Moments later they pulled Teagan free just as her condition deteriorated. Liam stood back and watched as Nick intubated her and they loaded her onto a stretcher and rushed her to the waiting ambulance.
As the ambulance pulled away, lights and sirens blaring, Liam searched for Maddi again in the gathered crowd, but she was nowhere. His heart sank. Something was definitely wrong.
Chapter 9
The street looked like a war zone. Police were cordoning off the area with blue and white striped tape. It would be a long investigation to find out the cause of the crash and none of the cops would be getting home on time today.
Liam spared a thought for the parents of the two teenage boys who were never coming home.
Out of every aspect of his job, he hated road trauma the most.
“Have you seen Mads?” Liam asked Nick as they began cleaning up and packing things away.
“Sorry, I forgot to tell you. I sent her to hospital with the driver of the bus.”
Liam frowned. “Why didn’t she tell me she was going?”
Nick shrugged. “It was chaotic and you were busy.”
Liam pushed the sense of foreboding back down.
“What happened to her eye?” Nick asked.
“She tripped in the dark and hit her head on the side of the coffee table,” Liam said. He’d given the standard answer to everyone who had asked.
“She doing okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine,” Liam lied.
“Still seeing a counselor?”
“No idea.” Maddi had stopped going to the counselor weeks earlier but Liam wasn’t going to tell Nick that.
“You should encourage her to keep going.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re good friends and she’s going to need a good friend in the next little while.”
Liam narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean?”
Nick ran his hands through his hair. “Greg Islington spoke to me last week about the issue with the drugs.”
“There is no issue with drugs,” Liam said through gritted teeth. At least there was no issue until something was proven.
Nick held up a hand. “There have been complaints, Liam, and we have to take them seriously.”
“It will all turn out to be nothing,” Liam said. “Trust me.”
“Then that’s good.”
They walked slowly back to the ambulance and Liam’s mind was all over the place.
Nick slapped him lightly on the back, pulling him back into the present. “You did a great job today, mate. Well done. That girl will thank you for being her hero.”
“I doubt she’ll thank me when she finds herself in a wheelchair next week,” he retorted.
“She’ll thank you when she realizes she’s still alive.”
Liam exhaled heavily. “I hope so.”
Nick cocked his head to one side and stared at him. “Do you need some time off?”
Liam sighed again. “Nope. I’m fine. Besides, I’m not going anywhere until this stuff with Maddi gets sorted.”
He might not have been there for Lily when she’d needed him most, but he’d be there for Maddi, whatever it took, because that’s what friends were for.
*
An hour later, back at the station, there was still no sign of Maddi. Liam tried calling her phone but it went straight to voicemail. He rubbed away at the prickling sensation in his arms. Maddi took her phone with her everywhere and it was never on silent. Was she ignoring his calls? If so, why?
He rang the hospital and the receptionist told him Teagan was in ICU and they were still debating whether to fly her to Sydney. Liam spoke to one of the nurses and found out she’d had surgery to repair a ruptured spleen and fix a perforated bowel. Unfortunately she had a long way to go before the doctors had any idea if she’d regain the use of her legs. He couldn’t do anything except hope and pray she did.
The truck driver was still alive and in the intensive care unit as well. He’d had a blood alcohol reading four times the legal limit and a suspended driver’s license. The police hadn’t left his bedside.
Miraculously, the driver of the bus was in shock but had sustained no life-threatening injuries. Still, Liam was gutted and angry. Because of an idiot truck driver who’d been driving twelve hours straight and was drunk at the wheel, two innocent teenage boys had lost their lives and two families had lost sons.
The anger dredged up past memories. Back to when a drunk driver had killed Joel’s first fiancée, Bek, in a hit and run on the eve of their wedding. It had taken Joel a long time to recover from his grief. Now, two more families were about to suffer that same fate. It was so unfair.
Liam’s shift was almost over and he was debating whether he should drive out to Maddi’s place when his phone rang. He snatched it up, hoping it was her.
He frowned at the unfamiliar number on the screen. “Liam O’Connor,” he answered.
There was a pause before anyone spoke. “Um, hi, Liam. My name’s Tahlia Reynolds.”
He strained to hear the softly spoken voice.
“I’m, er, a friend of Maddi’s. I’m her partner.”
Liam frowned. Partner? Since when did Maddi have a partner?
The woman’s voice broke into a sudden sob. Panic hit the alarm button in Liam’s heart. At that moment he didn’t even care that Maddi hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him she was in a relationship.
“Is she okay? I’ve been trying to call her for hours.”
A long pause. “She’s … Maddi’s … gone … She’s dead.”
He buckled over like something had slammed into his side.
“Maddi’s what? Where is she? Where are you?”
“At Maddi’s place,” she murmured.
Ignoring the concerned faces of his colleagues, Liam grabbed his keys. “Have you called triple zero? The police? I’m on my way.”
He bolted to the ambulance before anyone could stop him and in a screech of tires he tore out of the station. Tahlia was talking but his mind couldn’t make sense of what she said. He’d seen Maddi less than six hours earlier. How could she possibly be dead?
