From within the house there were sounds, scuffling sounds, and then I heard a rush of footsteps, and the door creaked and opened, letting a little light from the hallway spill out on to the pavement.
There was a girl standing there, quite a young girl, not much older than myself, though she looked desperately tired and ill. Her thin fair hair was pulled back and fastened with an elastic band on the top of her head. She had a pale drawn face, and an expression of sick anxiety made it look even more tired and ill. She had an old cotton dressing-gown pulled round her, holding it with one transparently thin hand.
“What - who is it?” she said huskily.
“Dr Fenwick,” I said briskly. “Dr Cooper couldn’t come himself, but I’m the new partner in the practice -” I stepped forward, to enter the house. “Now, where’s this baby of yours?”
But she pushed the door to, peering round it in terror and said breathlessly, “No - no, don’t come in. I mean - he’s fine. I - I made a mistake, you see. Yes, that was it. I made a mistake. I thought he was ill, but now I know he isn’t, so I’m sorry to have bothered you, so please - please go away before he comes down -”
“Before who comes down?” I asked, puzzled, and tried to peer round the edge of the door. “I don’t understand - anyway, now I’m here, I might as well see your baby, just to be on the safe side.”
I could still remember hearing that thin high-pitched cry, and it worried me. The last time I’d heard that sort of sound it had been made by a baby with a brain tumour. That type of cry is called a cerebral cry, because it indicates that something is wrong inside the skull somewhere - and I had no intention of leaving this house until I knew why that hidden baby had cried like that.
I pushed against the door, but the pale fair girl pushed back, and said again urgently, “Please go away. Please -”
And then the door was flung wide, and the fair girl was thrust away to stand shrinking against the wall, and a man stood there glowering at me. He wasn’t particularly big or burly - in fact he was a fairly scrawny sort of chap, with a thin unshaven face and bony arms - but the impression of sheer violence that hung about him was so strong that I stepped back in alarm.
“Listen, lady, you heard what she said, didn’t you? You got ears, haven’t you? So use ‘em - and get going. We don’t want you here, not now nor ever, so go and poke your nose in other people’s business and leave us alone -”
And the door slammed violently in my face and I was left on the doorstep staring up stupidly at the house.
I raised my hand to knock again, my anger bubbling up to overcome the very real fear the man had created in me, but a voice behind me made me whirl.
There was an old woman standing there, the light from her own open front door, across the street, glinting on the metal curlers in her sparse grey hair. She was wearing a heavy woollen coat over a nightdress, and men’s slippers on her elderly feet.
“Don’t you go knocking again, lovey, not if you values yourself,” she said earnestly. “He’s a right horror when he’s roused, that feller - you’d really best be off, you know. Not that that baby shouldn’t have seen a doctor today if you ask me, poor little scrap of a thing, but there it is. Anyway, he’s in good hands, the baby I mean - Dr Lester’s looking after him -”
“Dr Lester?” I said.
The old lady nodded. “Oh, yes. Little Mrs Higgins, she takes the baby to see Dr Lester when the old man’s out, so he shan’t know, you see. So he’s in good hands -”
“But that baby ought to be seen now,” I said. “I heard his cry, and I’m worried - I’ll have to get into the house to see the child -”
“I’d send for Dr Lester if I was you, deary,” the old woman said. “A slip of a girl like you - you can’t manage a nasty job like Higgins. You send for Dr Lester -”
“I can’t,” I said, “he’s on a maternity case - I’ll have to manage on my own -”
“The new partner, are you?” the old woman said, and grinned at me. “I heard what you said to Mrs Higgins. Well, you’ll have your work cut out, won’t you? What with Dr Lester and all -” and she giggled. “Doesn’t think much to women doctors, does Dr Lester, as well I know. Heard him going on once I did, at that young woman as came out from Fenbridge hospital to help in the epidemic last winter, and ooh, he was nasty -”
“Really?” I said icily. “I can’t say that interests me much at the moment. Right now I’ve got to get into that house and see that baby, and if Higgins or whatever his name is won’t let me in, then I’ll get hold of someone else who’ll make him.”
