Joanna Neil - A Consultant Beyond Compare

Her whole body had been racked by tremors and she had made her way outside to this bench where she felt that at least for a while she would be safe from prying eyes.

Mandy nodded. ‘Me, too. I just wanted to let you know that all the arrangements are in place. We’re officially closed down for the foreseeable future.’

‘I’m sorry. I know how much effort you’ve put into the centre.’

Mandy nodded. ‘I’ll go and make a pot of tea.’ A faint smile crossed her mouth. ‘When in doubt, go and put the kettle on. At least there was some water left in it when the supply was cut off. I’ll leave you to take your call in peace,’ she added when Katie’s mobile started ringing yet again.

‘Thanks.’ Katie lifted the phone to her ear as she watched her go.

A man was saying urgently, ‘Hello? Hello…?’ A note of impatience threaded his words. ‘Are you there? Is that Miss Sorenson…Katie Sorenson?’

Katie frowned at the unfamiliar male voice. She didn’t recognise the number that showed up on her display screen, and if this was someone who was about to try to sell her something, he would very soon find himself listening to a disconnection tone.

‘Yes, I’m Katie Sorenson.’

‘Ah, at last…that’s good.’ The man paused, giving her time to contemplate the deep, beautifully modulated quality of his voice. He sounded as though he was youngish, in his thirties maybe, but she still didn’t have any idea who he might be.

‘Is it?’ she murmured, at a loss. ‘Perhaps you could enlighten me? Do I know you?’

‘No, I don’t believe so, but I think perhaps we should meet. I’m at a café near the railway station in Windermere and I have your sister here with me—she tells me her name is Jessica, and that she’s thirteen years old. Is that right?’

‘My sister?’ Katie’s blue eyes widened in shock. ‘You can’t be serious? What is she doing in Windermere?’ She checked his phone number on her mobile’s screen once more, and a shiver ran through her as she tried to work out what exactly was happening. Something was definitely wrong. What was Jessica doing some ten miles away, sitting in a café with a strange man?

Then she pulled herself together. Surely she was letting her imagination run away with her? Anyone who was trying to abduct Jessica would hardly take the trouble to phone her, would he? Even so, she said with a hint of suspicion in her tone, ‘How is it that you’re with my sister?’

She caught the wry inflection in his voice as he answered that. ‘I’ve just come across her, trying to hitch a lift at the roadside, and I have a strong feeling that she isn’t going to be safe, left to her own devices. She said that she was trying to get home to you, but she was lost. If that’s the case, and you are who you say you are, I would very much prefer to hand her over to you in person.’

Katie pulled in a deep breath. ‘I don’t believe this is happening. Is this a joke?’

‘Far from it, I’m afraid.’ There was a note of censure in his voice as he added, ‘I can’t imagine why you would allow a 13-year-old to wander about on her own so far from home, but she assures me that you are the one who is supposed to be looking after her.’ He was silent for a moment, as though he was leaving time for his comments to sink in.

Katie frowned. Why would Jessica have told him that? Her sister lived with their parents, a hundred or so miles away from the Lake District, in a town near the mouth of the Humber. What on earth was going on?

The man was speaking once more, his tone a little brisk now. ‘I’d come over to you, but I really don’t think that would be appropriate. I’m a stranger to your sister and I don’t want my actions to be misconstrued, so I’d appreciate it if you would come and fetch her.’

Katie’s mouth firmed. ‘Let me speak to her, please.’ She still had to be convinced that this wasn’t some kind of elaborate prank.

There was a momentary pause, and then Jessica’s voice sounded in her ear. ‘Katie, please, don’t be cross with me. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I got a bit lost, that’s all.’

Katie pulled in a sharp breath. ‘More than a bit, I’d say. What are you doing this far from home, and what are you doing with a strange man?’

Jessica made a faint gulping sound. ‘He asked me for your number and said he would get in touch with you. I didn’t have any credit left on my phone, you see, and then the battery went flat and I’d used up all my money, and anyway I’d already tried to reach you on your home phone and you weren’t there.’

‘No, that’s because I’m at work. That still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing out at Windermere.’

‘No, I…I know it doesn’t…but I promise I’ll explain everything when I see you.’ Jessica’s voice trailed off awkwardly, and Katie guessed she hadn’t told this man the full truth of the situation. ‘Will you come and fetch me?’

‘Yes, of course I will. Let me speak to this man.’

Jessica handed the phone back to her rescuer, and Katie forced herself to take a slow, calming breath. ‘Perhaps you could tell me exactly where you are and I’ll come over to you,’ she said briskly.

He gave her directions, and added on a cool note, ‘I hope you’ll drop everything and come straight away. I was on my way to a meeting and I’d still like to be able to get there some time before it ends if it’s at all possible.’

He didn’t sound as though he had very much faith in her, and Katie stifled a sharp response. ‘I’m sorry about your meeting,’ she told him in a strained tone. ‘I have a twenty-minute or so drive ahead of me, but I’ll be there as soon as possible.’

Clearly the man had a busy schedule. So had she, up until now, but from what Mandy had been saying that had all come to an abrupt end. There was little doubt that she was going to be out of work from today.

In the staff kitchen, Mandy had already poured the tea, but Katie hurriedly swallowed it down and went to find her bag. ‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘An emergency just cropped up and I need to go and pick up my young sister.’

‘Your sister?’ Mandy raised a brow. ‘I didn’t know you had any family around here.’

Katie’s expression was rueful. ‘Neither did I.’ She glanced across the table at her friend. ‘Will you be all right here?’

Mandy nodded. ‘We’ve done about as much as we can with the clearing-up operations, so I’ll probably just send the rest of the staff home.’ She made a wry face. ‘I don’t think there’ll be much point in any of us coming in for the next few months. I’m sorry.’

‘I know.’ Katie touched her shoulder in a gesture of sympathy. ‘I’ll give you a call later on,’ she murmured.

Mandy nodded, and Katie hurried out to her car.

Her mind was racing as she drove towards Windermere. What on earth was Jessica doing out here? The shock of this news, coming on top of everything else that had happened today had left her feeling thoroughly churned up inside. She had hoped to put all this kind of stress behind her, but now she was going through the same kind of anxiety she had experienced back in Humberside in those last months when her contract at the hospital had come to an end. Her emotions were all over the place.

Caught up in traffic a few minutes later, Katie had time to reflect on all that had gone wrong at her former hospital post. Everyone had expected that her position as Senior House Officer in A and E would be made permanent, but after what had happened in the operating theatre there were some who believed she had made a mistake, putting her patient’s life at risk, and from then onwards her career progress had been in question.

It hadn’t helped that her consultant had been unapproachable and stiff-lipped. ‘The patient might have bled to death,’ he said.