Flatline Read online

  Flatline

  Robert Innes

  Published by Robert Innes in 2017

  * * *

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  Copyright © Robert Innes.

  * * *

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  * * *

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  For questions and comments about this book, please contact [email protected]

  Contents

  About This Book

  Also by Robert Innes

  Flatline

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Thank You!

  Also by Robert Innes

  About This Book

  Released: April 27th 2018

  Words: 35,000

  Series: Book 6 - Blake Harte Mystery Series

  Standalone: Yes

  Cliff-hanger: No

  * * *

  When Detective Sergeant Blake Harte finds himself in hospital for a minor operation to have his appendix removed, he is restless and itching to return to work. For Blake, the thought of being stuck on Ward 7A with no work to distract him is akin to torture, and when he finds out that his duties are being overseen by his work rival, Sergeant Gardiner, the situation only seems to worsen.

  But then, Blake finds himself in the epicentre of the most bizarre case he has seen yet.

  * * *

  Doctor Joe Tilsley is alone and stuck in an elevator. When the lift is finally fixed, and the doors open onto Ward 7A, Doctor Tilsley is dead, and most bizarrely of all, he appears to have been drowned.

  * * *

  To have any hope of piecing together the delicate balance of secrets and lies that threaten to explode from within Clackton General, Blake must discover how Tilsley’s death could possibly have occurred while trapped in a hospital that seems to have a shadowy killer stalking the corridors, and they already have their next victim in sight…

  Also by Robert Innes

  The Blake Harte Mystery Series

  Untouchable

  Confessional

  Ripples

  Reach

  Spotlight

  Flatline

  * * *

  The Gold & Silver Mystery Series

  The Hung Jury

  The Poison Pen

  Flatline

  Kelsey had never known rain like it. She could not help but tense up as they took a corner on the road, and the distinct sound of wheel slip let rip below them.

  “Joe, will you slow down?” she said, gripping hold of the handrail.

  “Oh, chill out, would you?” Joe replied, taking a sip from his can. “Have another drink.”

  Kelsey sighed and reached behind her to grab another beer from the back seat. It was her sixth. The familiar warmth of drunkenness made her feel slightly more relaxed than she normally would be in the situation.

  “Don’t tell me that you can see out of that windscreen,” she told him. “It’s pitch black and it’s hammering it down.”

  As if to illustrate her point, there was a loud watery thud on her window as the car sped through a large puddle.

  “Just relax, babe, will you?” Joe laughed. “I know these roads like the back of my hand. Through Harmschapel, and then we’re about twenty minutes from home.”

  Kelsey shook her head. She had never met a man as free spirited and rebellious as Joe Tilsley. He had the ability to excite her and worry her all at once. “Yeah. You shouldn’t be driving though. Not after all the pints you’ve had.”

  “Babe, I’ve driven in much worse conditions than this,” Joe said, laughing. “And not always just drunk, as you well know. I think I can handle this drive.”

  As they sped along the road, a flash of lightning illuminated the sky. For a second, Kelsey could make out a sign zooming towards them, welcoming them to the village of Harmschapel, and respectfully asking that they drive slowly. Then, it was gone, swallowed by the inky black night and ferocious rain again.

  “Isn’t this one of those named storms?” Kelsey asked as she took a long swig from her can. “I’m sure I heard it on the news today. I think it’s called Chloe.”

  Joe scoffed. “Chloe? What sort of name is that for a storm? Why do they give them such stupid names? A big fierce storm, you want to call something like Satan. Or Voldemort.”

  Kelsey spluttered with laughter sending foam and beer flying out of her mouth. “Don’t make me laugh when I’m drinking. Anyway, slow down, we’re coming up to the village now.”

  The streetlights from the village of Harmschapel were just visible through the thick sheet of rain pelting down on the windscreen. As they approached the first houses of the village, Kelsey glanced at the speedometer lit up on the dashboard.

  “Joe, slow down!”

  Joe glanced at her, then yawned in an exaggerated fashion, taking his hands off the steering wheel and stretching his arms.

  “Joe!” exclaimed Kelsey. She went to grab the wheel, but Joe laughed and clasped his hands back onto the top of it.

  “I told you, chill out. You’re such a worrier. You tell me how you expect me to ask someone to move in with me who worries as much as that?”

  Kelsey nearly choked on her drink again. She slowly lowered her can and stared at him. “Move in? Move in with you?”

  “Of course, you daft cow,” Joe replied, finally slowing down slightly. “We’ve been together nearly two years. I think it’s time, don’t you?”

  Kelsey’s heart felt like it was melting. It was something she had been wanting to ask him for months but had not wanted to scare him off. “I’d love to,” she said quietly.

