The Doctor’s Special Touch

by Marion Lennox

  ‘Lindford.’

  ‘That’s right,’ she said, almost pleasantly. ‘Tony Lindford’s daughter.’

  He stared as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘Tony’s… You’re Ally?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Tony’s dead.’

  ‘Of course he’s dead,’ she agreed, almost cordially. ‘You don’t care about that, though, do you? Like you didn’t care about my mother and like you didn’t care about any of your people. You’re a liar and a sham.’

  He took a deep breath. Searching for control. ‘Get out of my house,’ he boomed.

  She ignored him. ‘This man…’ she said, almost conversationally, and Darcy was suddenly aware that there was a cluster of women and children behind him. ‘This man sucks people for everything he can get. Don’t tell me. Let me guess. This man will have control of all your pension books. You’ll all have been on pensions when he met you. That’s why he chose you. He’ll give you nothing. You’ll be half-starving, you’ll work like slaves for him and he’ll never be pleased. He’ll control every aspect of your lives and he’ll never let go. Ever.’

  ‘These people want to be here,’ Jerry snarled, and Ally gave him a look that would curdle milk.

  ‘These people have been so brainwashed they don’t know any better. You prey on desperate people when they’re at their weakest. But there is better. There’s welfare services where we can get everyone emergency accommodation. There’s free medical treatment for the kids.’ She motioned down to one of the men and her voice softened. ‘As for you, that’s a skin cancer on your face. If you don’t get it off soon, it’ll be so deep that you’ll be scarred for life. Even now I’d imagine you must be in dreadful pain. You desperately need a skin graft.’

  The man put a hand to the side of his head. The wound looked angry and inflamed-incredibly painful.

  ‘I’ve told him-’ Darcy started, but she cut him off.

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you told him,’ she said. ‘No one can listen. Not when Jerry overrules everything you say. He’s blocked their ears. But you all need to listen now.’

  ‘Get out!’ The big man was practically screaming, and he made as if to lunge at Ally. Darcy took a step toward her, but she sidestepped neatly-as if she’d done it many times before?-then turned again to face Jerry.

  ‘I was deathly afraid of you,’ she told him. ‘Once. But I escaped. And now you all can. This man is nothing but a liar and a thief and a con merchant. And if you listen you might be able to hear a car in the distance. It’s the police. They’re coming, Jerry. I just phoned them. You have outstanding warrants in at least two countries. I’ve contacted them and told them where you are. They’re coming to arrest you right now.’

  ‘I…’ He was almost speechless. He whirled to his men. ‘Get up. Move!’ Then to the women. ‘Move, now. Out the back way. We can leave.’

  ‘But I know where all your caves are, Jerry,’ Ally told him, almost pleasantly. ‘They’re a great labyrinth to hide in, but not if the searchers know the way. So you can go where you like and I’ll send the police after you. But as for the rest of you…’ She softened again and faced them all. ‘I know what this man is like,’ she told them. ‘I can help. Believe me, I can help, and so will Dr Rochester. Your kids are ill. You know that. You’re ill yourselves. If you trust us, stay here and let us help. Or trust Jerry as you’ve trusted him for years and see where that gets you.’

  Silence.

  ‘Come on,’ Jerry yelled. He swept toward the entrance. There was a pile of firewood in his way and he gave it a vicious kick. A branch swung out and hit Ally’s foot-hard-but she appeared not to notice. Darcy started forward instinctively but she held up a hand as if to stop him.

  ‘Let him go,’ she told him. She looked at Jerry with contempt. ‘It’s not worth our while trying to stop him. He won’t get far. Not now. It’s over.’

  Jerry swore.

  Ally smiled and moved aside to let him leave. ‘Bye, Jerome,’ she said softly. ‘See you soon.’

  He stared at her for a long, speechless moment-and then he was gone, with a sweep of purple cloth and trailing a string of invective after him.

  No one moved. Finally one of the men on the floor gave a frightened whimper and scuttled after him.

  Nobody else followed.

  By the time the first police car turned into the clearing, Jerry and his one faithful acolyte had left on foot, heading into the bushland behind the huts. But the others were clustered around in a terrified huddle, and at the centre of the huddle was Ally.

