‘I know things look bad, but we can’t let ourselves be negative. We’ve got to believe that Fern is all right. She’s a tough kid, and Michaela is as fiercely protective of her as you are. She’s a damned good pilot, too. I flew with her a couple of times after she’d had her licence for a while. If anyone could bring that plane down safely, she could.’
‘Really? You think so?’
He tilted her head to look into her eyes. ‘I know so.’ He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. ‘Damn it, I know the timing’s rotten, but I can’t wait any longer to say it. I love you, Caro. We’ll get through this,’ he made his tone positive, ‘and Fern will be okay. And when everything is back to normal, you and I are going to sit and have a long talk about our future, yours, mine and Fern’s, together.’
He stroked the side of her face and then ran his fingers through her hair, feathering its softness about her face. ‘What do you say to that?’
Somehow, with her heart almost breaking with worry, she managed a brief smile. Nick loved her! He’d said so. Her tone tremulous, she said, ‘I can hardly wait.’
Chapter Twenty-one
Michaela panted with exhaustion. She had been working non-stop, running only on will power to get the signal fire built. It wasn’t as tall as she’d wanted, but it would have to do. Extracting fuel from the plane’s engine had taken ingenuity. She had managed to almost fill the jerry can and then there’d been a momentary panic when she couldn’t locate Lenny’s cigarette lighter, and he couldn’t remember where he’d put it — or maybe he was just being petty and pretending not to know where it was. She almost cried with relief when she spied it, half-hidden behind a rock near the firepit she’d built the previous night.
Watching the smoke caused by the still wet timber slowly float upwards, she prayed that it wouldn’t dissipate too soon and go unseen by searching aircraft. When the fire was well alight and the smoke a good, steady stream, she returned to the make-do shelter to check on Fern.
Her despair increased when she saw that her condition had deteriorated. Her breathing was more shallow and there was a bluish tinge around her lips. What was it? Had she gone into shock? Dear God, what could she do? Bloody nothing!
Angry with herself for her inability to do anything positive for Fern, she did the only thing she could think of: she got down on her knees beside her niece, interlocked her fingers and began to pray.
The phone rang and Laura answered it. ‘Yes,’ Laura nodded. ‘I see. When?’ She nodded again. ‘Thank you, Constable. I’ll tell everyone.’
Everyone was sitting in the living room except for Jeffrey, who’d had to meet Frank and Neil to organise the Ashworths’ shares changeover. They all chorused, ‘Well?’
‘The plane’s been found. Everyone has survived.’ Laura took a deep, calming breath, a relieved smile lighting her tired face. It had been an ordeal and a half: the hours of waiting, not knowing, wondering …’Michaela has come through unscathed. Lenny, the passenger, has a skull fracture and a smashed knee — I’ll explain more about that later, but —’ she paused to look at Caroline and Nick. Her heart contracted. There was no easy way to say it. ‘Fern’s been hurt.’ She hurried on with the information. ‘A Care Flight helicopter is flying her to Sydney.’
‘How badly hurt?’ Nick asked, his tone subdued, his features reflecting both shock and relief.
‘The local doctor says she has a fractured skull and a ruptured spleen. They Laura’s voice broke with emotion, ‘they stabilised her before the flight, she’s on a saline drip. Police advise that they expect a surgeon to operate — to remove the ruptured spleen — as soon as she gets to Sydney. The helicopter’s due at St Vincent’s by 1.15 pm. Michaela’s on board, too.’ Laura saw that Caroline was bravely trying not to cry. She went to her. They hugged each other, then held each other’s hands tightly for comfort.
‘What about Kovacs? How did he get injured?’ Leith wanted to know. Kovacs had tried something, he was sure of it.
‘Constable Sutherland said he’s been charged with attempted sexual assault.’ Laura took a deep breath to disguise her own sense of shock at the constable’s news. ‘He tried to rape Michaela. He’s in hospital under police guard until he’s well enough to be ambulanced back to Sydney.’