  He turned and smiled at her. Her acceptance of his offer seemed to temporarily diminish his cockiness. For just a few seconds, he looked humbled, and extremely happy.

  Then everything changed.

  Joe turned his head back towards the road and slammed his foot on the breaks. The next second, Kelsey screamed as there was a loud thump as something was hit by the car. It went flying over the roof and landed on the road behind them. The car came to a halt. For a few seconds, the silence around them, other than the rain hammering down, was deafening.

  “What the hell was that?” Kelsey said, her voice shaking.

  Joe looked behind him. “We hit someone.”

  Kelsey looked at her side mirror. Just visible behind the car was the shape of a body, motionless and curled up on the road, the rain seeming to soak it further with every passing second.

  “We’ve got to get out and help,” Kelsey urged, undoing her seatbelt. Joe grabbed her arm and shook his head, a terrified look in his eyes. “We’ve got to, Joe,” she told him, her heart hammering in her chest. “You’re a doctor, I’m a nurse. We have to help them!”

  Ignoring Joe’s protests, Kelsey leapt out the car. Instantly, she was hit by the cold wind and lashing rain as she ran towards the crumpled heap on the ground in front of her. She gently turned the body over and recoiled. The woman they had hit stared back at her with unmoving eyes, without a flicker of life. Her head was twisted at an angle and a heavy flow of blood was visibl
e through a wound in her head, washed away with the force of the rain, turning the road a muddy coloured crimson.

  Kelsey crouched down, dread and horror washing through her. The feelings of joy she had felt mere moments before were now a distant memory.

  Joe stood behind her. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  Kelsey nodded. “I think so.”

  She felt Joe’s hands on her shoulder pull her back up again, then he turned her around to face him, his eyes intense. “Then we need to go. We did this, both of us. We’re way over the limit. If this gets out, then our careers, our lives, it’s all over! Listen to me Kelse,” he said firmly, shaking her slightly as she went to argue, “there’s nothing we can do for her. We just need to get out of here. This never happened. Come on!” Kelsey’s legs felt routed to the spot, so Joe frogmarched her back to the car.

  Then, they drove away, leaving the body of the woman whose life they had just taken away staring up at the merciless rain which continued to hammer down around her.

  1

  One Year Later

  Kelsey’s eyes flew open. As she stared at the ceiling of the hospital’s staff bedroom she was lying in, she could still see the face of the woman staring back at her. Her dream had been vivid, as it always was. The same dream she had so many times since that night.

  Her body aching to the point that the dream was her only indication that she had slept at all, she sat up and stretched out, wincing as her body cracked. She was regretting volunteering to work the night shift, especially having done a shift that morning. She had wanted to remain as distracted as possible for as much of the day as possible. She had gone to the staff bedroom to get a few hours sleep before starting again, but the bed was infamously uncomfortable. There was a rumour on the ward that the hospital had made it so that the doctors and nurses would want to sleep in it as little as possible.

  Kelsey walked across to the mirror, immediately aware of the haunted look she had about her. Her dyed black hair with red highlights looked drab and lifeless. She had been dreading this day. A year to the day since she had been involved in the hit and run that had taken the life of the woman who had haunted her ever since. As she splashed some cold water in her face from the sink, she hoped she had a busy night ahead of her; anything to take her mind of the anniversary.

  The weeks after the accident had been the most difficult of Kelsey’s life. The woman had been publicly named a few days later. They had hit twenty-nine-year-old Lucy Pennock. She was an accountant and had left behind her parents and an older brother. Kelsey had not been able to stop herself reading all details of the woman she could find. She remembered how much she had been hit by the vibe from any picture she had seen of Lucy that this was a woman who had genuinely died far too early in life.

  Kelsey sat down on the bed and thought back to how many times she had sat in her living room waiting for the doorbell to ring and to find the police standing there waiting to take her away. But day after day would go by and she would remain a free woman. She knew she did not deserve it, but so much time had gone by now, that she could not think of handing herself in. And she knew Joe felt the same.

  Her thoughts were broken by a knock on the door.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened. Joe poked his head into the room. “Evening,” he said. “How you feeling?”

  Kelsey shook her head. “How do you think I’m feeling?”

  Joe glanced behind him to the corridor and then stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “I know. I can’t believe it’s been a year.”

  “Neither can I.” Kelsey grabbed her locker keys from the table beside the bed and led Joe out of the room to the corridor of Ward 7A.

  The ward, as usual, was busy. The corridor was buzzing with doctors and nurses, carrying clipboards and pushing patients in beds and wheelchairs. They walked in silence to the locker room, which Kelsey was pleased to see was empty.

