The Watson Mystery

‘I really need a coffee after that,’ grumbled Detective Thomas McCloud as he stomped towards the small hospital cafe. Young Constable Johnny Lattley, fairly new on the job, jogged to keep up with him.

‘Me too,’ agreed Johnny as they got to the cafe counter.

‘Large black coffee,’ said McCloud to the young girl at the cash register. The girl quickly handed over the cup of freshly brewed drip coffee.

‘Could I get a latte, please?’ asked Johnny politely, just as McCloud took a large swig of his coffee.

Detective McCloud spluttered, nearly choking on his drink, ‘ A latte?’ he screeched. ‘That’s not coffee, Lattley! That’s just hot coffee flavoured milk!  I don’t know how you can survive a day on a latte, Lattley, that wouldn’t keep me awake for five minutes!’

McCloud paused, thoughtful. ‘Maybe I should start calling you Latte, instead of Lattley!’ he chuckled.

Johnny had just taken his latte from the lady behind the counter when he protested, ‘Oh no, Detective!  I don’t want a nickname, all the other officers will make fun of me!’

I’m sure they already do make fun of you, thought McCloud, but instead said, ‘Yes, I think i’ll call you Latte from now on. It’s easier to say than Lattley. It suits you.’

Constable Lattley hung his head and mumbled, ‘yes Sir,’ as McCloud headed to a quiet corner of the cafe to discuss the case.

‘So here’s the facts we have so far from the head nurse,’ said McCloud getting out his little black notebook.‘There’s been thefts of patients belongings. Jewellery and other expensive items. Usually just from the bedside area, when the patients are asleep or are drugged and don’t realize what’s going on’ said McCloud matter-of-factly

‘So we need to interview the patients,’ said Lattley.

McCloud downed the last of his coffee and got up, heading towards the first of the victims. Lattley trailed after him carefully sipping the foam from the top of his drink.

The two officers arrived at the bedside of Mrs. Jeannie Smith.

‘Well,’ said the elderly woman slowly and carefully, ‘I’ve been seeing a young boy wandering around here in the room lately. I think he might be up to this. You know young kids these days,’ Jeannie said.

McCloud nodded in agreement. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Let’s go find this kid,’ he said to Lattley.  They didn’t have to go far. The boy was just in the next room, standing near a patient’s bed.

‘Why are you stealing people’s stuff?’ accused Thomas McCloud right off the bat.

‘What?’ said the young boy, taken aback. ‘What are you talking about? I’m not stealing anything. I’m just talkin’ to people just cuz I’m bored.’ 13-year-old Tyler Ronson checked out. He hadn’t been around the victim’s bed, he was only talking to another person in the room. The man whose bed they are all standing next to speaks up. ‘This boy Tyler here is a nice kid. He’s never taken anything of mine,’ said the man in his forties with bandages on his head. ‘He’s just bored ’cause his mother is in the hospital and he just comes around to talk when he’s visiting because he’s here so long. Hospitals aren’t the most exciting places for kids. Or adults,’ he added.

Lattley and McCloud talked to other victims and they confirmed that they hadn’t seen the boy around them.

‘Moving on,’ said McCloud, heading to the second victim.

‘So do you have any idea who took your things?’ asked McCloud gruffly.

‘I’ve seen a strange man Detective,’ said the man who had his wallet and watch taken. ‘I’ve seen him wandering around the outside of the room, the perimeter. And up and down the hallway too.’

‘Have you spoken to this man?’ asked Constable Lattley gently.

‘Yes, I asked who he was’ said the man.

‘And..?’ asked McCloud impatiently

‘And he said his name was Dr. Watson’ said the man. ‘It was a bit strange though, because he seemed nervous when I asked him who he was. And I guess he could’ve been a doctor. He was wearing a white smock, but didn’t seem to have any other doctorly things on him.’

 ’Hmm,’ murmured McCloud. ‘I see.’ 

Without a word of thanks to the man, McCloud headed over to the third victim, a woman in the same ward.

‘So, Mrs…?’ McCloud begins, flipping through his notebook to find her name.

‘Vine,’ says the small slim woman with bushy black hair.

‘Can you tell me what happened surrounding your belongings being taken?’ asked McCloud, grudgingly putting on his reading glasses to write in his notebook.

‘I just woke up from a nap and turned over and noticed my things were gone. They were sitting right there on the nightstand,’ said Mrs Vine nervously.

