The CHANGI BULLET

Chapter 38 - Police Custody

Dmitry regained consciousness and slowly realized that blood was running out of his nose and into his eyes, which probably meant that he was upside down. He was strapped to the driving seat but the roof was touching his head, and there was shattered glass everywhere. He heard Dinah moaning, which terrified him, but at least she was alive.

'Dinah!?'

She acknowledged him without using words, just pained groans. She was less connected to her seatbelt, almost being strangled by it, also bleeding from the face and in pain, all over. Dmitry reached for her. He undid her seat belt and helped her lower down onto the roof. His leg hurt really bad, so much so that amputation crossed his mind in a rush of panic. He strained every sinew to help his girl get out the smashed side window, and then there were hands there to help (he assumed it was the tractor driver) and then it was such a relief when he realized that she was clear. He extricated himself through the space where the windshield had been and rolled away on the dirt.

Dmitry scrabbled across to where Dinah lay. An elderly farm worker knelt beside her, looking highly distressed with the accident. Dinah had cuts to her forehead and top lip, but was able to reach for him.

'Are you all right, Dinah!? Talk to me.'

'I've been better. But I'm okay.'

Suddenly the quiet rural road had half a dozen vehicles stopped at the scene of the crash. One of them was a passing police patrol car, with the male police officer approaching, putting on his face mask, as he did so. He was accosted first by the dreadfully apologetic tractor driver, but the officer made him stand aside while he assessed the injuries to the young couple on the grass. The officer leant over them and bade them to stay calm, with an ambulance nearly there.

'I think we're okay,' said Dmitry.

'We'll let the medics decide that.'

The policeman had brought his first aid kit with him, and set about pressing on a bandage to stem the flow of blood from Dinah's forehead. The ambulance did arrive very quickly and the two medics took over.

More local police converged on the area to look at the destroyed car, and to get the traffic moving again. When they were bandaged up and checked for broken bones, and propped against the base of a tree, the original officer knelt near to them to get more information.

'I'm Officer Sowka. I'll write it down later, for when you contact the hire car company. You were driving, young man? Where the hell were you two going?'

'Moscow, sir,' answered Dmitry.

'Moscow!? I don't want to sound like a killjoy, or anything, but do you know there's a virus pandemic happening?'

'Yes, sir, we do.'

'Listen to me, I'll be talking with my sergeant about what fines to issue to you. First of all, we get you checked out at hospital. Are you carrying identity papers?'

'Identity papers, sir?'

Officer Sowka let out a deep sigh. 'Passports, for example.'

'We lost our passports when we had to flee Amsterdam, sir.'

Officer Sowka was getting less and less friendly by the second.

'Name?'

'Oleg-Paul Medvedev.'

'What's the young lady's name?'

'It's errrrm...Liza.'

'It's errrrm...Liza? What's Errrrm Liza's surname?'

That's great, thought Dmitry, we end up with the most sarcastic cop in the whole of Polish-Russia. 'Gruffudd.'

The medics were ready to take Dinah and Dmitry to hospital. Officer Sowka just wanted to ask her one question.

'Your name, Miss?'

'My name? I'm Liza Gruffudd!'

A slightly startled Officer Sowka thought she was shouting because she was concussed, so stood out of the medics' way. He said to Dmitry, 'I'll collect your personal items from the vehicle and see you at the hospital.'

'Yes, sir.'

They were taken to a local hospital in the town of Losice. Both were x-rayed and scanned, in case they had any hidden injuries. After doctors gave them the all-clear, they were patched up by a nurse. Dinah had stitches on her forehead and top lip. Dmitry had a broken nose and severe bruising to his left leg and hip. But, overall, they had been very lucky.

They sat in a cubicle, defeated, bruised and battered, in a strange town with doctors who should have been treating animal flu patients instead of idiots like them. And then to top it all, Officer Sowka arrived, popping his masked face into the cubicle.

'Officer, thank you very much,' said Dinah.

'No problem, young lady. The doctors say I can have a word now.' He stepped in and pulled up a chair. 'Now, Mr Medvedev, have you had an alcoholic drink in the last twelve hours?'

'No, sir.'

'So, go on, entertain me. What is your reason for traveling to Moscow during a pandemic emergency?'

Dinah correctly sensed that the policeman might speak to her in a nicer manner than to Dmitry, so she leaned forward to answer his question. 'Sir, we're trying to catch a plane from Moscow to England. You see, we have places on the Izzati II leaving from SEASA.'

Officer Sowka went quiet behind his mask, but his eyebrows went up in surprise – he had heard it all now. Dinah gestured for Dmitry to quickly get the tickets out of his pocket. Officer Sowka perused them in great detail, before passing them back.

'Wait here,' he said, and left the cubicle.

Dinah and Dmitry tenderly checked out each other's wounds.

'Oh, Dmitry. How have we ended up here?'

'Because of my stupidity, baby.'

'Noooo. Don't say that. We're not beaten yet.'

'Are you so sure? Did you see the car?'

'You said we were near the Russian border. We'll get a taxi.'

He would have laughed, but it would have hurt too much. 'A taxi, Dinah? From here to Moscow? We can't afford that, even if we could find a taxi driver willing to make the trip.'

She brought out the cash that Liza had given her at the station in Brussels and held it out, one last desperate throw of the dice. He softly pushed her fistful of cash down and kissed her on her unhurt side of the mouth.

'We'll go home to Waterloo,' he said, resigned to it.

Officer Sowka returned. 'Right, you two. Time for you to come with me.'