“Like who?” the old woman said curiously.
“Like the police,” I snapped, and turned on my heel and marched down the street towards the phone box.
I heard the old woman behind me call out, “I wouldn’t do that, deary - Dr Lester wouldn’t -” but I took no notice. I couldn’t care less about Dr Lester, or his opinions of women doctors, or how he would have managed the problem now facing me. All I knew was that I had to get into that house, somehow, and see that baby. And if in the doing of my job I managed to show Dr Lester that I was a capable woman and as good a doctor as he was - well that would be pleasant, I’m woman enough to want to show off sometimes!
I slid into the rather smelly phone box, and breathed a sigh of relief to see it was in working order. So often telephone kiosks were ruined by vandals - but I was in luck. As I didn’t know the telephone number of the local police station, I did the easy thing and dialled 999. They put me through to the police with commendable speed, and I explained as crisply as I could what the situation was, and asked for help.
“It’s a bit difficult, doctor,” the voice at the other end of the line said dubiously. “We can’t just break into people’s homes without just cause you know, or a warrant -”
“Isn’t a sick baby just cause?” I snapped. “I’m afraid that baby is very ill and will come to real harm if he doesn’t get medical care fast. Surely that’s enough authority?”
“Well, I suppose so -” the policeman said. “Are you the family’s regular doctor?”
“No - I mean, in a way,” I said. “That is, I’m a new partner in Dr Redmond’s practice at Downlands. I understand Dr Lester usually sees the child - but he’s out on a difficult maternity case up at a farm somewhere -”
“That’ll be up at White Gables,” the voice at the other end of the phone cut in.
“I’ve no idea where. Anyway, he’s out, and I answered this call in his place. And now I’m not prepared to leave the house until I see that child. Will you or will you not help me? I tell you that in my medical opinion this child ought to be examined -”
“All right, doctor, all right! I’ll send a car right away. Just you stay there, and my men’ll assess the situation when they get there - meantime, I’ll try to contact Dr Lester,” and the phone went dead.
I stood on the pavement outside the telephone kiosk simmering with anger. Dr Lester, Dr Lester! The way people in this town went on you’d think Dr Max Lester was the only doctor that ever existed. How dare that policeman decide to contact Dr Lester over my head?
It took the police car a good ten minutes to arrive, and by that time I was in a state of barely controlled anger. I was furious with the Higgins man, furious with myself for not being able to get into the house without sending for help, and above all furious with Dr Lester, just for being Dr Lester.
The two policemen in the squad car were young, and one of them said cheerfully “Morning, doctor! Won’t be long now, I hope. Sergeant’s sent for Dr Lester, so he should be here soon -”
At that my control snapped completely. “Dr Lester has nothing to do with this situation! I’m the doctor in charge at the moment and what I say goes! And I say we are going to get into that house right now, because there is a baby who is dangerously ill in there and I am determined to see him at once. So come on -”
The two policemen looked at each other, and the driver said doubtfully, “But the sergeant said -”
&nbs
p; “I don’t care what the sergeant said!” I snapped, almost dancing with rage. “We’re going into that house, and we’re going in now - so come on -”
And I marched up the narrow little street, now lined with open doors and windows as people peered out to see what was going on, leaving the policemen to follow.
The next ten minutes or so were blurred with action, as far as I was concerned. As I reached the house, the policemen coming reluctantly behind me, the door flew open, and Higgins came bursting out - and to my horror he was holding a wicked-looking length of heavy wood in one hand.
“You interfering, wicked, nosy -” and he let forth a stream of abuse that made me whiten, even though in my early years in hospital, when I worked in casualty departments, I’d heard a lot of bad language.
