Diagnosis

by Lucy Clark

  ‘Now, I believe something for the pain was in order before we got out of the ambulance.’ He was writing on her chart as he spoke. ‘Allergic to anything?’

  Charli opened her eyes and thought—and then thought hard. Was she allergic to anything? She couldn’t remember. If she’d been wearing an Alert bracelet, he would have already seen it and noted the details. She cleared her throat. ‘Not that I know of.’

  ‘I’ll give you codeine phosphate but let me know if it doesn’t work.’ He drew up the injection and administered it via the drip. ‘That should start working soon. When you’re out of X-ray, the police will be wanting a word with you. Let me know if you’re not feeling up to it and we can reschedule for tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’ Charli frowned. ‘What’s happening tomorrow?’

  Logan smiled again, although this time it was a more cautious smile mixed with concern. ‘For you—nothing. You’re staying in overnight and we’ll decide tomorrow what happens next.’

  Alarm ripped through Charli. She couldn’t stay here overnight. She had no idea why but she just knew she couldn’t stay here. Besides, she was a senior staff member at this hospital and had the right to pull a string or two to get herself discharged. If this man thought she was going to stay, he had another think coming. She struggled to move but the nurse gently stopped her. Charli’s frustration grew.

  ‘I won’t be staying, Dr Hargraves, so don’t bother filling in the forms. I’ll have a word with Manny and he’ll sort this thing out for me.’

  ‘Manny? Who’s Manny?’

  ‘He’s the CEO of the hospital.’

  ‘Manny? Sorry. I don’t know anyone by that name.’

  ‘He would have hired you. He approves all senior staff, which I presume you are because you’re treating me.’

  Logan watched his patient closely. ‘Which hospital is that, Dr Summerfield?’

  ‘Why…’ Charli stopped. What was the name of the hospital? Oh, it was so ridiculous. She’d been working there since her graduation over ten years ago. It was then she decided that perhaps Dr Hargraves was having a little joke at her expense. ‘Stop being a pain. You know very well what the name of this hospital is.’

  ‘I do. It’s Stawell Hospital.’

  ‘Stawell?’ That wasn’t right.

  ‘Stawell Hospital in Victoria.’ Again, Logan watched her closely. ‘Australia.’

  ‘Australia? What am I doing in Australia?’

  ‘Hmm.’ He could see the panic in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and as she began to jerk into a sitting position, both he and the nurse gently laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘Easy there, Charli. Settle back down. Breathe. Deep breaths.’

  ‘Stop telling me what to do.’

  ‘They’re just suggestions, but if you settle back and start to breathe normally again, I’ll tell you why you’re here.’

  ‘Here in hospital?’ She sounded sceptical.

  ‘You were found a few hours ago, unconscious down a ravine not far from the Venus Baths.’

  ‘The Venus what?’

  ‘It’s a nature walking trail in the Grampians.’

  ‘And before that?’

  ‘Well, today is Tuesday morning and two days ago you were in Melbourne at a medical conference. You were the keynote speaker.’ He watched her closely while he spoke. ‘You don’t remember any of this, do you?’

  ‘Of course I do.’ Her words were tinged with impatience. It was the only way she could successfully hide the rising level of panic she felt still rising up within her. She had to remain calm. She had to figure this all out and for the moment she guessed her only option was to believe the man before her.

  Maree came in for a moment. ‘Wil’s here,’ she told Logan, and started doing Charli’s obs. ‘Temperature is 34.7°C.’

  ‘Good.’ Logan nodded.

  ‘BP is 120 over 70. Pulse and respiration rates almost normal. Oxygen sats 97 per cent.’

  ‘Good. We’ll leave the oxygen on for a little longer, Charli, but you’re progressing faster than I’d anticipated so perhaps you hadn’t been out on that ravine for as long as I’d previously thought.’ A moment later, Wil came into the cubicle. ‘Ah, here’s our friendly neighbourhood police officer. Charli, this is Wil. Do you feel like talking about things now?’

