A Child In Need

by Marion Lennox

  ‘I’ll stay awake with Harry,’ Shanni suggested. ‘You try and sleep first. Maybe it’s not such a good idea for both of us to sleep.’

  ‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Nick said thoughtfully. They were whispering into the dark and Len seemed to neither know nor care. ‘This isn’t like the movies. The police know their business, and at least one of the officers out there is personally involved. There’s no chance they’ll come storming in, guns blazing. Unless Len makes any stupid moves we’ll still be here tomorrow, and he’s not desperate yet.’

  ‘You know about this? About hostage situations?’ For the first time Nick heard a note of fear enter her voice. She wasn’t as tough as she sounded, he thought. But, then, neither was he. This wasn’t a game.

  ‘I’m a criminal lawyer. I’ve coped with the aftermath of hostage situations and I know the last thing the police will do is escalate the situation. They’ll keep talking. And waiting. They can change shifts and they’ll act like they have all the time in the world.’

  He smiled across into her worried eyes with what he hoped was his most reassuring smile. He watched her face as she thought this through, and the fear eased a little.

  ‘So tonight Len won’t sleep and tomorrow he’ll be overtired as well as terrified,’ he went on. ‘Therefore…we sleep now, so we have our wits about us tomorrow.’

  ‘It sounds sensible,’ Shanni whispered into the dark. ‘You hear that, Harry?’

  ‘Daddy,’ whispered Harry, and Shanni closed her eyes. It hurt.

  ‘Wendy’s waiting outside for you, sweetheart.’

  ‘Daddy,’ Harry said, and his voice broke with a tiny sob.

  ‘Where’s his dad?’ Nick asked.

  ‘Dead,’ Shanni said shortly. ‘Car accident.’

  Oh, no…

  He didn’t get involved. He didn’t! But after that one tiny sob there was nothing else. Harry was holding his grief all to himself.

  ‘Hey…’ It was too much for Nick. The child was cradled between them-closer than Nick had ever been to a child before this. He reached over and touched the little boy’s face, his arm touching Shanni’s as he moved. ‘Daddy’s not here but I am,’ he said, and a part of him couldn’t believe what he was saying. ‘Will I do-just for now?’

  There was a long, long silence. Harry watched him, questioning, and, just as gravely, Nick watched back.

  Then, suddenly, as if he could bear it no longer, the massive restraint broke. Harry reached out and put his arms around Nick’s neck. He gave a shuddering sob, clung as if he was drowning, and he slumped onto his chest.

  He shuddered once more, gave a racking sob that convulsed his whole body, then went absolutely limp.

  And then he slept.

  What sort of man was this?

  Shanni lay awake for far longer than Nick and Harry. The boys slept. The lawyer and the baby.

  The contrast was almost ludicrous.

  Harry, tiny, fair and frail, with his leg in its fibreglass cast and with the hurts to his small body only just fading.

  And Nick Daniels…whoever he was. A city lawyer of some kind. He looked lean and tough and ruthless. Len had run from him because he was afraid, and Shanni didn’t blame him. If she’d thought she was in Nick Daniels’ power, she’d run too.

  He looked like a hawk, she decided. Strong, and not an ounce of spare fat on him. His face was almost chiselled, with a strong jaw line and deep-etched bones. He was so tanned his eyes seemed constantly in shadow, which furthered the impression of an eagle.

  And yet… With his tie undone, with the tiny boy’s arms clinging around his neck, he seemed in some strange way almost as vulnerable as the child in his arms.

  That was some crazy thought, Shanni figured. Vulnerable? No! This man was a city lawyer with expensive clothes and looks that would make him stand out like a sore toe in Bay Beach.

  Thelma, the local laundress, would have kittens if she was asked to clean his suit, Shanni decided. And his ties… The locals had learned long ago that gorgeous fabrics simply disappeared when Thelma got them into her clutches. She loved them and hoarded them as her own. If she ever got her hands on Nick’s tie it’d take all his legal wiles to get it back-and Shanni’s money was on Thelma.

  Good grief! That was a crazy thought, she figured, and she almost chuckled into the darkness. Here she was, in a life and death situation, and all she could think of was legal battles between a city lawyer and the Bay Beach laundress!

  But it was a good thought, she decided finally. It was a brave thought and it was better than going to sleep thinking of hunger and guns.

