It was well past breakfast time at the hospital when Devi Dhungel got a visitor she was expecting.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Hector, probably knowing full well he was there to try to get her to talk again.

Hector tried to smile, but it hurt. He wasn't one to exchange pleasantries with people he rarely liked. But he knew one thing for sure: Devi Dhungel would not say a peep unless he met her demand. "Morning, Ms Dhungel. I hope your night was comfortable."

"If one can get comfortable looking like this?" She glanced at her leg, hanging off a sling and in a cast. "My bum's so numb I don't even know if it's there anymore."

Hector almost chuckled at that. "I suppose being in a cast isn't very comfortable." Small talk. Another thing he hated. He cleared his throat. "I have news."

Her eyebrow quirked. Really?

He plastered another smile on his face even though his stomach twisted like a python performing a death-roll. "I found you a safe house, and I'm here to move you, if you let me."

Her eyes sparkled at that. "Really? Where?"

The python's grip nauseated him. Knowing that Devi was about to live with the only woman in his life, his mother, was unsettling. What if whoever tried to kill her finds out and they comes after her at Ma's? A question he'd been cursed with since the first sip of coffee this morning. Hector swallowed. He could do this. He could do this—keep Devi safe, and Ma. No one would try to kill a sweet old lady to get to Devi, would they?

"Well?" Devi Dhungel tried to sit up straighter, and she too displayed a feral smile Hector was sure reflected his own. Full of dishonesty.

Hector scanned the quiet ward, glimpsing Lewis eyeing him as he chatted away with the receptionist out in the foyer. "It's with my"—he struggled to say the word, ma— "It's with a woman I trust outside the village," he whispered instead. "She lives about an hour out on a secure farm by herself, away from all this." He eyed the hospital again, his stomach doing gazillion flips, and his mind telling him to stop, maybe this is a bad idea. But it was too late; he'd already said he found a safe house, hadn't he?

"And you're sure she won't tell people about me?"

Hector nodded. He was sure. His ma barely talked to anyone at all these days, knowledge that often broke his heart. "I'm her only regular contact in the village. She doesn't drive out... she doesn't even leave her place anymore," he hated admitting. "I can assure you, Ms Dhungel, you'll be perfectly safe there and I'll check in every couple of days."

He watched Devi chew her bottom lip as if considering his offer. He didn't know why. It wasn't as if she had many options. It was the hospital she hated so much or his mother's place.

"Who is she?" Devi asked.

"Just someone I trust implicitly."

Devi looked past him at the entrance of the hospital, past Lewis. "And when do we go?"

"Right now?" Hector suggested. "She is expecting me to bring you after midday."

"Right now?"

"Unless you'd rather stay here... where Brady can get to you..."

"Who's Brady?" Devi asked, and then shook her head. "No. No. I do not want to know, and I do not want to stay here in this haunted place. I'll go crazy if I have to look at the peeling ceiling and smell rust and urine all at once for one more day. You guys really ought to bulldoze this place and build something new here that doesn't smell a century old..."

Blah, blah, blah. Hector nodded along, hardly listening to the woman. He was too busy figuring out how he was going to get Devi from the bed into the back of his rusty old station wagon. Would she even fit? He hoped so.

Forget about fit, would she even like it or would she want that bulldozed too 'cause it was old and rusty?

"Well?"

"Well what?" he asked. Shit. He should have been listening, though he really wasn't sorry he hadn't.

"Let's go then."

"Right." Hector cleared his throat. "Yeah, let's go."

Devi stared at him with bemused eyes.

He stared back. "What?"

"I'm not exactly able to walk here, mate." She pointed at her leg with her heavily bandaged arm.

"Oh, right!" Hector bolted towards Lewis.

"Where're you going?"

"To get help," he replied.

With the midday sun blaring on his back and sweat dribbling down his torso from the heat, Hector fumbled for a light switch on the hot metal walls of the large storage shed out the back of the hospital. His fingers caught on some sharp metal shards as Lewis hovered over his shoulders.

"What do you want with a wheelchair, Heck?"

Hector sucked on the blood pooling from the minor cut on his middle finger. "I need something to move Devi."

"Move her? Where?"

Hector gave up on the switch hunt, terrified he'd have far too many nicks from the rusty old tin box and get tetanus from exposure to so much rust that he grabbed the small torch from its holster on his belt. Yep, in order to look rather professional, Hector had arrived at the hospital in full uniform. Uniform he'd put on for the first time since the early days of his appointment at the Mystery Cove Beat. He'd even pressed his shirt—all to impress Devi of all people. He could shake his head in shame if he wasn't sure about doing all he could to solve her case and nab that promotion. He could almost see how proud the Chief would be. Maybe he'd even get a bigger beat to himself, if not flat out get transferred to a big city, any big city. He didn't care. Anywhere was better than no-where Mystery Cove.

"What?" he asked as he shone the torchlight into the dark and dusty shed that hadn't seen daylight in several years. It was a graveyard of discarded hospital gear. Broken beds, gurneys, shelves of dusty things in unlabelled boxes; chairs piled high, decades-old; a shamble of things that were nothing more than rubbish—things he had to get over to reach a small stack of wheelchairs he saw towards the middle. That's what was in there. Rubbish. It reminded him a little of his mother, hoarding things as if they had every intention of being useful again.

"More her where?" Lewis asked again, suspicion leeching into the man's voice.

Hector flashed him a look he hoped was reassuring. "She wants a safe house... somewhere no one can find her."

