‘There are much better ways to discipline a child than to hit them,’ Izzy said. ‘How can you teach a child not to hit others if you’re hitting them yourself?’
‘You’re preaching to the choir,’ he said. ‘I don’t agree with it either but some parents insist it’s their right to use corporal punishment.’
‘I didn’t notice any bruises or marks on the little one but Jobe seems a very tense little boy. He doesn’t seem to have a close relationship with his mother, does he?’
‘He misses his dad.’
‘Where is he?’
He shrugged. ‘Who knows? Probably shacked up with some other woman with another brood of kids by now.’
Izzy washed her hands at the sink and then tore off a paper towel to dry them. ‘Beats me why some people have kids if they’re just going to abandon them when the going gets tough.’
‘Tell me about it.’
She looked at him again. ‘Did your mother remarry?’
‘Yes. Got a couple of sons. They take up a lot of her time.’
‘I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have asked.’
‘It was a long time ago.’
She put the used paper towel in the pedal bin. ‘Do you want kids?’ Where on earth had that question come from? ‘Sorry.’ She bit her lip again. ‘None of my business.’
‘I do, actually.’ He picked up a drug company’s promotional paperweight off her desk and smoothed his right thumb over its surface. ‘Not right now, though. Maybe in a couple of years or so. I have to get a few things straightened out first.’
‘Your father?’
He put the paperweight down and met her gaze. ‘It’s a good sign he went out tonight.’
‘Yes, I agree. Social isolation isn’t good for someone suffering depression.’
There was a little silence.
‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Do you want kids or is your career your top priority?’
‘I would hate to miss out on having a family. I love my career but I really want to be a mum one day.’
It was hard to tell if her answer met with his approval or not. He had his cop face on again. ‘Caitlyn Graham had Jobe when she was fifteen. She was a kid with a kid.’
‘It looks like she’s had it tough,’ Izzy said. ‘Do all three kids have the same father?’
‘No, Eli and Skylar are another guy’s. A drifter who came into town for a couple of years before moving on again.’
‘Does Caitlyn have any extended family to support her?’
‘Her mother comes to visit from Nyngan now and again but she never stays long.’ His mouth took on a cynical line. ‘Just long enough to have a fight with Caitlyn’s new boyfriend.’
‘He doesn’t sound like a good role model for the boys,’ Izzy said.
He gave her a grim look. ‘He’s not. He’s been inside for assault and possession and supply of illegal drugs. He’s only just come off parole. Reckon it won’t be long before he ends up back behind bars.’
‘Once a criminal, always a criminal?’
‘In my experience, most of the leopards I’ve met like to hang onto their spots.’
‘Don’t you think people can change if they’re given some direction and support?’ Izzy asked.
‘Maybe some.’
She picked up her bag and hitched it over her shoulder. ‘Were you always this cynical or has your job made you that way?’
He held the door open for her. ‘I’ll tell you over dinner.’
‘You still want me to—?’
His look was unreadable. ‘You’re still hungry, aren’t you?’
Izzy had a feeling he wasn’t just talking about food. ‘It’s getting late. Maybe I should just head home. Your dad will be back soon in any case.’
‘If that’s what you want.’ He sounded as if he didn’t care either way.
It wasn’t what she wanted but she wasn’t quite ready to admit it. She wasn’t sure how to handle someone as deep and complicated as Zach Fletcher. He was strong and principled, almost to the point of being conservative, which, funnily enough, resonated with her own homespun values. But she was only here for another three weeks. It wouldn’t be fair to start something she had no intention of finishing. ‘Thanks for coming down with me to see to little Skylar.’
‘You’d better get Margie to give Caitlyn a call tomorrow. She’s not good at following through on stuff.’
‘Yes, I gathered that.’
Once she had locked the clinic and set the alarm, Zach walked her to her car. He waited until she was inside the car with her seat belt pulled down and clipped into place.
‘Thanks again.’
He tapped the roof of her car with his hand. ‘Drive safely.’
‘Zach?’
He stopped and turned back to look at her. ‘Yes?’
