Page 39 of Watching You

Lively sat on a bench outside the entrance to the geriatric rehabilitation centre with a walking frame in front of him, dressed in pyjamas, a dressing gown and slippers he’d sworn he’d rather die than wear. Salter had purchased the outfit for him especially, and loved every minute of it.

Other similarly camouflaged officers had been strategically positioned around every possible entrance, including the ambulance and morgue doors where undercover officers had been given staff clothing.

Lively, as the oldest member of the Major Investigation Team, had been the only choice for the geriatric spot.

To be fair, he also still had a bandage on his neck, so at least they hadn’t had to fake that part of his disguise.

Lively had met Charlie and had a chat about their suspect’s comings and goings, and they’d figured out that they must have crossed paths during the early part of Lively’s career, a fact that didn’t help him feel any younger, although he’d liked Charlie instantly.

He had, however, insisted that Charlie be moved to another part of the hospital for the duration of the operation.

As unlikely as it was, if Charlie spotted the suspect first from the lounge window and caught the man’s eye with the wrong expression on his face, there was a chance he’d realise the game was up and run.

Worse than that, there was a possibility it would make Charlie a target, and that would be unforgivable.

None of the hospital staff had been shown the images of the suspect for the same reason.

The alternating scrubs the suspect had been seen wearing made it clear that he wasn’t a real member of staff and equally that he was unlikely to be attending appointments, so Superintendent Overbeck’s one decision had been to minimise disruption within the environment.

Only the police team and hospital security had seen the collection of images to facilitate surveillance.

Sooner or later, Police Scotland would have no choice but to release the image to the press as a ‘person they were keen to talk to’ or ‘potentially an important witness’ to encourage an identification, but an undercover operation was everyone’s preference.

Connie was staying out of the way after her newspaper interview, and Baarda was off-site too in case anyone had investigated Dr Woolwine and found images of the two of them together.

Every other spare body was at the hospital, though, on wards, in the cafeteria, the gift shop, roaming the corridors or hunkered down in cars.

Lively sighed and opened his newspaper, hoping some kind person would deliver him a coffee and a pastry before long.

It had been hours since breakfast, and the need to stay in character meant he wasn’t able to just pop over to the café and get something himself.

Like an angel, Beth appeared through the external doors carrying a Thermos flask and a plastic container.

‘I was looking for somewhere to sit and enjoy the sunshine on my break,’ she said. ‘Do you mind if I join you?’

He loved the fact that even without anyone around at all, she was keeping up the charade of not knowing one another. Beth Waterfall was a singular woman.

‘Suit yourself,’ he said. ‘Bench is a bit hard though.’

‘Poor you!’ she murmured. ‘I can fetch you a cushion if it’s that bad. Old age is no fun.’

‘All right, that’s enough of the piss-taking. If there’s no coffee in that flask, you can just leave the food and skedaddle, lady,’ he muttered, doing his best not to smile.

‘Oh, would you like to share my coffee? I’ve more than enough for two. There’s no sugar, I’m afraid. We do encourage our patients to cut down.’ Lively managed not to respond as she poured him a capful and handed it over.

‘Lovely day to be catching some rays. You’re recuperating by the look of it.’

‘I’m starving, is what I am. Don’t make me break character and rob you of that carton. What did you bring me?’

‘Homemade sausage rolls with a cheesy pastry, some cherry tomatoes and a few Jaffa Cakes. I know they’re your favourite but I’m rationing you.’ She opened the box and Lively couldn’t help but grin.

‘Damn, that smells good.’ He took a sausage roll and destroyed most of it in a single bite. ‘You know I can’t let you sit with me for more than a minute, don’t you?’ He very much wanted to take her hand.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘But I couldn’t not check on you, at the very least. You’re still a patient here, technically, and I’m in my scrubs after all, so it’s not like I shouldn’t be here. My shift ends at six. Will you be done for the day by then?’

‘We don’t really have set hours during operations like this.

’ He took a cherry tomato to make Beth happy and to justify the Jaffa Cakes he was about to consume.

‘Something could happen in the next half hour or nothing could happen for a week. Sooner or later we’ll call it a day, but that’s down to the superintendent who’s watching from the security centre.

She’s stepped in while Connie isn’t able to come onto the site, which is amazing given that the last time she got her hands dirty was probably in the previous millennium. ’

‘You’re rude to her,’ Beth said softly. ‘Maybe if you were all a bit kinder, she’d soften.’ She took one of the cherry tomatoes herself.

‘I think probably the superintendent enjoys the banter. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself if we didn’t give her a hard time.

She’s good at her job though. You don’t last this long in the service if you’ve got no idea how to lock the bad guys away.

And much as I’m enjoying this, you’d better make yourself scarce.

I don’t want you in the area if anything happens.

’ He took two Jaffa Cakes from the tub and mentally congratulated himself for not taking all four.

‘And you’re sure you don’t want me to see the image of this person? I hate to think I might walk right past him in a corridor and miss a chance to save a life.’ She stood and put the lid back on her flask.

‘I know it’s hard with us in a relationship and me knowing something you don’t, but I think this is best. If you saw him and reacted, he might notice and hurt you.

We’ve got this covered, I promise. St Columba’s has never been more secure.

My team would lay down their lives, if need be, to protect your staff and patients. ’

‘Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,’ she said. ‘Do try to come home tonight though. You’re not at full strength yet. Just a few hours’ sleep would do you the world of good.’ Her cheeks flushed. ‘It would do me good, too. I’m happier when you’re around, Sam. It’s like a different house.’

‘Then I’ll make sure I come back. I might be late, so don’t get worried about me. If you’ve not fallen asleep yet we could have a game of cards or watch some TV together. Sound good?’

‘Sounds more than good,’ she said. ‘You stay safe, Sam. I don’t like this.’ She went back inside.

Lively closed his eyes and turned his face up to meet the sunshine.

He let himself feel the joy of having someone to go home to.

He allowed himself to believe that, just possibly, Beth might end up being the someone he would be going home to for a very long time.

He didn’t want to eat the two Jaffa Cakes that were melting in the palm of his hand, because he wanted to look better and feel better and live longer if he had Beth Waterfall in his life.

All of these thoughts and dreams meant that he didn’t see the car driving slowly along the road in sight of the geriatric rehabilitation unit.

He didn’t know that both he and Beth had been spotted by the very man he’d been waiting for.

Lively had no way of knowing that he had been the single worst person to dress up as a patient and position himself outside the doors the suspect preferred to use.

And he would never know how close his squad had come to catching the man he would later find out was Karl Smith, without violence, without trauma and without any loss of life.

Karl, wearing a charity shop football shirt for a team he’d never supported and a beanie hat he’d found left on a fish and chip shop chair, simply drove on past. The hospital had been compromised, it seemed, but he himself had been saved so the universe was in balance.

He’d known it couldn’t last forever. Sooner or later his time following Beth Waterfall around had to come to an end.

That was all right. He was resourceful and determined.

And after all, there was more than one way to skin a cat.