The Venus Trap - COMPLETED (The 1st Installment of The Derek Welsh Trilogy)

Chapter 28

Wednesday 11th

An ambulance wailing woke Derek up in a head-splitting sound. Or perhaps it was just his head that felt like splitting. He must had fallen asleep again in the waiting room. He couldn't remember how he got here. He couldn't even determine whether he just had one of his episodes or he had fallen asleep naturally because he was tired this time. Derek shook his head and stood up slowly.

He must have dozed off for more than half an hour when he checked his watch. He threw away the paper bag that was used to wrap his burger and fries that he just bought and ate in the hospital cafeteria earlier and finished his bottle of water. His shoulder was still throbbing too. He needed aspirin. He remembered the nurse gave him a bottle earlier. He took the small plastic bottle out of his jacket pocket and popped two pills into his mouth.

He just asked Chester to go home and rest. He also asked him to come to his office the next day to talk. Rita would be staying overnight in the hospital for observation. Alex refused to go home and decided to stay the night too with Lindsay. Glenn arrived a few hours after he called Alex and he had promised Derek to take care of her and bring her home later when she decided she wanted to go home. The four other girls they had found in the compound also had been treated while the police were trying to locate their families.

Derek left all of them and separated himself out here to clear his head. He felt outcasted the minute he saw Glenn arriving. Glenn, sensing Derek's awkwardness, began marking his territory around Alex while bringing her food and blanket, so Derek felt it was better for him to step out. He wanted to be alone anyway. Patricia had asked someone to drive Derek's car to the hospital when Derek was wounded in the warehouse and the officer had parked it in the basement of the hospital, away from the vicious reporters up there who were still waiting around in the E.R lobby. He even remembered to plug the car until it's fully charged.

Despite her attention, Derek sensed that Patricia was keeping her distance from him. And strangely, it was a comfortable distance. Maybe they both needed some space. Maybe it's time to reassess their relationship. Derek was grateful for that. The number of reporters showing up had grown ever since they arrived at the hospital and Chief Martin Leung's appearance on the news. And Derek face wasn't exactly unfamiliar.

He took the elevator down to the ground floor and decided to go out through the main entrance. The reporters were still flocking the Emergency Unit lobby and when they saw Derek, they began shouting him questions. Derek was too exhausted for questioning and those reporters were very determined to have an exclusive.

When he walked towards the main lobby, Derek saw Chief Martin Leung walked by in a hurry, with his face red as a tomato. He was speaking furiously in his phone. Walking not far behind him was Lee Jung-sung, looking as furious as the Chief. His handsome features looked tense as he watched the Chief walking away and he headed to Derek's direction. As soon as he saw Derek, he lifted his hand. His expression changed immediately.

"Heading home, Detective?" he asked, polite as usual.

"Yeah, I'm pretty beat. Did you just have a chat with the Chief?" Derek asked.

Lee looked to the direction where the Chief was headed but he was already nowhere in sight. Lee just shrugged as if avoiding the question. His answer was quite diplomatic.

"He was under a lot of pressure. Especially with the death of those young women. He could lose his job. I understand that, but sometimes the Chief could be too demanding, asking for ridiculous results. We simply don't have enough manpower to do what he asks," Lee explained.

"Lucas has brought me here with a lot of tasks. One of those is finding out the eyes and ears whose payrolls are paid from The Underground in our force. But by doing so, we are risking our necks. And the Chief isn't exactly cooperative," Lee continued.