On the Strawberry Moon - 26. Chapter 26

The hospital was beeping around Kalum. It was exhausting opening his eyes. Smells of metal and chemicals again.

He managed to fully open his eyes and look around. There was that lady detective he was speaking to. She was outside the glass door. She was talking to a doctor; they both peered in and saw he was awake. They both came in and closed the door behind them, but closed it with extreme care.

‘How are you feeling Kalum?’ the doctor asked as the detective sat down next to him.

Kalum instantly went to rub the back of head. He felt stitches. In horror he patted a hand gently over his head and felt no hair. All shaved.

‘What happened?’ he croaked.

‘You had a bit of bleed on the brain,’ the doctor said calmly, sitting down, holding a clipboard. The doctor was a tall man with aged face but shiny green eyes. Trusting eyes. ‘We had to a coiling procedure which I can go through with you in more detail once the detective leaves. You also had a nasty deep cut at the back of your head so we have had to clean that up.’

Oh, guess that explained his hair and the stitches.

‘Right,’ Kalum didn’t know what to say. ‘So, it’s all okay now, then?’

The detective cleared her throat, looked at the doctor and then at Kalum. ‘The bleed on the brain may be linked to things such as head injuries you have sustained.’

‘Oh, when I,’ Kalum coughed and sat up a little bit. ‘When I fell down the stairs, sure but that was years ago. Oh, the, um, the climbing thing, when I got knocked out, that was ages ago too.’

‘We also found a lot of bruising on you, Kalum, too,’ the doctor said softly. ‘Is there anything you would like to talk about?’

Kalum looked down at his hands and he didn’t say anything.

After a short silence, the doctor nodded and stood up, he said, ‘I think that is enough for Kalum now, Detective, he needs rest.’

Kalum nodded back, grateful, as the doctor lead the detective out the room.

As they shut the door behind them, the detective said to the doctor, ‘So the old scaring was definitely on the left side?’

The doctor nodded and tapped at his clipboard. ‘Left side at the back.’

The detective nodded. As the doctor walked away, she looked down and got her phone out.

***

The male detective ended the call and closed his phone, and stared at the integration door. The long black thick door.

Striding forward, he threw it open and sat down at the table.

Jasper was slouching opposite, with hands in grey trouser pockets and his useless lawyer next to him.

The detective began the interview.

‘We just thought we would let you know that Kalum is okay, and has come round at the hospital.’

‘Simon. Simon is doing okay.’

‘No,’ the male detective said. ‘Kalum.’

Jasper raised an eyebrow.

The male detective explained, ‘Your brother had scaring from the previous operation.’

‘Yeah,’ Jasper almost rolled his eyes. ‘Head injury, head operation. There will be scaring from stitches. Oh my,’ he almost started to laugh. ‘Did you shave him? Ha. That’s amazing.’

As he laughed the detective shuffled his papers, ‘So when Kalum and Simon fell, do you remember where they landed?’

‘Kalum landed first, back of his head and Simon fell to the right,’ said Jasper. ‘Kalum clipped the stairs from the side more than Simon. Simon was more, like, falling back scrambling kind of thing.’

‘They found the scaring from the left side on Kalum.’

Jasper was still smiling and shook his head.

‘You said Simon fell more to the right.’

‘Well, he fell down regardless so I am not sure what you are trying to imply?’

‘My colleague spoke to the other hospital where the operations were done. Kalum’s injuries were only on the left and Simon’s were all over the back of his head.’

‘I swapped the boards around though. I already told you.’

‘My colleague spoke to the nurses at that hospital were you and your brothers were. A nurse made notes about seeing what you did,’ the detective said, ‘You thought no one was watching you, but you were always being watched Jasper.’

Jasper smile started to melt away from his face, drip by drip, ‘No. I switched them, the boards.’

‘The nurse told our team she switched the boards back, the notes were made on the system and the carers were advised at the time too,’ the detective said, ‘The doctors were aware of who they operated on, the operations were so different, they would have knew the boards weren’t right. So, like I said. Kalum is doing well in hospital.’

‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Jasper said, breathing deeply. ‘They said Kalum wasn’t going to make it, that Simon was. That’s what the doctors were saying, that’s what they said.’

‘That’s right, Kalum wasn’t supposed to make it all. But he did. Kalum made a miraculous recovery, he fought back. Simon, however, his injuries deteriorated quickly,’ the detective said.

Jasper eyes were watering up, the awful feeling of true horror washing over him. He shook his head, ‘Nope. No. Nah.’

‘You were so angry that Kalum was remembering Simon that you had to punish him,’ the detective said. ‘Like you said he deserved to be in prison. A life for a life, right? Is that why you took the gun in? Because you knew he would agree to take the gun off you, he would take the bait, he would be in prison serving more years than another crime, right?’

Jasper shook his head still, ‘You know, that isn’t true, you can go prison longer for other things. You’re just making stuff up to get me.’

‘Simon is the one who passed away, Jasper, not Kalum.’

‘The doctors, all the doctors, said Kalum wasn’t going to make it, so if they swapped it around it would still be Simon that be alive.’

‘Kalum defied the odds, Simon didn’t.’

Jasper ran his hands through his hair. ‘So, everyone around me was lying, all the time, lying.’

‘You can put your plea in soon, Jasper.’

To everyone shock, Jasper let out a loud gasp and hiccup of emotions boiled over. He started to cry, uncontrollably. He was getting louder and louder, wailing out loud, ‘Kalum? I’m so sorry. Kalum. Kalum, help me, I’m sorry!’

***

The female detective came into the hospital room just as Kalum was packing his stuff from the hospital bed.

He gave a nervous glance at her but she smiled gently at him, ‘It’s alright, just seeing how you are doing there, Kalum.’

Kalum shrugged as he zipped up his bag, ‘Are you going to take me to the police station?’

‘No,’ she sat down on the chair, ‘I just wanted to let you know your brother is being charged and he has admitted everything.’

Everything?

‘Your social worker is going to collecting you soon.’

Kalum nodded and pulled his hat over his head a bit more. He had been at the hospital a little longer than usual and some of his hair was growing back a bit. The stitches were almost out now too. Another scar.

She smiled at him, ‘You’re free now, Kalum, you understand?’