‘Maybe I could cook dinner for you some time...to make up for tonight?’
He gave her the briefest of smiles. ‘I’ll get working on my appetite.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘HOW DID YOUR evening go with Doug Fletcher?’ Izzy asked Margie the next morning at the clinic.
‘I was about to ask you the same question about yours with Zach.’
‘It got cut short. I got called out to Caitlyn Graham’s little daughter, who’d cut her forehead,’ Izzy said. ‘Can you call her to make a follow-up appointment? I’d like to see Skylar on Thursday. And can you check to see whether all three kids are up to date on their vaccinations?’
‘Will do. Did Caitlyn’s boyfriend come with her?’
‘No, but Zach warned me about him. He came with me to the clinic.’
Margie’s brows lifted. ‘Did he, now?’
Izzy felt a blush creep over her cheeks. ‘He’s a bit of a stickler for safety.’
‘Wayne Brody is a ticking time bomb,’ Margie said. ‘Wouldn’t take much to set him off. Zach’s got a good nose for sensing trouble.’
‘Why would Caitlyn hook up with someone so unsavoury? There must be some other much nicer young man out here.’
Margie shrugged. ‘Some girls would rather be with anybody rather than nobody. Her mother’s the same. Hooked up with one deadbeat after the other. I don’t think Caitlyn has ever met her biological father. I’m not sure her mother even knows who it is. Caitlyn had one stepfather after the other. Now she’s doing the same to her kids. It’s a cycle that goes on one generation after another. It’s a case of monkey see, monkey do.’
‘Are there any playgroups or activities for young mums like her around here?’ Izzy asked.
‘Peggy McLeod tried to set one up a few years back but her arthritis set in and she had to give it up. No one’s bothered to do anything since.’
‘The community centre...do you think I could book it for one morning this week?’ Izzy asked. ‘I could rearrange my clinic hours. I could get some toys donated or buy them myself if I have to. It’d be a place for the mums and kids to hang out and chat and play.’
‘Sounds good, but who’s going to take over when your time with us is up?’
‘I could get one of the mums to take charge,’ Izzy said. ‘It might be a chance to get Caitlyn engaged in something that would build her self-esteem.’
Margie gave a snort. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that girl’s self-esteem. It’s her taste in men that’s the problem.’
‘But that’s exactly my point,’ Izzy said. ‘She thinks so badly of herself that she settles for the first person who shows an interest in her. There’s a saying I heard once. You get the partner in life you think you deserve.’
Margie gave her a twinkling look. ‘And who do you think you deserve?’
Izzy felt that betraying blush sneak back into her cheeks. ‘Did you manage to convince Doug to book in for a check-up?’
Margie’s twinkle dulled like a cloud passing over the sun. ‘I’m working on it.’
‘Are you going to see him again?’
‘I’m working on that too,’ Margie said. ‘I mentioned the Shearers’ Ball bu
t he was pretty adamant he wasn’t going to go.’
‘I guess it’s pretty hard to dance when you’re on a walking frame.’
‘It’s not about the dancing.’ Margie’s eyes suddenly watered up. ‘I couldn’t give a toss about the dancing. I just want to be with him. I’ve waited so long for him but he’s got this stupid idea in his head that no one could ever want him the way he is now.’
Izzy gave Margie’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. ‘I hope it works out for you and him. I really do.’
Margie popped a tissue out of the box on the reception counter and blew her nose. She tossed the tissue in the bin under the desk and assembled her features back into brisk receptionist mode. ‘Silly fool. A woman of my age fancying herself in love. Phhfft. Ridiculous.’
‘It’s not ridiculous,’ Izzy said. ‘Falling in love isn’t something you can control. It just happens—’ she caught Margie’s look ‘—or so I’m told,’ she added quickly. She took the file for her first patient of the day from the counter as the front door of the clinic opened. ‘Mrs Honeywell? Come this way.’
