Gold Coast Angels: A Doctor's Redemption

‘Okay, I’ll give you some back story,’ she said. ‘You need to get used to this hospital, by the way. Everyone knows everything about everybody. If you want things kept private, forget it. I don’t normally add to it, but tonight you’ve earned it. Bonnie was Sam’s fiancée’s dog. According to reports, Emily was wild, passionate and more than a little foolhardy. She surfed every night—they both did. With Bonnie. When Emily bought her as a pup Sam tried to talk her into exercising her and then leaving her in the car while they surfed, but Bonnie was Emily’s dog and Emily simply refused.

‘So now Bonnie’s in her declining years but what she loves most in the world is lying on the beach at dusk, waiting for Sam to come in. If Sam leaves her at home, or in the Jeep, she’ll howl until the world thinks she’s being massacred. For months she howled because she missed Emily and Sam decided he couldn’t take her beach away from her as well.’

‘So…what happened to Emily?’ Zoe asked.

‘Killed by carelessness,’ Callie retorted. ‘Not that Sam will admit it, but there it is. They went down to the beach to surf but the waves were dumpers, crashing too close to shore. Sam knew it, they both knew it, but Emily went out anyway. Word is that she simply did what she wanted. She was clever and bright and she twisted the world round her finger.

‘That night she and Sam had words. Sam took Bonnie for a walk along the beach to let off steam and Emily took her board out, got dumped and broke her neck. To this day Sam thinks he should have picked her up and carted her off the beach by force, but I guess it’s like telling Bonnie she can’t stay on the beach on her own. Immoveable object means unimaginable force. One of them has to give.’

‘Oh,’ Zoe said in a small voice, and Callie gave her a swift, appraising glance.

‘Let me guess—you gave Sam a lecture?’

‘I…might have.’

‘And that red mark on his face? The mark that looks suspiciously like finger marks?’

‘Oh…’ She felt herself blush from the toes up.

‘It’ll settle,’ Callie said, grinning widely. ‘They don’t usually bruise with the fingermarks still showing. And I promise I won’t tell.’

‘How do you know…about the fingermarks?’ Zoe managed, and Callie’s smile died. There was a moment’s awkward pause and then Callie seemed to relent. She shrugged.

‘I worked in a women’s refuge for a while,’ she said curtly in a voice that told Zoe not to go there. ‘I was getting over a mistake myself. But I wouldn’t worry. You saved Sam’s dog, and I suspect even if the world knew you’d hit him he’d consider it a small price. Do you want to sleep in tomorrow? I can alter your shifts.’

She was changing the subject, Zoe thought, steering away from the personal, and she thought there were things behind this woman’s competent facade…

As there were things behind Sam’s surfer image.

She should think about sleeping in. She tried for a whole two seconds, but the warmth, the food, the effects of the evening’s fright suddenly coalesced into one vast fog of weariness. It was like the blinds were coming down whether she willed them or not.

‘I’ll be fine for tomorrow,’ she managed. ‘But I do need to sleep.’

‘I’ll tuck you in,’ Callie said cheerfully. ‘Bedroom. Come.’

‘I don’t need tucking in,’ she said, affronted.

‘Remind me to ask when I want to know what you need,’ Callie retorted. ‘I’m thinking Sam Webster is going to ring me from the vet’s to find out how you are and I’m telling him I’ve tucked you into bed, whether you wanted it or not.’

By midnight Doug was sufficiently happy with Bonnie to order Sam home.

‘I’ll be checking on her hourly. I’ll sleep when I’m relieved in the morning but I suspect you have work tomorrow. Right? So, home. Bed.’

Bonnie was sleeping soundly, heavily sedated. Sam fondled her soft ears but she didn’t respond, too busy sleeping.

Doug was right.

He headed out to the car park. Doug had locked Zoe’s car but it still blocked the entrance.

He needed to retrieve her purse, and he might as well move it before handing the keys back to Doug.

It took him three minutes to get it started and Doug came out to help. They shifted it and then stood looking at it in disgust, not only because it was blood-soaked.

‘She’s driven that thing from Adelaide,’ Sam said at last. ‘How?’

‘Blind faith,’ Doug said. ‘Some wrecking yard must have paid her to cart it away.’

It was structurally sound, Sam thought, but only just. Once upon a time it had been a little blue sedan, but its original panels had been replaced with whatever anyone could find. Some were painted bright orange with anti-rust. Some looked like they’d been attacked by a sledgehammer.

When running, the car sounded like a wheezing camel. Even the drive from entrance to car park was bumpy.

‘There’s a roadworthy sticker on the front,’ Doug said. ‘You reckon that’s because she needs to prove it to the cops half a dozen times a day?’ He grinned. ‘Never mind, it did its job. It got your dog here in time. Girl and car both need a medal.’

‘Yeah,’ Sam said absently. ‘I need to fix this.’

He bade Doug goodnight and headed back to his Jeep. It was a grubby surfer truck but compared to Zoe’s it was luxurious.

He should go back to the hospital. Friday was a normal working day. In eight hours he’d be on the wards.

Zoe would be there in six.

Zoe…

His head was doing strange things.

He climbed into his truck and headed where he always headed when he needed to clear his mind.

The beach was deserted. A full moon hung in a cloudless sky. His board lay where he’d dumped it hours ago. Just as well the tide had been going out, he thought, but, then, he’d been granted a miracle and a surfboard would have been a small price to pay for Bonnie’s life.

He needed to pay…something.

The hoons in the beach buggy would pay. Zoe had got a clear view of them, the hire-car logo, even part of the number plate. Doug had already made a call to the cops.

But Zoe?

What was it about her that twisted something inside him?

‘Maybe the fact that she saved your dog?’ he said drily, out loud. ‘Maybe that’d make anyone seem special.’

But there was something about her…

A heroic run with a dog far too big for her. An anger that he’d deserved.

But more. What?

Where were his thoughts taking him?

He was trying hard to haul them back on track. Sam Webster was a man who walked alone. He’d had one disastrous relationship. He’d loved Emily, but he hadn’t been able to protect her from herself. She’d died because of it, leaving him gutted and guilty and alone.