you marry him?’
‘No!’ It was a cry from the heart but instinctively Fern knew that it was true. Sure, Jessie could leave but what basis was that for a marriage between Quinn and Fern? Like murder…
It had the same awful feel.
‘It’s me who’s leaving, Jessie,’ Fern said savagely, tight with anger. Her words firmed as she felt how right they were. Quinn had no business putting this girl through the misery she was facing. If he was here…She’d like to slap his arrogant face, she thought bitterly-somehow make him realise what he was doing to his lovely young wife. What she felt for him was some sort of sick aberration. It had nothing to do with love. ‘I’m leaving on Friday.’
‘Leaving…?’
‘I live in Sydney. That’s where I’m going.’
‘But…but Quinn wants you to stay.’
‘And so do my aunt and uncle.’ Fern lifted the now empty bottle from the little joey’s mouth and spent a long time settling him back in his pouch. ‘But that doesn’t mean I belong on the island. My life-my career-are back in Sydney and that’s where I’m going. Whatever crazy notions Quinn has about me-well, that’s all they are. Crazy…’
‘He kissed you-the night of the shark attack.’
‘He did,’ Fern said grimly. ‘And for my pains, I let him. I was exhausted, mentally wrung out and I didn’t know he was married. One kiss between strangers. Whatever Quinn likes to think about it, that’s all there was to it. So… so you and Quinn have to decide what to do about your marriage but leave me out of the equation, Jess. No matter what you do, I don’t belong here.’
I don’t belong…
The old familiar words. They had lost none of their gall in the years since she’d first thought them.
‘OK.’ Jessie’s voice had lost none of its sadness. ‘But I would have liked…I wish, for Quinn’s sake…’
She broke off and turned to face Fern, her eyes steady.
‘I’d like Quinn to be happy,’ she said firmly, and her eyes held Fern’s with a strength Fern hadn’t known the girl possessed. ‘But when you say, “leave me out of it”…well, that’s true for me as well. Quinn and I…Well, we have solid reasons for staying married for another few months or so. But after that, Fern…after that we’ll go our separate ways and Quinn’s free to do as he wishes. I just wanted you to know that. In case it makes a difference.’
How could it make a difference?
It couldn’t make a difference at all.
‘There are solid reasons for staying married for another few months or so…’
Fern returned to her car slowly, her mind turning over and over what she’d been told.
It didn’t make sense.
Unless Jess was pregnant?
That was on the cards, too, Fern thought grimly, thinking of Jessie’s exhausted look. She’d seen that look occasionally on girls who suffered badly from morning sickness.
What a mess!
Well, whatever the mess, she wanted out.
She steered the car out of the hospital car park and slowed.
There was a man…
Fern frowned.
Surely she was imagining things. She slowed as she passed an area of deep bush two hundred yards from the hospital entrance. The figure she had seen had disappeared.
You’re crazy…
No.
Her internal conversation lasted the whole of five seconds. Swearing, she hauled the car to a halt, did a U-turn and headed back to the little township half a mile on the other side of the hospital.
Straight to the police.
Fern had known the police sergeant since she was a teenager. Sergeant Russell was big and gentle and deceivingly placid. Many a crook had misjudged that easy smile as the look of a man who wasn’t prepared to make an effort.
There was no man who could move faster in an emergency.
He listened to Fern’s story and doodled little scrawls on a pad beside him.
‘You say whoever it was had a gun,’ he said at last, sinking back into his chair. ‘What sort of gun, do you know?’
‘I don’t.’ Fern shook her head. ‘Something long…Look, I might be mistaken. It just made me uneasy, that’s all. I didn’t recognise him. If he’s a stranger to the island and he’s shooting in the reserves…’
‘If he’s shooting that close to the hospital we risk pellets going through the hospital windows,’ the sergeant said thoughtfully. He sighed and pulled his cap from the top of the filing cabinet. ‘Guess I’d better get on with it.’
‘Thanks, Sergeant…’
He smiled and held the door for her. ‘My pleasure, Fern. It’s good to have you back again-if only for a week or so. Oh, and Fern…’
‘Yes?’
The big policeman paused, his eyes troubled.
‘I was sorry about you and Sam. But…’ He hesitated and then took courage into both hands. Courage was not something Sergeant Russell lacked. ‘Fern, there are whispers going round the island about you and Doc Gallagher. There’s nothing in it, is there, girl?’
Fern sighed. ‘No, Sergeant,’ she sighed. ‘There’s nothing in it.’
He nodded, his placid eyes watching her face. Fern wondered just how much of what she was thinking could be read there.
‘He’s married,’ the Sergeant said heavily and Fern knew he’d read heaps.
‘I know that.’
‘You going back to the mainland soon?’
‘On Friday.’
He nodded again. ‘Just as well, Fern,’ he said grimly. ‘You’re best well out of that lot-believe me.’
What had he meant by that?
Fern drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she finally drove back to her uncle’s. The thoughts stayed with her for the rest of the day.
‘You’re best off out of that lot…’
It had been a definite warning. Fern knew Sergeant Russell well enough to understand that.
Why?
There were things going on she didn’t understand. Undercurrents…
Why was the policeman involved?
The shadows under Jessie’s eyes drifted through and through her mind. They’d been there since the time Fern had first met her.
Jess hadn’t come to Fern’s wedding. Surely she’d been invited with her husband?
Why hadn’t she come?
There was an insistent little voice starting up in the back of Fern’s head and she didn’t like it one bit.
During her training, Fern had visited a women’s refuge-one where women sought sanctuary from violent men.
The shadows on their faces matched Jessie’s.
No. It didn’t fit. Every nerve in her body screamed out that it didn’t fit-yet what else made sense?
Nothing made sense. Nothing made sense at all.
That night Fern swam until her body ached with exhaustion-and still she swam.
Her dolphins swam with her but their leaping had ceased. They swam silently by her as if sensing that she was in no mood to play.
They sensed that they couldn’t help.
Fern hardly saw them. The magic of the night was wasted on her.
