She needed to make final plans today, now, before the day she went into labour, because if Jacob found out she’d better be prepared to run.
Chapter Nine
Sienna
Sienna sat in the stinking hot police truck waiting for Douglas to get in and thought about that kiss. About the moment Douglas had pulled her to him and transported her out of that dingy room into a place it seemed only Douglas could take her.
There was no doubt about it. This infatuation had escalated and she had no idea how this blurring of lines between a fun flirtatious fling had morphed into wanting more. It made her cross. And maybe a little scared – a feeling she wasn’t accustomed to. She needed to solve this threat to babies, keep her peace of mind, and hightail it back to Sydney where she belonged, ASAP. She needed to leave this insanity behind.
She drew in a discreetly fortifying breath and made the conscious decision to get on with it. Again. ‘So where would you recommend for an office?’ It was time to be crisp and to the point.
Douglas glanced at her as he shut his own door. ‘The health centre might work. Not a lot of bench space from memory, but we’ll go there first. I have the key. It’s not far and we could have walked, but I have to be near the truck in case I need to leave.’
She looked up ahead of them and saw that the health centre was at the edge of town on a cross street, with the building close to the road. He drove the two hundred metres to it and stopped. ‘How are you going to do this?’ he asked.
Down-to-business Douglas. That had been what she’d just decided. So why the sinking, spiral of disappointment that settled in her gut?
‘Right.’ She didn’t look at him, but oddly she felt his glance. Maybe she did have a third eye in the back of her head where Douglas was concerned. She pretended she hadn’t noticed and stared out at the desolate surroundings as they both looked at the grey building.
‘I have the photocopied medical notes from the mothers and the neonatal reviews from the paediatricians in my room. I’ll need to talk to the three women. Go through the congenital abnormality questions to see if we can identify any common toxins or genetic history.’
Douglas rubbed the back of his neck and drew her gaze. Why was he uncomfortable?
He said, ‘None of the ladies have family history of anything like this and they all live on stations out of town. Annette is on Spinifex Station, her husband is manager for the Mackays.’
‘At least she’s here. Hopefully she can shed some light on the situation when I interview her. She’d the only one not in Brisbane with her baby at the moment.’
‘You’ll go out and see her? Or she’ll come in to you?’ His voice held a subtle reluctance. ‘And will talking about it upset her?’
This time she looked at him. Understood what he was saying and felt the sting. Thanks for the vote of confidence, big boy. ‘Do you mean will I upset her?’
‘Yes,’ said Douglas. The call-a-spade-a-spade man.
She closed her eyes. Breathed in the hot air and then let it out. Then she opened them and looked at him. ‘No, Sergeant McCabe,’ she said sweetly. ‘Believe it or not I do have people skills when needed.’
‘Good to know.’ Maybe he’d been teasing her, half the time she didn’t know, but she suspected that he hadn’t been for part of that question. His slow smile started with an apologetic twitch at the corner of his mouth and spread like a warm wave of delicious promise until Sienna had to force her rigid spine to stay straight in the seat and not melt towards him. Her lips pressed together before she said in a tight voice, ‘Now who’s playing with whom?’
His black brows drew together and his face altered to serious. ‘You’re right.’ He stared straight ahead. ‘But I have missed you.’
‘Well, I haven’t missed feeling like this,’ she said waspishly, and dug in her bag for a mint. She popped it into her mouth and chewed furiously as she opened her door. Anything to distract her from the conversation they weren’t having, she thought as she climbed out.
The sign read ‘Primary Health Centre’ with lots of times and explanations under that. She’d read it later. It was too hot out here. Sienna gasped as the heat reflected up from the concrete path like someone had pointed a blowtorch at her. ‘This place is like an oven.’
‘Same temperatures, but it’ll cool off soon,’ Douglas said laconically. ‘Stop fighting it. Accept it and move on.’
‘Drop dead.’
