Doctor and Protector Read online

  McCall looked at her for a moment, then turned to Suzy who’d come out of the office to do Cassie’s bidding.

  ‘Get something for me, too,’ he said, ‘even if it’s only theatre pyjamas.’

  He saw Cassie’s questioning frown, but ignored it. She might not have connected the ‘accident’ to the threatening letters she’d received, and if she hadn’t, well and good. There was no sense in having her more worried than she already was.

  He followed her into the A and E area. Voices and activity in a walled-off area at the far side suggested where the children’s mother was being treated, and the father, carrying Ben and leading Geraldine by the hand, took the children that way.

  ‘We just need a few minutes before you bring them in.’ A young nurse emerged from the room and shut the door firmly behind her. The man seemed about to argue, but Cassie stepped in front of them and diverted his attention.

  ‘As soon as they’ve said hello to their mother, I want to check the children over,’ Cassie told the man. ‘You, too.’

  ‘But I’m fine,’ he said, and McCall smiled to himself as he saw Cassie stifle a sigh.

  ‘I know you feel fine, but I still need to check, not only now but again tomorrow. We’ll be keeping your wife in overnight at least—’

  She hadn’t finished the sentence before the man interrupted.

  ‘But who’ll mind the children?’ he demanded.

  ‘Are they your children?’ Cassie’s question verged on a demand itself.

  ‘Of course they are,’ the man said.

  ‘Then you’ll look after them,’ Cassie told him. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me—perhaps you’d like to sit down over there—I need to check with my colleague.’

  She waved her hand towards some chairs lined up against the far wall, then opened the door and disappeared from view.

  ‘No wonder people are always complaining about the health system,’ the man griped to McCall. ‘Uppity bloody doctors.’

  ‘You’re lucky that particular uppity doctor was right on the spot to get you and your family out of the car,’ McCall reminded him, guiding the man towards a chair.

  Once all three were settled, McCall pulled a chair around in front of the man.

  ‘Bit late for introductions,’ he said, ‘but I’m Henry McCall.’

  He waited for a moment, but the man failed to respond with his own name, so, knowing he could find it out some other way, McCall pressed on.

  ‘Do you remember what happened?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ Mr No-name said. ‘The car went out of control. I heard a bang so I assume it was a tyre blowing out. I didn’t think that happened any more—it damn well shouldn’t, the damn things cost a fortune. And to happen where it did—no one could have kept control. I knew the water was the best option—if we’d gone over the other side we’d all have been killed for sure.’

  Aware the man was trying to ease a guilt he shouldn’t have been feeling, McCall didn’t point out that he probably had nothing to do with the car going into the water. If the burst tyre was the front one on that side, the car would have swung that way before the driver realised what was happening.

  Cassie came out of the room McCall assumed was set up for emergencies.

  ‘You can take the children in, but only to say hello.’ She spoke to the man. ‘The doctor’s given your wife a mild sedative and they’re taking her through for a scan and chest X-ray as soon as she’s seen the children.’

  ‘But she was talking—surely she’s OK.’

  ‘She’s been unconscious following a near-drowning, Mr Ward.’ Obviously Cassie had been more successful in finding out the family’s name. ‘She may test out normally now but her condition could deteriorate at any moment.’ She paused then added, ‘Which is why we’re keeping her in hospital.’

  And on that note she strode away, no doubt to prepare staff for the scan and X-ray. McCall considered following, then decided she would be safe enough in the short corridor between A and E and the radiology rooms.

  Although it wouldn’t pay to get complacent. Not on his second day on the job.

  He was still mentally dithering when she returned, followed by a nurse with a washing basket full of clothes.

  ‘OK, I’ll see the kids now.’

  She sent the nurse to bring them out of the room, and as the door opened they heard Mr Ward still protesting.

  ‘Wait till he realises he’s going to be examined by a woman,’ Cassie whispered to McCall. ‘I can just imagine his reaction to that!’

  The nurse returned carrying Ben, while another followed her out of the room with Geraldine in her arms. Mr Ward followed, though with obvious reluctance.

