal in the canteen, then read in her room until midnight – she knew it was no good trying to sleep before the first night on duty.
She took over from Sarah Howe.
“Anyone I should watch out for?”
“Yes, Mrs Stokes in room four – her chest infection’s developed into pneumonia and she’s very poorly …”
“
What
?”
Startled, Sarah began to repeat herself –
“It’s all right,” Jo said, “I heard you. It’s just that I was worried about her and asked Carrie this morning if she was OK and she told me she was.”
Sarah glanced round, then said quietly, “Strictly between you and I, Jo, I don’t think Carrie’s the most reliable member of staff we have here.”
“I had the same impression,” Jo murmured. “How bad is Mrs Stokes?”
“Not good. She’s on intravenous ampicillin, although it hasn’t really had time to work yet.”
Jo went to look at her as soon as Sarah had gone. Lily wasn’t good, her temperature, pulse and respiration were all high and she was barely conscious - it was Rose Parker all over again …
Jo went back to the office. There was no one around, so she phoned Fraser’s mobile number. He answered sleepily after four rings.
She quickly told him about it. “I don’t like the look of it, Fraser.”
“Have you got the cefataxin?”
“Yes.”
“Give her … ” he thought for a moment, “Give her two grams now intravenously, and repeat twice, four hourly.”
“
Four
hourly?”
“Yes. I’ll have a look at her when I come in and decide where to go from there.”
“We need to talk.”
“We will, tomorrow. Go and give her the first dose.”
The graveyard shift had the least number of staff and the patients were nearly all sleeping. This should have been an advantage, but it also meant that every noise she made was magnified: the echo of her footsteps, the rumble of the trolley, the swish of the curtains …
Lily actually seemed to get worse after the first injection and Jo was seriously wondering whether to ventilate her, but she improved slightly after the second.
Come
on
,
Lily
, she silently willed her …
Between times, she had plenty to think about - Carrie Tucker: was she just lazy, or something worse?
By the time she prepared the third injection at 7:30, the patients were waking up. Lily seemed better and was conscious enough to complain.
“Not another injection, please nurse,” she moaned.
“Shh, it’ll make you better,” Jo whispered.
She made sure the bleeding had stopped, then opened the curtains to find herself looking straight into the bright beady eyes of Mrs Bailey -
Oh
no
…
She forced a smile –
“Good morning Mrs Bailey. How are you feeling?”
“Better’n ‘er, that’s for sure.” She nodded at Lily. “Why’re you giving ‘er ‘n injection, then?”
“I wasn’t.”
“You was, I ‘eard you. An’ there’s s’posed to be two of you, in’t there?”
“You heard wrongly – I was taking her blood pressure.” With another smile, she wheeled the little trolley away.
Oh
,
shit
… would she tell anyone? She might …
Jo thought about it and when she handed over to Jackie ten minutes later, she tried for some damage limitation.
“Mrs Stokes hasn’t been too good during the night, but she seems a bit better now – I’ve just done her obs and they’re all down a little.”
“Thanks Jo, I’ll keep an eye on her.”
Jo went back to her room, waited until she was sure Fraser would have arrived, then bleeped him and told him what had happened.
“Does Jackie know about your relationship with Mrs Bailey?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“If she tells on you, deny it, say it’s spite. It’ll be your word against hers.”
“We do need to talk about it, Fraser - and Carrie Tucker.”
“Go down to Tom at lunch time and I’ll join you as soon as I can.”
*
A couple of hours later, Fraser walked quietly into the room Lily shared with five others. He looked at the chart of one of Edwina’s patients and pretended to note something from it. Then, as he was walking out, he paused and casually picked up Lily’s chart … her obs were all still coming down. He looked up and smiled at her. She tentatively smiled back; she did seem better than Jo had described, he thought.
At one, he drove down to the hotel. Jo was already there with Tom. He told them about Lily.
“The thing is, Fraser,” Jo said, “Should she have more cefataxin now? Only I’d hate to see all my good work go to waste ... “
“Ideally yes, but I don’t see how we can – not until you’re back on duty, anyway.”
“Is she going to get better without it?” Tom asked.
“I
think
so … she’s had three big doses – that ought to do it.”
“Is
ought
good enough? Could you give her more if it came to it?”
“I can’t - she’s not my patient, I had no business even looking at her chart.”
Tom drew a breath and nodded. “All right,” he said. “Try and keep an eye on her, though.” He paused. “The next question: is it deliberate, is she another victim?”
“She
must
be,” said Jo. “We knew she was at risk, it’s happened at the weekend, like Rose, and the infection’s resistant to ampicillin.”
Fraser nodded his agreement.
“So what about Carrie?” Tom said. “I know you didn’t think so, Jo, but she does always seem to be around, doesn’t she?”
“Bit of a coincidence,” agreed Fraser.
“Yes it is,” said Tom, “So you’d better keep an eye on her as well, Fraser.”
“How the hell’m I supposed to do that?” he demanded. “I’ve got no reason to be hanging around her.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jo said sweetly. “She’ll probably assume you fancy her.”
“Thank you so very much,” Fraser said between his teeth, kicking himself for falling into the trap.
*
He looked in on Lily again after another three hours. To his relief, she was sitting up, reading a magazine.