‘So, Mrs. Vine,’ said Lattley, ‘had you seen anyone around that might have seemed suspicious or out of place? That you think could maybe have taken your bracelet and rings?’

Mrs Vine nodded and her bushy hair bobbed up and down. ‘Yes. A man. I woke up and saw a man in the room and I got a bit scared and asked who he was and what he was doing. He said he was a Doctor. A Doctor Watson.’

‘Watson, you mean like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson?’ said Lattley, a bit confused.

‘Well yes, I guess so,’ said Mrs. Vine. ’I'd never really thought of that. All I know is that I’d never seen him around here before and I’ve been in hospital awhile now – and have been here before too and so I know a lot of the doctors,’ the woman explained.

‘Could this Dr. Watson maybe just be a doctor you don’t know? Or a new doctor?’ asked Lattley.

‘I suppose so,’ said Mrs Vine. ‘He just didn’t seem very much like a doctor. And was surprised and seemed a bit nervous when I asked him who he was and why he was here.’

‘That’s all for now,’ said McCloud turning away without saying anything else.

‘Thanks Mrs. Vine for your help. We will leave you to get some rest, I’m sure this has been stressful for you,’ said Lattley kindly and sympathetically.

‘Lattley,’ says McCloud, ‘I want you to do some surveillance on this ‘Dr Watson.’ Just choose a room and hide in a corner – sit in a chair in a corner and read a magazine. I’m sure he’ll come around soon enough.’

Lattley chose a room and sat down with a magazine. A short time later a man walked into the room, slowly wandered around, peering in at the patients. Lattley recognized him. Before the man noticed, Lattley quickly and quietly exited the room and headed for McCloud sitting in the hospital cafe.

McCloud looked up from reading a magazine. ‘Found anything Latte?’

Lattley ignores the jibe and the words tumble from him in a jumble, ‘It’s Sean. Castle. From jail.’

‘Sean Castle? The jail guard?’ said McCloud, taken aback. ‘Isn’t he the one that was fired for apparently stealing prisoners’ things?

Lattley nodded.

McCloud throws his magazine down on the rickety table, nearly knocking over his second cup of coffee. ‘Come on, then’ he says grabbing Lattley by the shoulder and pulling him down the hall towards the room.

Detective McCloud bursts into the room. ‘Castle!’ he shouts.

‘Shhh,’ admonishes Lattley tapping McCloud on the shoulder ‘it’s a hospital, remember?’

McCloud glares at Lattley before turning to face the man who was standing at the opposite end of the room.

‘Detective McCloud!’ Sean almost whispers in a frightened voice. ‘What are you doing here? You scared me!’

‘Ha!’ laughs McCloud. ‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Why are you stealing poor hospitalized people’s belongings? That’s low, even for you!’ McCloud continues to shout.

 ’Stealing people’s things?’ says Castle in disbelief. ‘What are you talking about?’ he says, looking puzzled. ‘I know I was accused of stealing prisoners things at the jail, but I didn’t, you should know that. Remember there was that guy that confessed? I could’ve got my job back, but I didn’t want to after that whole fiasco.’

McCloud grumbled.

‘So what’s this about people’s things being taken?’ asked Sean.

Lattley jumped in, ‘there’s someone that’s been stealing patients belongings, from right off the bedside. And some of the victims have been saying there’s been a strange man wandering around their rooms saying he’s ‘Dr. Watson.’

Castle looked ashamed and he hung his head. ‘Yeah, that’s me,’ he admitted. ’Not that I’ve been stealing stuff. I’ve been keeping an eye on the patients while I’m here visiting my mother. I guess you could say I’ve become a kind of vigilante security guard keeping an eye on patients. Only after I heard their stuff was being stolen. I’m just wanting to keep the patients safe. Besides, there isn’t much to do in a hospital except drink lots of coffee, and sit and read magazines. So I just ended up wandering around.’

‘So why did you call yourself Doctor Watson?’ questions McCloud. ‘Why did some of the victims say that you seemed nervous when they asked you who you were then you lied to them?

‘Well, I didn’t want to scare the patients that some security guard was wandering around because there have been some thefts. And I was nervous when people asked who I was because I was lying, saying I was a doctor. And I said I was Dr Watson because it’s the first name that came to me, you know Sherlock Holmes.’

‘So how can I be sure it wasn’t you who was stealing the things?’ said McCloud.

‘I don’t know,’ said Castle. Dejected he walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, head in hands.

‘I know!’ exclaimed Lattley excitedly.

