Kisses at Sunset

by Sarah Morgan

  She perched on the edge of the only chair that wasn’t covered in papers, as if she was preparing to escape if she had to. ‘A couple. They were gang shootings. Just kids, actually.’ She frowned at the memory. ‘They looked as though they should have been in school.’

  ‘They probably should have been. I’ve only seen one gunshot wound since I’ve been here,’ Josh told her, ‘and that was a farmer who had an accident with his gun. We have quite a few diving-related accidents and, of course, reckless surfers who head-butt the board. Apart from that, it’s the usual round of fractures, road traffic accidents, heart attacks—and that’s just among the tourists. So what brought you to Cornwall, Dr O’Brien?’

  Her face was suddenly shuttered. ‘I like surfing.’

  Josh was left with a powerful feeling that she’d practised that answer. ‘Where are you living?’

  ‘I’ve rented somewhere.’ Her tone didn’t encourage further questioning.

  Knowing when to probe and when to back off, Josh backed off, making a mental note to watch her interaction with the staff. Working in A and E was a stressful experience at the best of times, but one of the things that lessened the stress was the support that the medical and nursing staff gave each other. Would Kat fit in? Hannah had obviously liked her immediately…

  Was it just him she was chilly with?

  ‘Right. Well, let’s give you the tour.’ He rose to his feet and lifted a couple of files off his desk. ‘I need to drop these with the girls on Reception so we might as well start there. Welcome to Cornwall, Kat.’

  * * *

  First days were always so nerve-racking.

  Not knowing the people, not knowing your way around or the routine. Not that there was much routine in A and E, Kat acknowledged as she followed Josh through to Reception, trying to keep up with his long stride.

  Part of her just wanted to get stuck straight into a challenging trauma case. At least then she’d feel comfortable.

  Or maybe she’d never feel comfortable working with a man like Josh.

  Why did it have to be him?

  She thought she’d done well yesterday. Every time he’d come into her thoughts she’d resolutely pushed the memory away, assuring herself that she was never going to see him again. He’d just been a guy on a beach. Probably on holiday, she’d told herself. And now here he was, virtually her boss. And he was going to be under her nose every day.

  She almost groaned aloud at the thought.

  He was a man designed for maximum impact. Staggeringly handsome and more than a little disturbing. With that glossy dark hair and that wicked smile, he reminded her of a pirate. She could imagine him standing on the deck of a ship, planning daring escapes, plunder and the seduction of women. And as for those blue eyes—the way he looked at her made her insides feel funny.

  Kat closed her eyes, irritated with herself. What was the matter with her? She wasn’t one to dream about pirates! In fact, she had her feet well and truly on the ground. If a man was good-looking, she just didn’t notice, and the reason she didn’t notice was because she wasn’t interested. She wasn’t on the market.

  She was happy with Archie and men like Josh Sullivan held no appeal for her.

  But judging from the way the receptionist’s eyes lit up when she saw the young consultant, she was in a minority of one. Clearly he was everyone else’s idea of a heartthrob.

  ‘Hi, Josh.’ A girl wearing a badge saying Paula, Senior Receptionist, A and E beamed in his direction. ‘Glad you’re finally here. There’s lots going on. That’s why I’m hiding away here in the back office, rather than manning Reception. I’m thinking of locking the doors and putting up a “closed” sign.’

  ‘Well, we’ve got an extra pair of hands to help us clear the decks,’ Josh said easily, smiling at Kat. ‘Say hello to Dr O’Brien. She’s just joined us. This is Paula. She runs the place and keeps us all in order. Anything you need to know, start with her. This is her control room. Out there…’ He jerked his head and gave a shudder. ‘That’s the battlefront, staffed by her generals.’

  Kat felt some of the tension melt away under Paula’s friendly smile. ‘Hello, Paula.’

  ‘She’s come all the way from grimy London,’ Josh said, dumping the files on Paula’s desk. ‘But I’m sure she’ll soon recover. Here you are. Don’t say I never give you anything.’

  ‘You finally finished with them? You’re a star.’ Paula took the files and stacked them neatly. ‘Did Mac take a look?’