  ‘I’ll look at the children first,’ Cassie told him, going through the basket and pulling out the children’s clothes it contained. ‘While I’m doing that, you might look through these clothes to see what might fit you. You can go into that cubicle to change. I’ll be in to see you as soon as I finish with Ben and Geraldine.’

  She pointed to a curtained-off area next to the one where the nurse had taken the children.

  ‘I don’t want you examining me. There’s a male doctor in there with my wife. He can look at me.’

  ‘He’s taking your wife through to Radiology and will be tied up with her for some time. All I’m going to do is check your pulse and blood pressure, take some blood to test for any electrolyte imbalance, put an instrument on your finger to check the oxygen level in your blood and do an ECG—put electrodes on your chest and hook them up to a machine. Hardly invasive stuff.’

  She turned away and winked at McCall as she disappeared into the curtained-off cubicle.

  Mr Ward was still grumbling, then apparently he remembered McCall.

  ‘What about you? Aren’t you a doctor? Are you just going to stand there and let her boss me around?’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ McCall said mildly. ‘Or maybe I’ll sit.’

  He shoved the washing basket with his foot so it slid across the polished floor towards the complaining patient. ‘Now, do you want first choice of the clothes, or shall I just leave what I don’t want?’

  Goaded into action, the man bent and lifted the basket, then flicked through the clothes, his disgust with the hospital’s offerings becoming more patent every moment.

  ‘I’d rather stay wet!’ he muttered, dropping the basket back to the floor so it tipped and clothes spilled out.

  ‘Up to you,’ McCall said, then he glanced up as footsteps approached, and smiled when he saw it was Dave who entered the room.

  Dave nodded to him, but his attention was on the other man.

  ‘Mr Ward? I’m Dave Pritchard, local police. We’ve got your car out—there doesn’t seem to be much damage. The tow-truck will bring it into town.’

  He dug in his pocket and handed the other man a card.

  ‘Here’s their number. You can give it to your insurance company and let them deal direct with the garage or ring them yourself to find out what happens next.’

  ‘I’ll go there now,’ Ward said. ‘I can get our clothes out. Is there a laundry in town—or someone who’ll wash and dry them for us? And all my papers are in the car. My wife’s handbag, too. I don’t trust tow-truck companies. They’ll loot the lot given half a chance.’

  ‘I think you’ll find everything that was in the car is still in the car,’ Dave said, and McCall marvelled at his cool control. ‘I was there as the car was pulled out, and watched it lifted onto the tray of the truck. The garage where they’ll take it is just a block down the road. If you hurry, you’ll get there before the truck.’

  ‘I’ll go now—I can’t be waiting around all day to be checked out by that doctor,’ Ward announced.

  ‘And your children?’ McCall reminded him.

  ‘Oh, they’ll just have to stay here,’ Ward announced. ‘It’s a hospital—there must be plenty of nurses around to mind a couple of kids.’

  ‘Cassie will just love to hear that!’ Dave remarked as the man disappear
ed out the door. He looked around. ‘Where is she, by the way?’

  McCall nodded towards the cubicle, where childish giggles suggested the children were enjoying their examination.

  ‘You had a good look at that car?’ he asked Dave.

  Dave turned and frowned at him.

  ‘Good look as in what way?’

  ‘It’s identical to Cassie’s. And we were right behind it—summoned by a phone call about an accident further out along that road. A phone call that proved to be a hoax!’

  Dave’s frown deepened.

  ‘What are you saying? I saw the tyre on that car. It looked as if the sidewall had been spiked on something and the tyre, rather than gently deflating, blew out.’

  ‘And what kind of something might spike a tyre on that particular stretch of the road? Cassie and I were right behind it. We heard a shot.’

  ‘Or the sound of the blow-out?’ Dave suggested, though McCall could see he was thinking of alternatives. ‘But she’s only had three letters. Lisa and Mrs A. had five.’

