A sad ending, hospital and questions

A trap

They knew it was a trap when they received the call. The trip to the pub had meant an argument. Rosie and Freddie had worked through their problems, but he was never happy to visit her place of work.  Not going would have caused issues as the man demanded that Freddie turned up. She hadn’t expected the scene to be as nasty or to end in hospital.

Why would someone get so angry at their local pub? Holding her father hostage was a bit extreme and bringing their daughter into it heightened their captors entertainment. She had no money to offer, all she could do was plead.

Rosie

We didn’t expect things to be as bad.  When the paramedics bought Rosie out on a stretcher, I felt sick. She was a young mum and where was Freddie?  Events had moved fast and the car was still warm. From a difficult holiday to seeing our friend taken to hospital, could this day get any worse?

This was not the time to be discussing work. Seeing the landlady walk out crying with James the landlord holding her up, surely Rosie would be alright.   It was then we saw another stretcher with a black body bag.  There was a crime here that had only just begun. Was the hit meant for just Freddie?  He had always had a temper but being murdered was something else. Wondering where their little boy was, I hoped he was with a friend.  Not fair for him to lose his dad, you could see that they loved each other dearly.

Having seen things so bad for Rosie all I wanted to do now was have a soak in a long bath. I decided there was enough visitors at the hospital.  They didn’t need us rolling up.

“Come on Freda, let’s go home.  We’ve seen enough here.”

Rex started barking, he wanted to go home too.

“Freda, I’m sorry about this weekend, life is short, we never know when the end might happen.”

“Yes, I hope Rosie is okay, their poor family, I wonder what Freddie had done.”

“Maybe we’ll find out soon enough.”

Time to relax

A few hours later, I was finally alone.  After a long warm bubble bath, I needed chocolate, tea and rest.  I couldn’t stop thinking about Freddie.  Him and Rosie had their problems but they had worked through them. Caught In the comfort of Cadbury’s I jumped as my mobile rang.

“Hi Mark.”

“Ruby, I saw the news.”

“Freddie is dead.”

“What about his family?”

“Rosie is in hospital, I’m going to pop in tomorrow.  Till then I’m enjoying tea and chocolate”.

“Ruby, please don’t get involved, I don’t want you killed as well”.

“Freddie had a temper, he must have upset someone.”

“Well be careful, I love you Ruby.”

“Mark I’ll be okay, I love you too. Right now I’m just worried about Rosie and I need to rest. It’s been a difficult weekend.”

“I’ll let you sleep, Ruby.”

“Okay will talk tomorrow, bye.”

Hospital

Next morning, we went on our hospital visit. Following the old cliche we took her some grapes. Why do people take patients grapes? Do they have magical healing powers?

Seeing Rosie, I was relieved to see her awake.

“Ruby, have you seen Freddie?”

“Oh Rosie.”

I took her left hand, and tried to comfort her. Whilst Freda rubbed her right arm.

“Rosie, Freddie is dead”

From the stunned look on her face, it was obvious that she had been knocked out early in the fight.  She hadn’t got a clue what he had been involved in, and now I really wanted to know.

For more see, Friendship and end of the holiday part 14, this is part 15

Written for Grammys Grid first sentence prompt – They knew it was a trap when…