‘But you said the abusive background of Keith Lowe and his sister made them wary of showing emotion. It seems reasonable to assume that toys and other sentimental tokens of childhood would not feature highly in their scheme of things.’
‘I guess you’re right…’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘I just can’t help feeling as if something’s wrong here and we’re not seeing it.’
‘Has Kate Lowe had any other episodes of lucidity?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but that’s what’s so confusing. She says Tommy’s name and then Serena’s soon after. If the family is not close in the normal sense, why would Kate be calling for her son and sister-in-law and not her husband?’
Joel frowned as he took in what she was saying. ‘I can see what you mean…it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But, then, the marriage was in trouble so it could be that Kate confided in Keith’s sister about the difficulties she was having.’
‘I find that hard to believe, especially since Keith insisted his wife has no close friends. Not only that, you know as well as I do that blood is thicker than water. Why would Serena side with Kate, the woman who had made her brother turn to another woman in desperation?’
Joel’s dark gaze locked with hers. ‘But what if Serena is not really Keith’s sister?’
Allegra stared at him as the penny dropped with a clang inside her head. ‘Oh, my God! She’s his mistress! No wonder she has no affection for Tommy. I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out first. It’s so obvious when you think about it. They don’t really resemble each other in looks, although I know that’s not unusual—many siblings don’t. I just assumed like everyone else that she was his sister. He introduced her as that, I suppose because he was uncomfortable bringing his mistress in to the unit where his wife’s and son’s lives were hanging in the balance.’
‘What if Serena was the one who tried to get rid of Kate?’ he said, confirming Allegra’s escalating suspicions.
‘You mean with the ventilator?’ She frowned as she let the possibility sink in. ‘But that was a feat of complicated engineering. Serena doesn’t strike me as someone with the sort of mechanical skills to cut and join hoses. For a start she has nails practically longer than chopsticks. I can’t imagine her using pliers and pipe joiners.’
‘No, but what if she got someone else to do it for her? Someone who did have the necessary skills.’
‘Who? I mean…Think about it, Joel. How many people could you ask to do something like that without it coming back to bite you? You’d have to pay them a heap of money and hope they kept quiet. It would be an incredible risk to take.’
‘Not if you got rid of them permanently.’
Allegra felt a cold shiver pass through her at his words. ‘You mean…murder them?’
He gave her a grave nod. ‘We had a guy come into TRU this morning. The police were very interested in the case. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.’
‘The drowning with the head injury?’ she asked. ‘I heard something about it. What, they think it wasn’t an accident?’
‘The head injury he sustained suggested he was bashed with a heavy object, a crowbar or something like that. He may not have fallen into that pool by accident. Someone wanted him to die then and there, but a neighbour heard something and hauled him out. He died before Anthony could get him to Theatre, not that any operation was going to repair his pulp of a brain.’
‘But what has this got to do with the Lowes?’
‘Nothing maybe, but, as I said, it got me thinking. The guy who died had a criminal record. One could assume he’d be exactly the type to accept a contract, for the right price. Maybe if what we suspect is true, and Serena is not, in fact, Keith’s sister but his mistress, she would have a very good motive to get rid of Kate.’
‘Maybe…but I still don’t understand why Kate would be calling for Serena, the woman her own husband’s having an affair with.’
‘It happens all the time, Allegra,’ he said. ‘A mate of mine found out his best friend had been sleeping with his wife for months. He didn’t suspect a thing. They played golf together every weekend, had a beer or two once or twice a week after work, but he never once suspected anything was going on.’
‘But aren’t you clutching at straws? Anyone could have tampered with Kate’s ventilator, or at least someone with a bit of inside knowledge. You said it yourself: emotions run high when a child is involved. That’s why I asked you to remove Ruth Tilley from the unit.’
‘Ruth Tilley has gone on stress leave as of this morning,’ he said. ‘I don’t for a moment suspect her of tampering with Kate’s equipment, but the press attention and the police presence has taken its toll on her. It’s taking its toll on all of us.’
