Chapter 10

Lola sighed tiredly. Thank God the working day was nearly over. Philip Carter was today’s last patient and now it couldn’t be long before his consultation came to an end.
He had, as usual, managed to make the day a hell for her since entering the clinic – in fact, from the beginning of the day when she saw his name on the list for today’s patients.
Well, it would soon be over with – almost. He just needed to be steered out the door and she figured Dr. Hall would take care of that.
It had been one of those long days, and now it was after dark. The traffic had quietened a bit, she noted. People working normal hours were probably sitting round the dinner table by now.
She cast a glance out the window at the yard behind the clinic, which was on first floor. All the other offices representing various kinds of professions, like insurance companies, dentists and other occupations, useful to society, were empty by now. At this hour it was all quiet. The building seemed completely deserted apart from here at the clinic.
Well, hopefully it wouldn’t be much longer. Lola started tidying her desk and put the list of medication prescriptions in her bag. As usual, she’d hand it in at the drugstore on her way home. That way she could fetch the medicine on the way in to work the next morning. She had to schedule everything as practically as possible as the clinic shouldn’t be unstaffed at any time within it’s opening hours.
In the waiting room she placed Newspapers and Magazines in their proper places and shifted the bag in the wastepaper basket. She’d take it down to the bin in the backyard when she left.
There was a back staircase in the building, practical and useful in more than one sense: Lola always left her work place through the back entrance, not at least to avoid being waylaid by patients, who might find it convenient to stand waiting on the pavement outside the main entrance.
Occasionally, when that happened they’d overlook her when she slipped out of the gate leading to the backyard of the building, as the entrance to the gate was positioned a short way down the street from the main entrance.
She found the small mirror in her handbag, glancing shortly into it while tidying her longish brown hair, giving herself a questioning look from her brown eyes. Well, that would have to do. ‘Oh, and couldn’t they just dawdle at the end of a consultation, for Heaven’s sake?’  
Barely had the disrespectful thought crossed her mind before the door into the sacred room itself opened. Philip Carter appeared on the doorstep, his insulting eyes directed toward her.
He went to the entrance and took down his jacket from the coat hook, and on his way out he turned toward her and tossed a farewell in a tone that for him was remarkably kind: “Bitch!”. Then he disappeared, and the door closed behind him.
”Well, I guess one might learn to be happy with just a little something,” Lola mumbled to herself.
After a short while Adam Hall himself came out. He was already in his overcoat and seemed a bit harassed.
“Listen, I’m sorry. He really is a somewhat difficult person to deal with, our Philip.” Hall gave an encouraging smile and then went on: “I have some dates with appointments for patients here. Would you mind awfully typing them up before you leave? And you do have the medication list under control, right?”
Lola confirmed while inwardly wondering. The tasks Hall had asked her to carry out were a routine she took care of each day, and he didn’t usually find it necessary to remind her. Maybe he was a bit distracted himself today? Yeah, okay, it had been a really exhausting day. And if she thought about it – how much worse must it have been for Hall, who as the doctor was the one handling the true problems.
She gave her employer a bright smile, remarking: “Everything is under control, Dr. Hall. You take it easy now and go home with a clear conscience.”
Hall smiled back at her, relieved, waving his hand before disappearing through the entrance door.
Lola gave a sigh with relief – free at last. She checked the latest appointments and made sure they’d been transferred to the computer diary before shutting down the program and then the computer.
Then she grabbed her handbag and her jacket and locked the entrance door before leaving  through the door to the back stairs.
While she carefully locked the backdoor behind her, she noticed the stairs were in darkness, apparently all the way down to the bottom floor. She gave a sigh of annoyance. Now she’d have to grope her way down the stairs with a firm grip on the handrail.
The janitor should be a lot more careful in his job. She would remind him first thing tomorrow morning to fix the blown bulbs.
With one hand firmly round the handrail she started her descent. Fortunately, the bulb from the first floor was in order and shed its light on the first leg. She reached the landing safely and then went on a bit more reluctantly, feeling her way with her feet before treading down the next step.
Half way down she got a peculiar feeling of not being alone, but she pushed it away, putting it down to the abominable way the working day had ended. That, and the darkness as well.
She could just dimly see the wall below the stairs if she really concentrated. And now, the very last step. Thank God.
Lola turned from the stairs and went into the short passage leading to the door out to the backyard.
She gave a spontaneous scream as a dark figure suddenly stepped forward in front of her, blocking the way to the door out.
“Who is… oh, it’s you? But what on earth are you doing here?” She tried not to let the fear, that almost paralyzed her body, show, tried to keep her voice steady, but couldn’t prevent her body from shaking with shock.
Eventually she gave up any attempt to act calmly and normally as the dark figure lifted his arms. In his hands he held what looked like a big hammer lifted over his head, grasping it with both hands as if to give force to the downswing.
‘No, oh no, this couldn’t be for real. This had to be an evil dream, a nightmare.”
With a tiny voice, trembling with fear, she tried to reason with the man standing in front of her.
“Listen, we’re friends, the two of us, aren’t we? You wouldn’t hurt me, not really – you don’t want that at all, right?”
“So, what’s up, bitch, have you finally learned some respect? Unfortunately, it’s a bit too late. What’d you say about you and I going together to Paradise? Or maybe Hell?”
The man uttered a rough laughter, enjoying her fear for a moment. Then with one big blow he slammed the hammer toward her head, crashing her skull.
Lola didn’t even have time for a last scream out into the empty building before collapsing, falling to the ground at her killer’s feet.