‘The bastard!’ Leith interrupted. Of course — the penny dropped. That’s what he’d wanted all along: Michaela. Christ, why hadn’t he figured that out? Anger and recriminations began to build inside him. Why hadn’t he acted more quickly with regard to Kovacs, presented what information he had so Michaela would cut ties with him? In hindsight, he realised that he might have been too confident that he could protect her. ‘What happened? Did the constable give you any details?’
‘All he said was that he threatened her physically and she hit him with a tree branch.
Knocked him out cold. She also smashed his kneecap,’ Laura told everyone, straight-faced.
Joel looked at Nick and both men looked at Leith. The three grinned, their thoughts transparent, though Leith still looked very angry.
‘Serves the bastard right,’ Joel said with feeling. ‘Trying it on with Michaela.’ He shook his head and his expression held the merest trace of compassion. ‘The man must be crazy.’
Caroline and Nick were already on their feet, moving to the doorway. ‘We’re going to the hospital.’ She looked at Laura, hope in her eyes. ‘Mum, are you up to it?’
Laura smiled as she stood up. ‘Fern’s my granddaughter. You couldn’t keep me away.’
‘Me too,’ Joel echoed. ‘I’ll be on duty in an hour, anyway.’
‘And me,’ Leith said.
He had to see Michaela, see with his own eyes that the woman he loved was all right. And he wanted to know the full, unabridged story of what had happened between her and Kovacs — from her, not from a police officer reading a report. The fingers of his right hand curled into a fist. As soon as he could he would turn over what information he had gathered on Kovacs to the police. He was sure it would make interesting reading.
Fern Beaumont’s condition was listed as critical. At St Vincent’s Hospital her spleen had been removed and she had subsequently lapsed into a coma. Now, all everyone could do was wait.
Perhaps the waiting was the worst for Laura. There had been many instances in her sixty-four years when she had sat in a hospital waiting for news about a loved one, as she was doing now. Her teenage love, Alex Monroe, then her parents. And her first husband, Eddie, and later the love of her life, Jack. Now her precious link with immortality was threatened, for the same blood ran through her veins and Fern’s. Her granddaughter’s life was in jeopardy.
She glanced anxiously to where Caroline sat. Nick stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders, trying to massage the tension away. The crisis with Fern and Michaela had brought them together, healed the wounds of the past. Laura was thankful for that, but she was not prepared to pay the price for their happiness with Fern’s life. A god she staunchly believed in could not be that cruel, surely?
She saw Joel come down the corridor, his white doctor’s coat flapping behind him as he walked, a stethoscope draped around his shoulders. A momentary pride swept through her as she reflected how he had shaped up over the last few months. He was a recovering alcoholic — he always would be — but he was coping with that, and was loving the practice of medicine, something for which she had to silently thank Elissa Markovitch. The young woman had wrought wondrous changes in her son. Joel had focus now, a character trait he had lacked before. He knew what he wanted to do with his life, and who he wanted to share it with.
Joel shook his head as he passed by, intimating that there was no change in Fern’s condition. They knew she was still in recovery, but would be moved to a private room soon.
Michaela and Leith sat together, hands entwined. Still in the same clothes she’d worn when she had taken off in the plane yesterday, she looked magnificent and to Laura her daughter was magnificent. Haltingly and with some embarrassment, a
s well as anger, she had related what had happened. The plane crashing, Kovacs’ attack and incapacitating him, building the signal fire that had enabled an aircraft to spot them sooner than it might have — an important factor in getting Fern to hospital. Her Jack would have applauded her actions, for Michaela had proven her courage and her determination. And looking to the future, she knew she had nothing to fear when, one day, Michaela was CEO of Ashworths.
Caroline was hanging onto her self-control by a thread, Laura could tell. Only Nick’s nearness, the inner strength he transferred to her, was keeping her fear over Fern’s well-being under control.
Later, Officers Briscoe and Sutherland called in to check on the family and give them an update on Lenny Kovacs. Lenny’s smashed knee had been operated on and he was in a satisfactory condition.