* * *
Zach was leaving the station a couple of days later when he saw Izzy coming out of the clinic and walking towards her car. It had been a brute of a day, hot and dry with a northerly wind that was gritty and relentless. He could think of nothing better than a cool beer and a swim out at Blake’s waterhole... Actually, he could think of something way better than that. Izzy Courtney lying naked underneath him while he—
She suddenly turned and looked at him as if she had felt his gaze on her. Or read his X-rated thoughts. ‘Oh...hello.’ She gave him a smile that looked beaten up around the edges.
‘You look like you’ve had a tough day.’
Her mouth twisted as she scraped a few tendrils of sticky hair back behind her ear. ‘Caitlyn didn’t show up for Skylar’s check-up. Margie confirmed it with her but she didn’t come. I called her on the phone to offer to go out there but there was no answer.’ She blew out a little breath of frustration. ‘I can’t force her to bring the child in. And I don’t want to turn up at her house as if I’m suspicious of her.’
‘I’ve got a couple of things for Jobe and Eli,’ Zach said. ‘Stuff I had when I was a kid. I found them in a cupboard in one of the spare rooms at home. We can drop them round now just to see if everything’s OK. Better take your car, though. Might not get such a warm welcome, turning up in mine.’
Her caramel-brown eyes brightened. ‘That was thoughtful of you. What sort of things? Toys?’
Zach found himself trying to disguise a sheepish look. ‘I went through a dinosaur stage when I was about seven or eight. Got a bit obsessive there for a bit.’
She gave him a smile that loosened some of the tight barbed wire wrapped around his heart. ‘So you can tell a stegosaurus from a triceratops?’
‘Any fool can do that.’
She pursed her lips and then must have realised he was teasing her for her sunny smile broke free again. ‘You’re a nice man, Sergeant Fletcher. I think I’m starting to like you after all.’
* * *
The house Caitlyn Graham was living in was on the outskirts of Jerringa Ridge. It was a stockman’s cottage from the old days that looked like it hadn’t had much done to it since. The rusty gate was hanging on one hinge and the once white but now grey picket fence had so many gaps it looked like a rotten-toothed smile. A dog of mixed breeding was chained near the tank stand and let out a volley of ferocious barking as Izzy pulled her car up in front of the house. ‘Can he get off, do you think?’ she asked, casting Zach a worried glance.
‘I’ll keep an eye on him.’
‘Poor dog tied up like that in this heat.’ She turned off the engine and unclipped her belt. ‘Is anyone around? There’s no car about that I can see.’
‘Stay in the car and I’ll have a mosey around.’ Zach got out and closed the door with a snick. The dog put its ears back and brought its body low to the ground as it snarled and bared its teeth.
Izzy watched as Zach ignored the dog as he walked up the two steps of the bull-nosed veranda, opening the screen door to knock on the cracked paint of the front door. The dog was still doing its scary impersonation of an alien beast from a horror movie but Zach didn’t seem the least put off by it. He left the bag of toys near the door and came back down the veranda steps. Apart from the dinosaurs, Izzy had spotted a set of toy cars and a doll that looked suspiciously new. She had seen one just like it in the corner store yesterday but it hadn’t been there when she’d picked up her sandwich today at lunchtime.
Zach made a clicking sound with his tongue and the dog stopped growling and slunk down in a submissive pose. Zach picked up the dog’s water dish, took it over to the tap on the base of the tank, rinsed the rusty water out of it and filled it with fresh, setting it down in a patch of shade next to the dog’s kennel. The dog drank thirstily, so thirstily Zach had to refill the dish a couple of times.
He came back to the car after doing another round of the house. ‘No one home.’
Izzy started the engine. ‘You certainly have a way with wild animals.’
‘He’s not wild.’ He leaned his arm along the back of her seat as she backed the car to turn around. ‘He’s scared. Probably had the boot kicked into his ribs a few too many times.’
Izzy could see the tightness around his jaw. That grim look was back. The look that was like a screen behind which the horrors and cruelty and brutal inhumanity he’d seen first hand were barricaded. ‘How do you cope with it? The stuff you see, I mean. The bad stuff.’
‘Reckon you’ve seen your share of bad stuff too.’
