Chapter Three

"Sir, can you hear me?" she asked as he switched the phone onto speaker phone and placed it carefully on the marble flooring in the expansive hallway.

"Yes."

"Good, can you make sure your front door is open and then can you check her pulse and breathing again please" she said, subconsciously crossing her fingers, praying she would be wrong.

"Ok"

There was a brief respite of total silence.

"Oh shit!, Oh fuck! Oh god oh god oh god. There's no fuckin' pulse and she's stopped breathing! What the fuck do i do?"

"Sir? Sir? SIR!" she all but shouted to gain the distraught man's attention.

"Huh?"

"I need you to lie her out flat and tilt her head back for me, so that her mouth is open. Can you do that for me?"

Again he nodded, concentrating on the task.

"Sir? can you do that?"

"It's done. now what?" he asked, panic evident in his usually smooth calm voice.

"Now i need you to put the heel of your hand just under her breastbone and leaning up on your arms press down three times in the count of 0ne thousand, two thousand, three thousand."

He did as bid as she counted along with him.

"Now you need to pinch her nose shut and breathe deeply into her mouth making sure your mouth completely covers hers. Can you do that?"

She heard a muffled reply.

"Now i need you to repeat that until the paramedics turn up. They are on their way sir."

She sat at her desk listening as the stranger on the phone did all that he could to keep his ex girlfriend alive. She didn't need to or more to the point didn't want to tell him that CPR ,when carried out by an amateur, rarely worked and was more to keep people occupied until the professionals turned up.

"Keep going sir, you're doing really well."

He concentrated on doing exactly what the operator was telling him, trying to block out the fact that it was Den who was lying on the floor.

She could hear sirens in the background getting louder and bit her lip as she prayed they would reach them in time.

A soft male voice sounded in the emptiness.

"Richie man, what the fuck happened?"

Dee smiled, at least someone had turned up for the poor man.

A vehicle slammed doors and at last she heard the voices of the paramedics, followed by the voice of the friend trying to get Richie to leave the woman to the professionals. Richie must have picked up the phone as she could hear the two friends talking.

"Richie, god man, are you ok?"

"Jon, She fell down the stairs man, i thought she was dead but this amazing woman helped me through it."

"What amazing woman?"

"Here, talk to her. I need a drink."