‘They’ll be here any second. You get cables down, we’ll stabilise.’
‘Check?’ Blake said.
There was another safety measure, checking each other’s equipment, double checking locks were secure. Blake and Luc checked each other, and Sam did her own check for good measure. She checked Blake first, reaching for the metal loop attaching Blake’s belay plate to the centre of his harness.
And then, almost as if it was part of the checking process, almost as if it was part of their normal, professional routine, Sam reached up and kissed Blake, swift, hard on the mouth. It was done almost before it began, before anyone could notice.
But Luc had noticed.
Sam and Blake were practically joined at the hip, Luc knew, a tight-knit couple who worked brilliantly as a team. And for just a moment, as Sam turned to check his locks, he felt a pang of longing so great it threatened to overwhelm him.
If Beth was here...
Right. If Beth was here, in low light, with her gammy leg, there’d be no way he could concentrate properly. All his attention would be on her, when it had to be on the job at hand.
How could Sam bear Blake to take risks? And vice versa? To watch someone you loved walk into peril...
It was far better to be like he was. Alone. Worrying about no one.
He needed no one.
And then a guy broke away from the group clustered around the police car. A big, burly guy in his forties, seemingly capable, steady, intent, and headed towards Luc.
‘I’m Mike,’ he muttered as he reached him, and he grabbed Luc’s hand in his own vast paw. ‘It’s my family down there.’
‘We’re doing what we can,’ Luc said. And then he added, ‘We’re good. If anyone can get them out, we will.’
Carol came up and took his arm to lead him away, but the man wasn’t going anywhere. ‘My Tess’s sensible,’ he told Luc. ‘She’ll keep her head. The kids... Zoe and Robbie’ll do as they’re told, though Robbie’ll cling to Tess. Tom...he’s a tense kid and he freezes. But tell him there’s a fire engine up top of the cliff and he’ll do what you want.’
‘That’s useful,’ Luc said, nodding at Blake to make sure he’d heard it in the wind.
Once more Carol tugged, but the man still had hold of Luc’s arm. And the rigid control he’d used to convey information seemed to snap. Capable? Steady? Not so much. This was a man crumbling under a pressure so great it was destroying him.
‘Bring ’em back to me,’ he said. ‘I can’t... Tess and I...we’ve been dating since we were seventeen. She’s bossy and independent and she drives me nuts but hell...’ His voice broke on a sob. ‘My family... They’re all I need in the world. Tess is all...all that I am. Please...please bring them up safe for me.’
* * *
Every nerve-ending, every last fraction of his concentration had to be on the job at hand.
The two local abseilers, plus Gina and Sam, were up top, controlling their lines, making sure any slip wouldn’t turn into disaster. He and Blake were descending toward separate sides of the car.
But it wasn’t easy, or maybe that was an understatement. The cliff face was crumbling sandstone, and the closer Luc got to the ledge the worse the situation seemed. The nose of the car was almost completely crumpled, and it rested with a tiny percentage of the mangled metal on the ledge.
If he or Blake dislodged any more of the already smashed cliff face...
They couldn’t. He had to concentrate on handholds. On trying to find a fraction of rock on which to place his feet.
If it had been a sheer drop it would have been easier, just belaying them both down. But the rocks jutted out just enough to make that impossible.
So concentrate...
And he was, but there was an echo in his head that wouldn’t go away.
‘They’re all I need in the world.’
And while he concentrated he thought...that’s what he wanted Beth to feel. That she needed him more than anything.
But not the other way around?
Why was he thinking that now? How did he have room to think it? But it was in his head and it wouldn’t go away.
How would she be feeling if she could see him now?
And then he thought of all the times he’d done this job or rescues like it. If he and Beth had stayed married... He would have expected her to stay home and be safe and yet still...need?
The anguish of the guy on the clifftop stayed with him.
‘She’s bossy and independent and she drives me nuts but hell...’ His voice had broken on a sob. ‘She’s all I am.’
How would he feel if Beth was in this car?
Gutted. Exactly how the guy up top was feeling.
But what if it was the other way around? If Beth knew where he was right now...
She did know. On some subconscious level he knew that she knew. Not that he was hanging over a wild ocean, trying to get into a wrecked car, but she’d know he’d be doing something like it.
He’d place her in a cocoon of safety and not let her care?
‘This isn’t working.’ Blake’s voice came through his headphones, strained to the limit. ‘I’ll have to bail. The car’s hit these rocks on the way down and they’re already dislodged. It’s threatening to shift more. I’ll head back up, try and descend further across and come at it laterally. How about you?’
‘Still okay.’
The thoughts of Beth were still there but they weren’t taking his concentration from the job at hand. Rather they were heightening his senses.
She’d done this sort of work, too. She’d told him about the car wreck she’d crawled into. At the memorial service a couple of locals had spoken of it in awe.
He’d have tried to prevent it.
So he had double to prove, he thought, as he fought to find the next toehold. He had to save these guys for themselves. But also...for Beth?
He had a sudden vision of Beth as he’d first met her, fiery, funny, independent and supremely talented.
