camwyn | Nov Bargain, Part the Third, Subpart F

Dawson’s police hospital was the oldest of the city’s three hospitals. Louise rather liked the look of the building – very classical, as if someone had been trying awfully hard to capture a little bit of sunny Greece and its old temples. The ice and snow drifted into every crevice rather spoilt the effect, of course, but they’d at least tried.

Louise stopped the dogs with a quiet ‘whoa’ as they came around the side entrance. Sparing a few stern words for Bear, who was dancing nervously from side to side, she pushed back her parka’s hood and slipped on a safety mask. They were everywhere these days, white gauze coverings over everything between eyes and chins. She hadn’t worn one to speak to Mr. Bernat, because they’d both had the ‘flu, but here- well, this place was just full of flu patients, and all of them were breathing. No one was quite sure what caused the disease, but whatever it was passed through the air. She didn’t want to chance taking a lungful of contaminated air out with her when she went looking for the Sergeant, after all.

This side door was mostly used for deliveries, in more normal times. These days only sick people came through the front. There was a harried-looking fellow in the uniform of a police surgeon just inside; he looked up sharply as she opened the door. “Can I help you?” he asked warily. “You’re not sick, are you?”

Behind the gauze, Louise laughed. “No, sir. I’ve been sick already, I promise,” she said. The line of his shoulders relaxed; she continued. “I’m here to look for someone, that’s all.”

“Ah, right.” He glanced over his shoulder briefly. “Patient of ours?”

“One of the Mounties, actually – he’s-” She hesitated, not quite sure whether to ask this man directly. He looked as if he hadn’t been anywhere but the sick-rooms for days.

As if reading her mind, the man said, “I have no idea where anyone is right now, miss. You’ll have to ask at the front desk- I’m terribly sorry.”

“It’s all right. I probably have to sign in anyway, don’t I?” He nodded. “All right. Say, you don’t happen to know where Inspector Harper is, do you?”

“Wish I could tell you, miss. Sorry.”

Well, the Inspector probably had better things to do, she reflected as she slipped into the hallway proper. The place absolutely reeked of antiseptic, and of other things she didn’t care to identify. She didn’t much like it, but she wasn’t a doctor, so she could only assume they knew what they were doing. It’d be months before the air was warm enough to allow open windows, so the best anyone could do was try to overwhelm the rankness. Could be worse, she thought. Imagine what this’d smell like in summer! And the mosquitoes getting in-

She was so busy with her thoughts that she almost collided with a flash of red. At least, that was all she saw before reflex took over and she twisted out of the way. It took her a few seconds to dizzily realise she’d almost walked into a Mountie – and by then he was speaking to her.

“Are you all right, miss?”

That voice. She knew that voice, and it froze her blood to recognise it. It was Inspector Harper.