‘Why pick up a file when any moment now the ambulance’s due to deliver? It’s not like you’ve got time to treat someone else.’ Karin, a registrar, grinned. ‘Hottie’s got to you, hasn’t he?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She hurriedly dropped the file back in place.
‘You’re made of stone?’
Harper tried not to smile but it was impossible not to. ‘The man’s built, no doubt about it.’
‘I’d be worried if you hadn’t noticed.’ Karin picked up the file Harper had discarded.
‘Like I’m looking for another man.’ Harper glanced at her sidekick, who was also staring after Cody.
‘Maybe not looking for, but you were definitely looking at.’
Yeah, she had been. ‘You’re single, so what’s holding you back?’ Harper retorted.
‘Not my type. But you, on the other hand, need to get back in the saddle and—’
‘Don’t go there,’ Harper interrupted, grateful for the shrill ring of the emergency phone yet again. For once the busy morning made her happy, if only because it would shut Karin up. No doubt only briefly, as the woman was known to talk far too much about things she should keep her mouth closed on.
Nurse Brand had picked up the phone instantly, and Harper couldn’t help but take another appreciative glance. He’d been here five days and labelled ‘Hottie’ by the female staff within hours of starting. She couldn’t argue with the name. No one could. He was made to be looked at—drooled over, even—but that was where it stopped as far as she was concerned.
For one, she worked with him, and this was her dream job, working with a dedicated group of highly skilled people all focused on helping their patients coping with difficult and often tragic situations. So far, what she’d seen of the latest nurse to join them had impressed her. He fitted right in. He might be easy going with those he worked with, but the moment someone suffering in any way at all came near him they had his undivided attention as he took care of them.
And, if she needed another reason to not be interested in him, it was that she’d had all the disappointment from men she ever needed. The ink was barely dry on the divorce papers from her last blunder.
Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? The guy treats you the same as every other person in the department with his charming disposition, his easy smile and relaxed wit. Why would you be special?
The phone was slammed back into its cradle. ‘Suspected body packer coming in from the international airport,’ Cody informed her. That deep, husky voice that reminded her of things she had no right to be thinking of sounded calm and focused on work, putting her in her place without even trying. ‘Twenty-three-year-old male collapsed during an interview with Customs officers after nervous behaviour when a sniffer dog indicated on him.’
Harper groaned inwardly. She hated these cases. If the guy was carrying internally and had collapsed it suggested a balloon containing heroin or cocaine had burst. She’d lost a young female mule last year, and had seen another die years back when she’d been specialising in Auckland. It was a fast but very painful way to die. But she was getting ahead of herself. It was only supposition that the man was a mule, that a package had burst and that he’d die as a result. ‘ETA?’
‘Ten. Resus One?’ Cody asked.
‘Yes. I want you with me on this. Karin, you take the cardiac victim.’
‘No problem,’ Karin answered with a chuckle.
Harper scowled. She had not demanded Cody work with her because of his sex appeal. ‘I need someone strong nearby in case the patient tries to fight us as we work on him. If he’s absorbing cocaine or heroin he’ll become aggressive as the pain gets worse.’ No one else in the department came as big and, she presumed, as strong as Nurse Brand. ‘I’m hoping the guy’s suffering from dehydration after a long flight, or even the flu, but until I know for certain we have to be prepared for anything.’
Karin leaned close and said, so only Harper could hear, ‘Hottie would make nice babies.’
‘Shut it,’ she hissed, now getting more than mildly annoyed. She couldn’t have babies with any man no matter how hot he might be. It just wasn’t possible when she didn’t have a womb.
The bell rang, indicating a patient had arrived by ambulance. Unfortunately too soon to be hers, Harper thought. She needed a diversion about now. Karin didn’t know how her comment hurt. It wasn’t something she talked about, even when it should be old hat. Especially after what had happened with Darren. Suck it up, she growled at herself and followed Cody into Resus One.
Cody was already getting a fan out of the cupboard.
‘You’ve dealt with a case like this before?’ she asked him.
He shook his head. ‘No, but I’ve read up on it. Soaring temps which have to be brought down fast if we want to save him, right?’
‘Yes. Apart from that and the agitation, he’ll also have high BP and could be fitting. If he’s carrying and has absorbed a drug, which we don’t know for sure yet,’ she repeated aloud. Crossing her fingers wasn’t very medical, but sometimes anything and everything helped.
‘Do we soak him in cold water if he has a temperature?’
She nodded. ‘Grab some bottles from the staff fridge.’ While Cody did that she went to check the drug cabinet for something to help calm the patient and slow any seizures he might have. If... This was still all about if the guy had swallowed packages of drugs in the first place. Why anyone would do that was beyond her. In her book no amount of money was worth risking her life for.
Minutes later the shrill ring of the bell from the ambulance bay sliced through Harper’s thoughts and had her moving fast. There’d be no time to waste if this was the worst-case scenario. No surprise that as she raced towards the bay she found Cody striding right alongside her. He never missed a cue. She called over her shoulder to the nurses waiting at the desk, ‘Matilda, Jess—Resus One, now.’
A paramedic joined them as his off-sider began rolling the stretcher into the department. ‘Mick Frew. Very agitated, making it difficult to get any obs.’
‘What readings have you got?’ Cody asked even before Harper had opened her mouth.
‘BP one-seventy over eighty-nine and rising. He’s been fitting for the last five minutes. It’s been tricky enough to keep the face mask on him, let alone do much else for him. I couldn’t take his temp but by the feel of him he’s burning up.’
Harper studied their patient as they rushed him through to Resus One where the other nurses waited, ready to take obs and put an oxygen mask on. This was sounding and looking more like a package had burst internally. Definitely more than a dose of flu or dehydration, but she had to be one-hundred percent sure before she committed to treating him. Something else could be causing these symptoms. ‘How certain were the Customs officers that he’d taken drugs? Do you know?’ she asked the paramedic.
‘Of course he has’ was the cutting retort from behind her.
Harper spun around and came face-to-face with a dapper man who had the coldest eyes she’d encountered in a long time. ‘Who are you?’ Ambulance crews wore uniforms, not expensive, perfectly pressed suits worn by the man stepping towards her from the direction of the ambulance bay.
He shrugged. ‘He’s carrying. Cocaine. In balloons.’
Just one of those bursting would mean trouble, serious trouble, for Mick Frew. What if more than one had come apart? ‘You seem very sure. I repeat, who are you?’
His eyes were glacial. ‘Detective Strong to you.’ He walked beside the stretcher, his eyes flicking between the young man and her.
He