“What are they waiting for?” Julia Connors said in an impeccable English accent as she stared impatiently through the window into the ICU. “You switched her off, she’s dead, now get out.”
“You’ll never win first prize in a sensitivity contest talking like that,” Sam Rawlston said with a smile.
“Oh, and I suppose you will?” Julia retorted with a quick backward glance before she went straight back to staring at Graham and Amanda Middleton. They were still sitting by their daughter’s bedside, Doctor Hughes standing over them. The three of them looked very sad. “Come on, get out of there before she shrivels up!” Julia muttered.
Julia Connors was thirty, with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was tall and slim, but Sam Rawlston knew that she was about as lovable as a snake with itchy scales, and twice as slippery. They had been working together for two years now, and had quickly gone through the sexual phase of their relationship. Sam was sad that it had lasted for so short a time, and still hoped to rekindle it. But relationships in their line of business were never a good idea. At least, not if you valued your life and your anatomy.
Sam Rawlston was black, with short cropped hair, and eyes that seemed to look right through you rather than at you. Tall and well built, and very confident in the worst of situations, Rawlston was older than Julia by five years, and his accent gave away his Southern American origins. As they stood in the waiting area outside the ICU, both he and Julia seemed out of place. She was dressed casually in dark colours, while he wore a dark suit and stood as if he were waiting for the President to appear.
“They’ve just switched off their daughter,” he said. “Give them a chance to cry before you kick them out.”
“They can cry at home! We’ve got work to do. And I’m sure getting that doctor in there involved was a bad idea. We shouldn’t have told him.”
“And what would you have preferred?” Rawlston replied. “That we approached the distraught couple cold?”
Julia grunted, still staring through the window, and shading her eyes from the lights behind her. “I still think he looks far too sneaky to me,” she said. “I’ll bet he’s already spouting off about her death helping someone else to live. He’s probably got the papers in his pocket right now. By the time we get to the parents, that body will look like a car that was left unattended in Moss Side overnight.” Julia suddenly stepped away from the window. “At last!” she muttered. “They’re coming out. Keep out of my way, Sam. Okay? I don’t want you putting me off.”
Rawlston laughed. “No way! This I gotta see,” he said.
Julia pointed her finger at him and said in a stern voice, “Just don’t bugger me up! I’m warning you!”
“Here they come,” Rawlston said, nodding towards the door behind her.
Julia turned as Graham and Amanda Middleton emerged tearfully from the ICU. She stepped forward to meet them, and with a sad expression on her face, she said in a solemn voice, “Hello, Mr and Mrs Middleton? My name is Julia Connors. I am so sorry for your loss, and I do hope you don’t mind me speaking to you now. I know it’s a bad time, but it is important that we act quickly. I represent a company called Medical Technology. I believe Doctor Hughes has already mentioned us to you?”