A Day at the Races (18 page)

Bits of broken teeth spilled from his gaping mouth, his nose was flattened and broken and his lips were split and bleeding in several places. He looked like he had gone fifteen rounds in a boxing match, rather than being punched just once and this was an indication of the amount of force that had been used.

Miller bent down and grabbed Freely by the throat, lifted him off the ground and pressed him up against the car.

“Don’t even think of talking to the Police do you hear me? You stupid idiot, you are just as involved as I am, so don’t try loading all this on me. You have been involved in financing this operation, as well as taking your cut out of the profits, so the best thing you can do is say nothing and let them prove everything.

If you breath a word to the Police as to what we have been up to, you will breath your last…. do you understand?”

By now Freely had come around from his brief nap and stared at him in total shock, he nodded at Miller; he had never seen him so angry. Miller eventually released his grip from around his throat.

“Ok John” he gasped “I promise I wont say anything to the Police, its just I am really terrified about what’s going to happen to us.”

“Well you wont help your case by blabbing to the Police, and it’s not just me that you will have to answer to, there are other people in high places who will know if you talk… then believe me, you will know what terrified means.”

With that, he let go of Freely and he dropped to the ground. Struggling for breath he lay there coughing and spluttering for a few minutes, with blood pouring from his broken nose and shattered teeth, he was absolutely traumatised.

Miller stood over him, his massive figure cast a shadow that dwarfed the scrawny individual on the ground and he bent down shouted into his face.

“Listen you arsehole, they have linked me to the Wetherby robbery, as it seems they had a record of all the details of the stolen notes and I don’t know how the hell I am supposed to argue my way out of that one. I can hardly say Mc Alpines Fusiliers used this stolen money, when they were buying their illegal drugs from me….the nerve of them!

Mc Alpine and his mob or what’s left of them, will probably be a major liability for us. We have to deny all knowledge about them. You don’t know what he might divulge to the Police and we are in enough shit without that scumbag opening his big mouth.

It’s a pity they managed to take him alive, it would have solved a lot of our problems if he had gone the same way as Dominick Dunne.

It’s a bloody mess, and at this point in time, the best thing you can do is to keep your mouth shut, that’s the only way of limiting your sentence. Reichert is the bastard, who dumped all this dud money on us, and I will not rest until I find him.”

Freely was shaking with fear and expecting further punishment, he had to assure Miller that he wouldn’t talk to the authorities.

“John I promise I wont say anything to the Police, and like you say the best thing is for them to prove their case. Apart from the stolen and counterfeit money that we as businessmen accepted in good faith, all they have is the coke and photo’s that’s not a life sentence.”

He found it had to talk because of his missing teeth and split lips.

“OK just think on, what ever deal they offer you don’t take it, because you will suffer if you do, am I making myself clear?”

“Yes John you are, don’t worry I will keep my mouth shut.”

Freely struggled to his feet and tried to stem the flow of blood from his broken face. He realised that at this moment in time, his love relationship with Miller was over, and he had seen a side of him that had really horrified him and his injuries would be a lasting reminder of just how violent he could be.

Chapter 22

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Tuesday the 19th March arrived. It was a bitterly cold day, as Mike and his family as well as Mr Mohammed, caught the lunchtime shuttle down from Manchester Airport to Heathrow, to connect with the British Airways flight to New Jersey.

Rachel had never been on an aircraft before, so the novelty of her experience, took their mind off what they were really doing.

They arrived in Newark about 6.00 p.m. local time. After they had cleared Customs and Immigration at the airport, they entered the arrivals hall, and there was a small gentleman holding a board, with the name.

“PRINCETON NORTH MEDICAL CENTRE”

“IRELAND PARTY”

As soon as Mike spotted it, he walked over to him.

“Are you Mr Ireland?”

Mike nodded.

“You are very welcome, I am Roger I am one of the drivers for the Princeton North Medical Centre. I am also the personal assistant to Mr Walsh, and I have been asked to collect you and your party, then take you straight to the Hotel in the Centre’s complex.”

