I look at the faces: twelve men. The photos aren’t great; it’s clearly a photocopy of a photocopy, the original of which had been fished out of a bin and unscrunched. But still, there’s something about one of them, a man, age hard to tell as his face is largely taken over with a thick beard, who is strangely familiar.

‘That’s not all. One of the nurses who was on the ward that night still works here.’

‘Can I speak to her?’

‘She’ll have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so I’m not sure what she’d be able to tell you. What’s this actually about?’

‘It’s probably nothing. Just something that came up in a case.’

‘Well, okay, be like that then. Anyway, I’ve got my next patient.’

‘The nurse, where would I find her?’

‘You’re so predictable. Luckily I already found out for you. She comes off shift in just over –’ She checks her watch. ‘– an hour’s time, in the radiology department. But I wouldn’t hang out there.’

‘No?’

‘No, they claim it’s safe and all, but really.’ She drops her voice. ‘Really it’s not. Trust me, I’m a doctor.’

‘I was thinking maybe I’ll go across and sit with Hank.’

‘I had lunch with him.’

I know she did. She does every day. We stand up and hug again.

‘Have you heard anything yet?’

‘Tomorrow. They’ll tell me tomorrow.’

Out in the waiting room the freaky kid stares at me as I go past. There’s actually something lizard-like about his eyes. He slowly sticks his tongue out. I check no one’s watching and do the I’m-watching-you-two-fingers-at-my-eyeballs-then-point thing. Take that, you little fucker. Then I turn to see the nurse who’d walked me up the corridor stepping out of a room just ahead. She’s watching me with a look of pure disgust on her face.

‘Talk to him,’ says the male nurse who’s brought me here as he opens the door. ‘It helps.’