Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [23]
The last ball on the table, the white, tottered over the pocket nearest Barry. After a moment or two it fell in.
The Doctor’s face fell. ‘Ah well,’ he said quietly, ‘looks like you win.’
Barry took a moment to recover. ‘Yeah. Yeah. You have to pocket them in order. Yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, then black.’
The Doctor looked back at the table. ‘Really? I didn’t know that. I was talking about the white ball. I’m not meant to pot it, am I? I tried not to, but...’
‘Yeah,’ Barry agreed eagerly. Barry wrapped the Doctor’s coins up in his pound note and scooped the money up from the table. ‘You’re OK, right? Bit of practice and you’ll be good. But you can’t pot the white, yeah?’
‘I see.’ The Doctor handed the cue back to him. ‘Ah well, I’ll leave the game to the experts.’
‘Well done, Doctor,’ Mrs Castle said.
‘Don’t congratulate him,’ Barry said. ‘I won, love.’
Mrs Castle kissed her husband on the cheek, but she looked at the Doctor as she did it.
‘Time to get going,’ Barry said firmly.
‘Bit early for you, isn’t it?’ Mrs Castle argued.
‘I want an early night,’ he told her. And with that, he dragged her away, but he looked at the Doctor as he did it.
* * *
Less than half an hour later, the Doctor was walking across the car park of the county hospital. The tarmac hadn’t been gritted, but the Doctor didn’t slip.
It was quite late in the evening, now, and the car park was almost empty.
Almost. In one corner, nestling under a large elm tree, there was a black Volkswagen Beetle.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at it. The headlights were on, and they looked like eyes, watching him from the shadows. He wasn’t cold, but he shuddered anyway, and was glad to go through the sliding doors into the warmth and safety of the hospital.
* * *
As the Doctor arrived at Arnold Knight’s room, a redheaded nurse was just leaving. The Doctor smiled at her, glad she wasn’t asking him any awkward questions.
Arnold Knight was lying in bed. One of his legs was in traction, suspended at a forty-five‐degree angle. He was in a room to himself, one that was full of get-well cards.
The Doctor introduced himself, and cleared up the confusion when Arnold assumed he meant that he was some sort of medical specialist.
‘I’ve brought you some sweets,’ the Doctor told him.
Arnold looked in the little paper bag the Doctor handed him. ‘Jelly babies,’ he said approvingly, and started tucking in.
The Doctor pointed at Arnold’s leg. ‘What are the doctors saying?’
‘That I had a lucky escape,’ Arnold told him.
The Doctor was checking the notes clipped to the end of the bed. ‘Fibula broken in two places. Clean breaks, no sign of infection.’
‘It could have been worse.’
The Doctor nodded, then asked, ‘What were you running from, Arnold?’
‘I told the police.’
‘You said you were being chased by a bull.’
‘Yes,’ Arnold said, a trace of guilt in his voice.
‘But that wasn’t true, was it? For one thing, you came from Cooper’s Farm, and George Cooper only keeps sheep and chickens.’
‘No,’ Arnold admitted. ‘I lied.’
‘Why did you tell Deborah Castle that you were being chased by a monster?’
Arnold Knight was suddenly suspicious. ‘Who are you?’
‘Someone who believes you.’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘You went looking for little green men and flying saucers and you found them.’
Arnold blinked. ‘How?’ he asked.
‘How did I know?’ The Doctor shrugged. ‘Call it an instinct. There’s something going on, Arnold, something that’s quite out of the ordinary.’
‘It was a robot. A big robot.’
The Doctor bit his lip. ‘Where was it?’
‘Cooper’s Woods. There were lights down there, and then it came for me.’
‘Describe it.’
‘About ten feet tall. Bulky. Chunky, but it could move gracefully – you know, not like robots are meant to. It was humanoid – two arms, two legs and a head.’
‘Did it say anything?’
‘No, it just came for me.’
‘Did you try to talk to it?’
‘No – I was scared.’ Arnold looked