“Did you hear what I said?” Tahlia asked.
“Sorry. What?”
“She was already gone before the ambulance got here.”
He eased his foot off the accelerator.
“Gone?”
Tahlia sniffed loudly. “She left you a letter.”
His stomach dropped. “A letter? She … Did she? Are you saying … Did she kill herself?” he asked gently.
Tahlia sobbed in his ear. “Yes.”
A trickle of sweat ran down his back. First Lily and now Maddi. “No. No. Maddi would never do that.”
“I know, but with her condition, she—”
“What condition?” Liam interrupted.
“She didn’t tell you?” Tahlia asked.
He pulled over to the side of the road and steadied his breathing. “Last week Maddi told me the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with her.”
“She got the results of the MRI and lumbar puncture this morning.”
“And?” Liam held his breath.
“She had MS.”
He exhaled loudly. “Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent positive. I was with her at the doctor’s.”
“So she knew her diagnosis when she turned up to work today?” he asked.
“Yeah. She did. But she didn’t want to call in sick at the last minute and let you down.”
He lay his head on the steering wheel and felt hot tears well up behind his closed eyelids. How could Maddi be gone?
“I’ll be there in half an hour,” he said eventually.
*
Thirty-five minutes later Liam drove down the long driveway of Maddi’s farm and parked behind her car. A curtain lifted then dropped in the front window. Liam pushed open the gate, strode up the path and opened the front door without bothering to knock. Inside was the solemn hush of death.
A polic
e officer stuck his head out of the lounge room and frowned. “Ambos have already come and gone, mate.”
Liam realized he was still in uniform. “I’m off duty. Maddi’s a good friend. And my colleague. We work together in Birrangulla.”
The officer dropped his gaze. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
“Where?” Liam asked.
“In the bedroom.”
“Can I—?”
“Yeah, just don’t touch anything.”
Unsure what he’d find, Liam shuffled down the hallway to Maddi’s room. He knew the layout of Maddi’s house as well as his own. At the door he stopped and surveyed the scene.
Maddi lay on top of the covers on the right side of the bed. She was fully clothed in shorts and a baggy T-shirt – her standard attire when she was at home. Eyes closed, blonde hair fanned out on the pillow behind her, she looked relaxed, asleep. Beside the bed was a glass of water, half full. The curtains were partly closed and the room was dim. Outside, dusk was falling but no one had turned on any lights yet. Overhead, a fan oscillated slowly, pushing the heat around but doing nothing to cool down the room. A woman sat on a chair beside the bed, closest to the window.
“Tahlia?”
She smiled sadly and stood. “You must be Liam. Mads described you well.”
She came around the bed and hugged him. It was unexpected and he hugged her in return.
“She looks so …”
“Peaceful,” Tahlia said. “Yeah, I know.”
He glanced around, caught sight of Maddi again and a wave of dizziness washed over him. He needed fresh air.
“Can we go outside?” he asked.
“Sure.”
With a light touch to Maddi’s hand, Tahlia followed him out the back. Even though the sun was almost reaching the horizon it was still hot but at least there was a slight breeze. Liam paced the deck attached to the house.
“And you’re sure it’s suicide?” he asked.
Tahlia nodded and tears filled her eyes. She brushed them away. “Without doubt.”
“How?”
Tahlia swallowed. “Overdose,” she whispered.
He already knew the answer but he had to ask. “Of what?”
“Morphine.”
He let the implication of that sink in for a second. “How do you know it was morphine?” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m asking so many questions. This must be so difficult for you.”
She gave him a watery half smile. “That’s okay. I’ve asked all the same questions as you already.”
“So how do you know what she took?” he repeated.
“The ambos found a needle mark on her arm. They went through the kitchen bin and found empty vials of morphine and one of fentanyl. A used needle, syringe and tourniquet were sitting in a kidney dish on the bathroom counter.”
He ran his hands across his face. “Did her doctor prescribe narcotics?” He already knew the answer would be no. If the doctor had, it would have been in tablet form, not intravenous. “Was she in pain?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. She didn’t look like she was this morning. She was upset at the doctor’s but she told me she was glad she finally knew what was wrong with her.”
“You said she left me a letter.”
“She left one for me too.”
“Have the police seen them?”
“They’ve got them inside. They’re in the kitchen now going through her stuff and trying to work out what happened. I wasn’t here. I’d gone to work.”
“Do the police know anything about the investigation she was under at work? A detective came and saw me this morning.”
Tahlia’s eyes widened. “No. Mads didn’t mention anything to me. What sort of investigation?”
“They reckon she was stealing drugs.”
Tahlia sank into a plastic garden chair, put her head in her hands and started to sob. Liam sat next to her, not knowing what else to do but rub her back until her tears subsided.
A small cough interrupted them.
“Excuse me, Tahlia, the undertakers are here. They’d like to take Madeline away now if that’s okay.”