Traditionally, hours tick by slowly in hospital waiting rooms, or so Laura believed from bitter experience. Fern’s condition remained unchanged, and the attending specialist advised everyone to go home. No-one took his advice. Once Fern was in a private room, the family took turns to sit beside her, to watch, to talk to her, to hold her hand. She looked small, so very vulnerable in the large hospital bed. Staff said her condition had stabilised to what they termed ‘serious’, but still no-one left the hospital.
For two days Fern remained in a coma. Then, when everyone’s nerves were drawn as thin as they could possibly be, in the small hours of the morning came the breakthrough they’d prayed for …
Nick and Caroline were with Fern when her eyelids fluttered, then opened. She stared at her parents and gave them a weak smile.
‘Mum, Dad, where … am I?’ Her voice was husky, dry.
Caroline couldn’t speak. The sound of Fern’s voice choked her up too much to articulate a single word. Her daughter was conscious and she sounded so … normal. Thank God.
‘In hospital, darling.’ Nick filled the void. ‘You’re going to be all right.’
‘Don’t feel all right. Got an awful headache and I’m very thirsty.’ Fern’s tone was mildly complaining.
Nick reached for the call button. ‘We’ll get the nurse to bring you a drink.’ He grinned as he touched her cheek. ‘Do you remember what happened? Anything?’
The effort of trying to remember screwed up Fern’s features. ‘The plane. Yes. It crashed.’ Her expression became apprehensive. ‘Is Michaela …?’
‘She and Kovacs are fine,’ Nick assured her, though it was a slight white lie about Kovacs. He squeezed Caro’s hand and looked into her eyes. ‘We’re all going to be fine now. Aren’t we, darling?’
Caroline nodded. Over the past seventy-two hours they had talked a good deal. Talked through their fears and anxieties about the past and the future, getting their thoughts, grievances, misunderstandings out into the open. During that time both had come to realise that no business, no music career, nothing, was as important as their love for each other. In the days ahead, once Fern was well, they knew they would work out a compromise they could live with, from now on always together.
Caroline looked lovingly at her daughter. She smiled and it was as if a huge, emotional load had shifted. Fern was going to recover fully, and she and Nick were going to live the rest of their lives together. Tears of relief, of joy and happiness started to form at the corners of her eyes as she gathered Fern in her arms.
Earl Conway was allowed to visit Lenny, who’d made a quick recovery due to his overall fitness, after he was transferred to Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. A police guard stood at the doorway of the four-bed ward so, when they spoke, they kept their voices low to avoid being overheard.
‘Your lawyer says they’re going to throw the book at you, Lenny.’ Earl’s tone was gloomy.
‘I know. Attempted sexual assault, and they’re investigating other dealings — the Ashworths’ robberies for one.’ He gave Earl a nod. ‘Everyone’s got to go real quiet for a while, Earl. Get all the groups to take a break, a long holiday. That creep, Neil, he ratted on me, I’m sure of it, as payback for all the years I gave him a hard time.’ Lenny’s features contorted with rage. No-one dobbed him in and got away with it. ‘I’ll get him. If it takes ten years to do it, he’ll bloody well pay.’
‘Yeah,’ Earl agreed. ‘He’s left the country, you know. Flew out last Tuesday to London, according to the concierge of his apartment block. Rumour has it if he comes back he’ll face fraud charges. He blotted his copy-book well and truly with the Beaumonts. Even his family have disowned him.’
‘Get me the top silk, Earl, the very best. I have to make bail and I don’t care how he does it or whose hands he has to grease to make it happen. I’m walking now, so I’ll be discharged in a couple of days and remanded to Long Bay Gaol pending a hearing. You’ve got to make sure I make bail, Earl.’ Lenny leant close to his cohort and emphasised his next words. ‘I won’t go back inside. I won’t! Remember,’ his expression became cunning, his tone soft, ‘a long time ago we talked about an emergency escape route out of Australia. How someone with the right plan and money could leave the country without the authorities knowing.’
‘Yeah, but …’ Earl frowned, ‘it’s not going to be easy with your leg the way it’ll be for a while.’
