and frightened, my darling,’ she said softly, ‘and wanted your dad as well as your mum. It was understandable, and although Dad isn’t with us anymore he’ll be watching over you somewhere, I’m sure.’
He was smiling.
‘Do you think they have traffic accidents in heaven…like when they get onto the wrong cloud or have a skid on the Milky Way?’
Selina laughed and there was relief in it because he was joking about Dave now, not crying for him.
Gavin had gone off duty. By now he would be home and would have told Jill what had happened. Her sister-in-law, who was also her closest friend, would be horrified.
By nine o’clock that evening Josh was fast asleep after his distressing day, and one of the nurses on the children’s ward said, ‘He’s happy enough with us, Mrs Sanderson. Why don’t you go home and get some rest? We’ll ring you if there are any problems.’
‘All right,’ she agreed reluctantly, ‘but I’ll be here by six o’clock in the morning.’
* * *
Gavin and Jill lived in a big Victorian semi by the village green and, before letting herself into the cottage, Selina called in to see them.
‘How awful for you both!’ her petite sister-in-law said, hugging her close. ‘Whatever were the school thinking of to let Josh run out on to the road like that?’
‘I don’t know,’ Selina said sombrely, ‘but I have a feeling that it might have been his own fault. He tells me that when the ball went over the wall his friends were all urging him to go and get it and while the playground supervisor’s back was turned he lifted the chain off the gate and ran out. But even so I shall be having a talk with the headmaster once I’ve calmed down.’
Gavin sighed. ‘Show a boy a ball and he undergoes a complete change of personality. How is he now?’
‘He was asleep when I left him, but I’ll be back there first thing.’
* * *
In the double bed that she’d once shared with Dave, Selina found she couldn’t sleep. Pictures of the day’s happenings kept going through her mind like shots from a horror movie, and mingled with them was the memory of the meeting with her new partner, Kane Kavener.
Where was he sleeping tonight? she wondered. He would have finished the day shift at seven o’clock and what then? Gone for a meal? Finished his unpacking? Or was there someone waiting for him, eager to hear how his first day had gone?
Why had she been in such a hurry to tell him she was a widow? she asked herself. She hated the sound of the word. For one thing it was a reminder that Dave wasn’t around any more, and for another it was like having a badge pinned on her, indicating that she was once again available. A marriageable woman. But not without strings attached. The ‘string’ in her case was an adorable fair-haired boy, whom she could have lost if a certain motorist hadn’t been driving slowly…and hadn’t clapped on his brakes as fast as he had.
Maybe at the back of her mind, when she’d said what she had, had been the memory of a couple of passes that men had made at her in recent weeks.
She’d quickly rebuffed them and afterwards had thought tearfully that she hated being in the position of a lone woman.
And so why should it be any different with him? she asked herself. She didn’t know. But something about Kane had told her that he wasn’t the chatting-up type. And why, for heaven’s sake, was she taking it for granted that he might be even remotely interested in anything concerning her?
In the end she got up, showered, made herself a quick breakfast in the summer dawn, then set off for the hospital once more.
* * *
Josh was discharged on Sunday morning, and as he swung himself along the garden path on a small pair of crutches Selina was just glad to have him home again.
‘One of the paramedics came in to see me last night after you’d gone, Mum,’ he’d said earlier when she’d arrived on the ward.
‘Really! Which one?’
‘The new one…Kane.’
‘That’s strange!’ she exclaimed. ‘He would have been off duty by then.’
‘Mmm, he was. He brought me some comics and sweets…and told me to look where I was going in future. He asked where you were and I said you’d gone home to have a rest.’
‘I see.’
She didn’t really. It had been a kind thought, but was it because he was sorry for them both?
Jill, Gavin and their three-year-old twin daughters called round in the afternoon, and after the tension of the last few days it was nice to have the house filled with noise and laughter.
‘So what about next week?’ Jill asked as they were leaving. ‘When are you going back to work?’
‘Not until I’m happy to leave Josh,’ she told her. ‘You’ve got your hands full with the twins and I don’t want to make life difficult for you.’
‘You won’t be,’ Jill told her serenely. ‘We’re used to having him around and the twins are fascinated by the crutches.’
‘Then in that case I might go in on Tuesday. I should have been on nights today and tomorrow, but the station officer has arranged for one of the other trainees to fill in for me. Which means that I’ll be going back to day shifts.’ She paused and then added meaningfully, ‘With my new partner.’
‘And who might that be?’ Gavin asked.
‘The paramedic who came out to Josh.’
‘So you’ve already met?’
‘Yes, we’ve already met,’ she said glumly.
He laughed.
‘And what did he think of your trendy outfit?’
What had he thought? she wondered. Especially when he’d seen what had been under the raincoat.
‘Cheer up, sis,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Wait till he sees you in action. You’ll knock him cold.’
‘I hope not,’ she said with gloom still upon her. ‘He’s not exactly the warmest person I’ve ever met.’
CHAPTER TWO
AS HE’D let himself into a soulless flat in a high-rise block in the city centre on the Friday night, Kane’s mind had been on his meeting with Selina Sanderson earlier in the day.
First there’d been the ride in the ambulance when, mother of the victim or not, he’d wanted to throttle her for trying to take over.
At that time he hadn’t known who she was, and he’d been thinking ever since what a bizarre way it had been of getting to know each other.
Then
