CONSULTANT IN CRISIS Read online

  ‘But you’re so nice and light,’ Kelly said. ‘Imagine if we had to cart Joe down a hill. It would be a killer. He must weigh three times as much as you.’

  ‘It’s all muscle,’ Joe protested.

  ‘It’s discrimination,’ Wendy declared. ‘And I’m going to take a stand. Short people shouldn’t get picked on.’ Her grin was disarming. ‘Not while there’s rats around, anyway.’

  Ignoring the hand Fletch was extending to help her, Wendy steadied the stretcher by holding the sides, stood up quickly and then straightened to her full height of barely more than five feet. Fletch and Joe both towered over her and were grinning broadly. Wendy looked away, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully at the sight of the approaching figure.

  ‘I know. Let’s bury Kyle next time.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Jessica’s quiet tone matched Wendy’s. ‘And let’s not dig him up.’

  It was unfortunate that the burst of laughter coincided with Kyle’s small mishap. Picking his way down the hillside a little too eagerly, Kyle had slipped and travelled a short distance in an undignified sitting position. He looked less than pleased as he came to stand beside Kelly.

  ‘What are you doing standing up, Wendy? You’re supposed to have a spinal injury.’

  ‘I’m miraculously cured,’ Wendy announced.

  Kyle looked around the group. ‘You were supposed to deliver her to ambulance triage,’ he informed them. He looked less than happy to find his authority undermined.

  ‘There’s nobody there,’ Fletch said patiently. ‘The exercise was location and retrieval, Kyle. We’ve completed that. Very successfully, in fact.’ Fletch was smiling as he nodded. ‘Well done, everyone.’

  It annoyed Kelly that she automatically joined in the murmur of agreement and even appreciation. What was it about Neil Fletcher that made people unconsciously welcome and accept his leadership in almost any situation? Ross had been given the role of team leader for this training exercise and assessment but he was looking as happy as everyone else to have won Fletch’s approval.

  Kelly looked down the second Fletch’s glance caught hers. She nudged the bright red plastic Stokes basket. ‘I wonder if they want this taken back up the hill.’

  ‘Doubt it. I think they’ll be able to carry the last victim down by themselves.’ Fletch sounded amused. ‘It’s only a tape recorder after all.’

  Kelly hadn’t noticed that the second half of the rescue team had already started its descent. One of their USAR instructors, Dave Stewart, was leading the group, and he had the strap of the case containing the tape recorder over his shoulder. Bursts of laughter punctuated the careful downward journey of the team and Kelly became as curious as everyone else to find out the cause of such amusement.

  ‘Listen to this, guys.’ Owen, one of the fire officers on the course, reached in front of Dave to push a button on the cassette deck.

  The intermittent groans had been recorded by a woman who had clearly enjoyed her role of acting as an injured and trapped victim. The intensity and length of the groans varied and even Kelly had to giggle after a particularly enthusiastic rendition.

  ‘Kelly!’ Joe sounded shocked. ‘Were you carrying a tape recorder on your last date?’

  ‘And can I have his phone number?’ Wendy had to raise her voice over the fresh burst of laughter from the group.

  ‘I should be so lucky!’ Kelly knew that the colour flooding her face would make her casual response less than convincing. She looked away, intending to find something she could focus on while she controlled her embarrassment. Instead, her gaze locked with that of Neil Fletcher. He appeared to be joining in the general mirth but the gaze from the dark hazel eyes was not even remotely amused. It was cold. Disapproving. Angry, even. Kelly gave up any hope of controlling the blush but her colour was no longer due to embarrassment. How could someone else’s anger be so instantly contagious?

  ‘Good to see that this has been so enjoyable.’ Dave shut off the recording. ‘We would normally have a debriefing of the training exercise here but I’m sure you’re all cold and tired and it’s getting dark. Let’s pack up and get back to school. When we’ve all had a chance to get changed and clean, we’ll get going. We’re booked in for that meal at seven and we can do our debrief over a beer or two before we eat.’