‘I know what you mean,’ she said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. ‘I can’t believe this place has turned into such a circus. Working in ICTU is stressful enough, without the pressure of a murder inquiry and constant security checks going on in the background.’
‘Tell me something I don’t already know,’ he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes squeezing shut momentarily.
Allegra looked at him, her earlier anger melting at the obvious stress he was under. His eyes were tired, probably more bloodshot than hers, and his body looked tense, as if he hadn’t allowed himself to relax in days, maybe weeks or even months.
She stepped forward and touched him on the arm. ‘Joel…sit down and let me massage your neck and shoulders. It won’t take long and it will make all the difference, believe me.’
He opened his eyes and met her concerned gaze. ‘It’s just a tension headache. I get them all the time. I’ll take a couple of paracetamol in a minute. Besides, I’m sure you have better things to do right now.’
She smiled and with one firm hand pushed him down into his chair. ‘Close your eyes and think of something pleasant. Let yourself relax for ten minutes while I work some magic on those tight muscles of yours.’
Joel settled into the seat but the only pleasurable thing he could think of was how it had felt to have her in his arms the night before, her body writhing beneath his, pleasuring him in an act that he had felt akin to worship. He hadn’t been able to remove the images from his mind, no matter how hard he tried. He had pushed her away, just as he had pushed away every other person who had tried to come close, but she was a little more determined than most, a little more—no, a lot more—irresistible than most, and it felt good to let his guard down just for a few minutes.
He rolled his head forward as she worked on his tight shoulders through the cotton of his shirt, but he ached to feel her soft warm fingers on his flesh. As if she had read his mind, she moved her hands to the front of his chest and released and removed his tie before undoing each of his shirt buttons, one by one. He did nothing to stop her. He couldn’t. The desire to feel her hands on him was so overpowering it was like a fever in his blood.
Finally his shirt was off and her hands were working on his neck and shoulders in rhythmic soothing movements that relaxed those muscles but set up immediate tension in others. He could feel the deep throb of desire spring to life in his groin but he did his best to ignore it, although it took a huge effort. Her fingers increased their pressure, unlocking the tight golfball-sized knots bunched beneath his skin until he finally felt the tension behind his eyes gradually begin to ease.
‘How do you feel?’ she asked a few minutes later as she handed him his shirt.
He gave her a grateful glance as he shrugged himself back into his shirt. ‘That really helped—thanks.’
‘You should have more regular massage. People still think it’s a luxury treatment that you have once a year when you’re on holidays, but it’s much more therapeutic if you have it regularly.’
‘Yeah, well, time is always an issue,’ he said, reaching for his tie.
She watched as he knotted it and positioned it around his throat, adjusting it into place. It was still slightly skew when he’d finished so she stepped forward and centred
it.
Joel looked down at her standing so close, her breasts almost touching his chest, one of her hands flat on his chest, the other still on the knot of his tie.
‘Allegra…’ His voice came out raspy and rough as his hand moved up to cover hers.
‘I should get back to work…’she said softly, her eyes feeling as if they were being lured into the deep dark depths of his.
‘Yes…yes, you should…’ he said, as one of his hands went to the small of her back and brought her forward until she was touching him thigh to thigh.
Her lips were soft and yielding beneath the hard pressure of his, her breath warm and sweet as it filled his mouth and curled around his tongue as he plunged into her moistness. The rush of desire rose in his blood like a rushing tide, as her body instinctively searched for the heat and possession of his.
The mobile phone on his belt brought him back to earth with a shrill reminder of his responsibilities and the lives that depended on him. But when he released Allegra with a wry apologetic grimace and answered it, it wasn’t a life that needed saving from within the hospital at all.
It was a life much closer to home…
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘HOW is he doing?’ Joel asked the cardiologist in the cardiac unit.
‘Your father’s had a small inferior myocardial infarct,’ Tim Lockerby informed him. ‘I want to keep him in for a few days on a streptokinase infusion, and get angiography organised.’
