Tall and willowy, Senior Scenes of Crime
Officer Aoife Shannon was a
fiery thirty-two-year-old red head and was admitted to St Augusta’s Hospital in
Nettlefield overnight for observation following a hit and run incident where
she was run off the road.
She suffered a mild concussion, a broken wrist, bruised ribs
and a number of cuts and contusions, but she was still in hospital 10 days
later because of an infection.
When she was being
treated in A&E the ER Nurse Tim Blake, a skinny freckly nurse with
straw coloured hair and grey eyes stitched the cut on her scalp.
While she was laid up
on Willow ward feeling sorry for herself, he made a point of popping in for
little chats and on the eve of her discharge she said
“I shall miss our little chats”
“Me too, but I’ll see you when you come in to have cast removed
hopefully” he said and took a pen from his pocket and wrote his phone number on
her cast
“Give me a text when
you have an appointment” he said
“Perhaps we could grab
a coffee if I'm working that day”
“Yes, I'd like that”
“Great, I'll say
goodnight then”
“Ok, night Tim”
She had been married for nearly 10 years when her
husband betrayed her, she hadn’t been able to trust a man after that, she had
been content with that, but lying in bed feeling sorry for herself, she had
regrets, Tim was the first man she had even the slightest feeling for.
So, while she was
recuperating at home she sat down with a cup of coffee and composed a text to
him, half an hour and several redrafts later she pressed send.
Tim replied almost
immediately and they exchanged text messages regularly throughout October, she
sometimes didn’t get prompt responses because he was working, but when they did
connect, they were lengthy and informative exchanges.
Then came the day when
she received her appointment at the fracture clinic for November 4th.
On the day of the
appointment, he was standing in the orthopaedics waiting room when she came out
of a consulting room, and it was the first time they had seen each other since
she was discharged.
“Hello” he said
“Tim!” she exclaimed
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here”
“I thought I would
make the most of the time” he explained “I start my night shift in an hour and
a half”
“Well let’s go then”
she said and put her pot free arm through his.
While they were
drinking their overpriced coffee’s they sat chatting about this and that and
then when they were on their second mug he asked
“So, when are you back
to work?”
“A week on Monday” she
replied “And I still hadn’t got a replacement car sorted yet, I’ve got the
insurance money, I just need to convert that into a new vehicle”
“What are you looking
for?”
“A Vauxhall Mokka” she
replied
“Have you seen one you
like?”
“I have, I’m going to
get it on Friday or Saturday” she replied “If its ok of course”
“Where is it?”
“In Tipton”
“So how are you going
to get there?”
“Taxi, I suppose” she
replied
“I can take you, if
you like” he suggested “I can’t do Friday because my shift doesn’t finish until
6 Am” he explained “But I’m off all weekend”
“I don’t want to
encroach on your weekend” she protested
“Nonsense I don’t
mind” he insisted
“Ok thank you, but you
must let me buy you lunch”
“Deal” he said, and
then looked at his watch “I have to go”
“Thank you” she said
as she stood up and kissed his cheek “For everything”
“My pleasure” he
retorted before walking away
The next day he texted
her for her address and the pickup time for Saturday.
Tim picked her up at
10.30 on Saturday morning, he also lived in Nettlebridge and was only about a
mile from Aoife’s house.
It was a grey blustery
day, but they were both in good spirits and they chatted just as much as they
had when they had coffee at the hospital and as they were approaching Tipton
Tim asked
“Do you like
fireworks?”
“Yes, I do”
“Well, there’s a
display on at Victoria Park tonight, if you fancy it”
“Oh yes that would be
lovely” she replied brightly
Aoife loved the car,
and after a test drive, she agreed to buy it, and Tim waited on the forecourt
while she completed the paperwork, and then they drove in convoy to The Marquis
pub on the Nettlefield road and had a very pleasant lunch together.
After lunch they went
their separate ways until that evening when he drove to her house where he
parked the car.
Aoife only lived half
a mile from Victoria Park, so they walked down the hill along a leafy lane.
It was dark in the lane lit by the occasional
rocket going off above their heads and the smell of gun powder was thick in the
damp night air.
But despite the cold and damp neither Aoife or
Tim were in any hurry to get to the park as it was their very first date,
evening date anyway, and they both walked as slowly as it was possible to go
without actually standing still.
However they eventually arrived in the park at the back of the crowd just at
the moment the display began but while the rowdy crowd were oohing and aahing at
the spectacular display, Aoife and Tim were kissing in the shadows of an old
oak tree.
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