  Darcy couldn’t help. He was forced to focus on medical need. Jody needed him desperately. He set up a saline drip within minutes of Jerry leaving. Margaret was too confused to argue and there was no time for further discussion. He worked over Jody as Margaret darted between her daughter’s bedside and the group outside.

  She was crying, but by the time Darcy was content to leave Jody’s bedside she was calming down.

  Everyone was calming down.

  It seemed Ally was in control.

  When he emerged from the hut where Jody lay, Ally was giving the police specific directions as to where Jerry would be-and reasons why they should arrest him when they found him. The reasons made him blink in disbelief. She knew everything about Jerry. Every criminal charge that had ever been made against him. Outstanding warrants. Crimes committed overseas. Everything. And she was intent on throwing the book at him.

  ‘I don’t believe you just did that,’ he told Ally faintly as she finally fell silent, and Ally grinned in faint embarrassment.

  ‘Massage therapists rock,’ she managed. ‘Go get a drip into Jody.’

  ‘I’ve started a drip.’

  ‘There’s two more kids to attend to.’

  ‘Thank you, Dr Westruther,’ he told her, and her grin widened at the irony in his tone.

  ‘Think nothing of it,’ she said kindly. ‘Well? What are you waiting for? Off you go. I can handle the rest.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Are you OK here, Doc?’ Sergeant Matheson, a big beefy police sergeant who’d been transferred to Tambrine Creek almost at the same time as Darcy had arrived, was looking from Ally to Darcy with confusion. ‘If what Ally says is right then we need to get this guy.’

  Darcy looked around at the huddle of confused people. There was fear here and there was urgent medical need, but nothing he couldn’t cope with. Nothing. And the thought was suddenly wonderful. Without Jerry’s poisonous influence he could help these people, he thought jubilantly. Finally he could do some good.

  Thanks to this slip of a girl.

  ‘If I were you I’d assume what Ally says is right,’ he told the policeman. ‘I have no idea how or why, but suddenly our massage therapist has all the answers.’

  The next few hours were filled with pure medical need.

  Darcy phoned the hospital and brought up reinforcements. Betty, his receptionist-cum-nursing-sister, arrived first, followed by another local nurse to assist with the kids who were ill. The social worker was hauled away from a conference at the nearest big town, and the supervisor of the marine refuge came, too. Because Tambrine Creek was the southernmost harbour for Tasmanian shipping, the town was set up with a marine refuge-emergency accommodation for sailors who needed to run for cover in foul weather. This wasn’t the first time Darcy had used it for family crises.

  But he himself had to focus on Jody. Regardless of the chaos, as soon as Betty arrived he had to take the child down to the hospital. She’d been dehydrated for so long. He was desperately worried about her.

  He left the settlement, torn by his need to stay, but Ally was moving through the confusion with assurance. She was reassuring, hugging and talking to everyone and generally acting as if she was almost one of them.

  ‘Don’t worry about me getting back to town,’ she told him as he lifted Jody into the back of his car and helped Margaret in after her. ‘I’ll get a lift with the police when I’m ready.’

  ‘Th
e police won’t leave until they find Jerry.’ The police sergeant had called in reinforcements and there were half a dozen officers treking through the bush now.

  ‘That’s right,’ Ally said in quiet satisfaction. ‘They won’t. But neither will I. I’ve given them directions where to go, and I intend to wait here until he’s arrested. Even if I have to go in and hunt myself.’

  She smiled.

  Why the smile? There were so many unanswered questions, but there was no time to ask them. He had to go.

  Betty followed him to the hospital an hour later, bringing the other two children he’d been concerned about. Four-year-old Marigold had a suppurating wound on her arm, with the nodes in her neck and armpit affected. David, aged seven, was running a temperature that had Betty worried. Surprisingly, the kids came without their mothers.

  ‘Ally’s organising Penny and Lorraine and the rest of the kids into the refuge,’ Betty told him. ‘But she persuaded Lorraine and Penny that you and I would look after these two.’ She smiled. ‘You should have heard the nice things she said about you as a doctor. It’d make you blush. Especially after all those rotten things you said about her.’

