better. I can’t see Robert accepting a massage, though.’
‘No,’ he said dryly, and he put his hand on the man’s shoulder.
‘Robert.’
The man woke as if someone was striking him. There was pure terror in his eyes, and he hauled back, cringing. He was a little man, in his mid-forties maybe, but so emaciated he might be much older. His ginger hair was thinning. It had been roughly cut, as if done by himself without the help of a mirror. He wouldn’t be out of place in a shelter for homeless men, Darcy thought as he moved swiftly to reassure him.
‘It’s OK, Robert,’ he told him. ‘I’m the doctor.’
The man’s eyes moved past him and found Ally-and he visibly relaxed. How had this woman achieved their trust in such a short time?
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I thought it was…’
‘You thought it was Jerry,’ Ally finished for him. ‘He’s in jail, Robert. You know that.’
‘I should have gone with him.’
‘No,’ Ally said fiercely. She sat on the bed and took the little man’s hands between hers, her hold compelling. ‘There’s no “should” about it. Jerry tells everyone what to do, and because he’s so big and loud and compelling everyone just does it without asking questions. But you’ve been in agony for months. Jerry hasn’t let Dr Rochester help you. Now he can. He’s here and he can stop the pain and let you have a decent night’s sleep.’
‘The bed’s pretty good,’ the man whispered, and Ally gave him a smile brimming with encouragement.
‘Yep. And so was dinner. And so’s the treatment Dr Rochester can give your face. I cleaned it but I’ve probably made it hurt even more.’
‘It’s OK,’ the man faltered, but Darcy looked at the lines of strain around his eyes and knew he was lying.
‘Will you let me give you something for the pain?’
‘Ally gave me tablets.’
‘Did they help?’
‘A little.’
‘I can give you something stronger. And if you’ll let me,’ Darcy said softly, not wanting to bring the terror back into the man’s eyes, ‘in the next couple of days I’ll arrange for you to be transported to one of the big Melbourne hospitals. That face needs a top surgeon to treat it.’
‘It’s too late. It’s spread too far.’
‘No.’ Darcy made his voice flat and absolutely definite. Ally moved to let Darcy take her place, and he stooped to have a really good look. ‘Robert, I don’t know how deep it is, but it certainly looks like basal cell carcinoma. That’s skin cancer normally caused by sun damage. It’s close to the eye but it’s not so close that it’s going to interfere with either the eye or the eyelid. If we move now, we can fix it. What the surgeon will need to do is cut away the damaged surface. Because it’s big, he’ll need to do a skin graft. That’ll involve taking a piece of skin, probably from somewhere like your thigh, and stitching it over your face so the wound will heal.’
‘Ally told me that. But it’ll never heal.’
‘It will,’ Ally said. ‘Believe us. You must believe us, Robert. We can make this better.’
‘But I can’t afford-’
‘The public health system will cover this,’ Darcy told him. ‘Because it’s so close to your eye you’ll be treated as a priority patient. If I send you to Melbourne in the next couple of days, you’ll be operated on almost immediately.’
‘And…and after that?’
‘You can be brought back here to recuperate if you wish,’ Darcy told him. ‘We’ll put your residence down as care of this place, and take it from there. Our social worker will talk to you tomorrow about appropriate housing, and whether you want to stay with the others or not.’ Then, as Robert’s eyes grew confused, he put his hands on his shoulders and pressed him back on the pillows.
‘Enough,’ he told him. ‘Too much has happened too fast. But will you allow me to give you an injection? Something that will have you pain-free and let you sleep for the rest of the night?’
‘Pain-free? All night?’
‘Magic,’ Darcy said with a wry grin. He gave a sideways wink at Ally. ‘You know, even though massage therapists can solve most of the problems of the world, there’s still a use for us doctors. Can I give you the injection, mate?’
Robert looked from Ally to Darcy and back again. His face said he was confused beyond belief. But the terror had faded.
He’d been given hope. It had been worth waking him up, Darcy thought. He’d have woken in the small hours to pain and to the knowledge that the cancer was spreading. He must have been doing so for months. Waiting for the cancer to reach his eyes, and then…
That was the way of madness.
But instead of madness, now there was hope. He gazed at the two of them and then his weary face broke into the ghost of what might once have been a smile.
‘Maybe you’re crazy, the pair of you,’ he muttered. ‘And why don’t I care? Go ahead, Doc. Give me the injection. Work your magic.’
CHAPTER FIVE
ALLY felt like she was floating. Not in a good way, though, she decided as Darcy ushered her once more into his luxurious car. Too much had happened to her this day for her to take it all on board.
Her hatred of Jerome Hatfield had built over the years to a point where she hadn’t been able to handle it. She’d taken drastic steps in her life and moved on. She’d thought. Then today the memories had slammed back with such force that she felt as if everything had been sucked out of her. Her feet were no longer grounded. She felt…ill.
‘How’s your foot?’
‘It’s fine,’ she whispered. ‘Just fine.’
‘You can’t take this all in,’ Darcy said gently, and she stared across at him as if she didn’t recognise him.
‘It doesn’t change anything,’ she murmured. ‘To be given the opportunity to stop Jerry doing more damage… That’s fine but he’s done so much damage already.’
‘To your family?’
‘To everyone.’ She hesitated. ‘Thank you, though, for taking me up there this afternoon. Of all the lucky breaks.’
‘If the police have been looking for him for so long, I can’t believe they didn’t look here.’
‘He went overseas years and years ago,’ she said. ‘The trail was cold. The police couldn’t check every one of his father’s properties all the time on the off chance that he’d come back.’
‘But when Social Services checked…’
‘If he was using another name, there’d be no connection. If you didn’t contact the police…’
‘There was no reason to,’ he said grimly. ‘He wasn’t breaking the law. The children, though… If there’s been abuse that we missed…’
‘I doubt it,’ she said. ‘Jerry didn’t want me-that way-until I reached puberty, and all these kids are younger.’ She stared ahead into the dark. ‘I suspect he’s infertile. None of the kids is ever his. He picks up dysfunctional families like mine, or single mums who have babies. Then he acts as if he’s the kids’ father. Until they reach their teens.’
‘I should have-’
‘You shouldn’t have done anything,’ she said gently. ‘You contacted Social Services when Sam died. You checked the kids every month. And you took me up there this afternoon. So stop beating yourself up. I’m doing enough of that for both of us.’
‘You…’
‘You know, when I was twelve, I was standing above him up on a cliff when he was having a bush shower. There was a huge rock lying just at my feet and I thought, What if it moved?’ She managed a smile. ‘But I didn’t move the rock and he went on to destroy more lives.’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, let’s not talk about him. Let’s
