Lenny Bartulin - Death by the Book

Jack tapped ash into the palm of his hand. He could see where Peterson was going with his questions. It was starting to annoy him. “Could you pass me the ashtray over there?” he said, pointing.

The uniformed police officer slid it across so that Jack could reach. Jack brushed the ash from his palm into it and then smoothed the tip of his cigarette against the aluminium side of the ashtray. “Yes, I’ve already told you. He was in earlier today.”

“And a week or so ago, too, you said?”

“I think so.”

“What for?” asked Peterson, sternly.

Jack kept his voice calm. “He was trying to sell me stolen books.”

“Was this the first time or had you used him before?” Detective Peterson was getting a little nasty.

Jack closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He could feel the Panadeine Forte the ambulance guys had given him finally beginning to work. The day was catching up with him, lapping at his body in long, foamy waves. It was not an unpleasant sensation. “He’s my main supplier.”

“I wouldn’t joke, Mr Susko.” Peterson took out his keys, looked at them and then slipped them back into his pocket. “Do you owe anybody any money?” he said.

“Does that include my grandmother?”

Peterson smiled, like a croupier about to take all Jack’s chips. “Only if she’s capable of sending a guy around with a knife.”

“Well, she always says I never come around. They can get crazy, old people.”

“We’ll be in touch, Mr Susko.”

Jack looked over at the uniformed police officer. “Can I grab a lift to the hospital?”

“Can’t you drive yourself?”

“Not without a car.”

The police officer glanced at Peterson.

“You could always lend me one,” added Jack.

The detective frowned but nodded to the officer. “Okay.”

“Oh, thanks ever so much,” replied Jack.

The officer walked off. Detective Peterson came over and stood beside Jack. He carefully buttoned the middle button of his coat. Without looking at Jack, he said: “Susko. That’s an interesting name. Be hard to forget.”

Jack drew on his cigarette and then tapped it into the ashtray. “Cost me my job in espionage.”

“Kind of rings a bell for me.”

Jack looked up at Peterson and watched him pull at his tie a little, loosening it. He noticed a shaving rash just above the detective’s collar. He hoped it had been irritating him all day.

“That’d be my uncle,” he said, deadpan. “Harry Susko and the Sausage Boys. They were big in the seventies. Cabaret. They had a fantastic piano accordion player.”

“No, I don’t reckon that’s it.” Detective Peterson shook his head. “It’s right on the tip of my tongue. But I just can’t remember. Susko. Susko.” He scratched his chin. “I suppose it’ll come to me later.”

Jack put a hand on the counter and slowly stood up. “Hope it doesn’t keep you up all night.”

Peterson rubbed his hands together. “Goodnight, Mr Susko. Careful with that cut.”

The officers were finishing up. Jack walked gingerly behind the counter and looked into the rubbish bin. He glanced at the police and then carefully reached in. His copy of Entropy House . The bottom corner was lightly singed black from the bite of a flame. He brushed at it, then rubbed the greasy stain between his fingers. It smudged grey. He wondered if Hammond Kasprowicz would notice. Jack would be sure to point it out.

It was after 11.00 p.m. There were two other people in the waiting room at St Vincent’s Hospital Emergency ward. A dark-haired twenty-something, dressed in a sweaty white T-shirt and faded jeans, sat passed out in one of the plastic chairs, star-fished, his limbs and head spilling awkwardly over the edges as though he had been shot. His friend — obviously still buzzing from whatever they had taken — nodded his head and drummed his knees and chewed gum beside him. Occasionally he leaned over to his comatose friend and said: “You’ll be right. Just breathe.”

Good advice.

Jack stared at the double doors that led into the surgery. Finally, they swung open. A nurse called out: “Mr Susko?”

Jack followed her through. On the other side he found a few more people sitting around, waiting: some blank-faced, some worried, a couple asleep. He wondered if Monday nights were always like this. A handful of hospital staff milled around the narrow hall and walked in and out of doors. An orderly wheeled a machine down the corridor. A middle-aged woman in a pale blue uniform was refilling a water dispenser with plastic cups, while another mopped the area around it. And a little further down, Celia Mitten sat on a chair, flipping through a magazine.

The nurse told Jack to wait. He nodded and remained on his feet. As the nurse disappeared into a cubicle, he walked down towards Celia Mitten.

“Hello.”

Celia looked up and swallowed a quick gulp of air. “My God, what are you doing here?”

“Gang fight. What about you?”

She glanced behind her through an open door. The bed in the room was unoccupied. “It’s my father. He’s had a turn. I think it was a heart attack.”

“Is he okay?”

Tears rose in her eyes. Jack noticed she was wearing the same clothes as when he had seen her earlier that day.

“I don’t know,” she said, a little breathless. “They’ve taken him somewhere for tests.”

Jack saw a nurse coming towards him. Celia blew her nose into a crumpled tissue that she pulled out of her sleeve.

“Another package arrived with a note,” she said, trying to swallow her sobs. “I was with you when it arrived.”

Jack winced as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “What did the note say?”

Celia did not answer. The nurse had stopped beside them.

“This way, Mr Susko.”

Jack smiled at the nurse and then turned to Celia. “Wait for me, I won’t be long. Okay?” He patted her gently on the arm.

Celia Mitten nodded, wiping under her eyes with the tissue.

Jack was ushered into an examination cubicle. He sat down in a plastic fold-out chair. He could hear groaning next door and the odd squeak of rubber shoes, then an orderly telling somebody to take a deep breath. He lifted the corner of his shirt and looked down at the bandage on his stomach: blood had soaked through.

“Mr Susko? I’m Doctor Armstrong.” The doctor walked in. She dragged the cubicle curtains together with two swift movements. “After some stitches, I believe?”

She was young looking, maybe mid-thirties, and had sandy hair tied in a plait. Her eyebrows were darker, curved over large brown eyes that glistened in the stark, tiled room, lit by nauseating fluorescent light. A kind, soft face. She was slim, athletically curved, dressed in grey slacks, a white short-sleeve shirt and a pair of red Adidas sneakers.

“Shirt off and flat on the bed, thanks.”

“Oh, good. I was hoping you’d do all the work.”

The doctor smiled but continued with her preparations. “Do you want this to hurt, Mr Susko?”

“Whatever you’re into, Doc. Just hit me with some pethidine and go for it.”

Jack removed his jacket and shirt and lay down on a narrow bed. The plastic sheet beneath him popped thickly like bubble wrap. The doctor wheeled over a tray of bandages and bottles and long pointy instruments. Jack closed his eyes. He had never been good with this kind of thing.

It did not take long. He received a tetanus injection as well, which only added to his wooziness. He thanked the doctor, who handed him a strip of painkillers.

“One every three hours. Better if you can go longer, though. They’re strong.”

Jack moved out of the examination cubicle and walked down to where Celia had been. She was gone. When he asked at the front desk, they told him that she had already left with her father.