Both McCloud and Castle looked at him, surprised. ‘You do?’ they said in unison.

 ’It’s not Dr Watson, I mean, Sean, because of his shoes!’ said Lattley.

‘What?’ said both McCloud and Castle.

‘Get up, Sean,’ said Lattley. Sean rose from his chair, confused.

‘Walk around,’ instructed Lattley. Sean did as he was told.

‘Look,’ said Lattley pointing to the floor. ‘It’s not Sean because his shoes scuff up and mark the floor. They dirty the hospital floor. Around all the victims beds, and where belongings were, there were no scuffs or dirt from his shoes, meaning he was nowhere near close enough to take the items. The floor is very sensitive to outside shoes and easily gets scuffed and damaged.’

McCloud and Castle looked at the marks on the floor from the shoes, then around the beds of the victims in the room.

‘There’s no scuff marks around the bed!’ shouted Sean. ‘See! That proves I wasn’t near the beds to steal things.’

‘Okay, so who does that leave then?’ mused McCloud.

‘Well,’ said Lattley, ‘only nurses shoes don’t make any damage to the floor so it must be that someone from the hospital staff is taking the belongings!’

McCloud and Lattley went back and spoke to all the victims once more. ‘So,’ said McCloud looking through his notes after the second interviews. ‘They all say that they notice their things missing after visiting hours is over, just after 6pm.’ McCloud scratches his dark salt-and-pepper hair. ‘Lets all go into different rooms just before six and see if we can find out what’s happening.’

Lattley, McCloud and Sean Castle all headed into a different room and sat in a chair off to the side, casually pretending to read a magazine while keeping an eye on the room. While in his room, Lattley noticed the head nurse come in and tell a group of visiting family members its time to leave. He notices she deftly pockets some belongings while speaking to the family and also fussing around the patient, straightening blankets and fluffing up the pillow.

 ’It’s the head nurse!’ Lattley whispers to the other two when he meets up with them down the hall.

‘Nurse Helena?’ whispers McCloud as quietly as his gravely voice allows. ‘I thought something was not right with her in the beginning!’ He pauses, thinking. ‘I have a plan. We’ll set a trap. We’ll put some belongings on a patient’s bedside table, then sit and wait again, in a chair hidden out of view of the bed.’

McCloud settles himself down in the chair and waits for the nurse to arrive. He wakes up to the ‘victim’ patient telling him that the head nurse was just in the room a few minutes ago and took the items. McCloud curses himself for falling asleep while waiting and missing Helena coming in and taking the bait jewellery. He makes note of the time – ‘Five minutes to six just before visiting period finishes-the busiest time of visitors coming and leaving the hospital so she can slink away unnoticed in the busy-ness of the hospital’ he murmurs.

‘Phase two of the trap,’ says McCloud as he settles down in a chair in another room and this time pretends to be asleep. 

Helena entered the room and talked to the patient’s family, telling them to leave. Just before she turns to leave the room herself after everyone else has gone McCloud confronts her. ‘Police! Stop right now!’ he yells. ‘Drop the stuff!’

Helena looks at McCloud like a deer in the headlights. She turns and runs toward the door and runs straight into Lattley who had been waiting in a corner of the room. She and Lattley struggle. Lattley screams and holds his arm, letting the nurse go. ‘She stabbed me with a pen!’ he yells jumping backwards. Helena continues to head toward the door and runs right into ‘Dr Watson’ blocking the doorway from the hall. Castle grabs her in a bear hug and holds her until McCloud gets the cuffs around her hands. They drag her to a chair and push her into it.

McCloud shifts into interrogation mode. ‘Why? Why’d you do it?’

‘Why?’ the nurse spits, ‘why?! Because no one would assume it was me, because I’ve been here forever, and I’m the head nurse, so why wouldn’t anyone trust me? Because I resent hospitals. I spent too much time here when I was little. My mom was a nurse and I spent all my time here when I was little. It’s so boring. And I know that the patients aren’t well looked after, they’re easy targets for taking their expensive belongings because the patients are usually either asleep or drugged and don’t know what’s happening half the time. So I guess you could say I did it for a kind of revenge. I don’t like being a nurse but it was forced upon me because of my mom. So might as well do something useful while I’m here.’

‘Well,’ said McCloud ‘you’re gonna be a lot more bored and be a lot more resentful where you’re gonna be going,’ he said as he marched Helena out of the room followed by Lattley and Castle.

~~~~

Check out story 3 below!