A Consultant's Special Care

Just then, the kitchen light came on, and Abby heard Chloe’s small voice. ‘Daddy here, Mummy?’ she was asking.

Jessica’s answer was muted, and Abby tapped on the kitchen door and said in an urgent low voice, ‘Jess—it’s Abby. Can I come in?’

Abby heard the slide of a bolt and then Jessica opened the door. She was white-faced and her hands shook a little, but Abby could see that she was trying to appear calm for Chloe’s sake.

‘Me have lem’nade, Mummy?’

‘No, Chloe. Not now.’

Abby went into the kitchen and shut the door behind her. ‘I thought I heard something and I came to see if you were all right.’

Jessica nodded, and said in an undertone, ‘I thought I heard someone prowling around outside, and got up to take a look. Then Chloe said she saw someone in her room, but she might have been dreaming.’

Abby looked at her in alarm. ‘Have you checked the house?’

‘Yes. There’s no one here now, but the bathroom window has been forced open.’ She frowned. ‘I’ll have to get that fixed as soon as I can. Perhaps I can block it up some way, just for tonight.’

‘Why I not have lem’nade?’ Chloe asked, rubbing her eyes.

‘It’s not good for you at this time of night. I’ll make you a milk drink instead. You go and curl up on the settee and I’ll bring it to you.’

Jessica settled her daughter, then fetched a saucepan from the cupboard and set about making hot chocolate.

She was trembling still, and Abby said quietly, ‘I’ll do that. You sit down. You look a bit wobbly on your feet.’ She went to the hob and watched the milk heat in the pan, then poured it into mugs and stirred the chocolate thoughtfully. ‘Do you think it was Colin?’

‘I don’t know. It might have been, but with him, trouble usually starts when he’s had too much drink. He’s not usually one to creep about.’ She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. ‘Unless he’s trying out some new way to upset me…I suppose you must think I’m feeble to let him get to me this way?’

Abby shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think that at all. I know what it’s like to deal with someone who’s unstable. I knew a man in London who could be menacing if he didn’t get his own way. He was possessive and determined to have me as his girl friend. I even had to change my phone number because of him. I tried talking to him, reasoning with him, but nothing worked, and in the end I left. It was too wearing on my nerves to have to keep on dealing with him.’

‘I think it’s a bit like that with Colin. He can’t bear to think that I don’t want him any more. That’s why he keeps coming back.’

‘Have you called the police about tonight’s break-in?’

Jessica shook her head. ‘There doesn’t seem to be much point. Whoever it was has gone now, and it would only upset Chloe to have police all over the place. Perhaps I’ll tell them in the morning, when she’s at nursery.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’ Abby looked at Jessica’s pale face and said, ‘Shall I stay here with you for the rest of the night?’

‘Would you? I must admit I’m feeling really wound up about all this. It’s frightening to think that someone’s been creeping about my house.’

‘I would feel exactly the same.’ Abby gave her a hug. ‘We’ll all feel safer if we stay together.’

She doubted that either of them would get much sleep after that, but at least Chloe didn’t appear to be too upset by the incident. They took the little girl up to bed a few minutes later, and she looked out of her bedroom window to satisfy herself that all was well before she climbed into bed. Then she got up again and said sleepily, ‘Me go in Mummy’s bed?’

‘All right.’ Jessica hugged her daughter close, and Abby settled down for what was left of the night in Chloe’s room. When Jessica woke her in the morning, in time to get ready for work, she felt as though she had only just fallen asleep.

In the A and E department, Jordan was his usual energetic, breezy self, and Abby looked at him sourly through bleary eyes as the morning progressed. How did he manage to be so full of life, with such endless vitality? If he said as much as one small thing to her about looking tired she would not be responsible for her actions. As it was, she was still feeling anxious about the events of the night before, and her mood was fractious.

Chloe had bounced downstairs to breakfast as happily as ever, and had seemed not to be affected by what had gone on, except that when she had been biting on a slice of buttery toast she had said curiously, ‘Dat man still in your house, Abby?’

Abby had blinked. ‘What man, sweetheart?’

Chloe had shrugged awkwardly and had then looked at her with a touch of uncertainty as though she had felt she might have said something wrong. ‘I sawed him.’

‘When did you see him, Chloe?’

‘In the dark. I looked out my window.’ Then Chloe had stopped speaking, and had resolutely refused to answer any more questions, no matter how tentatively they had been put to her.

Abby had been worried. She had made a quick check of the house, realising too late that she had left the back door unlocked in her haste last night, but there had been no sign of anything untoward, nothing appeared to be missing, and she had begun to wonder whether Chloe had imagined it.

Then, as she had been preparing to set off for work, she had discovered the imprint of a man’s shoe in the shrubbery outside her patio doors. The sight of it had sent a chill through her whole body.

Perhaps Jordan recognised that she was out of sorts and not to be messed with, because he gave her a sideways glance as she snatched up a patient’s case file from the desk and briskly scanned it, but he said nothing.

‘I’ve had Mr Stevens’ test results back from the lab,’ Sarah said, coming up behind her, and Abby jumped as though she had been scalded.

Recovering, she said quietly, ‘Thanks, Sarah. I’ll let him know.’

They were busy in the department, and she didn’t have time to stop and dwell on things, but in the late afternoon, when they had finished dealing with a nasty road traffic accident, she was having a quick cup of coffee when Sarah called her to her next patient.

‘She’s been brought in by a neighbour,’ Sarah said. ‘The neighbour thinks she’s been knocked about by her boyfriend—there’s a history of injuries over the past three years, but the woman isn’t admitting to anything. She has a fever and she looks very poorly. She’s complaining of severe headache and pain in and above the eye. I’ve put her in cubicle five.’

‘OK, I’ll take a look at her right away.’

Abby was shocked by the woman’s facial injuries, but she didn’t let her see that she was affected. Instead, she murmured sympathetically, ‘That looks as though it must be really hurting, Rhea. How did it happen?’

‘I tripped and banged my face on a door,’ the woman answered. She was aged around thirty, and her cheekbone and eye socket were swollen. There was also a split in the skin, which looked as though it had started healing but infection had set in. She looked ill.

‘This must have happened a few days ago,’ Abby murmured, inspecting the wound. ‘It looks as though the cheek has become infected…it must be very tender. Didn’t you go and see your doctor for treatment?’

‘No, I…I didn’t want to bother him. I thought it would clear up on its own.’

‘Are you having any problems with your vision?’

‘Yes, things are a bit blurred.’

‘All right, Rhea. You rest there, while I go and consult with a colleague. We’re going to have to admit you, so that we can clear up the infection as quickly as possible. It’s possible that there’s a small clot forming at the back of the eye, which is building up the pressure there and causing your visual disturbance, so we need to deal with that as well. I’ll leave you with the nurse, so that she can take a swab. That will help us to identify the bacterium causing the infection.’

She left the cubicle and went to find Jordan. He was with a patient, but he came to talk to her as soon as she asked, and she quickly told him about Rhea.

‘I think I need to start her on antibiotics straight away, and I’m organising a scan. Should I give her anticoagulants? I’m pretty sure that she has a thrombosis as a result of the infection, and her sight is already being affected.’

‘Yes, that’s the best course of action. If we don’t act quickly she could lose her sight altogether. It’s not something that we come across often these days—mostly infections are cleared up by antibiotics before they can get this far, but she probably left it because she didn’t want to let anyone see what had happened.’