  ‘Excellent idea.’ Owen and Joe led the move to collect gear. Cans of spray paint, the whiteboard that information about the incident had been recorded on, the Stokes basket, first-aid equipment and a large quantity of other gear was loaded into the luggage compartment of the bus. The large group worked well together, the impression that they were a closely knit team highlighted by their uniform of dark blue overalls, the bright orange safety helmets they wore and the frequent bursts of laughter that punctuated conversations. Everybody was happy to have completed a challenging day of practical work. Nobody was sorry to board the bus and leave the grim playground of the hardfill rubbish tip behind.

  The hot shower was blissful. Dressing warmly in her faded, comfortable jeans, a soft shirt and a fluffy llama wool pullover, Kelly bundled up the overalls which were now badly in need of washing and headed for the waiting linen bag in the female change rooms. The area was busy. Jessica was pulling a wide-toothed comb through her shoulder-length auburn curls and Wendy was applying gel to spike her short blonde hair.

  ‘I can’t come out for this meal,’ Jessica was telling Wendy. ‘Mum needs a break from looking after Ricky. There’s nowhere he can play outside at that motel we’re in and he’ll be bouncing off the walls by now.’

  ‘Why don’t you just come for the debrief and a drink and not stay for the meal? Or maybe you could ring your mum and get her to meet us there. Pizza restaurants are usually quite happy to have kids around.’

  ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that.’

  ‘Why not?’ Wendy spotted Kelly in the mirror. ‘Hey, Kelly! Do you reckon we passed?’

  ‘We’ll find out soon enough, I guess.’ Kelly was rummaging in her rucksack for a hairbrush. ‘That’s the only reason I’m going out for this meal.’ Today’s exercise had been more than putting theory into practice. It had also been an assessment of some of the skills they needed for qualification.

  Jessica looked worried. ‘I suppose I’ll have to come.’

  ‘Dave and Tony will understand if you can’t,’ Kelly told her. ‘They know about Ricky.’

  ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have brought him with me.’ Jessica put her comb away. ‘But it seemed like such a great opportunity. He’s never been near a city before and I couldn’t have come if I hadn’t brought him. Mum couldn’t cope on her own for that long.’

  ‘How old is Ricky?’ Wendy was wielding a mascara wand.

  ‘Nearly six.’

  ‘He must be enjoying an extra holiday from school.’

  ‘He doesn’t go to school yet. He’s…not ready for that.’

  Kelly and Wendy exchanged a glance. The undertones were obvious but the close friendship that was developing between the three women had not yet extended to confidences about the problems Jessica’s child clearly faced. Maybe a social occasion was a good idea for reasons other than finding out their test results.

  ‘Is Ricky’s father around?’ Wendy’s query seemed casual.

  ‘No.’ Jessica tried to match her tone. ‘I’m single.’

  ‘Me, too.’ Kelly dragged the brush through long strands of her thick, dark hair. ‘A permanent state, I suspect.’

  ‘Don’t be too sure. I thought it was for me, too.’ Wendy peered thoughtfully into the mirror. ‘You never know what—or who—might be waiting around the next corner in your life.’

  ‘Too true.’ The comment carried the weight of absolute sincerity. If Kelly had known that Fletch had been waiting, she would have been very careful to avoid this particular corner.

  Jessica was smiling. ‘You’ve only known Ross for two weeks, Wendy. You must be pretty keen on each other if you’re so sure your single state is over.’

  ‘When you meet the right pers
on you just know.’ Wendy’s smile was confident.

  ‘And does Ross feel the same way?’ Kelly tried not to sound sceptical. She had felt that way about Fletch once. The euphoria of being in love made you believe all sorts of things that had no basis in reality. She almost shook her head. How could she feel so old and wise at the age of only twenty-eight?

  ‘I think he did by the end of last weekend.’ Wendy’s confession was shy. ‘We’re going over to the Coast tomorrow. He wants to show me his house.’ Her expression was now dreamy. ‘He wants me to think about going to live with him and working at the Coast hospital.’

  Kelly started braiding her hair into a single rope. She didn’t want to hear any more about Wendy’s dreams of a happy future. She didn’t need the reminder of how her own dreams had been crushed. One way and another, this Urban Search and Rescue training course was proving to be a growth experience that was not entirely welcome. She pushed the thought aside and smiled as she made an attempt to change the subject.