  ‘Enough,’ Darcy growled. Hell, she knew how to make a man feel bad. ‘Let’s get these kids seen to.’

  Surprisingly, the kids were compliant and almost cheerful as they were washed and fed and tucked into bed. There was nothing wrong with them that fluids and a good dose of antibiotics wouldn’t clear up, Darcy thought in satisfaction as he watched Marigold drift into sleep. The kids were supervised now by a nurse who looked as pleased by the outcome of the afternoon’s events as Darcy felt. It was little wonder. The whole township had been disturbed by the group living up on the ridge but until now there had been nothing anyone had been able to do about it. Until now.

  Until Ally.

  As they cleaned up, Betty told him what had happened.

  ‘Ally gave the police directions to the caves and they found him almost straightaway,’ she told him. ‘And while I was there, Sergeant Matheson got confirmation of what Ally had told him. It was radioed through from the city. Ally’s right. There are outstanding warrants everywhere.’

  ‘Why didn’t we know?’

  ‘No one knew it was him. I knew Jerome Hatfield when he was a child, but I’ve never heard of him since he was fifteen or sixteen. No one knew about the caves either. Apparently even the women didn’t know the caves were there. I’ve never heard of them.’

  Betty had been raised here in Tambrine Creek. She knew everything that happened to everyone.

  ‘Then how did Ally know all this?’

  ‘Don’t ask me,’ she told him. ‘But we have three kids safe in the kids’ ward. How good is that? Is Margaret still here?’

  ‘We offered her a hot shower before we put her to bed next to Jody,’ Darcy told her. ‘She stood under the shower like she’d never felt hot water before. When she got out, the nurses said she almost toppled over, and she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillows. She’s been desperately worried about Jody for so long. Now they’re both dead to the world. Jody’s drip is running well, and her colour’s starting to improve already.’

  ‘They’re all dreadfully emaciated,’ Betty said seriously. ‘It’s no wonder the chickenpox hit hard.’

  ‘The rest are at the refuge?’ Darcy asked.

  ‘Yeah. Ally’s with them now.’

  ‘Ally…’

  ‘She helped me assess the kids,’ Betty told him. ‘She’s really good.’

  ‘I thought the social worker was helping.’

  ‘Elsa’s fine at what she does,’ Betty said diffidently. ‘But as for helping holding a kid down while I check his temperature…’

  ‘You had to do that?’

  ‘Marigold tried to bite me,’ she said ruefully. ‘They’re like wild kittens. But Ally was terrific.’

  He looked down at the two children lying in bed like two little angels. Marigold had drifted to sleep, her little body exhausted by infection, but David was watching them with eyes that practically enveloped his face.

  Wild kittens? Scared maybe, but not wild.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Darcy told him, giving him a reassuring smile. ‘You know that, don’t you, mate? Your mother’s being looked after and you’ll see her in the morning.’

  David nodded, as if this had already been discussed. ‘Ally said she was going to make Mum have a hot shower and toasted sandwiches. And Ally said that if I came here with Betty, and let you wash me and put me to bed and look after me, then I’d be able to have toasted sandwiches whenever I want. And she said you could get me something called a thick-shake that’s chocolate but you drink it. She said you were a doctor who gave people the best thick-shakes ever.’

  How to make a wild kitten compliant? Chocolate thick-shakes. Of course. Why hadn’t he thought of that? ‘Betty, can we get the kid a thick-shake?’ Darcy asked in a voice that was none too steady. ‘And maybe another one in case Marigold wakes up in the night. It seems she’s been promised one, too.’

  ‘Thick-shakes?’

  ‘From Beryl’s general store,’ he told her. ‘Tell Beryl to make it just like the one she made for Ally.’

  ‘OK,’ Betty said, with a curious look at her boss. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘I didn’t say so,’ he said ruefully. ‘Ally said so.’ He gave David a grin and then turned to the next need. The next medical imperative.

  ‘I still have house calls to make,’ he told her. Damn, he wanted to go to the refuge, but he had conflicting needs. ‘I can put most of them off but not Mrs Lewis.’

