Chapter 12: The order of the Nurse

At dawn, Kong used his abilities to move as silently as a ghost to slowly open the door of the officials' dormitory that belonged to the hospital before moving inside the room without lights on and without using any sound. Kong looked at the body fast asleep on the bed. He planned to rush to find new clothes and a towel to wipe the dirt and soot off his body before he had to listen to Tum's complaints. Kong had not checked to see if he had any injuries from the incident. He thought that he would give an explanation to Tum later.

He hadn't even grabbed the towel from the rail when he heard Tum say from across the room, "What are you doing in the dark? Turn on the lights."

Kong quickly turned to laugh dryly. He prayed that the darkness would help camouflage his near-death condition: "I didn't want to wake you."

"I'll have to wake up soon anyway," Tum said sleepily and lay still as if going back to sleep, causing Kong to sigh in relief, turning to grab the towel and hanging it around his neck.

Suddenly, the lights came on. Kong cursed in his throat. He completely forgot that Tum had just installed a new ceiling light that could be turned on without having to use a remote control. Kong quickly turned around and stepped aside so that Tum couldn't see his face. His behavior was strange enough to make the other person frown suspiciously, "What happened to you?"

No one had a quicker eye than the nurse, especially when it came to abnormalities of the body. The police officer responded without looking at him: "I fell and got some dirt on me because the road was dark and I wasn't careful."

The more he lied, the stranger it sounded. "Did you fall? No way." In just a second, Tum stood up, grabbed Kong, and turned him around to look at him from head to toe. "This isn't just dirt, did you go and put out a fire or something!?"

Did you just make an assumption or did you see what happened? Kong could never lie to her boyfriend: "If I tell you that I went to put out the fire at my mother's house, it won't be credible, right?"

Tum gently pushed the policeman's chest and made a face to show that he was upset. Then he turned and walked away. Kong quickly grabbed him and hugged him from behind.

"Tum, sorry."

"It's no use apologizing." Tum tried to get his hands off her. "You said you wouldn't do risky work again. Don't say it if you can't do it."

"Tum..."

"Your behavior in the ward was also strange. Did you know that my superiors have often scolded me because my boyfriend likes to waste time in the hospital? Why do you never listen to what I say?"

"I just want you to be comfortable."

"Being comfortable with a lie is only temporary, but once I know the truth, I will always feel bad." Tum's voice became softer, which was a strange tone. It was as if Tum was beginning to give up on what had happened. "I think I'm tired of this. Kong, if you can't stop doing this, you don't have to. I'll be the one to leave."

The smaller man stepped out of Kong's embrace and Kong was now so dazed that he didn't know what to do. Being scolded was better than this. "Tum, Tum, wait."

The police officer ran to block Tum's path before he could leave the bedroom. Kong was never afraid to look for evidence or fight, but he could never make the man he loved happy. "It's like that. I'm an idiot. If you're not happy about something, tell me right now, okay? You don't need to worry if I'll get angry or not."

"Kong, you promised me that you would not do risky work again, but you couldn't do it. Take back your words, you don't need to promise or lie to make me feel calm. Tell me directly what you are doing. This is all I am asking for," Tum circled to the other person and opened the bedroom door. "Don't talk to me now. Just go and take a shower."

"Yes, sir," the strong Detective of a Thousand Eyes responded to the order of the man he loves sadly before entering the bathroom with a towel and his head bowed.

"Lieutenant Guin", Kong in a police uniform plopped down next to Lieutenant Gawin, his best friend, who was busy with a huge stack of documents about a case.

"I'll pay you 100 baht to stop calling me Guin."

"That's not as important as what I'm about to tell you."

"What is it?"

"My boyfriend is so angry with me that he won't talk to me."

"Oh!" Gawin turned his chair towards Kong, "You're lucky that someone like you, who always asks for it, isn't beaten by your boyfriend morning, noon and night."

"I ask you to comfort me, not scold me," Kong sighed. "But that's still not the most important thing I was going to tell you." Kong took out a book and threw it on Gawin's desk. The police officer who owned the desk took the book and looked at it for a moment before widening his eyes in surprise.

"This is..."

"See you in the meeting room in five minutes." Kong stood up and gently knocked on Gawin's desk, "And don't tell Inspector Wasan about this yet."