  She closed her eyes and, to her amazement, she went to sleep with a smile on her face.

  When Nick woke, Shanni still slept. He looked across at her in the filtering dawn light and thought how odd that her mouth was curved into a smile in sleep-as if she was having a lovely dream. The little boy was cradled between them and her hand was over him as if she’d protect him even in sleep. Nick’s arm was around Harry and she was pressed against it. They were twined together as three.

  Like a…family?

  The thought was suddenly gut-wrenchingly bitter. How would the likes of Nick know what a family was? This scenario was fantasy-world stuff-not real life.

  And real life was intruding. Nick stirred and the fantasy ended right there. He’d slept with Harry clinging; his neck was screaming its protest and Harry was clinging still. He reached up and tried to loosen the small arms, but Harry muttered in sleep and his hold tightened.

  He should pull the child away-but he couldn’t make himself do it. Somehow… Instead Nick returned his attention to Shanni, telling himself he needed something to distract him from the discomfort around his neck.

  Or maybe…maybe it was that he really wanted to look at Shanni some more. Extend the family fantasy?

  She wasn’t his type at all, he decided as he watched her. Sure, she was lovely enough, but she was totally unsophisticated in style and much more simply dressed than any woman Nick had ever been attracted to.

  She was dressed as a kindergarten teacher, ready for rough-and-tumble with her children. Now her jeans and her too-big-shirt were crumpled from sleep, and her blonde curls were tumbling all over her pillow. There was a smattering of freckles running down her nose, and her lashes were peculiarly dark for one so blonde, but it wasn’t mascara that was doing it-they were long and natural and curled upward… Just like her nose. Sort of snub… Pert… Young.

  She wasn’t his type at all, he decided, and why he should lie here staring at her…

  She opened her eyes and she smiled, and his gut kicked in. That smile of hers was a real heart-stopper. Straight from sleep, it lit her face and brightened the room around her as if someone had flicked on a light switch.

  ‘Hi,’ she whispered without moving but taking everything in with wide, intelligent eyes. ‘Are we still hostages?’ Her smile stayed. Where their arms touched was warm-a link of comfort. Or more…

  ‘Yes. We’re still hostages.’ Good grief, it was all he could do to make his voice work.

  ‘But we’re not dead yet.’ She yawned and stretched like a cat under her mound of blankets, and the link strengthened as her body stirred against him. ‘That’s something.’

  ‘Yeah, great.’ Try sarcasm, Daniels…

  ‘Well, it is!’ Her eyes reproached him. ‘Trust a lawyer to look on the gloomy side.’

  ‘There’s no need to disparage the legal profession.’

  ‘Oh, I’ve met some very nice lawyers.’ Her eyes twinkled at him, teasing. ‘All of them over eighty. It takes them that long to realise they’re human after all.’

  ‘Thanks very much.’

  ‘Don’t mention it.’ The twinkle peeped out again. ‘Isn’t this cosy?’

  ‘Very cosy.’ It was, too-absurdly cosy-but he forced his voice to sound dry. For the life of him he didn’t know how else to react. ‘My arm’s about to drop off.’

  ‘It must be,’ she agreed sympathetically. ‘Bu
t, Nick, it’s lovely how he’s holding you. Harry hasn’t held anyone in the whole time I’ve known him.’

  ‘I’m honoured.’ That was the lawyer in him now, being sardonic, but she ignored it.

  ‘You are indeed,’ she said seriously. ‘If you knew how hard we’ve worked to get a link…’ And then she paused. ‘But…you’re not local, are you?’

  ‘No, but…’

  ‘So you’re just passing through town.’ There was no mistaking her disappointment, and for the life of him Nick couldn’t stop a weird warm glow stir through his body-starting from the toes up. And then she killed it. ‘We want Harry so much to form a bond with someone.’

  She wanted someone for Harry. Of course. What else could she possibly have meant?

  ‘You mean…you’d want me to stay for the kid?’

  ‘Isn’t that why women always ask men to stay? Because of the children?’ She chuckled. They were still talking in whispers in the near dark and they were almost nose to nose. Over by the window Len either couldn’t hear or he didn’t care. ‘What else did you think I meant?’

  What indeed? There was no answer to that one. The glow died-but the link stayed. Her nose was too close!

