feel of him he’s burning up.’
Harper studied their patient as they rushed him through to Resus One where the other nurses waited, ready to take obs and put an oxygen mask on. This was sounding and looking more like a package had burst internally. Definitely more than a dose of flu or dehydration, but she had to be one-hundred percent sure before she committed to treating him. Something else could be causing these symptoms. ‘How certain were the Customs officers that he’d taken drugs? Do you know?’ she asked the paramedic.
‘Of course he has’ was the cutting retort from behind her.
Harper spun around and came face-to-face with a dapper man who had the coldest eyes she’d encountered in a long time. ‘Who are you?’ Ambulance crews wore uniforms, not expensive, perfectly pressed suits worn by the man stepping towards her from the direction of the ambulance bay.
He shrugged. ‘He’s carrying. Cocaine. In balloons.’
Just one of those bursting would mean trouble, serious trouble, for Mick Frew. What if more than one had come apart? ‘You seem very sure. I repeat, who are you?’
His eyes were glacial. ‘Detective Strong to you.’ He walked beside the stretcher, his eyes flicking between the young man and her.
He wasn’t acting like any detective she’d dealt with. Not even the one she’d been married to. ‘Well, Detective, I need to know how sure you are.’
‘He’s packing.’
‘Right.’ She’d still check Frew thoroughly but it was looking more and more likely that he had ingested drugs. ‘Thank you for your help. Now, you’ll have to leave. You know the rules. Only hospital staff and patients are allowed into Resus.’
The detective grunted, and she thought he said, ‘We’ll see about that,’ but right then her patient began kicking and waving his arms in the air, the pain obviously becoming unbearable.
Cody caught an arm inches from slamming into Harper’s stomach. ‘Easy, Mick. We’re all here to help you. We need to get you onto the bed, okay?’
She nodded thanks at Cody. That fist would’ve hurt if it’d reached her.
The transfer was fast and awkward as everyone tried to hold those flailing limbs without dropping their patient. The paramedic handed over the Patient Report Form and was gone with his stretcher, no doubt glad to have got shot of his aggressive pick-up.
‘Check for a medic-alert disc on his arm,’ Harper instructed Cody. She was running out of other options but could not afford to overlook anything, including an existing medical condition. Truth? She didn’t want this young guy dealing with what was becoming apparent to all of them.
‘Nothing,’ Cody noted as he took a hit on his upper arm. ‘Mick, steady, man. You’re in hospital. We’re the good guys.’
Harper leaned as close as she dared, one eye on those flailing arms. ‘Mick, I’m Harper, a doctor, and I want to help you, but I need to know if you’ve swallowed any drugs.’
The young guy groaned, opening and closing his eyes rapidly.
‘Yes or no?’ she persisted.
A brief nod was his only reply.
‘Balloons or capsules?’
Mick twisted his head to the side and stared briefly beyond her, fear and hatred blinking out of his stricken eyes. ‘Balloons,’ he croaked.
So the detective was right. The detective. She looked up, right into Cody’s eyes, and saw her own uncertainty there which gave her the determination to get rid of the stranger. Turning around, she growled, ‘I asked you to leave, Detective Strong.’
‘So you did.’ He sounded so smug a trickle of apprehension ran down her spine.
Cody said in a ‘don’t fool with me’ tone, ‘You will do as Dr White says.’
Nice as it was to have the nurse backing her, Harper had a definite feeling their visitor wasn’t going to take any more notice of Cody than he had her. She glanced at Cody and nodded thanks again, appreciative of his attempt to help her with this horrid man. She didn’t know why she thought him horrid, but she did. Probably something to do with those arctic-blue eyes that bored into her relentlessly. The complete opposite to the warmth she found in Cody’s brief green gaze on the rare occasion he looked at her for an answer to some question. Shivering, she glanced at the nurse now, not wanting to focus on that other man. But she still had to get rid of him. He was a hazard in the emergency room.
‘Call security,’ she mouthed at Cody.
Mick wheezed out some words.
‘What did you say?’ Leaning down to hear him better, Harper felt the heat radiating off his body. ‘Jess, get the fan going as fast as possible.’
‘Not cop. Supplier.’
‘Mick? Really?’
He nodded. At least, that was what she thought his erratic head movement was.
Harper hoped against hope the man behind her hadn’t heard or seen any of that. He wouldn’t be pleased that she now knew for sure he wasn’t a detective but a criminal. She thought fast. What to do? They had to work on saving Mick’s life, get the so-called detective out of here and call in the real police, all at the same time. And she’d sent Cody out of the room. Squeezing the young man’s hand, she whispered, ‘Okay,’ before straightening up.
Of course it was not okay. It was a minefield.
Cody was still there. Thank goodness. His presence and calm manner gave her strength. Catching her eye, he nodded once, tightly. Had he heard what their patient had said? Whatever message he was trying to send her, she wasn’t understanding, and they were wasting time if Mick stood any chance at all of surviving the poison streaming through his body.
With a shaky breath she turned to the man causing her problems. ‘This is an emergency department. Anything you want to ask my patient will have to wait until we’ve treated him.’ If he survives. ‘So please head out to the waiting area. Now.’
‘Or what?’ A rapid movement and a gun appeared between them.
‘What are you doing?’ she gasped as that trickle of apprehension became a torrent of fear. She was unable to stop staring at the weapon pointed directly at her chest, where her heart was beating the weirdest, sickest rhythm against her ribs. Definitely not a detective, then. Glancing out of the wide opening of Resus One, she could see only one person at the desk, and he was rapidly removing himself from sight. ‘Call the police,’ Harper begged silently.
‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ Cody moved around the bed fast, stepped up close to her so his arm touched hers and eyeballed her aggressor, anger darkening his face. ‘Put that away.’
‘You want to argue?’ The man smirked as he waved the gun at Cody, taunting him to take a crack at him. ‘I’m here to collect what’s mine.’
That gun mesmerised Harper as it was moved between her and Cody in a very deliberate, menacing way. One little squeeze and someone could die. Just as simple, and horrific, as that.
She