As he turned to leave, Carrie and another nurse came in with the drug trolley. He went over and talked to one of Edwina’s patients, covertly watching the two of them as he did. They stopped at Lily’s bed, pulled the curtain round, and Fraser, remembering the film about the man with X-ray eyes, smiled wryly.
After a few moments, they came out again, wheeling the trolley. Carrie looked up and met his eyes. She beamed at him, waggled her fingers and mouthed hello before going to the next patient.
Thanks Jo, Fraser thought …
*
When Jo came on at midnight, Lily was definitely better and slept the night through.
Jackie came in at eight. Jo handed over, noticing as she did that Jackie seemed to have difficulty in meeting her eyes.
When she’d finished, Jackie said, “Jo, we have to go and see Helen.”
“What, now?”
Jackie nodded.
“Why?”
“She’ll tell you when we get there.”
It’s got to be Mrs Bailey, Jo thought, and as they walked in silence to Helen’s office, she went over all the arguments in her head.
“Come in,” said Helen. Then, “Sit down, please.”
Funny, reflected Jo, how the word
please
can turn a friendly sentence into a hostile one.
“Staff Nurse Farewell, one of the patients, Mrs Bailey, has made a serious allegation about you, serious enough for it to come to me.” She looked at Jackie. “Sister?”
“Jo,” Jackie said to her, “Mrs Bailey says she saw you giving Mrs Stokes an unauthorised injection on your own.”
“Oh, what absolute rubbish!” Jo said with what she hoped was the right mixture of amusement and scorn.
“So why is she saying it?” Helen asked icily.
“I’ve no idea … what exactly did she say?”
Jackie took over again: “She told us that yesterday morning you drew the curtains round Mrs Stokes’ bed and then she heard her say:
Not
another
injection
,
please
nurse
. You whispered:
Shh
,
it’ll
make
you
better
, and then she saw you coming out with a trolley loaded with injection materials.”
“But you saw me yourself Jackie, at least, you saw me just afterwards – when I told you that she’d been poorly during the night and that I’d just done her obs. That’s what Mrs Bailey saw.”
Helen leaned forward, her clear grey eyes locked onto Jo’s. “So why did Mrs Stokes say
not
another
injection
,
please
nurse
?”
Jo frowned … “She did say something like that, when I was putting the cuff on her arm ... she was still delirious, I suppose that’s what she thought I was doing.”
“But you tried to silence her:
Shh
,
it’ll
make
you
better
.”
“What I said was:
Shh
,
you’ll
soon
feel
better
.”
“There are needle marks on her arms.”
Jo shrugged. “She’s had blood samples taken most days, hasn’t she? Plus intravenous ampicillin, so I suppose there would be.”
There was a silence while Helen continued staring at her ...
Jo thought:
Have
they
asked
Lily
?
They
must
have
and
she
couldn’t
remember
,
or
they’d
have
said
…
She made herself say, “Have you tried asking Mrs Stokes?”
“She couldn’t remember,” Helen said shortly, then: “So are you saying that Mrs Bailey made all this up, Staff Nurse?”
Jo said slowly, “She probably believes it – or at least, some of it … “
She turned back to Jackie – “You remember she and I had a run-in the other day?”
Jackie nodded. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s probably it then, there’s a measure of spite in what she’s saying.”
Jackie turned to Helen. “She’s certainly difficult Helen, and I can imagine her being vindictive. And it’s true that she had – er – a difference of opinion with Jo last week.”
Helen was still staring at Jo … “How did that come about, Staff Nurse?”
“She was complaining about the food, telling the other patients in the room that it wasn’t fit for pigs. I asked her to desist.”
“Just that?”
“She was trying to get the other patients to complain as well, so I put it quite firmly.”
“In front of the other patients?”
“Yes.”
“Was that wise, d’you think?”
Jo hesitated again ... time for some humble pie? “Perhaps not, Sister.”
Helen said, “I’m not happy about this, Staff Nurse.” She paused, searching for words. “I don’t like complaints from patients.”
Jo felt herself colouring. “I’m very sorry it should have happened, Sister.”
“So am I. All right, you can go now. Not you, Jackie.”
Jo walked slowly back to the ward. To wait for Jackie, or not to wait for her?
Wait, it’s what she’d have done in normal circumstances.
Jackie came back five minutes later and Jo pounced -
“Jackie,” she hissed. “Why couldn’t you sort it out with me? Why involve Helen? And why bounce it on me like that?”
Jackie waved her into the office and shut the door.
“Because Helen told me we had to play it that way.”
Jo blew out her cheeks. “But how did she know about it?”
“Mrs Bailey came out with it on the ward round yesterday morning. We shut her up, then Helen and I questioned her about it afterwards. I’m sorry Jo, it’s obviously a storm in a teacup …”
So
why
didn’t
Fraser
warn
me
?
Oh
…
he
wouldn’t
have
been
there
,
Mrs
B
is
one
of
Singh’s
patient
…
Jackie was looking at Jo closely … “You haven’t done something else to upset Saint Helen, have you? She does seem to have it in for you.”
Jo shrugged helplessly. “I’ve got the same feeling … the only thing I can think of is that she did seem suspicious of me because I dropped a grade to come here.”
“But it’s only natural you should want to move with your fiancé.”