How Can I Kill Them with My Broken Arm? Chapter 05
Screaming, cursing and voices trying to break up the chaos all blended into one roar. The room had erupted into pandemonium and every pair of eyes was fixed on me like I was some kind of irredeemable criminal.
I pressed my right arm against my body and leaned into the wall, shaking from the pain. The patient’s, husband was still all worked up and drawing his leg back to kick me again.
“That’s enough!”
The detective finally intervened, stepping between us and pushing the family back.
“This patient fractured her right arm at 9:26 pm and was having the fracture set in the treatment room at 9:52 pm. X-rays, surveillance footage and staff signatures are all accounted for. There is no way she was in an operating room causing someone’s death at the same time.”
The room went silent in an instant.
Cole’s face drained of color, while Nina had gone completely rigid, frozen in place.
The silence was so total that the only sound left was the steady drip of an IV line.
Cole looked like he was about to be sick, all the composure draining out of him at once.
“That’s not possible…”
He was muttering under his breath, staring at the medical chart like he could will it out of existence.
The lead detective was Captain Ross, a man in his 40s who had spent over a decade working cases and had seen just about everything.
He took the materials the traffic officer handed over and went through the X-ray, the emergency room intake record, the nurse’s signature and the surveillance screenshot. Every single piece told the same story.
Vera Stanton was in the emergency room at 9:52 pm.
Captain Ross looked up. His voice was not loud, but it carried weight.
“Dr. Barrett, you’re saying Vera Stanton was in the operating room at 9:52 pm?”
Cole’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, and he took an involuntary half step backward.
“I… the security camera showed her entering the operating room. Around 9:40, I think…”
“So
your report states she entered at 9:40, the patient died at 9:52, and that she was at the operating table for that entire 20-minute window.”
Captain Ross finished the thought for him, then turned to me.
“Vera, when were you injured?”
“Around 9:30.” I was fighting through the pain in my right arm and my voice came out thin. “At the intersection. The traffic officer can confirm.”
The officer nodded.
“I received the call at 9:32 and arrived on scene at 9:35. Ms. Stanton was already inside the vehicle with a fractured right arm. She was conscious but unable to speak.
“The ambulance arrived at 9:43, she reached the ER at 9:48, and the bone was being set at 9:52. My body camera recorded the entire thing.”
The timeline fit together without a single gap.
Captain Ross closed the file and looked at Cole again, but the way he looked at him had changed. It was no longer just suspicion. He was studying him.
“Dr. Barrett, if Vera Stanton didn’t perform the surgery, then who was the person operating in that room?”
Cole’s lips trembled, but nothing came out.
Behind him, Nina was shaking even harder. She had practically flattened herself against his back
Tears were still streaming down her face, but the way she cried had changed. The wounded, pitiful act from before was gone. What was left was pure fear.
“I…” Cole finally managed to find his voice.
“I might have been mistaken… The lights in the operating room were very bright and I was wearing a mask… Maybe… maybe I got the wrong person…”
The wrong person.
I nearly laughed. In my last life, he had stood in court and identified me without a shred of hesitation. Every word out of his mouth had cut like a blade, and he would not have stopped until he had me nailed to the cross.
However, now he was saying that he had gotten the wrong person.
“Cole, if I’m not mistaken, today’s surgery was supposed to be performed by your junior, Nina Foster.”