‘Let me worry about my bloody leg!’ Lenny’s tone was impatient. ‘I want you to work out the details and, later, when the dust settles, run my organisation for me. Okay?’ Lenny watched Earl nod in agreement, then he flopped back on the pillows, apparently exhausted. ‘Go on, off you go. Don’t come back till you’ve got things fine-tuned. I don’t want the pigs twigging to the fact that you’re part of my operation and,’ he grinned suddenly, ‘not my personal physiotherapist, as you pretended you were to get in here.’
‘Sure, Lenny.’ Earl winked at him and went away.
Lenny closed his eyes and feigned sleep but, in reality, he was far from sleepy. He knew what Earl would do; the details had been worked out a long time ago. A forged passport, travelling money, an escape route that would take him by fast car with an expert driver to Brisbane. From there he’d catch a plane to Cairns and then either an international flight to Hong Kong or a fast ocean-going boat to Fiji and an international flight from Nadi. He reached up to feel his smoothly shaved cheek. He’d stop shaving and work on the beard he’d need to complete his disguise. Soon, once he’d made bail, Lenny Kovacs would disappear forever, and then his new life would begin as Lonnie Kitchener, retired businessman.
He smiled and chuckled inwardly. Already he was looking forward to the day he tracked down his old mate and challenged him face to face. Mate would shit himself, and with good reason. Neil McRae’s days were numbered. Fleetingly his thoughts turned to Michaela Beaumont. The woman he loved would forever remain elusive, something he could never grab hold of — and he knew, too, that images of her would haunt him on many a long, lonely night, for many years to come. He shrugged fatalistically against the pillow. He’d have to live with that …
Epilogue
It was a perfect Saturday in June. The winter’s day was mild, the sky clear and the garden of 52 Waratah Avenue looked a picture.
Winter-blooming plants, magnolias and vari- coloured camellias in pots were complemented by tubs of still-flowering perfumed roses hired for the occasion of Jordana Levy’s marriage to Daniel Blumner. There was the traditional canopy, called a chuppa, under which the wedding party would stand as the rabbi read the ceremony. Seats for fifty or more people were arranged with a grassy aisle in between that had been strewn with rose petals. Near the pool stood a large marquee for the wedding luncheon, with kosher caterers and waiters moving about making last-minute preparations and organising the food and drinks.
Two hours later, as the bride and groom stood under the chuppa and the rabbi read the service in Hebrew, Laura’s brown eyes studied the guests. Her gaze moved from Jo and Daniel to rest on various family members.
Joel and Elissa, with her bright red hair, sat together. She knew Joel was feeling very pleased with himself because of the medi
cal breakthrough he and his professor had made into the treatment of cardiac problems similar to her own — it wasn’t a cure, but it would give many sufferers a new lease of life. Professor Grebeveski would be presenting his paper at an international medical conference being held in Vancouver this October.
Leith and Michaela sat holding hands, because Jo had opted not to have any bridesmaids. She smiled as she recalled her younger daughter’s excitement when she had told her that the Ashworths board had appointed her managing director of the Sydney store, replacing Warren Tremayne, who’d left the company and returned to Melbourne. A Herald journalist, writing an article on the rising tide of young female executives, had featured Michaela and pointed out that her appointment made her the youngest female managing director in the country. Next week she and Leith were flying to Sweden so his family could meet his intended bride.
On the other side of the aisle Caroline, Nick and Fern sat side by side: a loving family once more. Seeing them together that way made her smile.
Laura’s contented sigh was hardly heard as she sat beside her old friend, Jeffrey Markham.
Her family was complete again, everyone together and happy as she’d wanted them to be, and over the next twelve months there would be more weddings at number fifty-two. That would make her Jack very happy, she was sure of it.
Acknowledgments
With thanks to my literary agent,
Selwa Anthony; my editors, Linda Funnell,
Nicola O’Shea and Catherine Hammond;
Dr Liana Oey; Senior Constable Karen Davis,
New South Wales Police Force; Ted Herman;
52 Waratah Avenue Page 38