  ‘And if it doesn’t work out with Ross, we all know who’ll be only too keen to step into the breach.’

  ‘Oh, please!’ Wendy pushed her fingers through her hair to tousle the blonde spikes just a little more. ‘Kyle Dickson gives me the creeps. Every time I look up he’s staring at me.’

  ‘He fancies you.’ Jessica grinned.

  Kelly had a momentary flashback to the stare she had received from Fletch during the teasing at the rubbish tip. Maybe unrequited passion would be a preferable emotion to deal with.

  ‘Well, it’s not mutual.’ Wendy pulled on a polar fleece jacket. ‘We’d better get going. They’ll be waiting for us in the bus by now.’ Her grin was impish. ‘Hey, it’s Friday night and we’re two-thirds of the way through this course. It’s definitely time to celebrate.’

  Jessica checked her watch. ‘It’s nearly six,’ she said despairingly. ‘I can’t come—even for a drink.’

  ‘Then don’t,’ Kelly advised. ‘Come on. I’ll go with you while you explain things to Dave.’

  Kelly was tempted to excuse herself from the outing at the same time but Wendy did have a point. It was Friday night. They had all worked hard throughout the week and it would be nice to relax. The class group of nearly twenty people was large enough to dilute the fact that she would be socialising in the same company as Neil Fletcher, and the likely alternative of spending another evening exercising her persuasive skills to deal with the situation at home found Kelly climbing into the bus quite happily.

  The USAR course members made a sizeable group as they entered the popular pizza restaurant and bar housed in one of the more modern suburban shopping malls.

  ‘Does anybody know what time the pharmacy here shuts?’ Sandy was from a country town well north of Christchurch. Like several other people she was living in during the course at the school’s accommodation facilities. ‘I’ve run out of shampoo.’

  ‘The supermarket will be open,’ Wendy told her.

  ‘Does anyone else need anything?’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Kyle announced. ‘I need a new razor.’ At twenty-three, Kyle was the youngest member of the class. He stroked a chin that looked like it was struggling to produce anything more than fluff and then eyed Fletch and Joe, who were collecting orders to take to the bar. ‘Get a beer for me, will you, guys? We won’t be long.’

  Kelly chose a single seat at the end of the long table. With no other chairs available, Fletch would be forced to sit at the other end of the table and the conversation there was loud enough to easily drown out the sound of his voice. Things would be far more manageable at this end as far as Kelly was concerned. Dave Stewart was already seated on her left and having an animated conversation with June, a lively woman in her mid-fifties who was probably the oldest of the class members.

  ‘I was a cop, originally,’ Dave was telling June as Kelly sat down. ‘I’m forty-six now and I’ve spent the last nineteen years with the fire service.’

  ‘How long have you been involved with USAR?’

  On Kelly’s right, Wendy was sitting beside Ross and they, too, were quickly engrossed in their own conversation.

  ‘It’s true.’ Wendy was laughing. ‘It was because I was fat that I joined the tramping club at school. I wanted to lose weight. Next thing I knew I was hooked and running marathons!’

  ‘Ever tried the Coast to Coast?’

  ‘No, but I’d love to. A race across the south island in one day would be the ultimate. I’d need to brush up on my kayaking and cycling times, though.’

  ‘I did it last year.’

  ‘Oh, wow!’

  Kelly was only half listening to the conversations around her as she kept an eye out for the return of Joe and Fletch. Her colleague and her ex-fiancé. It was kind of ironic that the two men had established such a good friendship over the space of the last two weeks but Kelly was confident that she had dismissed any curiosity on Joe’s part on the first day of the course. During the class introductions, in fact. That session had probably been the hardest of the course so far. Kelly stole a glance at Dave as she remembered how he’d started that first day.

  ‘You represent a wide group of expertise,’ he’d told them. ‘We have people here from the fire service and the Red Cross. We have paramedics, nurses and doctors. Some of you are from cities and some from rural areas.’ Dave’s smile had been welcoming. ‘I suggest the first thing we do is go around the group and introduce ourselves.’ He’d looked at Kelly. ‘Tell us something about yourself. What you do and how you ended up being on this course.’