‘Yes, but I’m not usually out on the coalface. Most of the stuff I see is in the controlled environment of a clinic or hospital. And mostly it’s stuff I can fix.’
He didn’t speak until Izzy had driven back to the road leading to town. ‘It doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure. Rocking up to someone’s place to tell them their only kid is lying in the morgue after a high-speed accident is the kind of stuff that gets to even the toughest cops.’ He paused for a beat. ‘Anything to do with kids gets me. Abuse. Neglect. Murder. It’s not something you can file away like the investigation report. It stays with you. For years.’ He released a jagged breath. ‘For ever.’
Izzy glanced at him. ‘Did you think it would be as bad as it is when you first joined the force?’
He gave her a twisted smile that had nothing to do with humour. ‘Most cops fresh out of the academy think they’re going to be the one that changes the world. We all think we’re going to make a difference. To help people. Trouble is, some people don’t want to be helped.’
‘I’ve been talking to Margie about setting up a playgroup in town,’ Izzy said, ‘for mums like Caitlyn and their kids. A place to hang out and chat and swap recipes and stuff. Do you think it’s a good idea?’
‘Who’s going to run it?’
‘I will, to start with.’
He flashed her an unreadable look. ‘And who’s going to take over when you drive off into the sunset in search of your next big adventure?’
Izzy pressed her lips together. Was he mocking her or was he thinking of the locals getting all excited about something only to have it fall flat once she left? A little flag of hope climbed up the flagpole of her heart. Was he thinking of how he would feel when she left? ‘I’m going to be here long enough to get it up and running. After that it’s up to the locals to keep things going, if that’s what they want.’
He gave a noncommittal grunt, his eyes trained on the road ahead.
Izzy let a silence pass before she added, ‘So what’s wrong with looking for adventure?’
‘Nothing, as long as you don’t hurt others going in search of it.’
‘I’m not planning on hurting anyone.’ She found her fingers tightening on the steering-wheel and had to force herself to relax them. ‘I suppose this attitude of yours is because of your mother leaving the way she did.’
She
felt the razor-sharp blade of his gaze. ‘You really think you’ve got what it takes to make a difference out here in a month? You haven’t got a hope, sweetheart.’
‘Don’t patronise me by calling me sweetheart.’
He gave a sound midway between a laugh and a cynical snort. ‘You flounce into town, sprinkling your fairy dust around, hoping some of it will stick, but you haven’t got a clue. The country out here is tough and it needs tough people to work in it and survive. It’s not the place for some pretty little blow-in who’s looking for something to laugh about over a latte with her friends when she gets back from her big adventure with the rednecks in the antipodes.’
Izzy tried to rein in her anger but it was like trying to control a scrub fire with an eyedropper. The one thing she hated the most was people not taking her seriously. Thinking she was too much of a flake to get the job done. A silly little socialite playing at doctors and nurses. ‘Thanks for the charming summation of my motives and character,’ she said through tight lips.
‘Pleasure.’
She pulled up outside the police station a few bristling minutes later. ‘Have a nice evening, Sergeant,’ she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
He didn’t even bother replying, or at least not verbally. He shut the car door with a sharp click that could just as easily be substituted for an imprecation.
* * *
‘What’s got under your skin?’ Doug asked Zach over dinner later that evening. ‘You’ve been stabbing at that steak as if it’s a mortal enemy.’
Zach pushed his plate away. ‘It’s too hot to eat.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Doug wiped the back of his hand over his forehead. ‘Must be something wrong with the air-con. I’m sweating like a pig.’
Zach frowned as he saw his father’s sickly colour. ‘You all right?’
‘Will be in a minute...’ Doug gripped the arms of the standard chair. ‘Just a funny turn. Had one earlier...just before you got home.’
‘When was the last time you took a painkiller?’
‘Ran out last night.’
Zach swore under his breath. ‘You’re not supposed to stop them cold turkey. You’re supposed to wean yourself off them. You’re probably having withdrawal symptoms. It can be dangerous to suddenly stop taking them.’
Flirting with the Socialite Doc (Mills & Boon Medical) Page 9
