A Raucous Time

  *

   

  The children’s ward was in chaos. Kids were running riot bouncing on beds, swacking pillows against each other and generally having a ball.

  While Hewes shrilled for order, Crombie cornered a dumpy little nurse, who looked close to tears.

  ‘Wren Prenderson – He’s been discharged. His auntie collected him not twenty minutes ago. Just before.’ She waved a hand despairingly around to indicate the mayhem, then plunged back into the fray.

  Crombie sneaked off, leaving Hewes to recover her hat from a giggling twosome now playing piggy in the middle. En-route to Rhyllann Jones’s house, Crombie placed a few phone calls using the hands free, curious to discover the real reason for Hewes’s new found enthusiasm for unpaid overtime.