St. Mary’s Teaching Hospital, 450 S West Street, Arkham, Mass.
The receiving staff at St. Mary’s were shocked when they saw the wretched condition of the vehicle that limped into the car park in the early hours of Sunday morning, but were doubly so when they looked inside and saw the young men battered, bloodied and covered in broken glass.
The team had swung into action and the unconscious Lawrence had been lifted carefully from the blood-soaked back seat of the car, before he was rushed into the operating theatre. The ambulatory wounded were helped into the hospital and gently sat down. The shock on the faces of the staff told the young men everything they needed to know about how they looked. They were quickly separated and ushered into individual treatment rooms where their wounds could be bathed and scratches attended to.
Their wounds dressed, William, Thomas and Jacob were shown to a small ward with six beds. After a brief consultation between the reception room team and Doctor Waldron - the campus physician - Howard was sent after Lawrence to the theatre, so the wound in his shoulder could be operated on.
Before long, a patrol car was out front but Doc Waldron told the patrolman in no uncertain terms that there was no way he was going to talk to any of his patients until the next day. The patrolman called it in, and after some discussion, was dispatched to stand guard by the ward doors. Inside, and despite any protests to the contrary, William, Thomas and Jacob were given a sleeping draught that knocked them out until the next day, in order to give their wounds a chance to heal.
As they slept, Lawrence and Howard were brought from the operating theatre to the ward and the room eventually fell quiet except for the sound of gentle snoring...
~ ~ ~
It was one in the afternoon before the first of them stirred and it was another hour before they were washed and fed, and able to receive visitors. Doctor Waldron pushed open the door to admit two men, who introduced themselves as Captain William Keats and Chief Detective Luther Harden from the Arkham Police Department. Both men appeared to be in their 40’s and had a stern look about them.Captain Keats and Doc Waldron had pulled up chairs to sit on, while Harden leaned against the door frame. Captain Keats spoke first. “Well, why don’t you gentlemen tell us how you came about to be in such a condition?”