  ‘The only thing my brother looks at these days is his pregnant wife,’ Josh drawled, turning to Kat. ‘Mac is a senior consultant here and Louisa, his wife, worked here as a nurse until a few weeks ago.’

  ‘She’s on maternity leave?’

  ‘Pottering round the house, waiting for it all to happen. Never seen a woman so big in my life. She’s giving birth to a hippo, no doubt about it.’ Josh sprawled in a vacant chair and turned his attention back to Paula. ‘So how’s Geoff?’

  Paula’s smile faded and she gave a little shrug. ‘Not great at the moment, to be honest. He’s very down, but I suppose that’s natural. I do my best to be upbeat, but it’s pretty hard in the circumstances.’

  Josh’s eyes narrowed. ‘Has he been back to the neurologist?’

  ‘He’s got an appointment tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Do you need time off?’

  Paula shook her head and looked away, shuffling some papers. ‘It’s fine. His mum is taking him.’

  ‘Why aren’t you taking him?’

  Paula hesitated and her hands stilled. ‘We’re too busy, Josh.’ Her voice cracked slightly and she cleared her throat. ‘You know what this place is like in the summer—it’s the crazy season. Five million tourists all deciding to do stupid things at the same time.’

  Josh grinned and stretched long legs out in front of him. ‘Slack day, then.’

  Paula laughed in response to his humour but her eyes were strained. ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘You’re to take the morning off,’ Josh said quietly, his blue eyes suddenly serious and his voice firm. ‘I’ll poach from one of the other departments to cover you and I’ll clear it with Mac.’ He stood up and put an arm round her shoulder, giving her a quick hug. ‘Take the time you need but come and find me afterwards and we can talk about it. It must be the pits for you both.’

  Kat saw Paula struggle with tears. ‘You can’t give me the morning off.’

  ‘Just did.’

  ‘But—’

  Josh stifled a yawn. ‘You’re boring me now, Paula.’

  Paula wiped her eyes discreetly and blew her nose. ‘Thanks, Josh.’

  ‘No thanks needed. And I hope it isn’t as bad as you’re anticipating. Right, well, that’s enough staff bonding for one morning.’ Lightening the atmosphere, Josh winked at Paula and walked towards the door, gesturing for Kat to follow him. ‘See you girls later.’

  They walked back into the main area which was the hub of the department, Josh moving to one side as a staff nurse scurried past, clutching a pile of brown X-ray folders.

  Kat was still thinking about what she’d witnessed. ‘Her husband is ill?’

  ‘He has MS.’

  Multiple sclerosis. Kat made a sympathetic noise. ‘Is he bad?’

  ‘He has the relapsing and remitting variety so he has patches where he’s good, but he’s relapsed twice this year so he’s being assessed for beta interferon.’

  Kat nodded. ‘It’s not an area I know much about.’

  Josh gave a rueful smile. ‘Frankly, neither did I until Paula’s husband was diagnosed a year ago. Then I rapidly became best friends with our local neurologist and picked his brains. He’s a good chap. He’s helped them a lot.’

  Kat hid her surprise. He’d done that for a colleague?

  ‘Anyway…’ He smiled in her direction. ‘Quick tour and then we’ll try and make a dent in the mass of patients in the waiting room. Like most A and E departments, we run a triage system here so the triage nurse assesses e
veryone when they arrive and decides on the urgency of their case. But I’m a bit of a control freak so I still cast an eye over the stretcher cases when I arrive. Let’s start by showing you Resus…’

  He shouldered open the swing doors that led to the resuscitation room but before he could speak a nurse hurried up to him.

  ‘Ambulance Control just called. They’re bringing in a girl found collapsed on the beach. There was a party last night—plenty of drink—and her friends left her to sleep it off. She’s semi-conscious and won’t wake up properly.’

  Josh dragged on gloves and threw an apologetic look in Kat’s direction. ‘So much for showing you around.’ He turned back to the nurse. ‘Get the team together.’

  As he finished speaking the doors to Resus crashed open and the ambulance crew hurried in with the girl on a stretcher, followed by a flurry of A and E staff. Swiftly the paramedics transferred her to the trolley.