Joel thanked him and moved to the cubicle where his father lay hooked up to an ECG and pulse oximeter, an IV line and oxygen mask.
As if he sensed his son’s presence, Garry Addison opened his eyes and removed his oxygen mask. ‘Sorry about this, son. I hate to be causing all this fuss.’
Joel took his father’s hand in his and gave it a warm affectionate squeeze, fighting back emotion. ‘You silly old goat,’ he said gruffly. ‘You’re not causing any fuss. You’ll be on your feet again in a few days.’
His father’s eyes shifted to the blue cotton open-weave blanket covering him from the waist down. ‘Your mother will need some help. I hate to put this on you but—’
‘Don’t worry.’ Joel’s grip on his father’s hand tightened reassuringly. ‘I’ll sort something out with Jared. We all knew it would come to this some time.’
‘It will break your mother’s heart…’
The irony of his father’s words weren’t lost on Joel. ‘At this point in time it’s your heart we have to concentrate on. I’ll sort out things with Mum, don’t worry. I’ll take a couple of days off to organise things.’
‘But you’ve only just started this job,’ his father protested. ‘We’ve been so worried about the stress you’ve been under. You look worn out.’
‘Well, you’re not looking so great yourself, Dad,’ Joel joked. ‘I’m fine. In fact, not fifteen minutes ago I had a workplace massage. See how well I’m taking care of myself these days?’
‘About time, too,’ his father grumbled. ‘I hope it was done by a pretty woman. It’s been far too long since you’ve had the touch of a woman to take your mind off work and…home…’
‘She wasn’t pretty,’ Joel said, as his patted his father’s leg, ‘she was gorgeous.’
‘So you’re dating her?’
He gave his father a mock reproving look. ‘Thirty-four-year-old men should never discuss their private lives with their parents, you know that—it could cause heart strain.’
Garry gave him a weary smile. ‘Thirty-four-year-old men shouldn’t do a lot of things, but sometimes life doesn’t hand you the cards you want.’
‘How is Jared handling this?’ Joel asked after a tiny pause.
‘You know Jared. He doesn’t make anything easy…’
Joel gave his father another gentle pat. ‘Just concentrate on getting well. I’ll deal with Jared and Mum. Leave it to me.’
Allegra rushed up to Joel as he was leaving the hospital. ‘Joel, how is your father? Is there anything I can do?’
Joel looked down at her, his chest tightening at what might have been if circumstances had been different. ‘No, but thanks anyway. He’s had a myocardial infarct and needs angiography. I’m taking a couple of days off to sort some domestic stuff out. My mother needs some help. It will take me a day or two to organise it.’
‘What about your twin brother?’ she asked. ‘Can’t he help?’
His eyes shifted from hers as he thrust his hand in his trouser pocket for his car keys. ‘My brother is totally useless and has been for most of his life.’ He rattled his keys impatiently and she stepped back so he could leave.
She watched him drive off, the squeal of his tyres as they hit the tarmac of the road making her wince. It didn’t seem fair that he had to shoulder his father’s illness without the support of his brother. What were families for anyway, if not to pull together when things got tough? She didn’t have a brother or sister but she knew for certain that if she did, they would be close and supportive because her parents would have done everything in their power to ensure it.
Her pager beeped and she looked down at the message, her heart leaping in hope. It was from Kellie, telling her Kate had just regained consciousness.
Kellie was waiting just outside Kate’s cubicle when she arrived. ‘She’s finally awake. She just opened her eyes and asked for Tommy, clear as a bell. The police want to interview her but I thought you should assess her first before they barrage her with questions. They’re waiting over there.’ She pointed to two tall detectives lingering near the office.
Allegra opened the door to the isolation room where Kate was being managed, and smiled as she approached her bed. Kate still looked terribly fragile, especially as her bruises from the accident had now turned into a kaleidoscope of colour.
