I was at home when I got the call. Kane was there too. Jon had insisted we went home before he went to the police. He said he didn't want us caught up in the backlash. Riz had taken Ben back to the safe house and so it was only the two of us.
The voice on the other end of the phone was cold and clinical. It told me that Nye had been found and that he had been taken to a hospital somewhere and asked if I wanted a car sent to take me to him. As if. The voice would not or could not give me any important information, not even whether Nye was still alive but kept politely repeating that they were 'not at liberty to provide that information'. When I put the phone down I was numb.
Obviously, Kane had gathered the gist of the conversation from my end and he was looking at me with pleading eyes. What could I tell him? I shrugged.
"They wouldn't tell me anything. He's in a hospital somewhere but they wouldn't even tell me if he was alive. What... what am I supposed to think?"
Suddenly Kane's arms were around me and I was sobbing into his shoulder.
"Think that they are not able to tell you anything... that's all babe... that's all. Can we go?"
"They're sending a car to take us."
"Okay... then we should get ready. Do you still have any of Nye's stuff here?"
"Some old stuff... I..."
"Put it in a bag... he might need it."
"But..."
"Mir... it'll give you something to do, something to think about."
I was about to answer when I looked into his eyes and so I just nodded and got on with it. He was right, it did help— for a while.
The car took less than fifteen minutes to get to us but it was the longest fifteen minutes of my life. I'm sure it was the same for Kane.
The driver of the car was just that... an ordinary officer whose job it was to drive and nothing more. He had no information to give and it was pointless questioning him, although of course we did.
I lost all sense of direction and had no idea where we were heading. It was dark well before we got there.
The hospital was very normal. I don't know what I was expecting but it was just a building full of people going about their business and living out their own personal dramas completely ignorant of ours. Kane put his arm around my shoulder and was practically supporting me by the time we got inside.
In the lobby the police officer spoke to the bored looking woman behind the desk and then escorted us into a room and left us. I sat on a chair and screwed my bag between my hands while Kane paced. He was like a caged lion and I kept expecting to hear him roar. The room was small with little room for pacing and I don't know what would have happened if we had been kept waiting one minute more than we were.
When the door opened we both froze and looked up. The doctor was unsurprised by our reaction, I suppose he saw it all the time. He checked his clipboard and looked at me.
"I take it you are Miriam?"
"Yes, yes I am. Is my brother alright?"
The doctor frowned and perched on the edge of the table. My heart froze and plummeted at the look on his face and I was sure that the next words out of his mouth were going to be that he was sorry...
"Physically, Anurin seems to be generally okay. There are some minor injuries, the most severe being lacerations and bruising to his feet. There was some suggestion that he might have been poisoned but it's been several hours and he is not showing any adverse effects so I would be surprised if that were the case.
"We have taken blood to run a full toxicology screening and will know more when the results come back but... I think he's going to be fine."
I felt like someone had hit me in the chest. Nye was okay. He wasn't dead. He had sore feet but fuck that was nothing. He was okay.
"But...?"
I had been so overwhelmed with relief at what the doctor had said I hadn't even begun to pick up on what he hadn't said... not so Kane.
The doctor hesitated looking back and forth between Kane and myself. "Physically Aneurin is going to be fine but... mentally it's a different question. The police have told us a little about what was going on in Aneurin's life and it's clear that he has been..." The doctor paused again and frowned. "As I said, we'll know more when the blood tests come back but there's no doubt he has been given drugs of some kind, probably mind altering ones and he's..." For the third time the doctor paused and ran his hands through his hair.
"I'm no psychiatrist but it's clear Aneurin is having some problems at the moment. He is very disassociated, doesn't seem to know where he is. He's having difficulty speaking and doesn't seem able to rationalise."
"And that means?"
"He's out of it. He doesn't know who he is, where he is or what happened to him. He can't express himself in anything more than abstract words and phrases and he can't remember anything that happened to him. I'm fairly sure that most of that is the result of drugs but they should be wearing off and they aren't. Although... there may well be an element of shock and PTSD... I understand that when the police broke into the room it was just as the man who was holding him was shot in the head by another. I suppose I don't have to explain what standing in close proximity to someone whose head explodes can do to someone. As I said... we'll know more when we get the results of the blood tests, but until then... "
"I don't understand."
"You will."
"Wait... Kane's voice was commanding, more grounded than mine. "You said someone was shot... who was it? Was it Adam?"
"I believe there were two men killed... one shot by the other and one by the police on entry. I'm afraid I don't have any more information about who they were." He smiled at Kane in a way that suggested his conversation with him was over then turned to me. "Would you like to see your brother Miss Davies?"
"Yes... yes of course I would."
Kane had to help me to my feet and we followed the doctor through corridors to stop in front of a door that needed a code put into it to allow us access. After that he led us along another corridor and paused outside the door.
"You have understood what I've said haven't you, Miss Davies?"
"I... what do you mean?"
