The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 15

4 years ago

The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 15

The sign ‘Diagnostic lab’ was above the entrance engraved on a marble slate. We strode in and met a fat woman behind the desk. She was in a nurse uniform and chewing gum rather loudly. There was a waiting room with chairs arranged to face the television on the wall. About three people occupied the seats and were transfixed on the action images coming from the screen.
“Good morning”
“Yes can I help you?” She glanced me over.
“I’m here to see…” I trailed off, what name would he be using…probably another alias just as Dr Rasheed had been. But I knew for a fact his real name was Carmichael.
She sighed impatiently although it wasn’t like she had been busy. She was also tranxfixed on the Jackie Chan movie on the screen.
“Dr Carmichael…” I said taking a chance
“There’s no doctor like that here” she said dismissively.
“Look I don’t know his name but he’s short and he wears glasses” not to mention a rather large head I added silently.
Her eyes clicked with recognition and I was glad our gamble had paid off. The doctor was indeed working here, I was sure of it.
“Doctor Rilwan is his name…do you have an appointment?” She asked finally picking interest in us.

“No” I remembered the procedure from two years ago.
“Have you been here before then…did he run any test on you, what’s your file number or what’s your diagnosis?”

I took a long pause then gritted my teeth. How I had come to hate those two words. “Delayed diagnosis”

She looked at me blankly “what is that? Are you sure of what you’re saying? Lemme see your hospital card”
“Errm..” I stammered.

Andy sighed “Bleep this!” He unclipled his badge from his belt and thrust it in her face.”this is the card..now you cooperate and point us to the doctor’s office”
She nodded at a loss for words and one of the men sitting in the waiting room craned his neck curiously.

The nurse half stood up, causing a squeaking sound from the chair as the spring stretched up.
“Take this corridor…second door on your left” she said pointing at the corridor.
“Thank you” Andy said clipping the badge back on his belt.

We followed her directions and we soon found ourselves looking at a door with the sign; ‘Diagnostic Lab’

The top half of the door was made of glass. It was very blurry and thick and partially covered with the sign and almost impossible to see inside.

After a moment’s hesitation I opened the door without knocking Andy followed me closely.

The lab was spacious there was just a long Formica table in the middle with different equipments on it. Test tubes, petri dishes, microscopes and several others which were foreign to me.

A young lady was at the table hunched over a microscope peering at whatever was on the small dish. I couldn’t see anything.

So intense was her concentration that she didn’t notice us. Even when she dragged her eyes from the microscope to jot down her findings she didn’t so much as glance up.
At the extreme end of the lab stood doctor Rasheed or Carmichael if you wish.
He had his back turned to us and was washing something at the zinc. Probably glass tubes judging by the soft clang coming from the zinc.
“Christy you keep on forgetting,what of your litmus paper… Every step is important, you can’t just-”

He turned drying a glass jug with a rag and his voice trailed off when he saw us.
“Rex” he sounded surprised but I noted he didn’t seem unhappy.
“Doctor….” I glanced at his companion. She was watching us with interest now. “Doctor…Rilwan long time”
His sigh of relief was visible. He had obviously worried I would call his real name and spoil his identity.

“Andy its been long…” He glanced at Andy’s mid section and I knew he was remembering the night he had been shot. The doctor had played a crucial role in saving Andy’s life that night.

“This is Christie… a final year student. Cristie these are my old friends Rex and Andy”
She nodded politely in greeting.
“How you doing?” Andy asked. The dog!
“I’m doing fine thank you” she replied
“To what do I owe this pleasure” Dr Rilwan said pleasantly.

“Its quite important” I glanced at the Christie girl who wasn’t even pretending not to listen “it concerning the delayed diagnosis of before” I said knowing he would get the code.
His eyes widened “let’s go to my office” °•
I hadn’t noticed the little partition at the end of the room. It was painted the same light blue like the rest of the room so it camouflaged perfectly.

“Christie carry on..record all your findings down to the minute detail then start the other specimen… I’m coming” the doctor said to his assistant/student. With that he led us away from his nosy student and into his wooden office. The office would have been small but the lack of furniture made it quite spacious. A table and two chairs was all the room contained.
The table was neatly arranged with files and folders containing documents. A small table clock shaped like love sat on the desk, the seconds ticking. Apart from that the table was bare.

“You guys should sit down” he gestured to the seats and Andy settled in the chair behind the desk. “Please what is it, what do you mean by what you said just now?” He asked pacing in confusion and I knew he was in the dark just as I was.

I turned the chair around and sat down.
“Something happened yesterday and Fomé’s name came up”
“Fomé?” He stopped pacing, clearly baffled.
“Yes all evidence points that she is alive”
“Thàts impossible” he said but then he frowned in thought “what exactly happened that brought her name up?” He asked finally.
“There was a murder and her print was found at the scene” Andy said

The doctor was at a loss for words he kept on opening his mouth and closing it without uttering a word.

“But she’s buried somewhere…I was there myself…in fact I helped lower her casket in the earth”he said finally.
“But it wasn’t recognizable as Fomé?” I asked.

“The body was burnt to ash…come on”
“We need to dig the body out and run a DNA test…that’s the only way to clear the doubt” I said.

He scratched his head in thought. Finally he said “I can run the tests myself in this very lab…I have everything I need. Trust me with the way Mr X was obsessed with finding his daughters before, I have their DNA samples”
“Perfect” Andy said “So tomorrow morning we can go..I’d rent a tipper so it will be an easy dig”

“Why don’t we go today? There’s still plenty of time and you know there’s no time to waste” I said. The truth was I couldn’t wait.

“I’m up to my neck with work here..the backlog keeps on accumulating and I need today to clear it” Dr Rilwan protested.
“It doesn’t matter, we can handle it your part would just be to run the tests” I assured him.

He frowned in consideration.
Andy said “I remember that place is really tight…doctor ringworm hope you have the key”

“My name is Ril-waan..you’ve taken over from Rex with the crude jokes I can see.”
He went round the table and it looked like he was going to attack Andy for a moment but he leaned across the chair and opened a drawer.
He dumped a huge bunch of keys on the table.
“You’d have to trace the key to the padlock sorry”

I whistled “what are all these keys for?”
“Different things…some I don’t even know. But there’s mrX house keys, that alone is like a dozen, gen house and the rest”
“So the key used to belong to Mr X?” Andy asked

The doctor nodded “yes…he gave it to me few days before he passed.
” okeydokey” I took the keys. It couldn’t enter my pocket so I had to hold it.
“Wait hope you know which one is Fomé’s grave?” He asked gravely.
I couldn’t forget even if I tried…I had poured my soul and heart on the site two years ago.
Andy and I left the hospital with a clear goal in mind. We were literally going digging for the truth.

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