FOUR
Doctor Rachel Patten lit another candle and contemplated her current situation. Widow’s Bay wasn’t a bad place really and to be fair Rachel had only seen the place in winter, she just wasn’t sure it had been the best choice to start her career as a G.P. She had taken the job as a favour to her father who had gone to medical school with her Boss Dr. Mayfield, the only other doctor on the island.
And she knew it was only for another six months until Mayfield’s partner returned from her maternity leave. It was a steady place to start for sure, the problem for Rachel was it was just so damn small. The tiny island had a population of just under a two hundred mostly made up of either students or retired pensioners that had chosen (God only knew why) to make Widow’s Bay their home.
Although she had only been here three months, she had already found herself starting to count down the remaining days of her contract, never a good sign.
Rachel, working on autopilot, was about to go through to the cottage’s small kitchen to make herself a cup of tea when she remembered there was no power. Normally being the only G.P surgery on an island and having no power would have been serious cause for concern, but seeing as nothing dramatic ever happened around here, the intermittent power outs were really nothing more than a pain in the backside. Besides, if tonight was anything to go by the power would be back up soon enough, so in the meantime she would just have to grin and bear it. At least she had all but a full battery on her iPad so she could read a while and wait for the storm to pass.
She nearly screamed out loud at a sudden hammering on the front door. “Jesus,” for anyone out in this weather she thought it must be serious. Well she had wanted excitement. Hadn’t she?
Rachel opened the front door to see a young drenched policewoman standing on the pavement with her shoulders hunched up against the cold. It was W.P.C Munro, Suzy. “Suzy, is that you?” Suzy nodded forlornly. “God, get yourself inside, girl.” Rachel ushered the frozen women inside and closed the door, shutting out the storm.
Suzy shook the water off her coat. “Rachel, hi, I was looking for Doctor Mayfield.”
Rachel took her through to the living room. “Doug’s on the mainland. Will I do?”
“Course,” Suzy replied with a nod that showered the carpet with water from her soaked hair.
“What can I do for you?” Rachel asked.
The policewoman was wide eyed with nervous excitement. “P.C Williams found a young woman wandering around by the docks,”
“Jesus, in this weather?”
“Yeah, apparently she’s in shock. I’m going to need you to come with me up to the lifeboat station, he’s taken her there, it’s the only place with half decent power at the moment.”
Before she’d even realized it, Rachel had grabbed her medical emergency bag and snapped it open to check what she had. “Shock, right give me a second.” She picked up a candle and went through into the small surgery and over to the storeroom where they kept the pharmaceuticals under lock and key. “I’ll be as quick as I can Suzy.” She was struggling to open the heavy lock on the door in the half-light when the whole room illuminated.
Suzy was in the doorway shining her powerful police issue torch over Rachel’s shoulder. “That better, doc?” She smirked.
“Thanks,” Rachel replied and opened the door. It took her a few seconds to find what she was looking for. A vial of Dopamine hydrochloride, this was a gentle but effective treatment for shock. She tossed it into her bag along with a pack of syringes and came back out. “Okay, ready, let me grab my coat.”
The journey up to the lifeboat station, which was situated at the end of a small track running down to a secluded beach, could be described as precarious at the best of times, but was made doubly perilous by the driving rain which cut the visibility to practically zero.
Rachel watched Suzy as she tackled the conditions with no small amount of skill. She had been the only proper friend Rachel had made since arriving, due in no small part to the fact that they both under thirty. But this was the first time she had seen her in action so to speak.
Rachel’s heart was pumping ten to the dozen and she had done nothing but swear her head off for most of the drive, convinced they would end up in the sea or in a ditch somewhere. However Suzy had been cool calm and collected throughout, a model of concentration and a damn good driver to boot.
Rachel was relieved to see the lights of the lifeboat station appear out of the gloom up ahead and Suzy pulled the car over and both women made a mad dash through the wind and rain over to the prefabricated lifeboat office, the door opened just as they reached it and Pete the lifeboat volunteer ushered them inside. “Nice night for it.” He said as he closed the door.
“Yeah, great,” Patten replied, she shook off her coat and looked around the office a little disorientated for a moment then remembered it was a temporary building they had put up until the new lifeboat station could be constructed. She winced as a gust of wind from outside physically shifted the whole building slightly. “Jesus, is this place safe?”
Pete took her coat and draped it over a chair. “Doubt it,” he replied with a shrug.
“It’s got power and a decent radio transmitter,” Munro said taking off her own coat. “It’ll have to do for now. Is P.C Williams here?”
“No, he’s gone back down to the docks, to have a look around.” Pete said and moved over to a makeshift kitchenette. “He shouldn’t be too long. I’ll get the kettle on.”