  ‘N-no.’ She stopped, cleared her throat and then closed her eyes. ‘I’d rather do it later.’

  Logan picked up on her apprehension. ‘All right. We’ll be taking you off to X-ray soon, so for the moment take the opportunity to rest and you can tell Wil what happened later. Maree’s going to take some blood and get the rest of your tests under way.’ He lowered his tone and said to Maree, ‘The mask can come off before she goes to X-ray if you’re happy with her vitals.’ Maree nodded and, after giving his patient a concerned glance, he signalled to Wil that they should talk outside.

  They left the cubicle and went to get a drink. ‘Something’s wrong,’ he said to his friend after they’d sat down and were drinking their coffee.

  ‘With the coffee?’

  ‘No, with the patient.’

  ‘What? She looks perfectly healthy to me.’

  ‘Something’s wrong. She’s not recalling details properly. She thought she was in America.’

  ‘America?’

  ‘Yes.’ He took a sip of his coffee and thought out loud. ‘It’s quite common for people who have suffered hypothermia and concussion to be confused.’

  ‘And she’s had both.’

  ‘I know but I have a gut feeling there’s more to it than that.’

  ‘How do you know her again?’

  ‘She was the keynote speaker at the conference I went to last weekend.’

  ‘Did you…you know…?’ Wil grinned excitedly. ‘Hit on her?’

  Logan laughed, not wanting to tell his mate that Charli had asked him for a drink. ‘Yeah, right, mate. I’m hardly in a position to show a woman a good time when I have two children in tow.’

  ‘They’re great kids and any woman would be crazy if she passed them up,’ Wil defended. ‘So she was a speaker, eh?’

  ‘Yes. She’s been doing several research projects over the past few years, as well as heading the emergency department at a Los Angeles hospital. She presented some interesting findings on her previous projects, especially one where she’s developed this new technique for surgery as well as inventing the piece of equipment you need to do it with.’

  Wil held up his hand to stop his friend. ‘Spare me the medical details.’

  ‘Let’s just say that she impressed everyone at the conference.’

  ‘I can believe it. Smart and beautiful. What a combination.’ Wil shuddered.

  Logan laughed. ‘That type of woman scares the life out of you.’

  ‘Absolutely, mate.’ Wil sipped his coffee. ‘There’s one thing that puzzles me.’

  ‘There’s more than one that puzzles me,’ Logan mumbled.

  ‘How did you know how old she was? Do they usually go around broadcasting the guest speakers’ ages at your strange medical conferences?’

  ‘Not usually, but in Charli’s case it was a matter of defining who she is. She’d finished medical school by the time she was twenty. She’d specialised in emergency medicine a few years later and has done quite a lot of extra study as well as presenting her research ever since.’

  ‘So she’s really smart,’ Wil stated, and Logan laughed again.

  ‘Way out of your league, mate, and mine too for that matter. Besides, she’s an American and has to be back in the States next week to present her results on her latest project. Chances are she’ll be discharged from the hospital tomorrow and head back to the States as soon as possible.’

  ‘You sound a little disappointed.’

  ‘Well, it would have been nice to talk to her one on one about some of her research.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Wil wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. Logan only laughed. Wil had no idea how close he was to the truth. The instant attraction L
ogan had felt for Charli was very much there but he still didn’t understand what she was doing here…in the Grampians. If she’d been coming to see him, as he’d suggested, why hadn’t she tried to contact him? He’d told her what hospital he worked at, that he was a GP in Halls Gap—he wasn’t that hard to find.

  ‘I’d better get back. Hopefully she’s in X-ray now and we can get this show on the road.’

  ‘So she’ll be here if I want to talk to her?’ The two men stood and headed back the way they’d come.

  Logan frowned remembering the way Charli had seemed frightened at the prospect of staying here overnight. ‘I’m not sure. I’d like her to stay but she’s adamant about leaving. She’ll either be here or back in Halls Gap or wherever she’s staying, so you’ll get your chance to question her.’

