Thompson exchanged a glance with Delroy, then made a pantomime of looking at his watch. ‘I have to go. We’ll talk when you’re better,’ he said and disappeared from view.
The effort of speaking had exhausted Berlin. She closed her eyes. Delroy whispered in her ear.
‘The police found Coulthard’s shoes at the Basin. They think he went to top himself but it was frozen over, so he went into the river instead. I reckon he’s legged it to Spain.’
Berlin wanted to smile, but couldn’t. She had stared into the abyss and it blinked first. The dragon had been put to the sword; hereafter night would mean sleep.
The nurse came back and started to rig up a device. ‘You’ll have to go now,’ she said to Delroy, hooking a tube into the cannula in Berlin’s arm. She adjusted a valve.
‘What’s that?’ asked Delroy.
‘PCA,’ replied the nurse. ‘Patient-controlled analgesia. She’s going to be in excruciating pain.’
Berlin opened her eyes wide, alarmed. The nurse gave her a brisk, reassuring nod. ‘This will fix it,’ she said.
Delroy watched as she curled Berlin’s fingers around the device and showed her how to control the flow.
‘What is it?’ said Delroy.
The nurse smiled. ‘Morphine,’ she said.
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to Ben Ball of Penguin Australia and Jason Arthur of Random House UK.
Particular thanks to my very classy agent, Sarah Ballard.
Special thanks to Arwen Summers, my editor at Penguin Australia.
No thanks to those who told me a picture was worth a thousand words.
Heartfelt thanks to Peta Masters for the title, and just about everything else.
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In Her Blood Page 24