I backed up, scared, and Higgins came for me, still swearing and waving his wooden club. I caught a brief glimpse of his frightened wife as she scuttled out of the house, holding a bundled shawled baby, and fled to the old woman across the street, who put a protective arm round her. Then, the policemen were there, in front of me, holding on to Higgins with a grim effort as he struggled to get at me and shrieked and cursed at the top of his voice.
And then, his wife came running round, leaving the baby in the arms of the old woman, and tried to talk to him, while the policemen struggled to control the man, now almost incoherent in his fury.
“She didn’t mean no harm, Pete, honest she didn’t! But the baby is ill, you know that, and I couldn’t get Dr Lester not any way, and they sent her instead, but she meant no harm -” Mrs Higgins said, tears running down her face as she looked up at her struggling furious husband.
“She sent for the police, didn’t she?” he bawled at her. “Didn’t she? Means no harm? Like hell she don’t! Thinks she’s going to get me put away again, does she, sending for police? I’ll show her. Just you let me get at her and I’ll show the -” and he struggled against the policemen’s brawny grip so hard that he almost managed to get away and the watching neighbours shrank back against their front doors, and I stood almost mesmerized with fear.
“Higgins! Stop that right now!”
The voice wasn’t particularly loud, but it had such great authority that somehow everyone stood frozen for a second, and even Higgins stopped pulling against the grip of the two policemen.
I managed to turn my head, and saw Max Lester standing just behind me, with a police sergeant beside him. Max’s eyes slid over my face with a chilliness that made me shrivel. Then he spoke very softly.
“Since it seems to be you that is making my patient so - distressed, the sooner you get out of his sight the better. Go back to the end of the road and into the police car.”
I stared at him, and then managed to speak. “Your patient? You mean him?” and I jerked my head at the man now standing still, almost drooping, between the two policemen. “I’m not concerned about him - it’s the baby I came to see, and the baby I shall see,” and I turned on my heel, and started to march across the street with my legs shaking with reaction from the fear that Higgins had created in me.
“Come back here!” Max said harshly, and reached out a long arm and grabbed my elbow. Then, he seemed to become aware of the staring little crowd that was clustered around us, and turned and glowered at them.
“Go back to bed, all of you. This is nothing to do with you, and the sooner we get a bit of peace and quiet here the better. Now, on your way.”
And so firm was his authority that obediently the crowd melted away, and doors closed behind dressing-gowned and overcoated figures, and windows closed, and still Higgins stood there drooping, the very opposite of the raging fury he had been so short a time before.
Max Lester looked at Higgins and said gently, “Pete.”
The man raised his head and stared at Max Lester’s face, which now had a gentle expression on it that made him look completely different from the way I’d ever seen him look before.
“Hello, Dr Lester,” he said, and his voice was flat and dull.
“There was no need for all that, was there? If the baby was ill, Jenny was right to send for a doctor, now wasn’t she? You’d be miserable if anything happened to the baby, wouldn’t you? Of course you would. Now listen to me, Peter. There’s nothing to fret about, do you hear me? Nothing at all. But I think the baby ought to be in hospital for a while, and -”
And then it happened again. Before our eyes, the meek drooping Higgins changed, became again a raging, flailing, shouting creature, and managed to pull away from the policemen who had been holding him, to fly at Max Lester.
For a moment I was terrified, thinking Higgins was going to attack the big man, but Max just stood there calmly, only putting up one arm to ward off the attack.
“Stop it, Pete,” he said softly - and Higgins stood still again, staring up at Max.
“You’re not going to put me away, and you’re not going to put my kid away neither,” he said in a surly voice. “I knows you means well, but her -” and he stared venomously at me, “she’s the bad one, wanting to get the police here and take my kid away. You get rid of her, you hear me, or no one goes near that baby, not nohow -”
Max didn’t turn his head, he just spoke very softly.
“Dr Fenwick. Please will you go to the police car at the end of the road? I’ll take Dr Cooper’s car, and talk to you at Downlands shortly.”