  ‘So… You’re from Melbourne?’ He had this almost overwhelming desire to kiss her and she was talking social niceties. It was as much as he could do to figure out what she was talking about.

  ‘I… Yes.’

  ‘And you’re in Bay Beach on business?’ She sounded politely interested-nothing more.

  ‘I am.’ And then he weakened. He might as well tell her. Soon the whole district would know. ‘I’m taking over from Judge Andrews. Rotating magistrate.’

  ‘Rotating magistrate!’ Her eyes widened, her eyes lit with pleasure and her lovely smile practically enveloped her face. ‘Then you’re not leaving. You’re here for two years. That’s fantastic.’

  He chewed that over for a bit. ‘Why is it fantastic?’ he asked cautiously, and here it came. Of course.

  ‘Because Harry likes you.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Yes. He does.’ Her eyes darkened and intensified. ‘Nick, you mustn’t look like that.’ She put out a hand and touched the little boy’s soft hair. Harry was dead to the world, sleeping the sleep of the exhausted as his body was cradled between them. He’d forced himself to stay awake far too late last night, he hadn’t trusted anyone, but in Nick’s arms he’d felt safe.

  ‘Harry’s had a dreadful time,’ she said simply.

  ‘I don’t need to-’

  ‘He wasn’t wanted,’ she went on, ignoring his interruption. ‘His mother has two children by a previous marriage and she didn’t much like Harry’s father. Peter was landed with him at birth.’

  ‘Peter. You mean…the father kept the baby?’

  ‘That’s right. It was okay for a while. Peter took Harry with him everywhere, and he loved him to bits. But…almost a year ago he and Harry were in a car accident. Peter was killed. There was a little money from the sale of Peter’s house, held in trust for Harry, so Bernadette-Harry’s mother-decided she’d take Harry in again. Only…she didn’t like or want Harry for himself, and it showed.’

  ‘You mean she mistreated him.’

  ‘Dreadfully.’ Her luminous eyes swelled with tears in the dim light. ‘He had a smashed leg in the accident and after she took him home she never went near the doctor again. He needed physiotherapy and he never got it. If you knew the condition he was found in when Welfare finally took an interest…’ She took a deep breath. ‘Anyway, that’s in the past. He’s safe now, settled in one of the homes of the local orphanage system. And with you he seems to have finally made some contact.’

  ‘I’m not a contactable person,’ Nick said bluntly, and Shanni stared from all of six inches away.

  ‘Why ever not?’

  ‘I don’t like children.’

  ‘Come on.’ She teased him gently with her eyes. ‘You’ve let him give you a numb arm.’

  ‘Only because I didn’t want him howling the place down.’

  ‘Liar.’

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  ‘Sure.’ Her tone said she didn’t believe him, but she was moving on. She glanced at her watch and, as she moved, her arm shifted away from his. He was aware of a surge of emptiness as she did. A link broken that he’d valued… But she didn’t notice. ‘It’s six a.m. I wonder how the siege is going?’

  ‘Patiently.’

  ‘They’ll wait?’

  ‘For weeks if need be,’ Nick told her. ‘I know our police force. They’ll wait this out.’ Please, he added beneath his breath. The thought of anyone bursting in here with guns blazing left him cold.

  But… ‘A week! We can’t live for a week on milk and fruit.’ Shanni brushed her curls back from her face and stood up, decision written firmly all over her. ‘Good morning, Len,’ she said softly, louder than she’d been talking to Nick but still not so loud that she’d wake Harry.

  Len wheeled to face them. He looked dreadful, Nick thought dispassionately. The youth looked absurdly young to carry the weapon he had in his hands, and he looked…desperate. The hands that held the gun shook with weariness.

  And fear.

  Shanni saw.

  ‘You’re exhausted,’ she said softly. ‘You must sleep.’

  ‘I’ll sleep when I want to sleep.’ Len’s voice was an attempt at a vicious growl, but it broke in mid-sentence, marking his youth.

  ‘Okay.’ Shanni made a placating gesture and sat down on her mat again. With them sitting Len seemed to relax. As if they couldn’t spring on him. But she kept right on speaking. ‘Len, I’m really hungry. How about if we order in pancakes?’

  ‘Pancakes!’

  ‘There’s a fast-food outlet on the edge of town. They deliver.’

