Marion Lennox - A Child In Need

Shanni wrinkled her pert nose and her eyes twinkled. ‘A few days?’

‘At least,’ her mother said.

Silence.

Then… ‘Okay, Nick Daniels,’ she said at last. ‘You have a few days’ grace and then we’ll see what we can do to puncture that cool, calm exterior. Oh, and Nick…?’

‘Yes?’

‘Grandma here’s a great seamstress.’

‘Pardon?’ He was totally at sea.

‘You’ll want to get those ties widened.’ Her smile was gently teasing. ‘Magistrates in this town command a bit of respect; they wear ties, and that’s not a tie. That’s a shoelace. Grandma, do you call that a tie?’

Her grandmother obediently inspected the slip of expensive Italian silk which was now tugged loose around Nick’s open collar. ‘Hmm,’ she said, disapproving, and Shanni nodded.

‘ Hmm is right, Grandma. It’ll have to be widened. Nick’s yet to learn that the only impression designer labels give around here is that he doesn’t belong.’

Shanni followed her mother’s orders. Nick didn’t see her for five days.

In those days life settled into the pattern he’d expected-and more so. He was given an apartment above the courthouse, which suited him fine-no garden to look after and the windows looked out over the sea almost all the way to Tasmania. He even had a balcony he could use to appreciate the view-which he didn’t. He kept the door closed.

The courthouse was old and majestic and sleepy, as was everything about this town. Mary, Shanni’s eldest sister, was his clerk of courts. Comfortably married to the local newsagent, with two little boys at school, she knew everything and everybody in Bay Beach, and Nick found himself thinking it would be easier for everyone concerned if Mary took over the running of the whole courthouse. She practically did anyway.

‘This is Red Barring. Red’s up for abalone fishing without a licence,’ she told him on his second case. ‘He’ll plead that he only caught them for a family celebration, but he used that excuse the last time and the time before. Everyone knows he sells them on the black market.’

‘You’re not supposed to tell me this,’ Nick said faintly, and Mary grinned.

‘So you didn’t hear me saying it. But it’d be a pity if you were taken in by Red’s baby-blue eyes. He’s a thief and a bully, and he’s poaching abalone that fishermen have paid big money for the licences to fish. And when Sam Netherfield’s boat ran aground last month and he realised his insurance had lapsed, Red didn’t put in a cent to the appeal. Not one cent! Even though Sam was a character witness for Red at his last trial.’

It was all totally improper-but when Red stood before the bench and faltered in a whiny voice that he’d just caught the few abalone for his wife’s birthday and a tough fine would send him to the wall, it was sort of hard-if not impossible-for Nick to refrain from giving the police authority to look at the man’s finances and report back to the court in a week.

And, at the ludicrous look of dismay on the man’s face, he knew it would be stupid to ignore Mary entirely.

But her interference went beyond work.

‘What are you interested in?’ she demanded on his third day at work.

‘Interested in?’

‘Mmm.’ She beamed. ‘What are your hobbies? You must have some. All work and no play doesn’t make for a nice, well-balanced magistrate.’

‘Did you know you’re as bossy and interfering as your sister?’

‘I try,’ she said smugly. ‘Actually I’m older than Shanni so I think I’m better at it. I’ve had more practice. Now, I’m in the local repertory and we need new members. Can you sing?’

‘No!’

It didn’t faze her. ‘No matter. There’s spots as extras. Or we need painters backstage.’

‘No!’

‘Okay.’ She took the rebuff unabashed. ‘There’s a sailing school on Saturdays, there’s chess clubs, there’s canoeing, there’s angling, there’s…’

‘Mary, I am not interested in joining clubs.’

‘Why ever not?’ She was astonished.

‘I have plenty to do to keep me employed.’

‘Like what?’ She fixed him with a look that was remarkably like her sister’s. It was totally disconcerting. ‘Your work here is hardly Go, Go, Go . What else do you intend to do in this town?’

What else indeed? Nick took the case file he’d come out to retrieve, retreated to his office and glowered.

What?

In the city his work had been eighty hours a week plus. That was the way he liked it. He thrived on work. And his spare time? He filled it with restaurants, plays, films and art shows, all with different women…

There was a dearth of restaurants, plays, films and art shows around here, he thought desperately. And beautiful women.

‘Nick…’ There was yet another knock on the door and he sighed.

‘I’m busy,’ he called.

‘Nonsense.’ The door opened and Mary walked right in. Followed by Shanni…and followed by Harry, and his heart kicked at the sight of the pair of them.

Shanni was just as he remembered though not as dishevelled as after a night of being held hostage. She was now wearing a soft pink print dress which was bare around her shoulders and suited her perfectly. Her curls were tied back with a pale pink and blue ribbon. She looked happy, young and carefree, and her smile enfolded everyone in the room. It was Mary’s smile and then some. A knockout smile!

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Mary said you weren’t busy.’

‘Mary said…’ Something would have to be done about Mary. Soon!

‘She also said your lunch-hour is between one and two, but today you have no more court cases until three. So Harry and I came to take you out to lunch.’

By her side, Harry said absolutely nothing. He was dressed in simple shorts and T-shirt as he’d been wearing the last time Nick saw him, and the cast on his leg looked absurdly heavy for such a little one. And he was silent. Waiting.

For what? Nick knew. Harry held onto Shanni’s hand and he looked at Nick with eyes that said he was waiting to be struck. Or…he was waiting for Nick to say no.

Same thing.

‘I don’t think I can…’ Nick tried to prevaricate but it sounded weak, even to him. For heaven’s sake, he did not want to get involved here. But he didn’t want to hurt the child…

‘We aren’t looking for anything formal, are we, Harry?’ Shanni told him, choosing to ignore his hesitation. ‘But Thursday is my half-day off, Harry wanted to see you and Mary tells us that you’re free.’

‘I’m busy.’

‘Don’t be silly. There’s nothing I can’t handle here,’ Mary said blithely, beaming at her sister in friendly conspiracy. ‘Off you go and enjoy yourself. It’ll do you good to get out into the fresh air.’

‘I don’t need fresh air.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ Mary assumed her severest look, facing him with an expression that said, No nonsense or you’ll stay in after school and do two hundred lines. She used Shanni’s school-marm tone. ‘You sound like this town will bite, Nick Daniels. There’s nothing out there to be afraid of, and Shanni will take good care of you.’

Then Mary and Shanni both beamed.

What was a man to do? ‘I’m being railroaded,’ he said weakly.

‘Of course,’ Mary agreed. ‘It’s what the McDonald girls are good at. We’ve been trained from birth by a very railroading mama. And grandma. And great-grandma come to that. Shanni, make him take his tie off.’

‘Take your tie off,’ Shanni said. ‘You can’t eat fish and chips on the beach when you’re wearing a designer shoelace.’

‘I’m not…’ He rose and backed off.

‘Yes, you are,’ Mary said, and she put her hands behind him and shoved him toward the door. ‘Know when you’re beaten, Your Worship. Out you go and don’t come back before three. That’s an order.’