"We must beef up his security, someone terribly wants him dead!" said Kim, one of the police officers who was in charge of Tony's safety while at the hospital. She had just walked in at the right time that morning. The killer had passed right under their very noses and had managed to enter Tony's room at the hospital. Kim wondered where the two officers standing at the door were when the would-be killer passed and entered the room. They were supposed to watch the door for a constant twenty four hours. There were six officers assigned this duty and were grouped into a twos each group taking a two-hour watch then letting in the other shift to take charge.
Nick had done enough observation of these shifts; how they came in, how they kept watch, what they did while at the watch and what things could distract them. He had come to the hospital several times and always passed by Tony's ward unnoticed. At one time he even dared to find out if by any means the police had a clue of what he looked like as Tony's accomplice. He had waited for one of the officers to go to the cafeteria to get their ten o'clock tea. Then Nick followed him to the cafeteria and he also ordered a cup for himself. While at the stand, he started a conversation with the policeman.
"Hey officer, how are you today?"
"Am fine sir, what about you?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Am good! Trying to keep it all together here, nothing counts much when your loved one is in a comma and all you have to do is just wait and pray, keeping watch by her bedside! Terrible times!" a visibly drained and strained Nick said, pretending to be a caregiver, having a close relative, possibly a wife, admitted at the hospital. He won the sympathies of the officer!
"So sorry my friend! It is really tiresome and requires commitment, total commitment for you to be able to keep it altogether here. Who is it that is sick, wife? Parent?" the police man asked.
"Yeah, my wife! She's down for a month now. Laid up there! Am almost letting go!" he added, indicating a possible admission room at the upper wings of the hospital. The police officer sympathized with him and encouraged Nick to take heart, not throwing in the towel. "It is worth the wait. Get up there and sound optimistic besides her. Do you have any kids?"
"Yes! A little baby girl. Quite a cutie!" he said, giving an imaginary child whom he always dreamed of. "She just turned two last month. Now she misses her mum so very much!" and he shook his head sadly.
"It shall be well, friend. It shall be well. Keep the faith and a strong heart. For your girl, get back in there and speak good things to her mother, and you will have back in no time!" the policeman genuinely offered free advice to Nick, who was looking really desperate. He could surely pass as a grieving widow at that very moment. He thanked the officer and allowed him to go on with his tea. As the officer went away, Nick smiled at himself.
"That was quite a show!" he congratulated himself. "At least I have gotten an entry point." Nick, just by talking to this policeman discovered what could be an easier way of entering Tony's room. He in fact developed his plan right there and then which he implemented a few days later – the morning he managed to sneak into Tony's room with the killer's needle in hand. He had organized for two other accomplices and gave them detailed briefing of what each one was to do in order to ensure everything sailed smoothly.
"You have to think of this as a bank robbery!" Nick said after their training drills, ready to strike, "Only that now we are going to rob something more precious than money, than all the gold and diamonds one could dram off! We are going to rob someone of his life! When we successfully gets the person's life away, you will have secured all your money and your freedom," he concluded.
He had ensured that the shift that was on duty was the one including the sympathetic officer, who, as it turned out from his prior investigation, Nick noticed, was the one who always went for the ten o'clock coffee. He had one of his men go and engage him in a lengthy talk while at the cafeteria. Then his other man was to do all he can to draw the remaining officer from the door to himself, leaving his post so hat Nick could enter. The two were charged with ensuring the distraction lasts at least five minutes, by which time Nick was supposed to have finished administering the "injection" into Tony.
On that morning, Nick and his men were as ready and steady as the rising sun. They got to the hospital quite on time and each one took his position. At the right time, when the iron was red-hot, they had struck. The coffee-officer got well taken - cared of at the cafeteria while the other one had been successfully withdrawn by the second accomplice. These one had pretended to be a patient on a wheelchair, who looked like a psychotic. He directed his wheel chair to go on its own down the corridor and aimlessly as if it had lost control. The officer noticed the wheelchair coming down with a mental patient.
"Is anybody with you sir?" he asked then realized this was a psychiatric case. He thought maybe the patient had slipped off a nurse's finger. So he quickly grabbed the wheel chair and took it upwards from where he saw it coming. On the "patient's" uniform was room number 234 written. The officer decided to look for this room, believing it to be the psychiatric room. That is how he was distracted and Nick had entered the hospital room. However, while inside, before he could administer the injection, Nick got panic attack and he just could not raise his hands to kill his friend. In his hesitation, he got notified by his man that the coffee- officer had suddenly broken off their conversation and was heading towards the room.
Nick had thrown the syringe on the floor and ran out of the room just in time. The policeman came and missed his partner. He radioed him and he explained where he was. At that point he entered the room to check on Tony and saw the poisonous injection on the floor. A doctor was summoned and he did confirm that the substance was enough to send someone on eternal journey never to return to the land of the living.
On the other hand Caroline was so disturbed. She wondered why she had been held hostage then all over a sudden released then Nick, seemingly was held hostage in her place. She started recalling how Nick had sacrificed for her in many times to prove his love for her. Could this be another such case? She wondered.
She recalled how her life had been before Nick and how he changed it. Caroline had stepped into the shoes of her parents ever since her mother got paralysed due to a chronic strong that hit her on the right side of her body. Her father was rarely concerned with family matters. He was a defeated man, a complete drunkard and a perennial drinker who woke up to alcohol, stayed in alcohol and only talked alcohol. He wasn't even aware that he had a family that needed him. None of their problems was his concern. Caroline had analysed this situation and had stepped in to shoulder all the responsibilities of the family. It wasn't easy but she had to. This sometimes took a drastic toll on her and she could be found stressed all the time.
Two things had happened in her life that brought back hope and light in her. First, she had met Nicky and they had become lovers. Nick was so loving and caring. Caroline always found solace in him. He was gentle, supportive and understanding apart from being so handsome. They had met at a party where both Belindah and Vicky had attended with her. The two had started out with just greetings and talking to each other, telling stories to one another, while her two friends sang on the stage. They had liked one another instantly and from there they decided to begin courtship.
And she recalled also how she had sensed that Nick was in trouble. That morning Caroline had woken up with a feeling in which she could not explain. At one point she felt sad, lonely and angry yet she did not know why she felt like that.