“Where’s the girl he found?” Patten asked. She shook the rain off her bag. “I’ll need to take a look at her.”
“Of course,” Pete gestured through the only other door in the cabin. “She’s in the next room, we have a makeshift bedroom back there, but last time I checked she was just sat in a chair. She’s pretty out of it doctor.”
“Thanks,” Rachel said and headed for the door. She hesitated before opening it suddenly unsure of what she would find.
“Okay, Rach’? Munro asked. “You want me to come with you?”
Rachel turned to her and flushed. “No, thanks.” She gave the police woman the best smile she could muster. And with that she opened the door and went through to the next room.
She was pleasantly surprised to feel how warm the back room was when she entered and was immediately met with the faint scent of freshly laundered but still damp clothing. A quick glance around the room showed that although it was just a temporary set up the guys at the station had done their best to make it feel as homely as possible. A double camp bed was situated in one corner along with a large obviously second hand sofa in front of which sat a table with a TV on it. The room was lit by a lamp standing in the far corner.
The woman was sitting in the middle of the room in a tatty old arm chair with her back to Rachel. A small portable heater was on the floor close by blowing warm air onto her legs. “Hello?” She said softly and came over to the side of the chair. “I’m Doctor Patten.” Pete had draped a large blanket over her legs and another over her shoulders for warmth.
“Hello?” Rachel said again and knelt down next to the chair. But the woman just stared off at the far wall with her hands in her lap. Her still damp brown hair was cut into a neat bob which framed the delicate features of her face. Woman? She looked nineteen at the very most and Rachel wondered if she was one of the students from the other side of the island.
“Is it okay if I have a quick look at you? Make sure you’re okay? You look like you’ve had a heck of a night.” Rachel put her medical bag on the floor and took out her stethoscope and a small torch. “Would that be okay?” But the girl didn’t so much as nod in response.
Rachel gingerly touched the girl’s cheek which was warm to the touch, which was a good start. She could see what looked like blood on the front of her blouse between the gap where the blanket had fallen slightly away from her chest. She slowly eased the blanket apart, yes there was definitely a fair amount of still wet blood soaked into the material. But she could clearly see the material itself was intact. All the time keeping her eye on the girl’s face for any sign of reaction, she unbuttoned the first three buttons of the blouse and pulled the material aside. She was relieved to see her skin was unmarked, whomever this blood belonged to it wasn’t hers.
“That’s good,” she said softly as much to herself as to the near catatonic girl and then she put on her stethoscope to listen to the girl’s heart and breathing, both of which, if a little on the slow side, were at least regular.
Finally, Rachel turned on the small torch. “I’m just going to shine this into your eyes for a sec’,” she told the girl but of course got no response. She hadn’t seen many cases of severe shock during her days at medical school, and certainly none here on sleepy Widow’s Bay island, but she instinctively knew that whatever had happened to this poor girl it had all but completely shut her down. She needed serious help, help which Rachel was nowhere near qualified enough to administer.
She thought of the Dopamine hydrochloride in her bag but instantly dismissed the idea of giving her a shot. The girl, if borderline catatonic, seemed healthy enough in body if not mind. All she had to do was keep an eye on her and make sure her condition didn’t deteriorate until they could call in the cavalry and get her to the mainland and into the proper care.
“Here we go, it’s going to be a bit bright.” Rachel shined the torch first into one eye and then the other, again the reaction was somewhat slower than normal but both pupils dilated under the light. “There, that wasn’t so bad now was it?”
No response, but what had she expected?
She closed her bag and got to her feet, she was about to speak again but thought better of it, so without another word she left the poor girl to whatever nightmare was playing out behind those glacial eyes.
When Rachel came back through into the office Suzy was sat on the edge of the table sipping a hot drink. Pete instantly jumped up from his seat by the radio and moved swiftly over to the kitchenette.
“Coco doc’?”
“Oh, please, thanks Peter.” He poured her a large mug which she gratefully accepted. “Cheers.”
“How is she Rach’?” Munro asked.
“Physically as far as I can tell from giving her a very brief once over she’s okay. But we really need to get her to the mainland for some proper care.” Rachel replied and took a sip of the coco, it was very sweet and very delicious.
Munro nodded grimly. “Pete’s contacted the police on the mainland, but for the time being we ain’t going anywhere in this weather.”
“I’ll do my best to keep an eye on her.” Rachel told her.
“Thanks, that’s all we can do for now. Once P.C Williams gets back we’ll hopefully have a better idea about what the hell’s going on.”
“You see the blood?” Pete asked.
“Yeah, it’s not hers.” Rachel said.
Pete made a face. “Yeah? Well then who the hell’s is it?”
Now that was a good question.