Chapter 377

• April
• The doctor had finally agreed to allow me to see Paddy. The poor boy had been shifted from the theatre and lay in the large private room, the best in the small hospital, I guessed going by the spaciousness and the amenities. But then, it was to be expected. After all, it was Gaston and his mob that was financing this little hospital tucked away in a corner of the city. The police, I had learnt, were paid to look the other way on most occasions regarding the patients who were brought there..
• A mind-boggling number of tubes had been attached to his body and he lay, his body inert, unaware of anything around him. The nurse in the room, a small dark-haired woman, shot me a sympathetic look but she said nothing as she tiptoed out. The doctor had asked us to leave the room as soon as possible and I clung to Gaston, for I needed his strength as I approached the bed, to look at the poor body.