She still had that. Sure, she’d lost an edge to her physical ability but as he finally found a toehold, he thought Beth would have found it, too. By feel.
Who needed fifty-fifty vision if you were Beth?
And all of a sudden it was like she was with him. His Beth. Part of him.
What had the guy said?
She’s all I am.
‘It’s teamwork over here,’ he muttered to Blake, searching for the next toehold. ‘We have it covered.
‘We?’
‘You have Sam up top, guiding us every step of the way. But somehow... I have Beth right down here, telling me what to do, and bossy doesn’t begin to describe it.’
‘Are you okay?’ Blake said cautiously.
‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ Luc told him. ‘More than okay. I seem to be operating on an epiphany and who needs anything else in the face of such a thing?’
‘Cables would be good. Plus medical gear. Plus...’
‘Yeah, right,’ Luc said, almost cheerfully. He was operating at full strength now, doing what he was good at, every nerve tuned to the job at hand. ‘But don’t you mess with my epiphany because it seems to be right what I need, right when I need it. You go on up, mate, and stay safe. I’m almost there.’
And then he was there. Not on the ledge itself—some things were a no-brainer—but to the side, hanging from his harness.
Every impulse was to drop further so he could see through the smashed windows into the car but he’d worked in enough situations like this to put instinct aside.
He hovered, toes gripping the cliff just above the car. Steadied.
‘Cables,’ he muttered, and Sam—or Blake or whoever was at the top of the cliff—attached the first of the steel cables and lowered it down, hooked to his mainstay.
He caught it and then rode his harness in a
seated position until he had it fastened under the passenger-side rear-wheel brace.
One. It wouldn’t hold.
‘Next?’
He could almost taste the tension emanating from the top of the cliff.
Another cable snaked down.
He fought his way across the top—or base—of the car and attached the cable to the rear driver’s side.
‘You got something up there holding?’ he asked.
‘Two ruddy great tow trucks parked well back.’ It was Sam’s voice. ‘Blake’s trying again but having trouble. More cables?’
He wanted to see what was in the car. If anyone was conscious they must be able to hear him work but there’d been silence.
Were they all dead?
But he had to work on, on the assumption there were people who needed to be saved. At the very least he’d prevent the car—and any bodies—from plunging into the sea.
She’s all I am.
The guy’s voice was echoing, messing with his head.
And Beth, she was in there, too.
She’s all I am.
‘Two more cables to be sure,’ he muttered, and forced himself to be still and wait until the cables had run down, until he had four hawsers hooked across the car chassis, until he felt the guys up top gently, gently take up the slack so the car wasn’t going anywhere.
‘Done.’ Sam’s voice came through his earpiece. ‘She’s as secure on this end as we can make it. Cables secure?’
She wasn’t asking if the cables themselves were fastened. She was asking if the body of the car was still intact enough to hold together.
‘Looks as good as we can make it. Keep the pressure up.’ It should be okay. From underneath the chassis looked solid.
Time to edge sideways and down a bit.
Time to look through those smashed windows...
He took the pressure from his stay and slipped downward, using the ledge now to steady himself. No weight, though. If the ledge itself crashed the car could still swing...
The rear window was smashed into crystallised glass. He could see nothing.
Down further...
She’s all I am.
Beth.
This wasn’t Beth. This wasn’t personal.
Only it was. Every fibre of his being was pleading...
He had himself secure. He swung around—and a woman was looking out at him. Straight at him through the gap in the smashed glass. Clear-eyed. Conscious.
Alive.
‘Tess,’ he said, and he saw her face sag, just for a moment. And then some sort of iron control reasserted itself. ‘I’m Luc,’ he told her. ‘And I’m very pleased to see you.’
‘You...you took your time.’
‘There was a small matter of tying your car up so it wouldn’t slip further,’ he told her, keeping his voice calm, pragmatic, workmanlike. Emotion right now would help no one. ‘There are now four cables attaching you to cranes on top of the cliff. The car’s going nowhere. You’re safe. We just need to get you out. The kids...’
‘I think...’ He could hear pain in her voice, and the numbness of shock, but she had herself in hand. ‘They’re all in the back. Zoe says... Zoe says Tom’s knee’s been bleeding—a lot—but she’s wound her windcheater round it and tied it. She says the bleeding’s slowed. I wasn’t game to move... I thought...’ She caught herself and he could hear the effort she was making to stay calm. ‘I told the kids...if we stay really, really still even if we hurt, even if we’re scared, then Santa will be so impressed he’ll bring double this year. Isn’t that right, Zoe?’
‘And we did.’ A girl’s voice, much shakier than her mother’s, piped up from the back seat. ‘I’m cuddling Tom and Robbie.’
‘You know what you are?’ Luc said, and for some reason he was having trouble keeping his own voice steady. ‘You’re a heroine, Miss Zoe. And so’s your mum. And you boys...if you can hold on just a little bit longer... There’s a fire engine up on the cliff and if you manage to stay still until we take you, one by one, up the cliff in a harness, then you’ll officially be heroes in fire hats. The fire chief will give you all helmets.’ They’d probably dock the expense from his pay but what the heck.