  Marilyn Lewis lived alone and he was worried about her. She’d had two minor heart attacks before this. By rights she should have had bypass surgery two years ago but she refused to consider it. Because she was terrified. But heart pain by itself was enough to terrify her. Now he’d promised he’d call. She’d be desperately worried about herself and if he didn’t make it there tonight, maybe she’d even be terrified enough to bring on another attack.

  ‘Maybe I can get someone to check,’ Betty said doubtfully. ‘But…’

  ‘I know. With four extra patients we don’t have spare staff. I need to go myself.’

  ‘But you should check the refuge. Ally said you’d come in and tell the other two mothers how these two are. And the guy with the sore face… Ally told him you’d talk to him about it tonight.’

  ‘She takes a lot on herself,’ he snapped, and she nodded. Thoughtfully.

  ‘She does.’ She ventured a wry smile. ‘I guess she had no right getting Jerry arrested like that.’

  ‘I didn’t mean-’

  ‘I know you didn’t,’ she said cheerfully. ‘But I guess if we’re pleased she’s done that, then we’d better go along with the rest. There’s no need to rush to the refuge straightaway. She has things under control.’

  ‘How can she possibly have things under control?’ he demanded, suddenly so exasperated he couldn’t believe it. ‘We don’t even know who Ally Westruther is.’

  ‘She’s Dr Westruther’s grandkid. Of course we know who she is.’

  ‘She says she’s a Dr Westruther herself.’

  ‘Well, you know, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if she turned out to be just that,’ Betty said thoughtfully. ‘She handled the kids like a professional.’

  ‘Yeah, a professional masseuse.’

  ‘Get off your high horse,’ she advised him kindly. ‘She’s doing a fine job, whatever her qualifications. You just do what you have to do, and trust that Ally will have things under control. She’s quite a lady.’

  ‘Yeah. Right.’

  He did go and see Marilyn Lewis. With Betty’s assurance that things at the refuge were under control, he adjusted his priorities, but there was still Marilyn. Damn the woman, why wouldn’t she agree to a bypass? Her neighbour had rung Darcy earlier to say she was looking distressed. Darcy had rung her and offered to send the ambulance, but Marilyn had refused.

  ‘There’s no way I’m g
oing to hospital. It’s just a little chest pain and I’m used to chest pain. There’s always chest pain.’

  ‘Janet says you’re sweating.’

  ‘It’s warm.’

  ‘Marilyn…’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she’d told him. ‘If you’d care to drop in after work and have a cup of tea, you’d be very welcome, but there’s no need to fuss.’

  There was a need for fuss. If Jody’s need up on the ridge hadn’t been even more urgent, he would have seen her hours ago.

  She’d have to go to hospital, he thought grimly, and spent his time on the road trying to figure out how to persuade her.

  There was no persuasion necessary. When Marilyn finally admitted him into the house he discovered that she’d spent her waiting time packing her suitcase.

  ‘I thought you’d never get here,’ she told him. She was little and fussy and prim, dressed in a bright pink dressing-gown and pale blue slippers, and her Marilyn Monroe hairstyle looked just a little ridiculous on someone well into her sixties. ‘I could have died,’ she said in some indignation.

  He eyed her with caution. ‘Are you thinking of dying?’

  ‘I have really bad chest pains.’

  ‘Can I listen to your heart?’

  ‘When you get me to hospital.’

  He thought about that and decided it was worth pushing for the next level. ‘Can I send you straight to Melbourne for a bypass?’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said in some indignation. ‘Don’t be foolish. But tell me all the news. You’ve had such an exciting afternoon. It’s all over town. I knew there was something wrong with those people. I knew it. And now I hear you have those three little kiddies in hospital and one of their mothers, too. And one of the men has such a wound on his face. He’ll be in there soon, too, I expect.’

  The suitcase was thus explained, and Darcy had to fight to stop himself from breaking into a chuckle. Marilyn might be terrified of medical intervention, but her priority was to be where the action was. Her previous visits to hospital had been boring affairs when there’d been no interesting fellow patients. But now…if she was admitted she’d be in the middle of news.