  ‘Let me know if you figure out what might be wrong.’

  ‘It’s all just an instinct.’

  ‘Yeah, but in the past your instincts have usually been right.’

  Logan nodded. ‘I’ll keep you informed.’ He checked with the nursing staff where Charli had been taken and was told she was in X-ray so he headed there. He couldn’t see her or her bed anywhere. For a moment he wondered whether she’d disappeared. She’d certainly been acting strangely enough, and as a doctor would know how hospitals worked. It would be easy for her to escape and hide.

  Then he turned his head as a bed was pushed through into a different X-ray room—a bed with Charli Summerfield on it. ‘Good.’ He crossed to her side. Her eyes were still closed. ‘How’s everything going? Are the staff treating you well?’

  Charli opened her eyes at his voice. ‘Dr Hargraves.’

  Good. She’d remembered him. ‘Call me Logan,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘Where am I?’ She reached out and grabbed his arm, thankful for the instant comfort she felt in his touch. The look in her eyes was urgent.

  ‘The name of the hospital?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Stawell Hospital.’

  ‘And where exactly is Stawell?’

  ‘About three hours from Melbourne.’

  ‘Melbourne, Australia,’ she said, and he nodded. ‘You said I’m here because I was at a conference?’

  ‘Yes. I attended the conference. We met—briefly.’

  She let go of his arm as abruptly as she’d grabbed it. ‘I don’t remember.’

  Logan nodded, not surprised at her extreme agitation and confusion. ‘Let’s start with what you do remember. Where were you born?’ he asked.

  ‘Los Angeles.’

  ‘Where do you live?’

  He received a blank stare from her so he thought he’d give her an easy one. He knew she’d overheard him talking when she’d been brought in so he’d test how good her memory was since then.

  ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Thirty-one.’

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Charli Summerfield.’

  ‘What is Charli short for?’

  She paused before saying with certainty, ‘Charlotte.’ She sighed and smiled at him. Logan nodded.

  ‘What’s your home address?’

  Charli opened her mouth and then stopped.

  ‘What happened to you when you went for your walk earlier this morning?’

  Again, he received a blank stare from her.

  ‘What was the research you presented at the conference?’

  ‘New techniques in emergency medicine, as well as a prototype for intricate scanning within the bounds of ER medicine.’

  ‘When is your birthday?’

  Blank stare.

  ‘How old were you when you graduated from medical school?’

  Another blank stare.

  ‘What is your mother’s name?’

  ‘Catherine.’

  They stared at each other and he watched as despair crept into her gaze. A nurse interrupted them and handed Logan the scans of Charli’s spine. He took them out of the packet and held them up to the light so she could see.

  ‘Everything looks fine here. Let’s get this cervical collar off your neck. The least I can do for you at the moment is to make you comfortable. And these things,’ he said as he took it off, ‘are far from comfortable.’

  ‘So what’s next?’

  ‘I’d like you to have a CT scan. You’re having trouble remembering things, Charli. There has to be a reason for that. Just hitting your head wouldn’t be enough to trigger amnesia. The fact that you were out in the cold may have added to things but there has to be another reason. Can you remember being sick lately? Travelling to anywhere other than Australia?’

  Again she thought and then shook her head. She glanced down at her hands and then looked at him, her eyes wet with unshed tears, her teeth biting her lower lip. ‘If you hadn’t met me before today, I wouldn’t have even remembered my name,’ she whispered.

  ‘I know.’ He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘I’d like to do a few more tests.’

  She took a calming breath in and forced her tension away. ‘Tests? Like shock therapy?’ She raised an eyebrow and it was then Logan realised she was teasing. A slow smile spread across his face. He was impressed. Even when she was facing the unknown, her sense of humour was there.

  ‘I don’t think we need to go that far, but if it will make you happy I can organise it. After all, you’re going to be here for the next twenty-four hours at least. We don’t want you to get bored.’

