Tim Stevens - Ratcatcher

Purkiss used the tail of Rossiter’s shirt to sponge the wound, feeling the chest flinch under the pressure. He watched the blood well again. No spurting. He put the back of his hand near the wound, felt no air against his skin. Nor, when he put an ear close, was there any tell-tale sucking sound. Rossiter started coughing and there was foam at his lips, but it was clear, not pink or bloody.

Purkiss watched Rossiter’s chest, his throat. His eyelids were fluttering and his breathing was quickening and becoming shallower until it was no more than a rapid sequence of tiny gasps, the breaths barely slipping across the threshold of his blueing lips. Purkiss put three fingers of his hand on his throat, the middle one on the thyroid notch and the ring and index ones on either side. The cartilage was off-centre. He pressed his ear against Rossiter’s ribs, first the right side and then the left, trying to avoid the blood. It was a poor substitute for a stethoscope, but even so Purkiss could detect the difference between the two sides.

On the right, the echo of air throught the pulmonary tubes. On the left, ominous silence.

Purkiss turned his head to Elle. ‘Give me a pen.’

She stared back. ‘What?’

‘Give me a bloody pen, will you? A ball-point.’

She fumbled in her pockets, passed one across, a cheap and basic piece of plastic.

‘Got a knife?’

This time she was quicker and handed him a pen-knife. Purkiss removed the cap from the pen, pulled out the nib with its inky tail, and picked off the round plastic tab at the other end, leaving a hollow tube. Carefully he broke the other end so that the plastic came to a sharp point. He probed Rossiter’s chest just in front of the armpit on the left, feeling for the space between the fourth and fifth ribs. Then he opened the smallest of the blades on the pen-knife and made a shallow slit with the tip. Rossiter gave a tiny cry, as much as he could muster given the minimal quantity of air that was getting into and out of his lungs. With his finger Purkiss enlarged the slit a little before positioning the thin end of the hollow plastic tube against the hole and pressing it in. There was the faintest crackle as the tube slid through the subcutaneous fat and fibres before he felt resistance. He pushed harder and the membrane gave and he was through into the pleural space. The air shot through the tube with a hiss. As it escaped, so did a long, drawn-out groan from Rossiter’s mouth. Purkiss felt the thyroid cartilage again. It had shifted back to the midline.

He took a long breath.

‘What happened?’ Elle’s voice was raised in volume a notch but the pitch was calm.

‘It’s called a tension pneumothorax. Air was getting sucked into the sac around his lung but couldn’t escape, and it was compressing the other side. I’ve relieved it for now, but he needs medical attention urgently.’

Through lips that were pinking up rapidly Rossiter hissed, ‘Impressive.’

‘You pick up a few things here and there.’ Purkiss’s hands were roving, probing at Rossiter’s abdomen. There was no wincing, no involuntary resistance from the muscles. ‘It didn’t get you below the diaphragm, luckily for you.’ To Elle: ‘He needs an ambulance.’

‘No.’ Rossiter spoke perhaps more loudly than he’d been intending, and grimaced. ‘Too many… questions. Slow us down.’

After a moment Purkiss said, ‘He’s right. The ambulance crew would call in a stabbing. We’d have the police to deal with. They’re bound to be on the alert tonight and they might get difficult with us, especially given how messed up Kendrick and I look.’

‘But you said he needed a doctor.’

Kendrick came back from the sideboard with masking tape. He tore off a length of Rossiter’s sleeve and began binding the stab wound. Purkiss said, ‘He does. We take him to the hospital, drop him off and get out of there.’

He used some of the tape Kendrick had brought to secure the shell of the ballpoint pen in place where it protruded from Rossiter’s chest. Rossiter gasped against the sting of the dressing, nodded. ‘I can… spin them a yarn. It’ll give you three a chance to keep working.’

Elle sighed, shook her head. She helped Rossiter to sips of water from a glass from the kitchen, then hoisted one of his arms over her shoulders. Purkiss took Rossiter’s right hand and curled it around the protruding plastic tube.

‘Keep hold of that.’

Ideally there should be a sealed bag on the end to prevent re-entry of the air, but there wasn’t time to look for something suitable. He supported Rossiter from the right and the injured man half stumbled between them towards the door. Kendrick went ahead, checked that the coast was clear on the street below. They moved as quickly as they could to Elle’s car, and lowered Rossiter into the back, Kendrick sliding in beside him.

Purkiss turned in his seat. ‘What happened?’

Another bout of coughing from Rossiter. His voice was a rasp. ‘Went home for some clean clothes, knowing… I’d be at the office all night. Teague was there — surprised him, he was rummaging through drawers and didn’t hear me come in — and just went for me. Wasn’t… armed, just grabbed a paper-knife when the fight started going against him. Stuck me.’ He paused for breath. ‘He didn’t… didn’t hang around after that. Must have thought he’d got me somewhere vital. The heart, perhaps.’ He gave a bitter, choked laugh. ‘Not the first to have difficulty finding it. My heart.’

Purkiss wondered if the man was starting to rave. He cursed himself inwardly that he hadn’t checked for signs of head injury.

Elle watched the rear mirror, her foot down. ‘He obviously lied about following the removal vans from the Rodina offices. What was he doing in your flat, do you think?’

‘God knows.’

Purkiss watched him in the wing mirror. Again Rossiter appeared to be drifting away. Was there more blood, escaping the makeshift dressings?

Kendrick, who hadn’t spoken a word since they had arrived at Rossiter’s, said, ‘This other bloke, Teague. You said the fight was going against him.’

Rossiter nodded.

‘Is he injured?’

‘Hurt his arm, I think. Got a few blows in to his face and neck. Probably not enough to affect his — to affect his mobility.’ In the mirror Purkiss saw a fresh tide of pain ripple across Rossiter’s face.

Blue strobes were suddenly swarming before them. Elle swung into the forecourt of the hospital’s casualty department. She and Purkiss were out the doors, helping Rossiter from the seat, his face paling again in the harsh fluorescent light over the entrance.

Among the cries and jostling of the Friday night custom they found the triage desk. Elle shouted something in Estonian to the young nurse who was rising from her chair, and three more nurses ran forward to support Rossiter and turn him on to his back on a stretcher.

As Purkiss and Elle were turning to go Rossiter grabbed Purkiss’s forearm and whispered, ‘Thanks.’

Purkiss nodded, and they took off.

The hotel Abby had been using was on a corner. Elle parked three blocks away across the road within sight of the entrance. They watched the front for a while. There wasn’t much traffic in and out of the glass doors, and the street, while doubtless busier than usual for this time of night, had lost the press of shoppers Purkiss had noticed when he’d been there before.

‘I’m going in on my own,’ he’d said, and she immediately objected. But he prevailed. If Fallon or his people had set up an ambush then at least some of them would be outside to block any escape. It made sense to keep the entrance under watch with Elle at the wheel and Kendrick riding shotgun, rather than corralling one or both of them inside the hotel.