It took five long moments for Fern to reach the farmhouse. Her uncle was still sleeping but it wasn’t her uncle Fern wanted.
She wanted a vet.
She rang the hospital and Jess answered on the first ring.
‘Fern?’ Her voice sounded astonished. ‘What’s wrong?’
Swiftly Fern outlined the problem.
‘OK.’ Like Quinn, Jess could also be clinically efficient ‘If it’s only a flesh wound then there shouldn’t be a problem-as long as we get him back in the water. I’ll bring some antibiotic and someone to help lift. See you soon.’
‘I’m sorry to wake you…’ Fern apologised before ringing off.
‘I was up, anyway.’
Someone else had suffered a sleepless night, then. The young vet’s voice was tight with strain.
Fern replaced the receiver with a heavy heart. Had Fern already hurt Jessie by her presence?
There was nothing she could do about that now.
There was nothing to do but wait.
Jess arrived ten minutes later and, as promised, Jess wasn’t alone.
She’d brought the heavy artillery.
Sergeant Russell-and Quinn.
‘Jess thought I should see what other damage the crazy coot’s done,’ the policeman told Fern. Even though it was still only a little after six in the morning he was fully uniformed-and he had a service pistol at his shoulder. He grimaced down at the dolphin.
‘I checked the beach last night,’ he said apologetically to Jess. ‘There was nothing here. I’m sure I would have found this beauty if he was here.’
‘If he was injured he might have been disorientated for a while.’ Jess was already kneeling in the sand, carefully inspecting the cut. ‘It doesn’t look as though he’s been beached for too long, Fern. See his eyes? They’re still quite bright and focusing. If he’d been here all night his eyes would be dull by now.’
‘So, what do we do?’ Fern had brought buckets from the farmhouse and she was carefully ladling water over the dolphin’s black body. She was just as carefully avoiding Quinn’s eyes.
Quinn was hardly looking at Jess or the dolphin-or Fern. His eyes raked the headland as though searching for someone.
The policeman knew who.
‘He’s hardly likely to be out at this hour,’ the sergeant said heavily, and Quinn nodded.
‘OK.’ Quinn turned his attention back to Jess. ‘What do you want us to do?’
‘Why did you come?’ Fern demanded shortly. ‘What if there’s an emergency at the hospital?’
Quinn laid his mobile phone down on a towel beside the dolphin.
‘Then I run,’ he said grimly. ‘But I’m staying here until this is sorted out.’ His eyes were heavy and as stressed as any of them. Now he turned from Fern to Jess. ‘What do you want of us, Jess?’ he repeated.
‘There’s a tarpaulin in my truck,’ Jess told him. ‘The wound seems to be clean enough. The shot must have just grazed him. I can’t see any evidence of lodged pellets.’
‘So?’ Quinn’s voice was sharp and his eyes were wandering again to the headland.
‘So I’ll give him a shot to prevent possible infection and we get him back in the water fast.’
There was still the strange tension in Jess. Her voice was so tight it was as though she was stretched to breaking point.
‘OK…’
They moved swiftly as a team. All seemed to have their private thoughts but all seemed to be keeping them to themselves as they worked.
The policeman and Quinn kept glancing up at the headland-as though they were expecting trouble any minute. Bad trouble.
It was enough to make Fern nervous herself-if she hadn’t been so desperately unhappy.
Jess didn’t look up. All her attention was on the dolphin, her small fingers skilfully clearing the air-hole and cleaning the wound. She filled her syringe and administered antibiotic and then, finally, she tugged the tarpaulin in and wedged it hard under the dolphin.
Then all four of them burrowed with their hands, pulling the heavy canvas under so that the dolphin was no longer lying on the sand.
He was cradled on canvas.
After that it was just a case of brute strength. It took the full strength of the four of them to drag the dolphin’s dead weight back down into the shallows.
‘Don’t let him sink,’ Jess warned as the water took most of the weight. Fern was the only one in a bathing costume but it didn’t seem to matter. The other three ignored their clothing and kept wading out, supporting the dolphin’s weight as he wallowed in the shallows.
They took him out to breast-deep and, under Jessie’s direction, headed his nose out to sea.
Still they held on.
The dolphin hardly moved.
‘It’ll take time for him to regain his balance,’ Jess told them. ‘I want you to rock him from side, gently at first. And keep his air-hole clear.’
They worked in silence. Half an hour. More. The dolphin lay passive in their hands.
The tension in the group was almost a physical thing. As a group they were worried about the dolphin but there was more than that.
The men kept glancing up at the headland. They were waiting for something.
Someone…
Fern couldn’t care. She was so aware of Quinn by her side that she wanted to weep. His sea-soaked body was touching hers, their shoulders brushing as they stood side by side in the water and their hands linked under the surface. The feel of him was almost unbearable.
She wanted to run-but she couldn’t…
And then the dolphin stirred in their grasp. They felt the taut muscles rippling as his body came alive.
He seemed to flex and flex again.
‘OK,’ breathed Jessie. ‘Let him try. Move back.’
With one accord they stepped back, their eyes all on the dolphin.
The dolphin sank slightly and a convulsive shudder ran through his gleaming black body.
It was like a dog, shaking himself after a bath.
Out to sea his mate watched and waited.
And waited.
And then the shuddering ceased. The dolphin steadied, firmed and his eyes seemed to focus. To look out to sea…
The massive muscles rippled.
He was ready.
Instinctively they stepped back further, granting him room. Granting him freedom…
And then the dolphin was moving, his gleaming body slicing through the water like a black arrow, leaping and coursing out through the shallows-to where his mate was waiting.
It was a fantastic sight. The clumsy, stranded creature was clumsy no more. He was with his mate and the pair were glistening shafts of light in the morning sun, headed for the freedom of the open sea.
They were safe.
It was all that mattered. It had to be all that mattered.
Fern was sobbing with mingled tension and relief. She stood shoulder-deep in the waves and watched them go and she had never seen anything more beautiful.
And then Quinn’s arm came round her. Like Fern, he was moved almost to tears. His arm held her tight, tighter, and she was lifted off her feet against his body in the water.
The hold tightened.
He was hers, the arm said.
