“I think they got scared and ran away,” the pedestrian speculated. He held the heavy door open as Jessica’s saviour climbed aboard and laid her down flat on the stretcher.

“Don’t worry. I will find something to stop the bleeding.”

Jessica watched as the man rummaged through the first aid box and extracted some bandages along with a bottle of antiseptic. She guessed, based on his pronounced accent, that he might be a migrant worker. “What is your name?”

“You can call me Haroon,” the man said. He dabbed a cotton bud with the antiseptic and cautioned, “This may hurt a bit.”

Her mobile phone pinged suddenly and startled both of them. Haroon chuckled as Jessica checked the message from Chong Jin. The latter had panicked when he arrived at Nayagam Ranjan’s provision shop to find her missing.

Injured. In an ambulance now. Come find me.

Jessica winced as the antiseptic stung. She was surprised at how assured Haroon was dressing her wound. “You are good at this.”

“I ought to be,” Haroon laughed. “I was a nursing student back in India.”

“Really?” Jessica could not believe her luck.

“Not here, though,” Haroon added. “I’m here on an S Pass with a construction company. Hope to earn enough to finish my nursing degree when I go home.”

Jessica thanked him profusely after Haroon had finished dressing her wound. She tried sitting up but cried out when a searing pain ripped through her abdomen. Haroon looked worried.

“There might be other injuries. Do you mind removing your attire so that I can do an examination?”

Jessica nodded. She reached down to pull off her trousers and heard a metallic clank as the pair of handcuffs dropped onto the floor. She tilted her body to pick it up but the searing pain at her abdomen sent her collapsing onto her back.

“Why do you have these?” Haroon asked as he picked up the pair of handcuffs. There was a look of alarm on his face.

Jessica was pondering if she could trust Haroon with the truth when all of a sudden, the door to the ambulance burst open and someone jumped in. Jessica tilted her head and saw that it was Chong Jin. Before she could respond, the latter lifted his rifle and aimed a buttstock at Haroon. She heard herself scream hysterically as she watched Haroon drop to the floor like a sack of sand.

And then she saw Chong Jin pick up the handcuffs and clip them onto his belt, an unmistakable look of relief on his face.

Chapter 3

Had Sharon known how horrendous the morning was going to turn out, she would have called in sick and cancelled her appearance. Surely they would understand; a bad sneeze loaded with the influenza virus could easily knock out the contingent of septuagenarians and octogenarians at the Sunflower Retirement Home, much like a well-aimed throw would do to pins at a bowling alley.