The meeting room had Lieutenant Kong, Lieutenant Gawin, Inspector Em, and Deputy Superintendent Bird. The four police officers were standing around the mysterious book placed on the table in the center of the room.

"I found this book at Van's house," Kong said. "The content inside said that he was fired from his job because the nurse named Ornanong accused him and that this nurse and Kantapat were euthanizing patients, not Dr. Somsak. And Dr. Somsak was killed and silenced. Van lo knew, but couldn't find any evidence."

The room was silent for a moment until Bird, the deputy superintendent responsible for delivering documents in the euthanasia case to the prosecutor, coughed. "We have already closed the euthanasia case, Lieutenant Kong. This could simply be a novel written by a madman."

"Or some kind of fan-fiction that people like to write about." Gawin nodded towards the book. "It could be someone who followed the case and wasn't happy with the conclusion, so they thought about other possibilities."

"And how did you get this book?" Inspector Em asked Kong.

"I was able to get it before a mysterious person burned down the house," Kong replied. "Van went to work at the Chartchai auto shop. Before Ying, Tim's lover, lost consciousness, he bought drugs from Van. This resulted in the gruesome murder of Grandma Junpeng, Tim's grandmother, while Tim was going out to sleep with Ying. And Grandma Junpeng...." The young lieutenant stopped talking for a moment, "She was a patient of Dr. Kantapat, including the case of the young cancer patient who was also horribly murdered."

"Wait, wait, I can't keep up." Gawin raised two hands and interrupted Kong. "The information is everywhere. You can't connect anything."

"Listen to this first," Kong tried to rephrase his own words, "Van, whose real name is Kitti Pohnuma, was an orderly at the same hospital as Dr. Gunn."

"And who is Nurse Ornanong?" Gawin continued to ask.

"She is the nurse who works in the Palliative Care Unit with Dr. Gunn." Lieutenant Kong snapped his fingers. "Is this getting more interesting?"

"Not at all."

"I'll summarize it for you," Inspector Em interrupted the two lieutenants who seemed to be fighting at any moment and turned to speak to Deputy Superintendent Bird. "From the information we have now, Kong and I suspect a repeat of the euthanasia case and whether or not Dr. Gunn was involved in the gruesome patient murders."

The Deputy Superintendent crossed his arms and considered for a long moment before letting out a long sigh, looking in a bad mood. "How many times have we been embarrassed by Dr. Gunn's problem? We even issued a court order when he did nothing wrong." Bird took the book in his hand: "The euthanasia case is over. This is just a novel that has no weight or credibility. I will pretend that I didn't find out that you invaded someone else's house without a court order." "Lieutenant Kong. And if you are accused of setting fire to a deserted house, I will not give you any help."

When he finished what he said, the senior police officer threw the book on the table and left the meeting room together with Lieutenant Gawin, leaving Inspector Em and Lieutenant Kong alone. Kong turned to look at Inspector Em and pursed his lips, "I knew they would abandon me on this."

Em looked at Kong with great regret: "It would be a big problem if we had to reopen the euthanasia case."

"Just wait and see, more people will die," Kong crossed his arms and said confidently. "While police officers like us stand around and scratch our heads like clowns, people in the community laugh at us."

******

"Hello, Nong." Poom, the psychiatric ward nurse, smiled broadly at Ornanong. "Dear friend, we haven't seen each other in a long time. What brings you here?"

"It's because I miss a friend like you." Ornanong lifted the pink basket filled to the brim with food to show it to Poom. "I just went to the market next to the hospital. Please help me eat this."

"Don't tell me these are my favorite noodles."

Ornanong raised his eyebrows, "How can I forget that Poom likes to eat noodles with Nam Ngiew soup?"

"Oh, of course I won't reject it." Poom turned to press the staff secret code so he could enter the psychiatric ward, "Come in. Let's eat and talk at the same time. You have to tell me about your life."

"Of course," Nong followed her nurse friend. When he entered the psychiatric ward area, Ornanong smiled with satisfaction.

Poom took Ornanong to the nursing desk area, where a junior nurse was sitting and writing on the chart: "Please wait a moment. I'll go prepare the bowls and spoons."

"Sure," Ornanong turned to look at the junior nurse and said, "Sister, come eat the noodles with us. I bought a lot."

"Thank you," the young nurse responded with a smiling face.

