is.’
‘Does she?’
‘Look, I don’t have to answer to you…’
‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘Only to Amy.’
Nikki pushed back her chair, scraping it harshly on the polished boards. ‘Amy has to understand that life is serious,’ she told him. ‘And work’s important. Now, if you’ll excuse me…’
‘Don’t you want to know about Karen?’ Luke enquired, raising his brows. ‘I thought a bit of professional concern might be in order.’
Nikki flushed bright red and sank down. She was going crazy. Not to have enquired…
‘Tell me about her,’ she said stiffly. ‘Of course I’m worried.’
‘Are you?’
‘Of course I am.’ Nikki bit her lip as again her anger threatened to burst out.
‘So why haven’t you interfered before now? You do know the child is being abused?’
‘Abused…?’
‘There are bruises all over her. And the X-ray shows the arm has been broken before.’
‘Not that I’m aware of.’
‘Well, it was.’ Luke grimaced. ‘The fracture is further up the arm from the original break. The bone’s calcified around the old fracture. It happened around a year ago, I’d say.’
Nikki closed her eyes. ‘I didn’t…Neither her teacher nor I picked that up,’ she whispered. ‘It must have happened during the long vacation. I’ve seen the bruising, though.’
‘And turned the other cheek?’
‘I contacted community services. They sent a social worker up from Cairns.’
‘That did a lot of good, I’ll bet.’
Nikki rose. ‘So what would you have them do?’ she snapped. ‘Take the children away? Sandra had Karen when she was fourteen. Fourteen! She’s only twenty-two now and she has four children. She married a no-hoper, had one child after another and now he’s left her and she has nothing. The community here labelled her eight years ago when she had Karen out of wedlock, and she’s been isolated ever since. She struggles on to hold them together-’
‘Well, she’s not struggling enough,’ Luke said grimly. ‘I’d say she has a temper and Karen’s taking the brunt of it.’
‘So we take all the children?’ Nikki shook her head. ‘Where does that leave them-or Sandra? I asked Karen about the bruises. She told me she kept falling over-Sandra’s obviously warned her about telling the truth-but if you gave her the choice of going to a strange foster home or staying with her brothers and sister, then I know the choice Karen would make.’
‘So you’re proposing we patch her up and send her back to face her mother’s temper again.’
‘No, of course not.’ Nikki subsided again into her chair. Some things were just so hard. ‘Not if it’s reached the stage of bones being broken. But I don’t know…I’ll have to contact Cairns again.’
‘The social worker?’
‘Well, what else do you suggest?’ Nikki demanded.
He smiled then, the blue eyes challenging. Rising, he came around to her end of the table and placed a hand on the back of her chair.
‘I suggest you abandon your studies for a couple of hours,’ he said firmly. ‘Let’s go and see Sandra now.’
‘What, now?’
‘As soon as Amy’s in bed.’ He looked at his watch. ‘She won’t be expecting us. It will give us a chance to assess what things are like at home, and we just might be able to do something constructive.’
‘Like bring all the children back here?’ Nikki said bitterly, and Luke’s smile deepened. He looked around appraisingly, through the French windows to the swimming-pool beyond.
‘Well, there’s certainly enough room.’
‘In case you hadn’t noticed,’ Nikki said icily, ‘this is my home. And I like my privacy!’
‘And I wonder why?’ Luke said thoughtfully. ‘This place is enormous. It needs half a dozen kids to bring it to life.’
‘So you propose going and taking Sandra’s? Just to keep Amy company, I suppose.’
‘Dr Russell?’
Nikki looked up at him suspiciously. ‘Yes?’
‘Don’t be so bloody stupid.’
They stopped at the hospital first. The children’s ward was in darkness. The nurse rose to greet them, her finger raised to her lips in a gesture of silence.
‘Karen’s only just gone to sleep,’ she whispered. ‘Despite the medication.’
Luke frowned. ‘Why? She should have drowsed off hours ago.’
‘She was too frightened to go to sleep. She said…’ The nurse hesitated. ‘She kept saying we’d take her away while she was asleep.’ She sighed. ‘And her mother didn’t come.’
‘Was Karen asking for her?’
‘No. But her eyes never left the door, waiting. Poor wee mite…’
Luke crossed silently to the bed and Nikki followed. The child was sleeping soundly in a drug-induced sleep. Her injured arm was flung out at a rigid angle. In the dim ward light her face was a wan pool of dejection. There were shadows under the huge eyes-shadows that spoke of abject misery. Nikki felt her heart wrench within her. Maybe this little one could come back to Whispering Palms for a while…
‘Professional detachment,’ Luke said softly from the other side of the bed, and Nikki raised her eyes as she realised he was watching her. ‘It’s a bit hard, isn’t it?’
‘It’s impossible,’ Nikki said wearily, and turned to go.
Nikki directed Luke mechanically, out past the town boundaries, along the coast road and then inland to an old farmhouse set well back from the road. This had once been the homestead for the sugar plantation it was on, but the owners had long ago wearied of the fight with white ants and age, and had rebuilt a mile further down the road. They were renting this house out for a pittance, waiting for nature to take its course.
It would soon happen. This land was natural rainforest, and without constant clearing the forest was reclaiming its own. Huge palms surrounded the house, so much so that it was difficult to see where house started and garden ended. The veranda was sagging wearily on rotten footings, and vines and the beginnings of coconut palms were shoving up through the boards.
What a place to bring up children! The place must be crawling with snakes, Nikki thought grimly, and it was miles from anywhere. Sandra had been isolated from the Eurong community since she’d had her first child, but by living here her isolation was complete.
There was complete silence as they approached the house. A rusted-out Ford sedan stood forlornly in front of the veranda, and a light showed through a single window. They could see a vague shape through the cracked glass. The figure rose while they watched and came towards the door.
‘What a dump!’ Luke stood at the edge of the veranda and looked up, whistling soundlessly between his teeth. ‘Surely there must be better places…’
‘What do you want?’
Sandra was standing at the door, the solitary light behind her casting her shadow twenty feet out into the night. She was wearing a worn dressing-robe, and her long hair was matted and wild. Her figure was so thin that she appeared almost emaciated. She stood, barefoot, her arms folded. Her stance spoke of defiance and a fear so tangible that Nikki felt she could almost touch it.
‘You didn’t come to see Karen,’ Nikki said gently. ‘We thought you might.’
‘Karen shouldn’t be in hospital. She’s only got a broken arm-’
‘We’re not keeping Karen in hospital because she has a broken arm,’ Luke said harshly. ‘Mrs Mears, may we come in?’
‘No.’
Luke nodded. ‘Then we’ll keep Karen until the social workers arrive from Cairns,’ he said firmly. ‘We have no choice.’
‘But-’