He looked her up and down with that tilt to his sexy lips. ‘Drop-dead gorgeous and cranky as hell. Come on, Dr Wilson. Once we shut the door it’ll be cooler inside.’
Actually, it was. Quite pleasant really, with a little collection of chairs and a coffee table. She could imagine women sitting around talking. Obviously, the pulled blinds and closed doors helped it stay almost cool. Douglas made it even better by turning on the aircon and suddenly she didn’t feel so hot and bothered. Or so cranky. Right. She could think. This town’s outside temperature was ridiculous. She looked around.
The front reception, if you could call it that, had just enough room for the five wooden chairs, the coffee table and the water dispenser. It didn’t look like they had a receptionist here because there wasn’t a desk in the waiting room, but there was a kettle and a tiny fridge for patients to make tea and coffee. Nice touch.
She walked past the open wooden door with one of those round black doorhandles up high, circa 1950, and into a small room with a narrow, high examination couch and a small desk with a phone and a blood-pressure machine.
The stethoscope hung on the wall and a silver wheeled trolley held the sealed makings for an intravenous fluid line, she assumed for emergencies, syringes for taking blood and giving injections, and basic dressing apparatus. Plus a set of baby scales.
Little spare space showed on the packed shelves on the wall or the few flat surfaces. She’d practically have to remove everything before she’d have enough area to spread out her work. And reposition it all every Monday and Wednesday or whenever Alma said they came. Maddy could do that part, but what a pain.
‘Too small and no, it won’t work. Where else have we got?’
‘With internet? There’s your room in the pub, but I’m guessing you don’t want to sleep with papers all around you for the next week or two and it’s probably too small anyway.’ Then, reluctantly, he said, ‘There’s the police station. I do have a back room and don’t use it often, only for interviews, and if we don’t have any crime then it’s free.’
‘So if you have to interview someone I have to pack all my gear up and move?’
‘Yep. Plus the QGAP office is also run out of the police station. That’s eight a.m. to three-thirty p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. The office clerk drives in and stays overnight.’
She must have just missed that excitement when she arrived. ‘What’s a QGAP office?’
‘The Queensland Government Agent Program. A one-stop shop providing government services and information referral to communities across the state. Basically, to make paying fines and fees as easy as possible where services aren’t available.’
‘Services?’
He shrugged. ‘To register births, deaths or marriages, business names, give instructions for a will and have the forms for enduring power of attorney processed.’
‘You sound like a commercial.’
He grimaced. ‘I answer that question a lot.’
She winked. ‘Won’t work, then. Does the internet reach across to your house and do you have a spare room?’
‘Yes and yes. Two, actually.’ He looked at her, pretending to be totally serious, but she could see the glint in his eyes. It did things to her stomach. Then he said, ‘But what about the sexual harassment?’
She shrugged and turned to leave the premises. ‘You’re a big boy. You can protect yourself.’
‘I’m glad you think so. I’m not so sure.’
She paused, turned back to face him and smiled grimly. ‘Thank God for that.’
Chapter Ten
The next morning, Alma’s gaze followed the mysterious blue suitcase as the policeman carried it carefully down her beautiful carpeted staircase and out the door. She desperately wanted to ask what the heck was inside those shiny blue waterproof walls. Not knowing the contents was killing her.
There’d been two other cases, a smaller one and a bigger one, all matching, that stayed upstairs, but this was the one that the doctor had so carefully nurtured. Like a baby – though Alma was beginning to suspect that despite her profession the doctor didn’t do maternal as a natural skill.
Maddy followed him out the door with a black briefcase and the doctor was last down the stairs with her handbag and a swish blue laptop case, wearing pale-blue linen trousers and a floaty white top. It felt like Hollywood had come to town.
Although, it looked like the circus was moving out. The doctor had been on the phone all morning, but as soon as the big copper came back into town this afternoon the exodus had started. ‘You shifting in with the good sergeant, Dr Wilson?’