  “We can get through this,” Joe said to her, putting a supportive arm over her shoulders as she unlocked her locker. “It’s just like any other day. And it’s nearly over.”

  Kelsey sighed and turned to him. “For you, maybe. And, really, you think so?” Despite the fact that they were alone in the room, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “A year since we killed someone and just left them to die? Don’t you ever think about her family? Her friends?”

  “Yes, of course I do,” snapped Joe. “Every single day. In case you’ve forgotten, I was the one behind the wheel. You were just an innocent bystander.”

  Kelsey scoffed as she pulled her locker door open. “Yeah, of course, I had nothing to do with any of it. I’m sure a court of law would agree with you there.”

  She glanced out of habit at the calendar stuck on her locker door. It contained all her shifts and days off, but as she stared at the day they were on, she realised that there was a red circle around the date. She frowned.

  “What?” Joe asked.

  Kelsey shook her head. Her brain had been so distracted lately, she must have circled the date herself, though she had no idea what would have possessed her to do so. “It’s nothing. Look, I’m going to start early. The sooner this night’s done, the better. Will I see you at home?”

  “Of course you will,” Joe replied. He wrapped his arms around her and she held him tightly. He had been the only thing keeping her sane for the past year. “We’ve come this far,” Joe said softly. “We can’t turn back now. We agreed we were going to do this and try and move on from it. We still can.”

  Kelsey sighed. “If we’d just have gone to the police when it happened, maybe this would all be over. We’d still have killed someone, but we’d have faced the consequences.”

  “Me more than you,” Joe reminded her.

  Kelsey slammed her locker door shut. “How could I forget? I’ll see you later.”

  “Kelse,” Joe said, taking hold of her arm. When she stopped, he put both hands on her shoulders. “We’re going to get through this. The police have no interest in us. This will get better, I promise.”

  Kelsey stared at him until he released her, then left him alone in the locker room. She knew he was right, but the prospect of her life ever returning to normal again felt impossible.

  As she wandered down the corridor, she passed the large glass windows a little before the lifts. As she looked outside, she shook her head in disbelief. It was raining, heavily, lashing down against the window. For a few moments, she stood there, instantly back in the passenger seat of Joe’s car with the rain hitting the windshield. Then, she snapped herself out of it as best she could and continued down the corridor.

  She walked onto the ward and picked up her clipboard, praying for a normal, but busy night. She arrived at her first patient’s bed and read his notes. “Good morning, Mr Harte. How are we feeling today?”

  Blake Harte looked up at her and winced. “Like death, if I’m honest.”

  2

  It was fair to say that Blake Harte was not a good patient. He had only been at Clackton General Hospital for two days, but to Blake it felt like weeks. The pain throbbing from his abdomen was making it difficult to sleep, not that he would have found that easy with all the hustle and bustle of the ward he was on, and the constant noise from the other patients around him. He placed his hand on the area where it hurt the most and looked at Nurse Kelsey Richards with a mixture of irritation and self-pity. “When are you getting this thing out of me?”

  Kelsey read quickly through the notes. “Should be tomorrow morning. Don’t worry. I know appendicitis hurts, but you’re in the best possible hands.”

  Blake gave her a curt nod. He hated relying on other people like this. “Can I have some more painkillers?”

  “When was your last batch?” Kelsey asked, reading through his notes. She then shook her head. “Not for another hour yet. Just try and relax, okay? The doctor will be here to see you soon.”

  “Easy for you to say,” muttered Blake as he watched Kelsey walk away to her next
bed. Blake wondered if she looked troubled about something, but a spasm of pain in his side brought his mind back to his own problems. He lay back down on his back and took a few deep breathes in and out, cursing his current position. His trip to hospital could not have come at a worse time. Life at Harmschapel police station was busier than ever. Blake had just been starting to get his workload under control, when he had gone home three evenings ago, aware that he was having stomach pains, but assumed it was something he had ate. But then, he had collapsed to the ground in pain, and an ambulance had had to come and pick him up.

  It was not just the work he should have been doing that was playing on Blake’s mind though. His home life was also starting to trouble him. Just before he had collapsed, Blake had been having an argument with his boyfriend, Harrison Baxter. Recently, it seemed that Blake’s work at the station had intensified tenfold. They had tried for months to identify the perpetrator of a hit and run incident that had killed a young woman on the outskirts of the village. They had had very little to go on. The collision had, according to forensics, happened late at night, with no witnesses. The stretch of road where it had taken place had no CCTV, and there was no debris left from the vehicle. With the added pressure from the family, the police had been trying to double their investigations, while at the same time having absolutely nothing to go on.