THIEF OF BREAN (VOL-1)|✓

INKLINGS- XXI

He spent a good amount of time in the lavatory while keeping a watch at the square shaped hallway outside. He sneaked out when Lily's nurse left the ward, and followed her to the dispensary.

Two nurses were chatting by the entrance. Light from the pendent lights were blocked by the long shelves stacked with medicines. The floor was grey. He parted his lips for a smile evoked at the sight of the women without the hennins on their head. "Nurse Mina Martin?" he asked them, remembering the name from the patient sheet.

"You are not allowed in, Sir," one of the nurses warned him.

"It is really important."

The women looked at each other. One of them rose to her feet. "Wait here," she told him and disappeared into the lines of shelves.

"Ms Martin," Carl hurried to her when the young nurse emerged to his sight.

She forced a smile. "Officer?"

The two nurses were staring at them curiously. Carl gestured her to walk into the cover of shelves. She agreed.

"I am here to ask some questions about the patient Lily freeman."

"Officer, I am just an apprentice," she said meekly. "I don't think—"

"We'll see," said Carl, taking out his notepad and pen.

"No, Officer... I, I cannot." Her hands joined into a desperate praying gesture. "Janess Katriel is the head of the Order. I do not want to get on her bad side."

Well, he was not any God. And the heartfelt prayer was unheard. "You do know this is a state affair, Ms Martin. You cannot refrain from answering a government official. It can be chargeable under state law."

Her pleading face turned into troubled.

"What are the nuns hiding about Mrs Freeman?"

Her pleading look returned. "I don't know where you got that from, Officer. No one is hiding. There is nothing to hide."

"Your statements will be off the record. Now, I would like to get some medical input here that's all."

She bit her lip and thought hard and long. And after wasting a minute to contemplate she gave him a half-hearted nod.

"The officials seem to think Lily Freeman's behaviour is erratic. Do you think the same?"

She lifted her shoulders in discomfit. "Yes, she can get a bit strange at times. But it is due to her condition."

"What do you mean?"

"Janess Katriel confirmed it to be a psychological trauma. A kind of traumatic disorder—"

"And she is suffering from memory loss?"

Her shoulders twisted in disease. Mina gave a quick look at the shelves engulfing them. A thought of her looking for an anaesthetic to stab him crossed his mind.

Mina kept her gaze on the shelf next to him, understandably to show her disliking as she continued, "She has had a concussion which has resulted in TBI, which in turn causes confusion, disorientation, difficulty in remembering things—"

Carl cut her off. "Did you know? You have beautiful wide-set eyes."

"Pardon?" A sudden smile came to her lips. It slipped as confusion creased the muscles of her forehead.

"It is told that people with wide-set eyes tend to be thorough in whatever they do in their lives."

Mina laughed coyly. She looked up at him and made a fleeting study on his eyes. Upturned... down turned... it has to be one of those.