I wanted to update quickly because I felt bad for being so late with the last chapter.
Thank you for your lovely words. They make me skip to work even though I hate my job! xx

Chapter 14

Pushing his way through the door, Gene entered the interview room and looked at the man slumped at the table.

Fat and squat, the very image of his nickname he had been given, George Stevens was every inch The Toad.
He seemed to drip unpleasantness, his wide mouth opened briefly so he could swipe a flat wet tongue across his dry cracked lips as his eyes darted towards the door.

"Right then Mr Stevens, my name is DCI Hunt, I believe you have met DS Carling here" The way Stevens was holding his arm awkwardly certainly suggested he was familiar with Ray's particular brand of introduction.

Gene took the seat across from him, lighting up then laying his fag packet and lighter down in front of him, Ray leant against the wall, clearly trying to hold back from lamping Stevens again.

"So as well as being an offence to the eye and frankly the nostrils you also connected to the attempted murder of one of my men. So the sooner you start talking the longer I can dissuade Carling here from battering the living shit out of you!" The way Ray was glowering made it clear this was more of a promise than a threat.

"Honestly Mr 'unt I only sell a bit a' coke here and there. I don't make none of it and I certainly don't know nothing' about no murders" Stevens' seemed as if he may have been sampling his own wares, nervous and jolting, the effects of the coke he had taken last night seemed to still be in effect. He reached over and fiddled with the cigarette packet until Gene indicated he should take one.

"Who you sellin' for then Stevens? Come on you bastard, we want names." Ray slammed his fist down on the table as he lunged forward, grabbing George by the collar and sinking his fist into his eye socket.

As Gene made no attempt to stop Ray from pulverising him further Stevens stuttered and held his hands up in submission.

"Alright, alright, call 'im off Sir, call 'im off!!" Ray drew back his fist, ready to sink what would be a mighty blow, as Gene barked "Ray, leave him. Now!"
Ray through himself away from the table, moving to the back of the room where he prowled like an enraged tiger, muttering dark threats under his breath.

"I got in too deep Mr 'unt, I borrowed some money what I couldn't pay back. They made me sell that stuff or they said they would kill me. It ain't my fault sir. And I ain't even seen no murders or nothing. Please don't let that thug kill me!" Stevens kept his eye on Ray as he rubbed his swollen socket.

"Then you best start talking you bastard!"

Xxxx

Alex straightened her jacket and smoothed her hair from her face as she waited for the door to open. The corridor was quiet and almost eerie in a seemingly disused corner of the building, overlooking a court yard where dressing gowned figures moved slowly around.

"Ah Miss Drake!" Dr Beresford's face appeared at the door, a broad smile spreading across his face as the glow from inside his office fell on her.

"Come in, come in" he bustled her into the room, guiding her towards a pair of large leather chairs, sweeping a box of tatty Christmas decorations out of one of them and indicating Alex to take a seat.
"Comes around so quickly doesn't it! I love Christmas, don't you?" He placed the box on the floor by his desk, "I like to decorate nice and early, cheer the patients up." He continued to shuffle around the room, his back to her as he moved to a little kettle and clattering around a pair of cups.

"Dr Beresford, I need to talk to you about DC Skelton's condition and the tox results if I may?" As the elderly gentleman bundled back to her the warm light from the nearby lamp twinkled in his eyes and cast shadows in the lines on his wrinkled face.

Alex took in her surroundings, shrugging off her coat and settling into the comfortable leather chair, she warmed her hands on the little heater, with its's fake orange coals, plugged into the wall. The room was tatty and cluttered, whole walls filled up with books, with diplomas in frames and little lamps dotted around reminded Alex of Evan's study when she was growing up.

"Tea! You look like you need good hot tea." He passed her a china cup which she sipped gratefully as he settled in the armchair across from her.

"You look warn out my dear" He hardly sounded like a doctor, Alex felt more at ease with him than she could explain. He was strangely familiar to her, like a memory she couldn't quite recall.

"So you have questions?" Dr Beresford took off his glasses and cleaned them on his cardigan before putting them back on and peering at her.

"Thank you, for the tea. And please call me Alex. I wondered if you could tell me about the amount of bromethalin in Chris' system? Did you find any trace of cocaine in his tox screen?" With one hand she fished awkwardly in her discarded coat pocket for her note book and pen.

"Should there be? Got himself a tasty habit has he? He hardly looks the type but I suppose you can never tell." Dr Beresford sounded surprised but reached for the paper file that was propped on his desk. "No, no sign of any cocaine. It was a fairly concentrated dose of Bromethalin which caused his convulsions. Were you to ask me, I would say it looked like deliberate poisoning, Alex" He closed the file and crossed his hands over his lap.

The sun had dipped considerably and Alex suddenly felt tired. She lifted her hand to her forehead in a reflex gesture, rubbing wearily as she flicked through her notes and coming up with nothing. "You have another question, Alex?" He smiled kindly and Alex felt only one question filling her mind.

"Dr Beresford, this isn't really connected but…I was wondering how much you know about the side effects of head injuries? I…I know someone who received a considerable head injury recently and she, well she has been struggling. She doesn't feel like herself any more."

Alex stared at her hands, the cup had a thin brown tea stain running around the rim which distracted her from the panic she felt as she waited for the doctor to answer.

"You should tell your friend that she should try to surround herself with familiar things. Clothes, surroundings, friends. She should avoid making any big decisions and try to rest as much as possible." He looked deep into her face as he reached over to touch her hand, Alex looked at him and he smiled sadly.

"I won't pretend I haven't noticed the mark on your head, young Alex, and you have an air about you of someone who is waiting for something to make sense. Am I right?" Alex dropped her head as tears formed in her eyes, her chestnut curls forming a curtain around her face.

"I'm so sorry" Alex swiped her the droplets away from her eyes with frustrated finger tips "I was never like this, you know? I never cried. Before. But I miss my daughter and I feel so confused all the time, and I want to commit to him but I can't let go of her and I have no friends here, well not real friends, not that any of this is real and…" Alex babbled and fell quiet, realising this was the first time she had talked about this, first time she had really felt it in weeks.

"It's like a dream, but I am not waking up. I really need to wake up. But you know sometimes when you have a wonderful but strange dream and you know if you open your eyes that feeling will be gone and you'll just be back in bed, wishing you could go back to sleep, to have that feeling again…I am different here, everything is different"

She had changed, her feelings were always so close to the surface now. Dr Beresford took the cup from her hands and covered them with his own.

"Alex, if you really have suffered a head injury maybe we should examine you? I have some books here you might like to read or…You must make the choice. To live in the dream or to take back your life. Dreams are wonderful, but they are not real."

Alex sat and considered his words, staring at the flickering light of the fake fire.

Like everything here in 1982, she could feel it's warming effects and enjoy it's pretty glow but it was fake, an imitation of real life.

It wasn't real. None of it.

xx