Chapter 11

Walter Griffin jumped off the bus, setting off down the street toward his work place. He noticed a slight tendency to hobble. ‘Damn. Well, he wasn’t a seventeen-year-old anymore, maybe he should stop his habit of jumping off the bus.’
An incipient gout and somewhat weaker ligaments than in his younger days showed itself whenever he forgot to think before moving fast.
He grunted annoyed as he pushed himself forward on the pavement amongst all the other busy pedestrians hurrying to work.
Walter glanced at his wrist watch, reaching his destination and turning in through the gateway.
‘Well, at least he was early this morning, a good hour before his usual time. Good, he’d be able to wash the stairway before the building filled up with people. It was really annoying to get on your knees with bucket and cloth only to have people trampling on your work before the stairs were even dry. Sometimes it didn’t look as if it had been cleaned at all because when it finally dried, the tracks from all of those footprints showed very clearly. Though there was a fine, perfectly functioning elevator in the building, most of the people, working in the different offices, preferred to use the staircase instead of the lift. All because of this fitness fad. Of course, it was probably very healthy, indeed. But at the same time very inconvenient – to his work, anyway.’
Walter grunted, annoyed at the thought. ‘It wasn’t as if the job as a caretaker was some springboard to a career. It supplemented his pension a bit and gave him a reason to get out of the house each day, meet other people. Not that Lydia and he didn’t get on well, they had a very good time together. Always.’
Walter spontaneously smiled as he thought of his little wife, who every morning sent him off to work with a hearty packed lunch, a warm hug and admonitions to take good care of himself.
Well, about the job – he admitted he was a bit of a perfectionist. His opinion was that if one had a work to do, it had to be done properly. He couldn’t stand mess under any circumstances. In return he expected to have his work respected.
All in all, he couldn’t complain. The wage was fairly good, the work as a janitor varied, and the people in the big building with lots of different professions were by and large nice and friendly. All in all, life was OK.
As the annoying thoughts were replaced by brighter ones, the furrows in his forehead smoothed and he started humming to himself, approaching the shed where his tools were kept. There were a lot of different things, needed for the maintenance of a big building.
He already had his bunch of keys in his hand, reaching out to unlock the shed, when he stopped, puzzled.
‘What the heck, the door wasn’t locked. Could he have forgotten… no, it wasn’t possible. It was the last thing he checked each day before leaving.’
Instinctively his eyes slid towards the back door of the building. He noted with increasing uneasiness that this door wasn’t locked either. Furthermore, it hadn’t even been properly closed, but was open just a crack.
‘Now, what on earth was going on?’ Walter took the few steps from the shed to the back door, briskly opened it with a swift movement and went inside.
The small passage and the stairs were in semi-darkness, with just a bit of daylight forcing its way through the open door.
Walter pushed the switch on the wall behind him to turn on the electric lights. ‘That’s odd, not working, the bulbs must have snapped.’
He turned around to view the situation as it appeared in the half-darkness. At this point his eyes had got used to the dim lightning.
And so, he saw…
Walter’s jaw dropped.
It was as if he’d lost control of the muscles in his entire body.
Saliva was running down his chin, uncontrolled, and at the same time he lost control of his bladder as well.
Slowly he sank toward the wall. He tried to pull himself together and he succeeded in straightening up so far as to turn around and slowly move toward the door. He had to get out of here. Away from this…
It was as if the gruesome sight in the half-darkness wouldn’t let go of him.
Summoning up all of his strength he managed to stagger outside.
With the utmost difficulty he reached the shed, where he collapsed against the wall, slowly sliding down, his legs refusing to support him.
He fumbled in his pocket, found his cell phone. His fingers were rigid, and he dropped the phone several times before with stiff fingers he dialed 911.