“Thanks a lot that’s very kind of you.”

The driver opened the door of the limo, and Mike and his family and Mr Mohammed climbed in, whilst the driver loaded all their bags into boot.

“Did you have a nice flight?” asked the driver.

“Yes uneventful, but we are feeling a little tired now.” said Mike.

“Yes, that’s a long flight from the UK, I have done it a few times myself.”

On the way to the hotel, the driver handed Mike a card.

“This is Mr Cornelius Walsh he is the hospital administrator, and he has been in touch with your Foundation. He says if you need anything during your stay, you are to call him at anytime, but he suggests once you have checked into the hotel, go and have a meal and retire early. He has asked me to convey to you, that your daughter must be fasting from midnight tonight.

She has to undergo some blood tests first thing in the morning, and a few other tests, as they intend to do the procedure the following day. Normally they wouldn’t be in such a rush, but because of the situation of the donor and all the other recipients, they have to move very quickly.”

Both Mike and Brenda felt their hearts race, suddenly after waiting for so long, the enormity of what Rachel was going to have to go through, started to hit home. They didn’t show emotion, they didn’t want to alarm Rachel, but they both had a stomach churning feeling, and felt extremely apprehensive about what Rachel was going to have to go through.

“Mr Naseer Ahmed will be in to see you about 8.0 a.m. and Rachel will be under his care for this procedure.”

Mohammed spoke.

“Ah my friend Naseer, do you have a local number for him, I would like to speak with him as soon as possible?”

“No problem.” Said the driver, and handed him Naseers card.

After a drive of about forty-five minutes, the limo pulled into the grounds of the medical centre and parked in front of the hotel reception.

There were still the remains of a heavy snowfall, heaped up on the sides of the road, Rachel picked up snow and made snowballs to throw at Mike. They did this for five or ten minutes and Rachel was enjoying herself, Mike felt it helped Rachel to settle in a strange country. She was excited at the sight of snow, but got quite breathless with the activity. After a while, Mike picked her up and carried her into the hotel.

Roger helped them inside with their bags, made sure they were happy with their suite, and then showed them down to the restaurant.

Mr Mohammed put a call through to Naseer and they met up later that night, to go through the case history of Rachel.

Mike and his family had a light supper, then went up to their room to retire for the night, although as exhausted as Mike and Brenda were, they could not sleep thinking about what was going to happen to their daughter. Only poor little Rachel slept, as she was totally worn out by the journey.

Early the following morning, Rachel was taken down to Haematology and Mike and Brenda went with her. They waited outside while she had various blood tests and a routine physical examination, they seemed happy with her blood count and general health, although a little frail, Naseer felt that she would be up to the operation.

He was a small stocky man, originally from Islamabad in Pakistan, but he had come to the States as a student and studied medicine and had graduated as a Surgeon eighteen years previously. He felt so much at home, that he had applied and received his American Citizenship. Nazeer had a wonderful way with patients, and he made them feel quite comfortable and at ease, however serious their condition was, especially children. He had gone on to achieve great acclaim, for his ability and wonderful procedures he had developed as a Surgeon during his time in America. A lot of which, had been adopted as standard procedures in transplant surgery.

While they waited for Rachel undergoing her tests, Mike went into administration to see Cornelius Walsh. He confirmed that all the required funds to cover the procedure had been transferred into their Bankers, and that he was in constant contact with Judge Farnham and the Rachel Ireland Charity. He thanked Mike, and told him if they needed anything during their stay, they only had to ask.

After he had finished the tests, Naseer called Mike and Brenda into his office.

“Hello Mr and Mrs Ireland, I am Naseer Ahmed, it’s so nice to meet you after all this time. Mr Mohammed has kept me up to date with Rachel’s progress, and I know you are both very worried, but I can assure you, Rachel will be in very good hands whilst she is here. We will do everything we can to ensure she makes a good recovery, and that you are also comfortable during your stay. Do either of you have any questions you would like to ask me?”