For a moment I wanted to argue, and then realized that there had been an odd pleading note in his voice. Max Lester, not only speaking to me politely - even addressing me by name - but pleading! I was so surprised that almost before I realized what I was doing, I was walking down the street next to the police sergeant, and getting into the big black car that stood, with its blue light turning on the roof, at the end of the road.
I wanted to wait, to see what was going to happen, but the police sergeant just shook his head at me and nodded to the driver and in no time I was back at Downlands, standing on the doorstep and watching the police car disappear down the drive. But I had to know what had happened, and Dr Lester had said he’d explain at Downlands later - so, I let myself into the house, using the door key Dr Cooper had given me when I left on the emergency call, and switched on the hall light.
The house was completely silent. I stood in the middle of the elegant quiet hall, looking round at the gleaming polished surfaces, the flowers in their low bowls on the tables, the silent closed consulting room doors, and suddenly I was very, very tired. But I wasn’t going to bed until I knew what had happened to that baby. So I sat myself on the bottom step and leaned my aching head on the banisters.
I must have fallen asleep, because suddenly, he was there, and I was staring up at him stupidly. How long he’d been standing there I don’t know, but he still had his coat on, and was holding his soft crumpled hat in one hand.
“What - what happened?” I asked.
“Nothing very bad, fortunately - but no thanks to you!” he snapped.
I stared up at him, at the crease between his eyes, the uncompromising set of his mouth, and my tiredness and the anxiety of that half hour outside the Higgins’ house added up to a total that made my own temper snap.
“Dr Lester, don’t talk to me in that fashion! It’s abominably rude, and I’ve done little to deserve it. Now, either you tell me what happened in this case, or you don’t - but at least do me the courtesy of telling me why you’re displaying so much hostility and anger towards me!”
He looked startled, and then rubbed his eyes with one hand.
“Yes. I suppose you’re right. You’re entitled to know what you nearly did -” He looked very directly at me then, and said, “Higgins has been a patient of mine for just over a year. He was discharged from a mental hospital as being reasonably under control - but since the baby was born three months ago he’s become much worse. I’ve managed to treat him with drugs, and psychotherapy - finding time to talk to him, to let him talk - and I was getting on quite well with him. He had two main obsessions. One was
about being locked up - the mere mention of the word police drives him wild, because it was the police who first got involved with him, took him to court, and the court referred him for a medical opinion and then discovered his mental illness. So, he blames the police for the fact he went to hospital, and not his own illness. And when you threatened to send for the police, and then did, you made his control snap completely. Especially since you’re a woman.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“He hates women doctors - it was a woman psychiatrist that the court arranged for him to see, so policemen and women doctors are about equal villains in his eyes. And you turned up at his house tonight, and threatened to send for the police if he didn’t let you in! Do you wonder he finally went berserk?”
“But that’s ridiculous!” I said. “He couldn’t have known who was at the door when I first knocked, but they didn’t answer! It wasn’t till I told his wife that he could have known who I was -”
Max Lester shrugged wearily. “It doesn’t matter now. He did run berserk, as you saw, and it was sheer luck that he didn’t hurt someone. I’ve got him into Fenbridge hospital now, and heavily sedated, and we’ll see where we go from here. My guess is that you’ve set him back months with your meddling. If you hadn’t gone off half cocked and sent for the police he’d have calmed down, and -”
“For God’s sake, Dr Lester!” I nearly shouted it at him. “I didn’t know any of this! I was sent to see a sick baby! Dr Cooper told me nothing of the father’s history - just that there was a sick baby to be seen. And I heard the child cry, and it worried me. He had a cerebral cry, and -”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Max Lester looked disgusted. “You specialists! You can’t accept a simple possibility - always got to look for some complicated diagnosis. I spoke to Jenny after you’d gone, and she said she sent the call only because the baby had been sick, and she was sorry to have made such a fuss over nothing. And you hear a baby cry once and immediately diagnose a brain tumour or something, I suppose! Such nonsense -”
The Doctors of Downlands Page 4
