Silas Nash Book 1: Hush Hush Honewysuckle: Chapter 34 (A)

The hospital was too sterile and too quiet, especially at this time of night. ‘How is he?’ Nash asked.

‘It won’t be long now.’ The nurse was pretty. Max would like that. Nash might always be known by his surname—and with a name like Silas, who could blame him?—but he hadn’t thought of Max as Jones for weeks. He’d been visiting the hospice every day, usually in the evening, but not always. It depended on work. Nash had been busy for the last three months since the killers had been put away—but he always made time to come here on his way home. Max said it was the highlight of his death—or he did when he was lucid. They were working on a new case together. Max felt it was time to give everlasting peace to Kami Hakimi, the refugee boy that Amanda Keys told him had been murdered.

When he first went into the hospital and before his treatments, he’d made three donations to the fertility clinic sperm bank. He’d told Nash, 'My juice is going to be in high demand, and, of course, they will be the most gorgeous babies on the planet. Every one of them will look just like his papa Max. So, I expect you to be the best uncle to my many progenies,’

‘Assuming they are viable.’

‘Of course, they are. It’s me we’re talking about.’ He spoke about the unborn children often, and it gave him comfort to think he’d live on in them. ‘See? Even when I’m dead, I’ll still be getting my end away.’

‘You’re impossible. You do know that, don’t you?’

‘I’m not impossible. I’m impressive.’

Nash brought him back to the subject of Kami. Max wanted to solve the refugee’s murder as the last good deed he did before he died. Nash sat by his bed every evening, and they worked on his case to find closure for him.

The hospice was nice—that endless insipid word. The nurses were nice, the food was nice, and the drugs were fricking awesome. The rooms were bright. They’d tried very hard to hit the balance between happy and clinical. The sun seemed to shine brighter in Max’s room than anywhere else on earth. Sometimes it hurt his eyes, and they had to close the curtains and once the sunlight made Max scream in agony.

‘Are you in pain? Shall I get a nurse?’ Nash asked.

‘I’m always in pain, Nasher, and only buzz if Natalie’s on duty. I reckon she’s going to agree to go out with me tonight. She says she likes Mexico so we might catch a nine o’clock flight.’ He’d wheezed then and had to stop talking, but he was still in pain.

'Can I do anything for you?’

‘I hate closing the curtains. I have so little time left to see the sun.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Nash got up. ‘I’ll open them.’

‘No, please leave them. It’s like a laser into my head. I can’t stand it. But when it’s shut out, I miss the sun more than I miss Paige.’

‘You never even met her, you fool. What about that knackered old van?’

‘Are you mad? I don’t miss anything more than that, except maybe Dexter. Have you heard how he is?’

‘He’s fine, mate. Driving Hayley and Steve mad. He loves the kids, and they have bought him more toys than any cat on the planet.’

‘As long as he’s happy.’