I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 167 : Dmitri Yuri Nevsky

Greg was on his way to the Royal London Hospital but, unlike most of the time, the close vicinity of the place with Barts' Hospital was not feeling him with joy. Unlike most of the time, he wasn't going to visit Molly but had been asked to have a chat with a middle-aged man who had been admitted to hospital four days earlier and who, according to his doctors, was showing signs of what could be a quite serious poisoning.

He parked his car in the doctors' car park, not fancying having to search for a spot for twenty minutes and joined the main entrance of the building. Arrived at the counter, he informed the receptionist that he had been summoned by Dr Khan. The woman showed him a couple of armchairs in the lobby and asked him to wait while she was calling the said doctor to inform him his guest had arrived.

A few minutes later a relatively old, egyptian-borned, man came to meet the detective, introducing himself as Amir Khan, head of the toxicology department of the London Hospital. At first look, he seemed to Lestrade like a very respectful man and was looking wise and serious. Of course, first look wasn't what should make your opinion on people, but up to now, the inspector had rarely been let down by his instinct and in that case, he was quite sure that if such a man had asked the police to get involved in one of his cases, it probably wasn't without reason.

They made their way to the fifth floor where was located the small toxicology department and Dr Khan knocked on the door of the room 591. A pale-looking man was laid in the bed, dressed in a blue hospital garment, countless tubes and syringes connected to his arms and chest, monitoring him and injecting different substances in his organism.

"Mr Nevsky, this is Detective Chief Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard." the doctor introduced the policeman.

Greg nodded and approached the bed to shake the weak hand the man was offering him before sitting on the chair beside the bedside table. The man in the bed seemed from athletic constituency and if it wasn't for his paleness and the apparent general fatigue he was suffering, the detective wouldn't have called him a sick man.

"What is your field of expertise detective ?" the patient asked in a halting English, a strong Slavic accent showing.

"It used to be crimes." Greg replied as Dr Khan closed the door and left them alone.

"That's very good." Nevsky nodded with a little painful smile. "You see, I'm a dead man walking. Sooner than you think it's my dead body you will be investigating."

"I'm sure they are treating you and you will be back on your feet in no time." the inspector tried to reassure him, quite scared himself by the prophetic tone the man was using.

"People like me don't usually get better Mr Lestrade, especially when no one can tell what you are suffering from." the patient remarked, still smirking.

"Why don't you start by telling me a little about yourself and what you think have led you to this hospital bed ?" the policeman suggested. "Does it bother you if I record our conversation ?"

"Go on." the man accepted before sitting up a little in his bed. "My name is Dmitri Yuri Nievsky, born in a Moscow suburb 38 years ago. I once was a respected local politician, being one of Moscow's mayor advisor."

His voice was deep and slow, as if he wanted to make sure that each and every of his words would be easy to understand from the recording or if he was dictating his own necrology to someone.

"But I supposed that my opinions started showing a little too much and I felt into disgrace. I was made to resign from my position and started being spied on by some policemen." he continued, looking around as he spoke. "You know, the police in Russia is not here to protect the citizens ... I refused to agreed with the expansionist politic lead by my government and I voiced it up. Once I became too loud they tried to prosecute me over false accusation of tax evasion. I fled with my family to avoid this silencing conspiration and after a long trip I've been granted political asylum here in Britain."