“There are lots, but the first thing I would like to ask is about the donor, who is she and can we thank her parents?”

“Well I have to say it is a very tragic story, she is an eighteen year old girl who has been badly injured in car crash, hit by a drunken driver. Her parents were badly injured as well, both of them are still on crutches and will be for some time, but tragically for little Helen, there is no hope that she will recover. She has extensive brain damage and is clinically dead, and after being on a life support for almost fifteen weeks now, they have now decided to turn off her life support.

They have readily agreed to donate all her usable organs, they feel that by doing this, their daughter will live on. Her heart is destined for a nineteen-year-old girl from New York, her lungs for man in his early thirties who lives in Montreal. One of her kidneys is going to a little boy from Vancouver, the other one to a little girl from Chicago. One of her corneas will be grafted into the eye of a girl from Miami, sadly her other eye was so badly damaged it isn’t usable. But from this tragedy some good will come out of it, for at least six people. The other recipients are already assembled here, and we have teams of doctors in the various theatres on standby, to perform the removal of the organs, and other teams ready to perform the transplants.”

“How long will the operation on Rachel take?” Asked Mike.

“If everything goes according to plan, anything from six to fourteen hours, but operations of this kind you just cant put a clock on them, they are all different, but it will take as long as it takes. The critical time will be the period after the operation, and she will be in intensive care for a couple of weeks and constantly checked for signs of rejection which is our biggest problem. On the good side her tissue is a perfect match for poor little Helen, and she also has the same blood group although not critical, it is also on the plus side, so we are hopeful there will be no rejection but she will be closely monitored just in case.

Drugs will also be given to help prevent any rejection by her body to the new organ. Once we are over the initial danger period, you should see a marked improvement in Rachel’s condition, and whilst she is a little frail at the moment, she should start to put on some weight and her overall colour and physical condition will improve.

However I have to tell you there is an element of risk in this kind of operation as there is in any kind of surgery, especially transplant surgery and this is a very risky procedure. We are estimate that about 5 – 10% of patients who have a liver transplant don’t fully recover.

Our job is to minimise the risk, we have a team of the top surgeons in the world at this centre. Given the circumstances and the condition and the perfect match of the donor organ, I am very confident that things will go ok.”

As soon as Naseer said this, Brenda became quite faint and almost fell from her chair, Mike could see how distressed she was and got hold of her just in time.

“I am sorry Mrs Ireland, it’s just my duty to point out the risks involved with this type of surgery, but rest assured we wouldn’t be doing the operation, if we weren’t confident of a successful outcome, so try not to worry.

She is down for surgery tomorrow morning at 7.30 a.m. and it will be late in the day before she is out of theatre. She has a number of other tests to go through today, so my advice to you is go back to your hotel room and try and get some rest, because you both look like you need it.

You can call back this evening to see her; she will be in a private ward in the children’s section on the second floor. We will keep you up to date with her progress, but rest assured she is in very good hands.”

Mike thanked Mr Ahmed, there were dozens of questions he wanted to ask, but he was in a kind of trance, Brenda was sobbing constantly so Mike thanked him again and led Brenda up to their room. By now they were both totally exhausted, and slept for a few hours out of sheer fatigue.

They saw Rachel later that evening after she had had a number of tests during the day, but seemed cheerful enough and wasn’t traumatised at all by the experience. They spent a little time with her, but when she became sleepy they kissed her goodnight and stayed with her until she fell asleep, then went up to their own room.

Neither of them slept a wink that night because of what was about to happen to their daughter. Mike was not a religious man, but he knelt down by the side of the bed and said a silent prayer. Brenda looked across at him and reached out her hand and touched him on his shoulder.

“You are a good man Mike Ireland and I will always love you, and Rachel will be ok I know it, so try and get some rest, tomorrow will be a long day.”