  ‘I don’t think shock therapy will be necessary and neither do I need to stay in for observation.’

  ‘There, I disagree.’

  ‘I don’t want to stay here, Dr Hargraves.’

  ‘Logan,’ he corrected.

  ‘I know your name, I just chose not to use it. And, anyway, if you don’t discharge me, I’ll discharge myself.’ She lifted her chin a little. It was a defiant gesture and Logan realised there’d be no arguing with her.

  ‘Where are you staying?’ he asked pointedly.

  ‘I…I can’t remember.’

  ‘Then I think you should stay here.’

  ‘No.’ The word was out of her mouth so fast, it surprised her.

  ‘Why not?’

  She hesitated. ‘I can’t remember.’ This time she said the three words clearly and with meaning. ‘It’s just a feeling I have. I don’t want to stay here overnight. I hate hospitals.’

  Logan choked on a laugh. ‘But you’re a doctor.’

  ‘That’s right. I work in hospitals. I don’t stay in them.’

  ‘They always say doctors make the worst patients.’

  ‘That’s me to a T. So will you release me?’

  He watched her closely. She really was frightened and she had no idea why. Something wasn’t right. Finally, he nodded. ‘You can come home with me until we find out where you were staying. I’m presuming you were staying in Halls Gap. I’ll get Wil to check it out.’

  ‘The cop?’

  ‘Yes. Your memory since you regained consciousness seems fine. You’re retaining information as well as recalling snippets of things from your life, such as your mother’s name.’

  ‘I don’t remember meeting you before. Do we know each other well?’

  ‘No. We were introduced, I shook your hand at the conference and…’ He cleared his throat, recalling exactly how he’d felt when he’d touched her. ‘And that was about it.’

  Charli thought hard but, no, she couldn’t remember any of it. ‘So I’m in Australia and I came out here to speak at a conference.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘OK. At least that’s a place to start.’ She swung her legs over the side of the bed. ‘But I won’t be staying with you. I’ll check into a hotel.’ She paused. ‘You do have hotels in Halls Gap, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, but you’re better off staying with me. That way, I can monitor you throughout the night and make sure you’re all right. I don’t have to explain the risks o
f concussion to you, Dr Summerfield, so you can stop being the high-and-mighty genius that you are and just accept someone’s help when they’re trying to give it.’

  Taking her back to Halls Gap to the surroundings where she’d experienced her trauma might make it easier for her to remember. The more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it.

  ‘Oh, can I now?’

  Logan didn’t back down from the challenge he saw in her eyes. After all, he had a seven-year-old daughter he had to deal with every day. Charli Summerfield should be a snap!

  ‘Yes, you can. You will either stay with me or stay here in the hospital. Take your pick, Doctor.’

  ‘I’ll sign myself out.’

  ‘I’ll have you sedated.’

  ‘That’s unethical!’

  ‘Not if I think you’d be a danger to yourself.’

  Charli leaned back against the pillows and crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze intent on his. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’

  Logan leaned a little closer and she caught the scent of him. It was spicy and earthy and very appealing…and for a brief flash, she knew she’d smelt it before. She shoved the thought aside, determined to stand up to this man and force him to give way.

  ‘Try me,’ he said softly, although his voice carried the full weight of his words. In that instant Charli wondered whether she’d met her match. Usually, she’d been able to make any man kowtow to her. It was one of the reasons she’d become head of unit, and she was used to dealing with insolent staff…but not here. Not here in some remote part of Australia where she seemed to be trapped.

  ‘Very well. I’ll return to your home with you but I want the police to know where I am at all times.’

  ‘Wise move.’

  ‘Now that that’s decided, I suggest we get the rest of my tests done so I can get out of here as soon as possible.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  LOGAN had to give Charli credit for her behaviour. For a person who confessed to disliking hospitals, she put up with being poked and prodded, eagerly looking at the scans with him and doing everything she was told.