The Witness

The Hosptial

I lay on my bed flicking through the pages of the magazine for the 50th time. Throwing it back on the covers I picked up the remote control and switched on the TV, the news came on, more crime scene pictures flashed past and I quickly flicked it off again. I had been in this hospital for weeks, why was I here? I had been shot in the stomach by the guy who had murdered my drug dealing neighbor. I always thought my neighbor was dodgy, he had shifty eyes, he would mutter strange noises under his breath whenever I walked past, and people came to his apartment at all hours of the night and day.

They caught the bastard who shot him, now he was about to go on trial for murder and attempted murder, mine. I was the only witness, I walked into the building at the wrong time, I saw the guy run past me with the gun, then i saw my neighbour lying dead on the ground.  Before I could move away, the killer ran back, his hand trembled as he lifted the gun towards me, then he pulled the trigger. Lucky for me he wasn't a very good shot and I received a wound to my abdomen instead of my heart. I remember lying in a pool of my own blood frantically trying to reach into my handbag for my phone, I managed to dial 911 before I slipped into unconsciousness. It was touch and go when they first got me to the hospital, there were some complications and I almost died twice in surgery, so they told me.

That's as much as I remember but I never forgot his scrawny face, he looked like a drug addict, it was easy to identify him, the cops had visited me after my surgery with photo fit pictures, I picked him out straight away and now I was under police guard and I was due to appear in court to testify against him. That man would get what he deserved for shooting me.

I had been through quite an ordeal but finally I was on the mend, my stomach still hurt like hell when I moved but I was now out of the ICU and back in a regular hospital room, I was hoping to go home soon, in the next couple of days maybe.

I haven't have many visitors, being an only child, and from a different country, I don't know a lot of people here, both my parents live back in England, and are quite elderly, so they couldn't travel. I called to say I was in hospital but I didn't tell them I had been shot, I told them I had appendicitis, I didn't want them to worry. They hadn't wanted me to take the job in New York, my dad was terribly worried about it, he had hoped that by my age, I'm 31, I would be married with a couple of kids, and a nice husband to look after me so I could stay at home. He didn't understand my desire to have a career, he was old fashioned. Mum was a bit more understanding and she knew I had worked hard for this job, I had been head hunted by a top New York bank to lead the computer security team, online banking was the future but only if I could keep the customers accounts safe from hackers.

Work had been great about me almost dying, not. The company sent me some lousy flowers and my laptop so I could work from my hospital bed, how thoughtful <sigh>. My boss was kind of cool about it though, he came to visit me a couple of times bringing me some things I needed from my apartment and said I didn't  have to work, unless I got really really bored and desperate, and too be honest I was getting that way. I managed to check my emails in the last couple of days but got a ticking off by the Sargent major of a nurse who was on duty, "You are here to recover not work".

I hobbled out of bed, at least now I was able to go to the bathroom by myself. I wasn't really supposed to do that though, I was meant to buzz for the nurse to come and help me but I was fiercely independent and hated being immobile. I shuffled over to the sink in my room and looked at myself in the mirror, pale and gaunt, not a great look. I glanced sideways and could see Mal the on duty police officer sitting outside in the corridor, he had been there on and off for the duration of my stay. He was a portly middle aged cop who seemed to lacked ambition and looked older that his years. He appeared to be slightly distracted today and kept looking at his watch, I guessed his mind wasn't really on the job, he must have been as bored as I was.