Page 38 of Prognosis Irreconcilable Differences

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘Jacqui—’

A loud banging on the door interrupted him. Nathan frowned as Shep roused himself half-heartedly from his slumber.

‘Is it common practice to have people knocking on your door on dark and stormy nights?’

Jacqui rose, pleased with the respite from this heartbreaking conversation. ‘Lately, yes.’

He preceded her down the stairs, opening the door to reveal one very soaked man holding what appeared to be another man in his arms. Beyond the stranger, a car idled, parked at a crazy angle, its lights on, its doors open.

‘Jimbo? Is that you?’ Jacqui asked, flying down the remaining stairs.

The man nodded. ‘Think this young fella’s not well, Jacqui.’

Jacqui didn’t ask questions. Country men weren’t prone to exaggeration. If Jim Owen thought the kid was crook then she’d bet her last cent he was right. ‘Bring him through, Jimbo,’ she said, leading him into the clinic with Nathan following close behind.

Jacqui took them past her reception area and into a medium-sized room that looked like a theatre to Nathan, and helped Jimbo place his load on the central table. He looked like a kid — probably not even twenty. And not well was a very accurate description. He looked pale and listless. He groaned.

‘Isn’t that Ross Earnshaw’s boy?’ Jacqui frowned. She’d been to his eighteenth birthday party a few months ago.

‘Yup. Jeremy,’ Jimbo replied.

‘What happened?’ Nathan demanded, searching for the kid’s carotid pulse while Jacqui applied an oxygen mask to his still, ashen face.

‘He skidded off the road in front of me and rammed into a tree. Stupid kid, driving too fast for the conditions. Anyway, I helped him out, and he said he was fine. He’d been wearing a seatbelt and he hadn’t banged his head. We tried to get his car back up on the road for a bit, but it was pretty boggy, and then he kind of half collapsed against me and said he had a lot of pain. I was going to drive him to the hospital at Wongaree, but a few minutes into the journey he started to look real pasty and drifted off. No mobile reception to ring an ambulance, and you were only ten minutes away.’

Jacqui absorbed the information as she switched on a monitor, ripped open the soaked shirt, and hooked Jeremy up to it. It was the first time she’d ever used it on a human.

‘Jeremy? Jeremy!’ she called, giving the boy a brisk sternal rub. ‘Can you hear me?’

Jeremy moaned and opened his eyes, clutching at his side. ‘Cold,’ he murmured.

Nathan followed the path of the subcutaneous petechial haemorrhaging across the boy’s belly, where the seatbelt had obviously left its mark. ‘Can you remember what happened, Jeremy?’ Nathan butted in.

‘Accident,’ he muttered. ‘It hurts.’

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