Something she couldn’t read flashed across the woman’s face before she replied calmly, ‘No. Just setting up an office. I’ll be working out of the police-residence spare room through the day.’
Alma glanced wistfully to where the sergeant had carefully placed that mysterious bag in the boot of the blue car. Looked back at Sienna. The worst thing the doctor could do was snub her and Alma had been snubbed by experts. ‘Been wondering. What’s in that blue suitcase that’s so special?’
Sienna glanced out the door, then raised her brows. ‘My coffee machine.’
Alma cackled. ‘Should’ve guessed. City folk and their coffee.’ She’d ordered tea this morning. Maybe she didn’t she trust her to make good coffee.
Sienna blinked slowly as if saying, ‘Are you quite finished?’
Alma let the smile fade, before leaning towards her. ‘Tell you a secret. I have the flashiest, most expensive, desirable coffee machine this side of Brisbane. We call him Maestro. Bought it after a big win on the Melbourne Cup. You wait until tomorrow’s breakfast. I’ll make you a cup you won’t be able to compare to what you get out of your fancy machine. Mark my words.’
A faint smile curved the ruby-red lips. ‘Consider them marked.’
Alma watched the sergeant come back in and speak to the doctor at the door. Took note of the close heads, the woman’s pause as he opened the door for her, and the quick smile.
Alma fanned her face. ‘Warm in here now,’ she murmured to herself with a sly grin.
Now what had the big man said when she’d asked him? They’d met at Red Sand, with another project for Blanche Mackay, so it could be shared experience. But . . . he hovered just a little too protectively and the doctor’s pale cheeks looked pink to Alma. Talk about chalk and cheese, she thought with a tinge of regret. She just couldn’t see a happy ending there.
The doctor turned back and asked, ‘Can you remember anything unusual that happened around mid-July last year, Alma?’
How could she remember months ago? She had problems with yesterday. ‘Like what?’
The doctor shrugged. ‘Meteor shower. A crop duster crashed. Someone poisoned the waterhole?’
Alma wasn’t sure if she was pulling her leg. ‘Apart from the camel races, I can’t think of anything in July.’
‘Douglas?’
Alma’s suspicions ramped up another notch and she had to bite back the cackle. The way she said his name, seriously, a dead giveaway. Ha!
The sergeant didn’t seem to notice, but then you never could tell what he was thinking. Dead-set poker face.
Alma watched the doctor study him, and smiled sourly to herself. Oh yeah. You’ve got it bad.
Douglas said, ‘Only been here three months. Nothing since then that jumps out at me.’ He lifted his hand to Alma and opened the door again for the doctor. ‘We’ll go. Thanks,’ he said and Alma smiled at him. She stood at the side door and watched until the police vehicle turned out of the carpark towards the police station. She hadn’t seen this much of the sergeant since he’d arrived. The benefits of a handsome woman in town. Though to be fair – he’d had a hand in her coming.
Alma wouldn’t like to cross him, but just having him walk into the bar on closing time had saved her bacon a few times in the short space he’d been here. He seemed to know the nights Alma would like to shut down and obliged with his presence. And then there’d been that business with the drugs.
Nasty lot, that city mob, here to cause havoc with the young blokes. Sergeant McCabe had made some enemies there when he’d bundled them out of town.
Old Sergeant Jeffs had never been on the ball like this one unless she’d yelled for help, but ‘the big copper’, as the locals called him, could subdue most blokes with a hard stare. Could quell the wild women, too, but she’d never heard of him being with one. Maybe the blonde doctor explained that? Alma liked a good intrigue, but she preferred a happy ending.
Alma turned away as a regular came in. She could people watch from the bar and someone had to work. ‘Evening, Blue.’
