Free Someone To Save you by Paul Pilkington Page B

wide, his mouth set open, as if he’d been frozen at the point of bone-jarring impact.
    Something wasn’t right.
    ‘Leave him.’
    The two guards looked across, confused.
    Charlie waved them away. ‘Let go of him.’
    Wayne Cartwright was hanging from the centre of the room. You need three things for a successful hanging – a rope or wire, a place to tie it, and something to jump off.
    Two out of three meant only one thing.
     
     
    The security room was located below ground level, in a subterranean world unseen by most hospital employees and patients – at least those still breathing. The level was also home to the morgue, and had an even more pervading clinical smell than the rest of the hospital. Sam rapped on the door, with Louisa silent at his side, trying to shake off his discomfort. With the nearby presence of the recently dead, and the absence of natural light, it was hard not to be spooked, even for a doctor using to staring death in the face.
    The door swung open at speed. A moustachioed late to middle age man, wearing the black uniform of the security team eyed him with suspicion. ‘Yes?’ Unlike those around in the hospital above, he didn’t possess the physical bulk needed to carry out their far-to-often duties of dealing with the violent, mostly drunk visitors who graced accident and emergency every day. These days the security guards upstairs resembled nightclub doormen and some had come from that sector.
    Sam explained the situation, half expecting the guy to cut him dead with a negative response. But the man seemed genuinely excited at being able to help.
    ‘Take a seat,’ he directed, gesturing to two threadbare chairs, as he pressed various buttons on the hi-tech unit that was flanked on all sides by television monitors. Sam and Louisa watched live images from the front entrance, the accident and emergency unit, and the grounds at the rear. It showed the bench where he had received the text message directing him to the London Eye. Sam hadn’t known there was a camera there, and he wondered whether the man had been watching him in his moment of weakness. He glanced across at Louisa and smiled hopefully.
    ‘We’ve just had these new digital cameras fitted,’ the guard explained. ‘They’re great little things, you know. Used to have to search through video-tapes, but now we can jump to the exact time we want.’
    Sam nodded as the guard looked at him, impatient to find out whether the images would reveal anything.
    ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have cameras up on the floor you’re interested in.’
    Louisa’s forehead creased. ‘But I’ve seen it. Right opposite the lifts.’
    ‘Dummy box,’ the guard replied. We’ll be rolling out more working units in the coming months. But we can look at the main entrance.’
    Sam nodded, as Louisa pursed her lips. It was disappointing that they had been denied their simple solution.
    ‘What timeframe would you like to watch?’
    Sam looked over at Louisa. ‘I went to my locker just before my last consultation,’ she said. ‘That was about three o’clock.’
    ‘And you noticed the phone was missing at…’
    ‘I got the call from her mobile just after three thirty,’ Sam confirmed.
    ‘So a window of thirty minutes or so, from three till three thirty,’ he said to himself, as he pressed buttons again. ‘Not to say that the person wasn’t already in the hospital before that time, but it’s a good place to start.’
    They focussed on a larger TV screen, scrutinising the images of the main entrance. This was the only entrance into the hospital for visitors and the vast majority of staff. The image quality was excellent, giving a clear, side-on picture of each and every person as they entered and left the building. At three twenty, Sam saw himself walk past the camera, heading outside. Louisa spotted his pained expression, throwing a concerned glance in Sam’s direction, before returning to the screen so as not to miss anything or anyone. Sam