‘Hello, Kate, my name is Allegra Tallis,’ she said, repeating almost verbatim her previous introduction when she’d first visited Kate while she’d been unconscious. ‘I’m an anaesthetist on rotation in ICTU. I’ve been looking after your son.’
‘I want to see him,’ Kate said, becoming agitated, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘The other doctor and the nurse keep telling me he’s all right, but I need to see him to make sure.’
‘That can easily be arranged,’ Allegra said. ‘He’s in the unit, further down. He’s still unconscious but I’m hopeful he will wake up soon.’
Kate choked on a sob. ‘What happened to us? Why are Tommy and I in hospital?’
Allegra’s heart sank at the woman’s distressed questions. ‘You had a car accident a few days ago, Kate. Do you remember anything at all about it?’
Kate screwed up her face as she tried to recollect, but it was becoming clear she had no memory at all of that day. She shook her head, wincing at the pain it triggered. ‘No…it’s blank…. I remember we were at the chalet…Tommy and me…’
‘What about Keith? Was he there?’
Kate tried to concentrate, but it looked as if she was having trouble with the details. ‘I can’t remember. He might have been. I think that was the plan…Tommy and I to drive up first and settle in and Keith was going to join us…’ She looked at Allegra, her eyes immeasurably sad. ‘We’ve been having some…trouble…My husband wants a divorce. I was upset…I know I’m not a good wife…I get bouts of depression. I don’t blame him for wanting to leave me. But Tommy, it would hurt him so much. I thought…if we could just sort things out…’
‘So you don’t remember why you got in the car with Tommy?’
‘No…No, I can’t remember.’
‘Kate, I know this is going to be difficult for you, but the police want to speak to you about that day.’
‘Police! Why the police?’ Kate looked frightened. ‘Did I do something wrong? Was the accident my fault? Oh, God! Did someone else die? Did I kill someone? Is that why there was a police guard here when I woke up?’
Allegra stroked the woman’s hands soothingly. ‘No, no one else was hurt, apart from you and Tommy. It was a single-vehicle acciden
t. Your car went off the road into the river. A car travelling behind you saw it happen. He was the one who rescued you and Tommy.’
Kate’s distress was obvious. ‘Tommy could have died…My precious baby could have died…’
‘But he didn’t, Kate. He’s alive, I’ll arrange for your bed to be wheeled to his cubicle.’
Allegra went to where the police were waiting. ‘She’s still very fragile and has amnesia. It’s not a good idea to press her too hard. If she regains her memory, and in cases like this some people never do, she will be able to cope better with a more intensive interview.’
‘Does she know someone tried to turn off her ventilator?’ the detective sergeant asked.
‘I didn’t think it wise to mention it,’ Allegra said. ‘She has enough to deal with at the moment.’
‘We’ll be maintaining our close watch over her, especially now she is conscious.’
‘I don’t believe she tried to commit suicide,’ Allegra felt compelled to say. ‘But I do believe someone wanted her dead.’
‘Murder-suicides make people angry, especially when young children are victims,’ the detective said. ‘But in this case I’m inclined to agree with you.’
‘Oh, really?’ She gave him a surprised look. ‘Have you uncovered something in your investigation?’
‘Dr Addison, your colleague, ran a drug test on a patient that was brought in earlier this morning.’
‘Terry Fowler, the head injury-drowning victim?’
‘That’s the one,’ he said. ‘As you know, he subsequently died from his head injury, but the pathology report showed up a cocktail of drugs in his system.’
‘I haven’t seen the report but can you recall exactly what the drugs were?’
‘An antidepressant and a sedative,’ he replied, checking his notebook. ‘I’m not sure of the actual amounts but paroxetine, codeine and diazepam were definitely present.’
Allegra was getting so used to chills running up and down her spine now that she hardly noticed this one as it occurred. ‘That’s interesting. That’s exactly the same cocktail of drugs found in Kate Lowe’s blood.’
In Her Boss's Special Care Page 16