"And that is?"

Hector climbed over a rickety chair pile, barely keeping his balance and unlocking a flurry of dust that choked him. He coughed, regretting his decision. Maybe he could just carry Devi into his car? Ah, who am I kidding? I can't carry the woman; she gives me the heebie-jeebies. A shiver coursed through his back and he eyed Lewis, standing there with his arms crossed and his bulging biceps adding another element to the glare he was giving. Or have that!

"Does Dr Chen know?"

Ah, shit! He knew he'd forgotten something. Act cool, man. Act cool. "Not yet"—he shook his head—"And I don't see what this has to do with Hilde—it's my case."

Lewis huffed like a bull about to charge the matador. Without another word, he turned and bee lined for the back door into the building.

"Hey, I thought you were gonna help me find a wheelchair," Hector called out, trapped between piles of shit. But Lewis was gone and a gust of wind picked up a handful of dirt and blew it into the shed, just before slamming it shut.

Hector squinted in the dim light; able to see the many pores rust had punctured into the tin over the years. He turned around and swept the torchlight across the space. He was already inside, so he might as well grab the bloody chair.

By the time he got to the chairs, find a half-decent one from it, and drag it out of that choke-hazard of a shed, back out into the daylight, Dr Chen and Lewis were standing in identical poses, arms crossed across their chest, weight shifted to their left leg, and scowls upon their faces.

"Hilde." Hector wiped the sludge—sweat mixed with dust that had settled on him—from his forehead. "What are you doing here?" He watched as Hilde's chin jutted out; disappointment written all over her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked in that measured way of hers, one that always made him feel like he was being schooled, or caught red-handed doing something he wasn't supposed to... like that night when she asked what he was doing as he went down—

"Well?" She cut his thoughts short.

"He's going to move her," Lewis volunteered, eyeing the wheelchair in Hector's hand. "Though I doubt he can with that."

Hector looked at the chair he held in his hand, for once, finally able to see it in in its full glory, or rather, without. The frame was rusty as hell, the leather torn and shredded as if Wolverine had been there, strapped to it, and unhappy. A wheel was bent, ready to snap the moment weight was put on it. A total trash. Trash. Trash. Trash!

Hector threw it aside and dusted the grit and rust off his palms, flinching as they sand-papered his wound wider. "She won't tell me what happened until I move her somewhere safe."

"And the hospital isn't safe?" Hilde sounded offended.

Hector sighed. "It's Brady."

"Brady?" Lewis chimed in.

"Brady's promised to get her story." Hector eyed from one to the other as if he was in a Western, about to see who drew first, them, or him.

Comprehension drew on Lewis's face, though Hilde still looked confused. It only made Hector want to reach out and confess everything. Instead, he cleared his throat and stared at his feet.

"Someone did try to kill her," Lewis added, nudging Hilde's arm with his elbow. "And Brady's camped out since yesterday, trying to get in here when I'm not looking."

"What he said." Hector meekly smiled at Lewis. "You're the one who said I have to keep this tight-lipped; her being here, in our town so whoever's done it won't find out and come for her. She shares that sentiment and refuses to cooperate with my investigation until I put her somewhere out of his reach."

"She needs medical care. The woman can't even go to the bathroom without our help. Not to mention, she needs medication, for her pain, and antibiotics... and dressing changes..." Hilde chewed her cheek as Hector stared on. "Where would you even move her?"

Hector swallowed. It hadn't occurred to him she'd need heavy medical care. Not really. All he'd thought about was moving her and getting her talking as if the rest would take care of itself.

"I'm her doctor." Hilde crossed her arms again. "I'm not letting you move her unless I know where and how she'll be looked after."

Hector eyed Lewis, then Hilde. "I can't tell you that."

"Oh, really?" Hilde snapped. "You want to move a patient out of hospital care before she's self-efficient and out of danger, and you think I'm just going to let you take her out without proper risk management? Are you fucking kidding me?"

Hector blushed, heat rising not only to his neck, but creeping where it shouldn't—between his legs. It was the first time he'd heard Miss Proper swear, and damn, was it a turn-on? "Wh—what do yo—you want?" He quickly pulled the less-than-adequate wheelchair back towards him, as if inspecting it and not what he was actually doing—using it to hide his eagerness to get down and dirty with her again.

"Who, where, and how?" Hilde threw her proverbial gauntlet. "Now," she added, with a growl.

And that did not help Hector one bit either. The blood rushed faster to where it shouldn't, short-circuiting his brain, which already was a mush whenever he was around the swanky doctor. So all he could do was look to Lewis as if silently asking to be rescued.

Lewis scoffed, shook his head slightly, and took a step back. "You good here, Dr Chen?"

With her gaze steady on Hector as if a Lioness cornering her prey, Hilde replied, "I'm good, Lewis."

"Bye, sucker!" Lewis mouthed while waving a girly bye, and disappeared back into the semi-cool of the hospital, leaving Hector and Hilde staring at one another, the blistering sun blaring at them both. Neither opponent moved a muscle.

Now what? Hector tried to smile his way out of it, the whole Hilde cornering him like a helpless lamb—which he oddly enjoyed.

"Hector! I will force it out of you." Hilde narrowed her eyes at him.

And Hector knew what she meant, but his mushy brain thought of something else Hilde could force out of him—other than information—and it made him tighten his grip on the chair's tattered rubber grips. God, help me. This wasn't the time for a hard-on.

(Chapter continues in the next part...)