the man said: “No smell “All-electric flats,” Kevin said, guessing.
There were three doors off the tiny hall. The first led into a small
bathroom, where Kevin glimpsed a row of toothbrushes and a full-length
mirror. The second stood open, revealing a kitchen which looked as if it
might have been searched recently. They went through the third door, and
saw Fitzpeterson immediately.
He sat in an upright chair at his desk, his head in his arms, as if he
had fallen asleep over his work. But there was no work on his desk: just
the phone, a glass, and an empty bottle. The bottle was small, and made
of brown glass, with a white cap and a white label bearing
handwriting–the kind of bottle chemists use to dispense sleeping pills.
For all his youth, the policeman acted commendably fast. He said: “Mr.
Fitzpeterson, sir!” very loudly; and without pause crossed the room and
thrust his hand inside the dressing gown to feel the prone man’s heart.
Kevin stood very still for a moment. At last the policeman said: “Still
alive.”
The young constable seemed to take command.
He waved Kevin toward Fitzpeterson. “Talk to him!” he said. Then he took
a radio from his breast pocket and spoke into it.
Kevin took the politician’s shoulder. The body felt curiously dead under
the dressing gown.
“Wake up! Wake up!” he said.
The policeman finished on the radio and joined him. “Ambulance any
minute,” he said. “Let’s walk him.”
They took an arm each and tried to make the unconscious man walk. Kevin
said: “Is this what you’re supposed to do?”
“I bloody well hope so.”
“Wish I’d paid attention at my first-aid classes.”
“You and me both.”
Kevin was itching to get to a phone. He could see the headline: I SAVE
MINISTER’S LIFE. He was not a callous young man, but he had long known
that the story which made his name would probably be a tragedy for
someone else. Now that it had happened he wanted to use it before it
slipped through his fingers. He wished the ambulance would hurry.
There was no reaction from Fitzpeterson to the walking treatment. The
policeman said: “Talk to him. Tell him who you are.”
This was getting a bit near the bone. Kevin swallowed hard and said:
“Tim, Tim! It’s me.”
“Tell him your name.”
Kevin was saved by an ambulance in the street.
He shouted over the noise of the siren: “Let’s get him onto the landing,
ready.”
They dragged the limp body out through the door. As they waited by the
elevator, the policeman felt Fitzpeterson’s heart again. “”Struth, I
can’t feel nothing,” he said.
The elevator arrived, and two ambulance men emerged. The elder took a
quick look and said:
“Overdose?” “Yes,” the policeman said.
“No stretcher, then, Bill. Keep him standing.” The policeman said to
Kevin: “Do you want to It was the last thing Kevin wanted to do. “I
should stay here and use the phone,” he said.
The ambulance men were in the elevator, supporting Fitzpeterson between
them. “We’re off,” the elder said, and pressed the button.
The policeman got out his radio again and Kevin went back into the flat.
The phone was on the desk, but he did not want the copper listening in.
Maybe there was an extension in the bedroom.
He went through. There was a gray Trimphone on a little chip board
bedside unit. He dialed the Post.
“Copy, please … Kevin Hart here. Government Minister Tim Fitzpeterson
was rushed to hospital today after attempting to commit suicide point
paragraph. I discovered the comatose body of the Energy Ministry’s oil
supremo after he had told me comma in a hysterical phone call comma that
he was being blackmailed point par. The Minister …”
Kevin tailed off.
“You still there?” the copy taker demanded.
Kevin was silent. He had just noticed the blood on the crumpled sheets
beside him, and he felt ill.
WHAT DO I get out of my work? Derek Hamilton had been asking himself
this question all morning, while the drugs wore off and the pain of his
ulcer became sharper and more frequent. Like the pain, the question