Free Midnight Murders by Katherine John Page B

first and biggest step. You went outside of your own accord.’
    â€˜But I panicked… ’
    â€˜And next time you’ll pick a better time, when there are fewer people around. You’ll walk two or three steps more than you did today before you turn back. The day after, it’ll be further. One day you’ll reach the gate. And sometime after that you’ll get on a bus.’
    â€˜You really think it will be that easy?’
    â€˜It won’t be easy because every step and every move will take enormous effort. But as I said, you took the biggest and most painful step today. Nothing will ever take as much effort again. Keep reminding yourself of that, not the panic that drove you back. But that’s enough of me lecturing. Want to come down to my room, and finish the drawing of the mysterious lady with the dark hair?’
    â€˜No, thank you.’
    Spencer didn’t try to persuade him. ‘Perhaps later. I’ll be there all afternoon.’
    â€˜Perhaps,’ Trevor echoed before Spencer closed the door.
    Y ou took the biggest and most painful step today. Nothing will ever take as much effort again.
    Trevor wanted to believe Spencer, but at that moment all he wanted to do was crawl into his bed, pull the sheet over his head, curl up, and never emerge again.
    â€˜There are six modern single-story ward blocks. Corridors straight down the centre linking with rooms on either side; toilets, bathrooms and sluice rooms, at the far end. Kitchens, linen cupboards and day rooms at this end; patients’ double, single and four-bedded rooms in the centre. The single rooms tend to be reserved for difficult patients.’
    Peter listened to Harry, recalled Trevor’s single room, and suppressed an urge to thump the diminutive psychiatrist.
    â€˜This particular block is for people suffering from Alzheimer’s… ’ the roar of a helicopter hovering overhead drowned out Harry.
    Dan looked at Peter. ‘Headquarters hasn’t wasted any time.’
    â€˜â€¦ They are very confused… ’ Harry continued.
    Peter peered through the glass wall of the day room. Twenty elderly men and women were sitting in a circle. The room was neat, clean, and sterile, the furniture upholstered in green vinyl, the walls decorated in the same shade of yellow as Goldman’s office, and hung with a series of pastel landscapes. Two nurses were trying to evoke the patients’ interest in books of old photographs.
    â€˜I hope they shoot me before I get to that stage,’ Peter muttered to Dan.
    â€˜Something I can help you with, Sergeant Collins?’ Harry enquired.
    â€˜I hope not,’ he replied.
    â€˜As I was saying, each block accommodates patients with various symptoms, some severe, some mild – although we try to treat most of the mild cases as outpatients. We do, however, try to group like with like. It simplifies the arrangements for therapy. The ward that your friend Trevor Joseph is on, for instance, principally houses patients who have been admitted for observation, alongside those who are clinically depressed. The block across the way,’ Harry pointed to a parallel block, ‘is where we place the majority of our phobia cases. The one directly in front of us caters for manias. The block behind us is the drug and alcohol dependency unit. We also have a block for women suffering from postnatal depression. It is slightly larger than the rest, as it has a nursery for the children.’
    â€˜If you group like with like, how come Vanessa Hedley is on Joseph’s ward?’ Peter asked.
    â€˜I said that we try to organise things that way, Sergeant Collins. Unfortunately, we don’t always succeed. Because we try to treat as many patients as possible as outpatients, especially those with depression, your friend’s ward tends to be the one with the least pressure on its resources. Vanessa is being evaluated at present, and as there was a bed