Frank Green, a hospital cleaner, discovers dark and mysterious happenings at a local hospital. Now, he is nowhere to be found. Join Inspect Ruth Oakwood of London's Metropolitan Police as she examines his letters to find out what happened in this ho...
Last week, I ate lunch with Dr. Perez for the first time in several weeks (he has just returned from visiting his family), and I mentioned the differing accounts of Smethwick's whereabouts. Since then, he has sought to find out what has really happened to the poor fellow, which has taken a toll on his health. His eyes are bloodshot and vacant, his skin is pallid, and he clearly hasn't been sleeping well. However, perhaps the most notable change is he has given up his pipe and has started chain-smoking cigarettes; his shaking hands leave a trail of tobacco flakes on the floor.
His nerves reached a climax when, yesterday, he firmly grabbed my shoulder in the corridor and told me, in a hurried whisper, that he had also received different stories about what has happened to Smethwick. Dr. Perez went on to say that all of the patients in the ward are showing the same symptoms. They have the same visions in their nightmares, the same visual and auditory hallucinations, even down to the same tone of voice that speaks to them in the same unintelligible tongue. He had even noticed that the new patients, despite a wide range of diagnoses, always rapidly deteriorate to our current patients' conditions and report the same symptoms. He concluded that not only does some psychological disorder seem to have taken hold, but it is also inexorably spreading like a virus and needs to be quarantined lest it infect those beyond the hospital's walls.
Hearing this, I froze. Could it be the case that Smethwick had been right after all? Was I wrong to so quickly distrust his perspective?
However, I didn't dare share Smethwick's hypothesis. Besides, Dr. Perez was more shocked that his colleagues had hidden this development from him. He confided in me that roughly eight months ago, all his colleagues had stopped discussing their cases with him in any meaningful detail and consistently disavowed any peculiarities. Hence, he had to read the patient notes to garner this information.
Have you ever encountered such a scene in all your years of service? Is it even possible for conditions like these to spread?
Dr. Perez hadn't experienced this before and told me he had already begun writing requests for an urgent visit by other experts to examine the patients further. The suggestion of asking you to visit was brushed aside, but maybe you could use the trip to also see your uncle? Please consider it.
Should you come, I'm sure you will have no shortage of invitations to dinner or offers to host you for your stay in houses much more opulent than mine. But my door is always open to you, and the kettle is always on.
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Frank
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