  ‘Um…’ Kelly had swallowed hard. She hadn’t been at all sure she’d even wanted to be on the course any more. Three weeks of sitting in a room with Neil Fletcher? Being reminded of the overwhelming effects that being in love with him had had on both her mind and body? No, thanks.

  The silence was loud. Everyone was listening, especially Fletch. Kelly wanted to escape, to run away. But she had never run from anything in her life and she wasn’t about to start.

  ‘I’m Kelly Drummond,’ she stated clearly. ‘I’m twenty-eight years old and I’ve been with the ambulance service for eight years now. I qualified as a paramedic while I was working in Australia and I just came back to a new job in Christchurch three weeks ago. I guess they decided it would be a good idea to throw me back in at the deep end and give me the challenge of learning about urban search and rescue.’

  Joe introduced himself with his usual laid-back confidence. June offered her background of nearly thirty years with the Red Cross, and Owen, Roger and Gerry made it obvious that working together at an inner city fire station gave them a close bond. And then it was the introduction Kelly had been dreading.

  ‘I’m Neil Fletcher.’ The familiar deep tone was as disconcerting as the first sight of him had been. ‘But, please, call me Fletch because I’m not likely to respond to being called Neil by anyone other than my mother.’

  The laughter was general and the ice was broken amongst the group. Even Kelly smiled. She hadn’t forgotten how he hated the name Neil.

  Joe poked Kelly in the ribs with his elbow. ‘Didn’t you and Fletch get together for a while? Just before you took off across the ditch?’

  ‘Not so you’d notice,’ Kelly whispered back. ‘I doubt that he even remembers me.’

  Any suspicion that Kelly wasn’t being truthful would have been allayed by the way Fletch had later brushed her off and pretended they were strangers. Kelly was relieved. It would make things a lot easier—at least for the duration of this training course. She was unsurprised. If she’d been in Fletch’s position she wouldn’t want her reputation tarnished either. Dr Fletcher would be more than slightly embarrassed if the sordid details of their break-up ever became public.

  ‘Are you sure you only wanted an orange juice?’ Joe leaned past Wendy to place a tall glass in front of Kelly.

  ‘Thanks, Joe. That’s perfect.’

  Fletch was right behind Joe. ‘Wine for you, June, and a nice cold beer for yo
u, Wendy.’

  ‘Oh, excellent! Thanks, Fletch.’ Wendy looked around brightly. ‘Drag a chair over from that table. There’s plenty of room on either side of Kelly.’

  ‘Of course, she only wanted orange juice.’ Fletch nodded at Joe as he squeezed a chair in between Wendy and Kelly. ‘Does she ever drink anything else?’

  ‘How do you know that, Fletch?’ Wendy was now completely distracted from her conversation with Ross.

  Kelly cringed as she realised she wasn’t the only person interested in the response to the question. She was grateful for Kyle’s intrusion as he and Sandy joined the group again.

  ‘So, what’s the news?’ Kyle demanded. ‘I hope I haven’t missed the debrief.’

  ‘Couldn’t start without you, Kyle.’ Dave tapped on his glass with a spoon to call for silence. Kyle edged rapidly down the side of the table and slid into an empty seat next to Owen. Dave cleared his throat.

  ‘OK, team. Let’s get this debriefing over with. Our pizzas are going to turn up in a minute. You all did a great job today and I’m happy to say you’ve all passed your first practical assessment. Hazard markings, rubble crawl, line and hail search and patient extrication.’

  A pleased murmur ran around the group. The three-week USAR course was punctuated by both written and practical assessments and each success took the participants closer to their goal of becoming qualified as members of a very specialised emergency service.

  Dave caught Kelly’s glance. ‘Maybe you can get hold of Jessica later and let her know.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Where is Jessica?’ June queried. ‘Not sick, I hope?’

  ‘Family responsibilities,’ Dave said vaguely.

  ‘Oh…’ June nodded understandingly. ‘Her little boy is a special needs child, isn’t he?’

  ‘They’re all special needs,’ Joe muttered from Kelly’s side. ‘Kids get in the way of having any fun at all.’

  Kelly wondered if Joe realised how evident his disappointment was, but maybe nobody else had noticed the spark of interest that Joe had extinguished the moment Jessica had mentioned having a child.