Page 87 of No Safe Place

Sunday | Afternoon

Andy

It was a relief when the handcuffs were taken off.

He was in a small square room, with a high bed and a first-aid station. Detective Field was by the door, arms crossed, next to a uniformed officer.

The doctor turned his arm gently as she unwound the last of the bandage.

‘Now, you don’t need to tell me specifics, Andy,’ Dr Young said, softly, with a glance at Detective Field in the corner. ‘And I’ve got a nurse on standby to re-dress your arm properly in a minute—’

‘So, you’re not a doctor?’ he said, without thinking.

Andy was embarrassed by his rudeness, but she didn’t seem to mind.

‘Well, yes, I am. But these days I work as a forensic medical examiner. My job is to examine victims and perpetrators of crimes – I look at their injuries and advise the police, and sometimes the pathologists, involved in a case.’

Andy looked down at her dainty hands and wondered how many dead bodies she’d touched. He’d never had contamination OCD, but he wouldn’t want to hold Young’s hand in a hurry. These thoughts, paired with the pain as the bandages came away, made him feel sick.

The last stretch of the bandage was stuck to the hot skin and pus underneath it, and he let out a sharp hiss as she pulled it.

‘So, as I was saying,’ she went on, kindly, ‘you don’t have to go into specifics with me, because Detective Field will question you shortly.’

Young picked up a large camera.

She took a few pictures, twisting the lens to zoom in and out. He liked the sound of camera shutters. The scratching of her pen as she made notes on her clipboard wasn’t pleasant, but it was bearable.

‘Are you left- or right-handed, Andy?’

‘Right,’ he answered.

The doctor’s eyes flicked to the detective in the corner.

Then she mimed drawing a line down her own arm, then made another note, which he couldn’t read upside down.

She took photos of the back of his arm, then got very close to the edges of the wound. Pressed the skin of his arm with a gloved finger, so that the cut widened, for a second.

Andy heard the air above the hot red skin sizzle.