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ Nick said as Len stared in disbelief. ‘You’re proposing we just ring up and tell them to drive in through the barricades?’

  ‘I don’t see why not.’ Shanni smiled her very nicest smile at Len-the smile Nick was beginning not to trust. It could make a man do strange things, that smile. ‘My brother’s a policeman. He’s out there somewhere. If I talked to him I reckon we could swing it.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Pancakes and maple syrup and hot chocolate,’ she said beguilingly. ‘Steaming hot…’

  Len could well have eaten nothing the day before, Nick figured then, watching the look of raw need flash across his face. He must have stolen the car on Thursday night and maybe he’d been on the run ever since. He’d had one glass of milk last night, and all that was left was fruit, cold and unappealing.

  ‘I can do this safely,’ Shanni assured him. Then she paused, sneezed, grabbed a tissue from her sleeve and sneezed again. She grinned as she emerged from her tissue. ‘Sorry, guys. Hay fever. It’s that time of the year. Anyway…’ She sneezed again and reassembled. Honestly, she was incorrigible. ‘Just let me phone and you can listen to every word I say.’

  She gave Len a happy grin, as if he was a friend, and then she sneezed again for good measure. One more sneeze and she was back to entreaty.

  ‘Hey, Len, if you don’t like what I do you can shoot me in the toe-and it’s not every day I offer a toe. I’m very attached to my toes.’

  Len glared.

  Shanni sneezed again. She sniffed and recovered and smiled once more. Her very nicest smile…

  ‘Len, I’m just a kindergarten teacher with hay fever,’ she said, and the lawyer in Nick made him stare. If he heard this innocent little voice in a witness box he’d know she was lying through her teeth. But Len was no lawyer and she had him dazzled. ‘I’m not some hotshot lawyer with brains like my friend, here,’ she said, waif-like. ‘All I’m saying is that we’re hungry and I can organise us a great breakfast. But you’ll have to trust me.’

  He still glared.

  Shanni sneezed. She looked so innocent, Nick thought. She’d pulled off her trainers, she was barefooted, fresh from sleep, and her curls we
re unbrushed and tangling around her face. She sneezed again and he wondered how on earth she’d ever got this job. In charge of a kindergarten? She didn’t look as if she should be in charge of anything. But…there was this tiny twinkle behind her eyes that he mistrusted…

  ‘Sorry. Drat my stupid hay fever,’ she said weakly. ‘Late spring’s my worst season. They’re cutting hay all around the town and mornings are dreadful. And I’m so hungry. Len, please let me ring my brother. You can listen to every word.’

  The room held its breath.

  And finally Len nodded. Between pancakes, sneezes and smiles he seemed bewitched. As Nick was.

  ‘Okay. Be fast. And I’m listening.’

  Shanni smiled. She sneezed once more and crossed to the phone.

  And the twinkle stayed.

  ‘Hello?’ She dialled emergency and to her relief it took her straight through to the command post outside. They must have had the line rigged so every call was monitored.

  ‘Police here.’

  ‘It’s Shanni McDonald,’ she said.

  ‘Shanni…’ She recognised the voice of the local police inspector, and it was hoarse with worry. A siege like this must be every policeman’s nightmare. ‘Are you okay, lass?’

  ‘We’re fine.’ Len nudged her in the ribs with the gun. On the mat Harry stirred in Nick’s arms and Nick sat up, cradling the child against him. They looked sort of cute, Shanni thought, looking across at the out-of-town magistrate and his baby-before concentrating carefully on sneezing again. Some things were important. Apart from cute lawyers…

  And Len’s patience was running out. The gun dug into her ribs, harder this time, and she turned her attention back to what she was doing.

  ‘Inspector, we’re very hungry,’ she said. ‘All of us.’

  ‘I can understand that.’

  ‘You’re not planning on starving us out?’

  ‘Tell us what you want.’

  She took a deep breath. ‘Pancakes,’ she said. ‘Hot food and plenty of it. We thought fast-food pancakes, maple syrup, and hot chocolate. From Don’s Diner.’

  ‘We can do that. How will we get it in?’

  ‘Have someone put it on the doorstep. Len won’t shoot anyone carrying pancakes, will you, Len?’ The youth was listening to every word being said, standing right against her as she talked while the gun stayed pressed into her side. She sneezed and he backed off a bit.