  ‘Four. Cassie’s had four. She received another one last night. We’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to let you know. It’s in my briefcase in the car. Same layout as the others—message reading, “Want me to come?”.’

  ‘Want me to come? That’s perverted.’

  McCall sighed at the innocence of country folk.

  ‘He is perverted,’ he reminded Dave. ‘That’s the one thing we do know, which is why you wanted me out here.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘MY GUESS is he’s also panicking, maybe because of my appearance on the scene. He may have planned this particular “accident” for Cassie all along—the false phone calls, the shot and the car going off the dam wall—but intended doing it later. My arrival made him speed things up.’

  ‘But you only arrived yesterday,’ Dave protested.

  McCall nodded. ‘So you’d think it must be someone close to Cassie. Someone at the hospital, or someone she’s been in contact with since yesterday. That’s not a huge number of people.’

  ‘No?’ Dave smiled at him. ‘You were around the hospital most of yesterday so everyone on the staff, all the patients, all their visitors, then most of the friends and relations of all those people will know about your arrival. By late yesterday afternoon, I’d heard from at least three sources that Cassie had a boyfriend staying with her.’

  ‘It’s what we wanted, isn’t it?’ McCall said gloomily. ‘To goad the man into action?’

  ‘You’re certain it’s a man?’

  ‘No, I’m not—not one hundred per cent. But maybe ninety-eight per cent and it’s easier to talk about a man and him, rather than man or woman, him or her. Don’t let’s complicate things any more.’

  ‘So, what do we do next?’ Dave asked.

  ‘All I can do is stick even closer to Cassie,’ McCall said, his gut tightening as he considered harm coming her way. ‘I imagine you might like to get that damaged wheel put away for forensic examination before the garage goes ahead and replaces the tyre, then have a good look out at the dam site for a spot where someone would have a clear shot at a car crossing the dam.’

  McCall paused. ‘Hitting a tyre at long range—that’s pretty good shooting. Would you know all the good marksmen in town?’

  Dave laughed.

  ‘Yeah, I know them—just as I know most of the people in town. You’re out in the bush, mate, in ’roo- and pig-shooting country. I don’t know many teenage boys who couldn’t put a bullet in an animal’s head at a hundred yards.’

  ‘But this was a moving car,’ McCall protested, unable to believe Dave’s words.

  Dave chuckled.

  ‘Wild pigs don’t stand still with their hands in the air when you want to shoot them,’ he said. ‘And you have to remember how narrow that road is over the dam—not even Cassie would dare take it at speed.’

  ‘OK, so we’re back to lists. You’ve been making lists of known male contacts in the appropriate age group for the other three women—I’ll get Cassie onto hers if I have to tie her to her desk to get it done.’

  He hesitated, then asked the question he probably shouldn’t have asked.

  ‘Is there anyone on the lists you’ve seen you’d put ahead of the others? Do you have a gut feeling about any of them?’

  It was Dave’s turn to hesitate and McCall knew why—the same reason he hadn’t wanted to ask. Policemen hated admitting to gut feelings—after all, their work was all about proof—but most good ones at some stage in a case developed instinctive suspicions about one or other of their suspects.

  ‘Wayne Cramp’s a bit of an odd-job man. He’s working at the hospital at the moment, but before that he had one of those franchised lawnmowing runs. He cut Mrs Ambrose’s lawn, and Lisa Santorini’s mother’s lawn, but those are the only connections I can make. I guess he’s prodding at me because he’s always been a bit odd. A loner, lives at home with his mother—now, after today’s accident, I should add he was always a good shot. It’s the one sport he was good at—the only thing that saved him being ridiculed by the other kids at school.’

  ‘He was at school with you—with Cassie?’

  ‘Same year—right from kindergarten. Lisa’s family moved to town a lot later, and she was older than us, but still at high school when we went there. Judy didn’t grow up in Wakefield—she came here for the job. She was on a five-year plan to break into broadcasting in the city—one of those high-profile morning DJ jobs.’

  ‘And this Wayne’s the only one you’d choose on instinct?’

  There was a pause, then Dave shook his head.