Ornanong walked over to look at the patient chart placed on the table and picked one up to look at it. "I'm not used to the names of psychiatric medications. They're hard to memorize."

The young nurse laughed: "You get used to it."

"That's true," Nong closed the file he was holding and put it back where it was.

The patient's name in the chart was Mr. Som Yooyuern.

An hour later, Ornanong emerged from the psychiatric ward with the pink basket in the crook of her arms and a comfortable smiling face.

After that, Ornanong walked to the UTP office area, which was the unit for patient transfer services, whether in wheelchairs or stretchers. She waited not long in front of the unit when a young man came out to see her with a curious expression on his face. "Hello, Nurse Nong."

"I'm here to thank Nui for giving me Tao's phone number and address."

The stretcher staff sighed: "Tao disappeared. So, were you able to contact Tao in the end?"

"Not yet," the nurse said with a sad expression. "I've always felt sorry for him since I found out he was fired. I don't know how his wife and son will cope."

"You're right. If you can contact Tao, please tell him that everyone here is ready to help him," Nui sighed. "But to be honest, he shouldn't have drank alcohol and slept like that during the shift. Plus, they found meth in his bag. If I were the director, I would have fired him too. But at least there should have been some help or rehabilitation for he".

"That's true," Ornanong took out a bag of noodles and handed it to Nui. "I bought this for you."

"Oh, thank you very much," Nui raised her hands in gratitude and gladly received the food.

Saying goodbye to the stretcher staff, the nurse went to an area out of sight and picked up her phone to watch the conversation between her and the person she registered as 'A Professional'.

[I did some research. Now Tao changed his name to Van. He makes money by doing general contract work and dealing drugs.]

[I got Tao's address from his old workplace. I already sent it to you. Please take a look.]

[Of course.]

[I will send you the money tonight.]

[I went to take a look. You've seen the photos I sent you, right? Tao wrote your name all over his house. What would you like to do next?]

[Destroy everything.]

[Do you want me to set the house on fire?]

[Do it. Don't leave anything behind.]

Ornanong scrolled the chat.

[I already set the house on fire. I saw someone in the house, but I didn't see any news of anyone dying in the fire. So. Tao must still be alive. But there is definitely no more evidence in the house.]

[Then you must find it and take care of it properly.]

[Noted.]

The nurse put the phone back in the pink basket she carried in the crook of her arm. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before returning to his office in another building.

Poom, who was now happily satisfied with Ornanong's delicious lunch, walked to check the symptoms of the patient named Som. This patient has been admitted for more than a month. His hallucinations had improved somewhat, but he still became frantic and would occasionally ramble about the white-robed Angel of Death. The doctor prescribed Som some medicine to reduce flatulence after meals, so Poom prepared the medicine in a small plastic cup and walked to Som's bed in an isolation room.

"Som, let's take the after-meal medication," Poom said to the thin man sitting absentmindedly on the bed as if he didn't notice Poom entering. "Som?"

From his distracted position, Som's eyes suddenly rolled back in his head and he raised his head towards the ceiling. He began to drool and his limbs stretched and shook. Poom shouted in alarm before reaching out to adjust Som's position. A few seconds after that, Som's lips began to turn green. Poom quickly raised his hand to check the pulse at the crook of his neck. "S...Som is going to go into unemployment! The patient is going to go into unemployment! Come help me!" Poom shouted loudly to his team before climbing onto the bed to immediately do CPR. "How the hell was this possible?"

*****

Ornanong entered the Palliative Care Unit office. He placed the basket on the table and looked at the man sitting still at the desk. After recovering from the injuries that kept him in the hospital for an entire day, he still looked as handsome as ever. However, his eyes were empty. The nurse walked to the front of Gunn's desk. Gunn seemed to be deep in thought for a long time before his jet-black eyes that looked like a deep well gazed at Ornanong.

"We must find that guy quickly."

"You just recovered. You need to rest first," Ornanong said with a worried expression.

"Right now Lieutenant Kong is starting to suspect me."

The nurse smiled gently, "Doctor, you don't need to worry. Everything will be fine."

When he saw Dr. Gunn beginning to relax, Ornanong returned to his desk. He grabbed his phone and wrote a message to the person he called "Professional".

[Get rid of Lieutenant Arsha.]