Liam looked up to see a policewoman he didn’t know framed in the doorway. Two men in dark suits stood behind her, presumably from the funeral home.
“Can I see her again before they take her?” Tahlia asked.
“Absolutely.”
Tahlia stood and held out her hand to Liam. “Come with me.”
He nodded and hand in hand they went inside and said a final good-bye.
Chapter 10
It had poured cats and dogs for the entire morning, which usually meant more call outs, but the day was dragging with few jobs. Liam wasn’t complaining. It was giving him time to think.
He was particularly missing Maddi today – both as a friend and colleague. Each day was getting a little easier but he found it incredible to think a month had already passed since the last time they’d worked together. After her death the police dropped the investigation into the issue of drug tampering and Liam hadn’t heard another word about it.
That morning, Liam’s partner was Mark Roberts, an experienced paramedic ten years Liam’s senior who had recently made a tree change, moving from Sydney to Birrangulla with his family. Liam admitted to Mark that he was finding things tough without Maddi and Mark was great, leaving him to his thoughts.
The shift had been relatively easy so far. Their first patient was a sixty-three-year-old man who thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out to be a case of heartburn but Liam assured him and his wife it was always worth getting these things checked out.
Their second patient was an elderly woman in respiratory distress – an exacerbation of her COPD. Liam bit his tongue when she asked if she could have a quick smoke before they loaded her into the ambulance. They had taken each patient to hospital and after grabbing some lunch and eating on the run, they did a few more calls before heading back to the station.
While Liam and Mark waited for their next job they restocked and cleaned out the truck until everything was immaculate.
“You miss Sydney?” Liam asked. He still wasn’t in the mood for small talk, but if he didn’t say something, Mark would start asking him questions.
“Wouldn’t move back there if you gave me a million bucks,” Mark replied. “We love it here. Kids are happy in their new schools and my wife loves the smaller community.”
“I know what you mean.”
“When did you move here?”
“I moved back twelve months ago.”
“You grow up here?” Mark asked.
“Yep. Lived here all my life after my family moved here from Ireland. Went to Sydney and only lasted a few years.”
“I can understand why. The pace is a killer, isn’t it, compared to this?”
They chatted about the differences between being a city paramedic versus a country paramedic and both agreed they had the best of both worlds in their jobs now. They still treated sick people, but did so in a far less stressful environment.
“Everyone back in Sydney keeps asking me when I’ll get bored and come back.”
Liam laughed. “My family thought the same but over time they’ve come to realize how much I love living here.”
Toward the end of their shift they were deciding what to do next when the call came.
A police vehicle, in pursuit of a stolen car, had run off the road and hit a tree. The driver of the stolen car had then hit a cattle truck head-on and been instantly killed. The truck driver had called triple zero.
Sirens screaming, Mark drove fast and they were at the scene in minutes.
From the skid marks on the slick bitumen it looked like the police car had lost control and veered across the wrong side of the road before crashing through the guard rail and sliding down a small ridge and hitting a gum tree head-on. The driver’s side had taken the bulk of the impact. The two doors were crumpled inward and the windows smashed. They heard a man shouting. Not good, bu
t at least that meant the driver was probably breathing.
Dragging their bags, they slid their way down the grassy embankment to reach the car. The sight in front of them was confronting. The grim look on Mark’s face matched how Liam felt. A man, presumably the driver of the truck, had hauled the policeman from the car and was leaning over him, performing CPR and shouting for help. Memories of the bus accident flooded back to Liam and he fought down the urge to panic. Now wasn’t the time to lose his cool.
He pulled on gloves and slid beside the man. “G’day, mate, I’m Liam. This is Mark. We’re here to help.”
The man looked up at Liam with relief and Liam was shocked to see how young he was. He was barely more than a kid. He edged him aside gently and took over compressions. The officer was unconscious with no pulse but at least he was still breathing.
“Oh, jeez,” Mark said as he began checking the policeman over. “It’s Macca.”
Liam swore. Everyone in town knew Macca. “He’s one of my dad’s best mates,” he said.
Mark looked at him. “It doesn’t look good, man.”
Liam turned to the kid while continuing compressions. “What’s your name, buddy?”
“Jackson.”
Mark grabbed the AED and switched it on.
The kid was pale and shaking and looked like he was about to pass out. Liam needed him to keep talking so they didn’t have two patients on their hands.
Mark attached pads to Macca’s skin. “Charging,” he called out. “Stand clear.”
The machine analyzed the rhythm and delivered the shock. Macca’s body jerked then stilled.
“We’ve got a rhythm!” Mark shouted.
Liam grabbed an IV and prepared to insert it. Jackson looked over his shoulder and kept up a running dialogue.
“I was driving my dad’s truck back to the farm when this sports car came around the bend too fast. He smashed straight into me. I couldn’t avoid him. Then the cop car came around the bend, skidded on the road and ended up here. I got down here as fast as I could as soon as I realized the other guy in the car was dead. When I found him he was breathing and talking then he stopped. I pulled him out of the car and started CPR.”
Critical Condition Page 6