  ‘Maybe a couple of others, but I can’t place them in town at the time of all three accidents, though this bloke’s clever enough to have given himself an alibi by seeming to be out of town. And if you want the truth, I can’t really see Wayne planning anything as elaborate as these killings have been, though he’s always been good with cars. He does a bit of mechanical work for mates, does up old ones and sells them—has half a dozen old wrecks in his back yard. If anyone could have put together the car that killed Judy, Wayne could.’

  McCall was interested, but before he could ask more, Dave moved away.

  ‘I’ve got to get moving—there’s too much to do to be speculating,’ he said. ‘I’ll see the people at the garage and send someone out to check at the dam.’

  ‘Go yourself,’ McCall suggested. ‘We heard the shot, and it sounded as if it came from the town side of the dam—down by the water where Cassie said there was a picnic area. If the road’s not sealed all the way, don’t drive on it—there could be tyre tracks or footprints. We need evidence, Dave, something to tie a particular person to the crimes. And even though we don’t know which person as yet, when we do get him, and we will, we need to be able to make a watertight case against him.’

  Dave departed, his face set with a grim resolve, and McCall realised how different country policing must be, especially for someone like Dave who’d grown up in this town. Here, where everyone knew or knew of each other, policing, like doctoring, was more personal.

  ‘So, two dry, healthy children, none the worse for their dunking. Is their father in the other cubicle?’

  Cassie was smiling as she led the two children into the waiting area, and McCall saw the smile and felt a tug in his chest which suggested this investigation might, for him, be turning personal as well.

  Might?

  Hard though it was for him to accept, given he’d only known the woman twenty-four hours, he thought it was more than a ‘might’!

  ‘He went down to the garage to see to the car. He left of his own accord so if he suffers any serious consequences, you can’t be held responsible.’

  ‘But the children?’ Cassie said, speaking quietly so as not to alarm the pair.

  ‘I guess we’re stuck with them—at least until he returns. Didn’t I see a box of toys somewhere in my wanderings yesterday?’

  ‘Outpatients’ waiting room—through that door,
’ Cassie said, but something in her voice suggested she was answering automatically, her mind on other things.

  The look of horror on her face confirmed this impression, so McCall wasn’t surprised when she looked up into his face and whispered, ‘Cars and water. He’s killed both ways. Was this—? Could this have been—?’

  She’d gone so pale he reached out and grabbed her arm to support her.

  ‘We’ll talk about it later. Right now we need to get these kids settled in a safe place where they can play until their father returns.’

  Cassie heard his words and tried valiantly to pull herself together, but the horror of her thoughts had filled her with an icy numbness. She heard McCall speaking to someone—saw Suzy there, apparently with a message—heard McCall asking Suzy to take the children through to Outpatients.

  Then McCall put his arm around her shoulders and guided her, gently but firmly, along the corridor to her office.

  ‘Suzy will get someone to watch the children, and she’s sending coffee. Are your clothes still damp? Mine have dried and I don’t really care how I look, but when you’ve had your coffee, you should have a hot shower and change into clean clothes. You’ll feel a lot better.’

  ‘And whoever’s trying to kill me will have gone away?’ Cassie demanded.

  She could feel herself shaking, and pressed closer to the warm bulk of the man who was supporting her. Heavens, she barely knew McCall, yet here she was, clinging to him like a hapless heroine in an old silent movie.

  Not the best of metaphors—her mind immediately threw up an image of a hysterical blonde tied to railway lines with a train, drawn by an old steam engine, huffing along the track towards her.

  ‘Now sit!’

  McCall had guided her safely into her office and was now easing her into a chair. No doubt glad to take her weight off his body.

  ‘I’ve spoken to Dave. He’s looking into what happened out at the dam. The main thing is, you’re safe.’

  ‘We’re safe,’ Cassie told him, looking up into the intelligent brown eyes as a new worry surfaced in her head. ‘But we might not have been. This is stupid. We could both have been killed. You’re putting yourself at risk—and for a stranger.’