  ‘This is Holly Bannister, seventeen years of age, on holiday for a few days with her friends. She’s been in and out of consciousness, very agitated, GCS of six,’ the paramedic handed over, detailing their observations since they’d been called to the girl.

  ‘Any relatives?’

  ‘Just a group of friends in Reception,’ the paramedic told them, and Josh gave a grim smile as he checked the girl’s airway.

  ‘I have a suspicion that she needs to advertise for new friends. OK, folks, I want an ECG a blood pressure and a temperature. Make that a rectal temperature. Kat…’ he lifted his eyes from his assessment of the patient ‘…I want you to talk to those friends. Find out what happened. I want to know everything there is to know about last night’s beach party, but most of all I want to know what she took.’

  ‘What she took?’ Kat looked at the teenager, who was now writhing and thrashing on the trolley. ‘You think she’s taken drugs?’

  ‘Almost certainly. My money’s on MDMA—ecstasy. She’s agitated, hypertonic, sweating, dilated pupils…’ He looked at the nurse who was checking the girl’s observations. ‘Temperature?’

  ‘Thirty-nine point five.’

  Josh nodded. ‘Let’s get a line in and then calculate her weight and give her 1 milligram dantrolene per kilogram IV.’

  Kat slipped out of Resus and went to find the friends. There were two of them, one dark and one blonde, and they were huddled in Reception, looking the worse for wear. Kat looked at Paula. ‘Where can I talk to a couple of teenagers?’

  ‘Take them into the relatives’ room,’ Paula said immediately, handing her a key. ‘Back through the door and first on your left. Let me know if you need tea.’

  Kat smiled her thanks but she had a feeling that it wasn’t tea the teenagers needed, it was a good shake.

  She walked over to them. ‘Are you with Holly?’

  The dark-haired girl gave a sheepish nod. ‘Is she OK?’

  ‘Not at the moment,’ Kat said coolly. ‘I need some information. Do you mind coming with me, please?’

  They exchanged wary looks but followed her without argument, each of the girls dressed in the traditional teenage ‘uniform’ of strappy tops, hipster jeans and big belts, and wearing the obligatory bored expression.

  ‘All right.’ Kat closed the door and turned to look at them. ‘You don’t need me to tell you that Holly’s very ill.’

  The blonde girl was chewing gum. She glanced at the other and then gave what was supposed to be a casual shrug, but Kat caught the fear in her eyes. ‘She just had too much to drink and she isn’t used to it.’ She transferred her gum to the other side of her mouth. ‘It’s no big deal.’

  Kat kept her tone neutral. ‘What was she drinking?’

  ‘I dunno.’ The girl shrugged again, her expression sulky. ‘Alcopops mostly. It was a pretty wild party. Whatever was going. I wasn’t really watching.’

  In other words, she’d been drinking herself. For a moment Kat tried to remind herself that these were young kids, just beginning to push at the traces, test the limits. Was she being too hard on them? Then she remembered the girl lying in Resus and the grim look on Josh’s face.

  They needed to know that pushing at the traces had consequences. ‘Who arranged the party?’

  The blonde girl rolled her eyes. ‘Like we’re going to tell you that! I don’t think so!’

  Kat kept her voice steady. ‘If you want to help Holly, you’ll tell me. I’m not the enemy here.’

  The girls exchanged looks again and the one chewing gum gave a careless shrug. ‘Some guy we met in one of the pubs. He throws parties all the time on the beach.’

  ‘And was he offering drugs as well as alcohol?’

  There was a sulky silence but Katy saw the panic in the dark-haired girl’s eyes and decided that she was the one with a conscience. ‘Holly is really ill,’ she said quietly, ‘and we need to know everything we can if we’re going to make her better. We need your help. Anything you can tell us might help. Anything.’

  ‘If?’ The girl stopped chewing and looked at her in alarm. Smudges of the previous night’s make-up darkened her eyes and her face was alarmingly pale. She looked tired and very much the worse for wear. ‘What do you mean, if? She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?’