She looked at the tall streak of misery who used to drive the mail truck – his orange hair finally fading with age. Retirement didn’t suit him. He was still the fire captain, but they didn’t have much to burn around here and he was bored stupid. Blue stood as one of the reasons Alma hadn’t taken the plunge to stop work. He’d been the epitome of his name since he’d lost his daily routine. And even more miserable since his wife had started to feel a bit sickly. She meant to ask the doctor about that.
‘Evening, Alma. Just the one, please,’ Blue said. He said that every night. Then just one more. And then another. But at least Blue cheered up as he got tipsy and didn’t turn when the percentage hit. Not like Maddy’s man.
Thinking of Maddy, Alma frowned. She’d been looking more strained. Usually this meant that her man was being difficult. Prick.
Today, Alma’s concern for Maddy had ramped up to worry. Something was going on. The girl seemed to have a lot of aches and pains, more than before, not that she complained, but sometimes she moved stiffly, and Alma wondered if it had anything to do with him. And she was stacking on the weight, so she was probably binge eating when she got depressed. If Alma had had to live with that Jacob she’d eat too. Next time she and Maddy had some privacy she’d broach the subject.
She could remember a time she hadn’t told anyone about her hell on earth, had felt too ashamed to think about telling, and she didn’t like the possibility that Maddy might be living like that.
Blue said, ‘Just one more, Alma.’ And she smiled at him and pulled another beer.
Chapter Eleven
Maddy
Maddy decided that setting up an office in the policeman’s spare room made her new boss smile. And Sergeant McCabe scowl. She didn’t like to think about what Jacob would say when she told him where she’d be working for an hour every day; the thought sent a frisson of unease down her back.
Since the epiphany of the last few days about her need to leave Jacob for her baby’s safety, she’d had a whole lot more to worry about. She’d vaguely accepted that at some stage she would go into labour, although she hadn’t thought about it too much, because, stupidly, she’d been so absorbed in surviving each day and looking for the right moment to share her news.
But the time for not thinking about the birth was past, because she shuddered more at the thought of a baby under Jacob’s roof than the actual labour. She’d grown up on a farm and had watched the animals give birth. And she’d read about it a bit. Had even helped at a home birth in Sweden once. Not that she’d done much during that experience, except look after the mother’s other children, and watch wide-eyed as events had unfolded, but that all had seemed very peaceful and serene.
Maddy knew about placentas and rubbing babies when they were born. It all held a surreal distance with a tinge of horror that she kept locked in the back of her mind. Now, coming in contact with a baby doctor had a serendipitous f
eel that eased her tension fractionally in that department anyway. In the next few days she would tell the doctor – just knowing she’d be there in case anything went wrong helped lift the new load of guilt that had begun to crush her. How could she have been so reckless with her baby’s life, thinking she could get away before she needed medical advice? At least if something went wrong before she actually could get away the doctor was here. As soon as the doctor left, she’d go.
As for when the baby came, well, that would depend on what town she was in when it happened. That was all there was to it now.
When she’d first suspected the truth, she’d dreamed Alma might take her in, but Maddy had been there last month when the other backpacker with the baby had called. Alma had said there couldn’t be any babies in a pub. Plus, it wouldn’t work long term. It was too small a town, Jacob would find out, and he’d drag her home.
Sometimes, after hard times when she’d done something stupid and Jacob had been crazy angry, her head had ached with dark ideas and insidious thoughts of just walking out of town into the heat and lying down under a bush to die. Dying of thirst. They say your mind sees the water before you die. It didn’t sound too bad. But then her baby would die too and she knew she couldn’t do that to the innocent life within her. No. Her life with Jacob wasn’t so bad that she would consider that again.
The doctor walked past her with another box and Maddy startled and shifted into action – which kicked off another of those achy back strains. She’d been standing there doing nothing, not that the doctor noticed, but that wasn’t good enough. This bit of extra money would come in handy for her and her baby and she didn’t want to blow the opportunity. She’d need it desperately as soon as she got on that bus.
The Baby Doctor Page 6
