PEEL-BEHIND THEIR EYES. Book 1 (Complete)

Chapter 40. Hubcap

Mason hated hospitals, always had. It wasn't the smell or the stark white sterile rooms, nor was it the ingrained misery that pervaded their corridors.

It was all the happy smiling faces, the pat on the shoulder happiness that people gave each other trying their best to cheer up the miserable.

He recognized it because he had been a recipient of it for years. It was that sad glint in the visitor's eyes and the forced smile on their faces. First, it had been during his father's last few months of life, as he had laid under crisply folded hospital sheets dying of heart disease after a lifetime of excess.

Mason remembered visiting him every other night after school. He remembered the adults looking at him in that 'Oh, the poor child' kind of way as they patted his head and said "Chin up, he'll be right as rain before you know it"

Even as a child Mason could see through it all, he could see the unshared truth of his father's imminent death. The glint, the smiles, they made it all the more painful.

The second time had been the news of his own impending death. The doctor had sat him down for the follow-up to his yearly police medical. And there it was, the sad glint in the corner of the doctor's eyes as he said the devastating word, Cancer!

The doctor had given him as many plausible lifelines as he professionally could. Many words of comfort and hope followed as the doctor walked him to the door. With the shake of his hand, the doctor promised that they would do everything humanly possible as he shut the door. It had been the doctor's apologetic smile and the pat on the back that had sent a chill of fear shooting through Masons numbed body.

The months of chemotherapy and all of its ill effects, of doctors, nurses, and visitors all buoying him up with more words of hope than he cared to listen to could shake his hatred of his surroundings. Not even the doctor's eventual news of his Cancers remission could soften his dislike for the place.

In the waiting room two doors down from Rebecca, Mason stared at the muted TV up on the wall and chided himself,

"So why on earth did I agree to be the one to come here"

Pointing the TVs remote at the screen Mason raised the volume and began to surf the channels until he found what he was looking for. The yellowing white clock above the doorway said he had missed most of the media conference back at the police station.

He was intrigued to see how Muck was coping now that Peel had landed him in the shit. The BBCs local news channel popped up and Mason pressed select. There was Muck, sat sternly at the center of the high table banging his papers into shape. A woman's voice spoke to the gathered media,

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Just one more question, please. Yes, the man in the blue suit, third row"

The TV camera swung around and picked out the man in the blue suit as he stood.

"Jonathan Grinshaw of the Sun. I see that on our schedule a Detective Chief Inspector Robert Peel was supposed to have headed this briefing. Would that be the son of the late Detective Chief Inspector Edward Peel, who in 1978 failed to catch the Grimsby Gouger? Who committed suicide rather than face an inquiry. Why isn't he here, what's so important he couldn't make this meeting, Detective Grayson?"

Mason watched the TV intently and growled: "Bloody tabloid, argh!" He waved his hand in disgust.

On screen, the camera panned off of the reporter and back to a close up of Muck, who looked to be chewing a very disagreeable wasp.

"Mr. Grinshaw, if you are trying to suggest that DCI Peel is somehow unfit for the job due to issue's his father had over 38 years ago you couldn't be further from the truth. However, his absence her today as you so kindly pointed out is simply due to the fact that he is out there right now"