  Kat shrugged, unable to give the reassurance the girl was looking for. ‘I have no idea, but if she’s taken drugs and you know anything about it, now is the time to tell me.’

  The girl swallowed, her breathing rapid, indecision flickering over her white features. ‘She took E,’ she blurted out suddenly, ‘but it couldn’t be that. She’s taken it before and she’s always been fine.’

  Ecstasy.

  So Josh had been right in his initial assessment, Kat thought. He was obviously smart as well as good-looking. Or maybe drug-taking on the beach was a common occurrence in this part of Cornwall? She had no idea, and made a mental note to ask him about it at the first opportunity.

  The other girl closed her eyes and gave a sigh of exasperation. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Tina.’

  ‘Well, what was I supposed to do?’ Tina turned on her defensively, her make-up smudging as the tears started to fall. ‘I’m not going to stand around here while Holly dies, am I? I don’t want that on my conscience, thanks very much.’ She gave a little sob and wrapped her arms around herself, looking more like a child than a teenager.

  ‘Oh, get a life. She is so not going to die,’ the other girl said in a derisive tone, and Kat shot her a cold look.

  ‘She could do. Have you any idea how dangerous drugs are?’

  The girl rolled her eyes defiantly. ‘She’s just drunk, that’s all…’

  ‘How many did she take? Do you know?’ Realising that she stood more chance with Tina, Kat directed her questioning towards the other girl. ‘If you know, please tell me. It’s really important.’

  Tina stared at the floor. ‘One,’ she mumbled, not looking at her friend, ‘just the one. Then she just keeled over. We all just thought she was drunk. She’s taken them before and she was OK.’

  Kat let out a long breath but gave Tina a smile. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth, that was very brave of you. Why don’t you go back out to Reception and get yourselves some water from the machine? It might make you feel better. We’ll let you know how she is as soon as there’s some news.’ She walked towards the door and opened it, pausing in the entrance. ‘Oh, one other thing. Do you have the phone number of her parents? We’re going to need to call them.’

  Tina blanched and the other girl shook her head, her jaw lifted in a stubborn tilt. ‘You’re joking, right?’ Her tone was nothing short of rude and confrontational. ‘No way are you phoning her parents. You can forget it!’

  Kat resisted the temptation to shake the girl. ‘They need to know that their daughter is in hospital—’

  ‘But we can’t! We’re not even supposed to be here,’ Tina blurted out, panic flitting across her face, her voice choked with tears. ‘Our parents think we’re having a sleepover with a girl in our class. They don’t even know
we’re in Cornwall.’

  Kat sighed and ran a hand over the back of her neck. What a mess. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said gently, ‘but we need to inform her parents. I’m sure if you give it some thought, you’ll understand that.’

  Tina burst into tears and the other girl sat down on a chair with a plop, her face suddenly white.

  ‘My dad’ll kill me,’ she muttered, lifting her head and glaring at Tina. ‘This is your bloody fault! You never should have given her the stuff. You were so out of order!’

  ‘I didn’t give it to her,’ Tina choked, tears streaming down her face, and Kat took a deep breath, deciding that she had no choice but to intervene.

  ‘Look, it’s important that I tell the team that she’s taken ecstasy, so I’m going to do that now, and when I come back I want the phone number of her parents, OK?’

  One glance at their ashen, sulky faces told her that it clearly wasn’t OK at all, but she decided that she didn’t have time for them at the moment. Holly was the priority.

  ‘Paula…’ She stuck her head into Reception. ‘Can someone keep half an eye on those two for a moment, please? I need to go back to Resus and speak to Josh.’

  ‘No problem. I’ll do it myself.’ Paula stood up and Kat gave her a grateful smile then walked briskly back to Resus.

  It was a hive of activity, with Josh delivering instructions in cool, calm tones that kept everyone focused.

  ‘Kat?’ He glanced in her direction and raised a dark eyebrow. ‘Tell me you’ve got news for me.’

  ‘Ecstasy,’ she said immediately, and he gave a nod, a flicker of respect in his eyes as he looked at her. Clearly he’d anticipated that she’d have trouble extracting the information from the teenagers.

  ‘Anything else?’