‘Fire helmets...’ That was a quavery voice, very young. Not much older than Toby.
Oh, God, Toby...
‘It’s a promise,’ he said, very solemnly, and then Blake was slithering down beside him and tools were being lowered to prise the doors open.
She’s all I am.
Suddenly that line was front and centre. He wanted to tell Beth. He needed to tell her.
And in that moment he accepted what he’d been fighting now for so many years.
He needed.
He needed Beth.
* * *
‘Margie?’
Her phone rang just as she finished morning clinic. The call was from Margie, the head of childcare at Namborra. She saw the name appear on the screen and felt a huge tug of regret. ‘Hey, it’s lovely to hear from you.’
‘Good to hear your voice, too, Beth, love,’ Margie told her, but there was a strain in her voice that said this wasn’t a social call.
And that brought back the niggle of disquiet. For the last twenty-four hours she’d been fretting...about Luc? Stupidly fretting. There’d been no basis for worry but for some reason she thought...she knew that all wasn’t well with Luc.
She’d almost rung him but sense had held her back. She was being irrational. Imagining things.
And now... Margie was in Namborra. She’d hardly be ringing about Luc, but the tingle of fear remained. And she’d definitely heard tension in Margie’s voice.
‘Margie, what’s wrong?’
‘I didn’t... We shouldn’t ask.’
‘You shouldn’t ask what?’
‘You’re in Brisbane, right? And back at work?’
‘Yes.’ If you could call it work—fielding requests for scripts from city dwellers popping in to see if the new doctor was an easy target.
‘So if I said...we needed you...’
‘What’s happened?’ The fear for Luc was acute—which was dumb but she couldn’t get rid of it.
‘It’s Maryanne.’
Maryanne. She who ruled the medical kingdom of Namborra.
‘What’s wrong with Maryanne?’
‘She’s had a stroke,’ Margie told her. ‘Luckily she was in the hospital when it happened but of course there wasn’t even another doctor. They called in the med. evacuation team from Bondi Bayside. They took her to Sydney last night but they’re saying it’s serious. One of the nurses here knows someone who works at Bondi and they’re saying there’s left-sided weakness, possible neurological damage. It’s...it’s too soon to say but best guess is that she’ll be looking at months before she’s back at work. If ever. And now...there’s no one.’
Margie paused. ‘Beth, love, we don’t know where you’re up to, medically, and we know Maryanne didn’t trust you to work on your own, but there’s not a soul in this district who doesn’t trust you to care for them. Beth, would it be possible...just until we can work something out...would it be possible for you to come home?’
Home.
And there was only one answer it was possible to give.
She still had the niggle of fear for Luc but Luc didn’t want her. Didn’t need her.
Namborra needed her.
And I need to be needed, too, she said, but she said it silently and she was talking directly to Luc. I can do this.
‘Of course I can,’ she told Margie. ‘I’ll be there on the next plane.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THERE WERE INJURIES—of course there were—but for such an accident the outcome was almost miraculous. Some jobs were better than others, Luc thought as he watched the med. evacuation chopper take off towa
rd Sydney. Blake and Sam were in the chopper but Luc had been left behind. With four patients, plus one tearful, almost unbelievingly thankful husband and father, the chopper was full. Gina would take Luc back in the smaller chopper, but they had to collect their gear first, plus fill in whatever the local rescue services needed to get their reports right.
Normally Luc followed the steps fast and efficiently. Tonight, though, he left Gina to it. He stood on the clifftop and stared out to sea, and Gina had the sensitivity to leave him be.
He was shaking. He, Luc, who never got emotionally involved, was shaking.
There’d been broken ribs. A fractured arm. Multiple lacerations. The accident had been caused by failed brakes, a truck on the wrong side of the road. An ambulance had taken the truck driver to the local hospital, suffering from shock.
‘The brakes failed. I put my foot down and there was nothing there. I couldn’t get the gears to hold it. There was nothing I could do, and I could have killed them.’
He hadn’t, because one woman had had the sense to keep calm, stay absolutely still and somehow talk her kids into doing the same.
Tess’s purse had been in the footwell of the passenger compartment. How tempting would it have been to lean over and fish for her phone, so she could get some contact to the outside world.
She hadn’t. She’d assessed the situation and decided the risk was too great.
Beth would do that, Luc thought. Beth was just like Tess, a practical, sensible woman who wouldn’t crack in a crisis.
He thought of her calmly holding Toby under her T-shirt in the concrete rubble, waiting for help. Knowing it would come.
Knowing he’d come?
How could she?
He thought of Sam and Blake tonight—Sam deferring to Blake’s overall command, watching Blake abseil into danger. Staying on the clifftop, ensuring both Blake and Luc stayed secure, feeding equipment down the lines. He and Blake had both needed Sam.
The cliff where Blake had been trying to descend had crumbled—he knew that now. Sam must have felt it as Blake had lurched, as the line had gone taut with strain, but there’d been no panic. Blake depending on Sam’s skill to keep them safe.
Finding His Wife, Finding a Son Page 14
