the victim for what had to be done.
‘P-please. Get me out. D-don’t leave me here.’
‘We won’t, mate.’
Tom moved back, taking the man’s weight, feeling the resistance and straining past it. Andy groaned. Tom had to steel himself against the agony in the sound. If he left Andy here, there was every chance the man could die in the car.
Kayla had grabbed the thick newspaper from the passenger seat and she used it to support Andy’s lower leg as his limb came free. In a move like a circus contortionist, she climbed onto the driver’s seat, then over and through the back door, the whole time cradling Andy’s injured ankle in the makeshift splint.
Between them, they carried Andy across the road.
‘Behind my vehicle, Kayla. It’ll give us some protection if the car goes up.’
They lowered a shivering Andy to the ground. Tom opened the back door of his vehicle and took out a blanket. ‘Here.’
‘Thanks,’ Kayla said as she tucked it around Andy’s body. ‘I need my bag.’
‘I’ll get it.’
Tom paused for a second as she bent over her patient, getting straight back into the job, her fingers on Andy’s wrist. ‘How are you feeling, Andy?’
She was a real trooper, brave and resourceful. Damn, that was attractive. His heart swelled. He was…proud of her.
She looked around, one eyebrow shooting up as though she was surprised to see him. ‘My bag, Sergeant?’
‘Coming right up.’ He smiled wryly, feeling chastened and deservedly so. She distracted the hell out of him.
He loped back to the wreck and grabbed her medical kit. The still-strong smell of petrol, coupled with the sizzle of foam on hot metal, was ominous. His prevention measures were still holding but he didn’t know for how long. He turned and ran back.
‘Here.’
‘Thanks.’ She reached for the bag as soon as he put it beside her.
‘I’ll call it in,’ Tom said, reaching into the cabin of his four-wheel drive and grabbing the radio handpiece.
‘It’s Senior Sergeant Tom Jamieson, Dustin Police.’ He turned to watch Kayla bandaging a more stable splint on Andy’s leg. Her long, clever fingers were quick and efficient. She moved with such grace and competence as she went about her business that Tom was hard pressed to take his eyes off her.
He swallowed and dragged his mind back to his report. ‘I need fire and ambulance to a single-vehicle accident on the Valley Highway, west of Dustin. About ten kilometres out of town, nearest intersecting road Reece Lane.
‘We’ve got one injured male, approximately forty-five, possible broken ankle. Doctor on scene providing first aid now.’
He looked over the bull bar of his vehicle towards the wreck. ‘The situation is extremely hazardous. One full foam extinguisher has already been discharged to control fire in the motor vehicle’s engine. It could reignite at any time.’
‘Sergeant?’ Kayla barked behind him. Tom turned to see her stripping the blanket off Andy. Her patient was clutching at his chest, his face twisted into a ghastly grimace. Then he collapsed, his arms slumping to his sides.
Kayla leaned over the now inert body, her fingers groping for a neck pulse.
‘He’s arresting. I need your assistance, stat. Get the resus mask out of my bag.’ Kayla’s hands were already in the middle of Andy’s chest, the heels pumping down hard. ‘Hurry.’
Tom let go of the handpiece and dropped to his knees beside the medical bag.
‘That’s it,’ Kayla said as he lifted out a clear plastic mask with a pale green bag attached. ‘Over his mouth and nose. Tilt his head back slightly. A solid puff now. And another.’
Tom did as he was directed.
‘Good. Two breaths each thirty compressions. I’ll count.’ She kept up the rhythmic pressing.
It was the first time Tom had seen chest compressions performed on a live patient and it was a much more brutal process than he’d realised.
‘Get ready.’ Kayla’s voice snapped his attention back. ‘Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, Thirty. Again now.’
The radio dangling at the side of the car crackled. ‘Sergeant Jamieson? Are you still receiving, over?’ Tom ignored the tinny voice as he held the mask and squeezed the bag, forcing the air out into Andy.
Turning, he grabbed the radio, clicked the button and barked, ‘Here, Dispatch. The accident vic is having a heart attack.’
Press. Press. ‘Twenty-seven, Twenty-eight.’
Tom dropped the handpiece and got ready.
‘Twenty-nine. Thirty, now.’
As soon as he’d done his bit, he snatched up the handpiece again. ‘We’re doing CPR.’
‘Roger, Sergeant. Ambulance and fire are on their way. I’ll update them. Over.’
‘Twenty-nine. Thirty, now.’
The seconds crawled by, turning into minutes as they moved in a bizarre choreography. He rapped out short staccato snips of information on the radio then returned to pump air into Andy’s lungs. Kayla placed her fingers on Andy’s neck then returned to her compressions.
She worked tirelessly, her slender arms taut, hands linked. With each compression, her hair bobbed on her shoulders, swinging with her exertion. Light caught on the wheat-coloured strands. Tom was intensely aware of her every move. She was a competent, assured expert. If Andy died it wouldn’t be because of anything that Kayla failed to do for him.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Kayla laid her fingers against Andy’s neck, felt the reassuring bump in the carotid artery. ‘Okay, we have a pulse.’
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the policeman sink back on his heels and lift the handset. ‘Dispatch, the victim has a pulse.’
Kayla felt an odd shiver as she let the deep, calm voice wash over her. She shook her head. She was tired, her muscles trembling with fatigue in the aftermath of the adrenalin-charged situation. The tremors were nothing to do with a deep, dark, baritone voice.
The unit crackled. ‘Thank you, Sergeant. They should be with you shortly. Standing by.’
She looked at the profile of the man who’d been helping her. Dustin’s police sergeant. The strong jaw with a shadow of whiskers on his cheeks. He looked stern and forbidding with the black T-shirt clinging to his chest and sculpted biceps. Much as she loathed large, muscle-bound men, she had to be thankful he’d been here tonight. She’d never have got Andy out of the car on her own.
She swallowed and turned her attention back
