Chapter Twenty-Three

The cabin of the Beechcraft was a little less than ten metres long. Jess could feel Adam’s presence as keenly as if he were right next to her. But he wasn’t. When they had boarded the plane, Adam had chosen a seat as far away from Jessica as he could be. Apart from the necessities of their work, he hadn’t spoken to her. He had even avoided looking at her. The co-pilot’s seat seemed very empty without him in it.

The storm that had been building all day over Coorah Creek broke as they flew away. She’d seen the lightning fade into the distance behind them. It hadn’t lasted long. Outback storms were quickly spent. But the storm she was facing would not be so easily diffused. Nor could she leave it behind. It was right there in the aircraft with her.

On this flight there was no easy conversation. No shared laughter. The only noise was the steady hum of the engines. Jess kept her eyes steadfastly ahead of her, fixed on her instrument panel or the endless blue sky.

Sister Luke had joined them on the flight. She was seated in the middle of the aircraft, her eyes darting from Jessica to Adam and back again. Her face was creased in a small, tight frown. She could obviously sense the tension between the two of them, but had no idea about its cause. Soon, Jessica was going to have to tell Sister Luke everything. To explain why she was leaving. Because leave she must. Adam didn’t want her to stay. That much was very clear.

She would tell Sister Luke the truth. The whole truth. Jack, too. These people who had become her friends deserved the truth. Ellen knew the whole story, and hadn’t judged her. She was sure Jack and Sister Luke would be equally understanding. And Adam? He wasn’t ready to hear it. Maybe one day. Long after she’d gone and Adam had let go of his anger, perhaps one of them would tell him her side of the story. It would be too late for her, but she hoped he would hear it any way.

The radio crackled. Clifton Downs was calling. It was the third such call since they’d left Coorah Creek.

‘Reading you, Clifton Downs.’

‘How far out are you?’

Jess didn’t need to check her instruments. Without Adam by her side to talk to, she had been tracking their progress in minute detail, hoping it would stop her from thinking. It hadn’t.

‘Clifton we’ll be there in about thirty minutes.’

‘Can we talk to the doc again?’

Jess turned in her seat. ‘Adam …’

Adam’s eyes were hooded and unreadable as he made his way forward. He slipped into the co-pilot’s seat, taking extreme care not to even brush against her shoulder. It seemed he wanted the gulf between them to be as physical as it was emotional.

‘Doctor Adam Gilmore here, Clifton Downs.’

‘Doc. He’s not good. We did everything you said when we called earlier. But it’s not good.’

‘He’s still breathing?’

‘Yes. But Doc, it’s really ragged. And the head wound …’ Even over a radio, it was clear the person on the ground was deeply distressed.

‘Just make sure he doesn’t move,’ Adam said. Then to Jess, ‘Can we go any faster?’ He didn’t look at her as he asked.

‘I’m doing the best I can, Adam, but this plane can only go so fast. I’ll get you on the ground as soon as possible.’

‘Clifton Downs, make sure there’s someone at the airport waiting for me. Every second counts.’

‘Roger, Doc. There’ll be someone there.’

Adam turned away without another word and returned to his seat at the back of the plane. Jess fought back the tears that threatened and checked her instruments to see if there was even the tiniest fraction more speed she could safely coax from the Beechcraft. No one was ever going to say she didn’t try hard enough!

When she finally saw Clifton Downs, she banked and lost height as fast as possible. She may have shaved a few safety standards, but she also shaved a few minutes off the flight. A dusty brown station wagon was waiting at the end of the airstrip, and as she pulled up next to it, Jessica knew she had done everything humanly possible to get Adam to the injured man in time. No one could have done better. A sudden wave of pain lanced through her with the realisation that next time Adam hurried to help a patient, there would be someone else at the controls of the Beechcraft. Someone else at Adam’s side. Tears pricked her eyes at the thought, but she brushed them away. Tears would change nothing.

While she was still shutting down the engines, Adam was on his feet, handing his medical bags out to the eager hands outside. He leaped down the aircraft stairs without even a glance at Jessica. Sister Luke was close behind, but she took the time to ever so briefly lay a comforting hand on Jessica’s shoulder.

A few seconds later, the sound of a racing engine told Jessica they were gone. Slowly she slumped forward, rubbing her hands over her face. Her shoulders ached with tension. That had been the most difficult flight of her entire life. The day she flew back from Vietnam, with Brian and a load of drugs on board the plane had been difficult. But she’d had a co-pilot sitting next to her. And Brian was in the back of the plane with his associates, far away from her. Knowing that police and arrest were waiting for them in Sydney had made that flight hard. Knowing she’d been betrayed by Brian had made it even harder. But that flight was nothing compared to the difficulty of the past couple of hours. She had come to really love this job. To believe in the importance of her work. Ellen and her kids, Jack and Sister Luke had become like family to her. And Adam …

Sitting at the controls of the plane, knowing he was behind her. Hating her and wishing her gone. Nothing in her life had ever been harder than that.

The sound of another car engine caused her to lift her head. They couldn’t be back already? Quickly she unstrapped herself from the pilot’s seat. She climbed down the aircraft stairs to be greeted by an Aboriginal stockman just emerging from another dusty car.

‘Do you need to refuel?’ the man asked.

Jessica glanced at her watch, and at the position of the sun. There was enough daylight left to fly back to Coorah Creek. Or to Mount Isa – which had landing lights on the strip. If the injured man was as seriously hurt as he sounded, she had to be ready for another fast departure.

‘Yes, I do.’

The man led the way to a small rusty tin shed. Inside were several forty-four gallon drums of aviation fuel. With a powerful heave and a deep grunt, the man tipped one over and began to roll it towards the Beechcraft. Jess picked up the hand pump and followed.

When Adam needed her, she would be ready.

As soon as he walked into the room Adam knew there was nothing he could do. He crossed to the bed and looked down at the man who lay there. A rough, bloodstained bandage covered half his face and the back of his head, but it couldn’t hide the damage the shotgun blast had done. The man’s breath was ragged. As each shallow breath stuttered to its end, it seemed he would not take another. Then slowly his chest would rise again. Adam placed his medical bag on the end of the table and opened it. He was a doctor. He would do what he could, but he knew he was going to fail. This man was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He heard footsteps behind him. Sister Luke took up position at the other side of the bed, ready to assist. She looked at Adam and raised an eyebrow in question. He shook his head slowly. He saw acceptance cross Sister Luke’s face. She gently reached for the man’s large calloused brown hand and cradled it in hers. In the other hand, she grasped the plain wooden cross that hung around her neck. Her eyes closed and her lips began to move in prayer.

Adam lifted the bloody bandage, wincing as he saw the extent of the man’s injuries. The shooting had been a terrible accident while the station staff were culling wild pigs. It was such a tragic loss of life, made even more so by the fact that the man had a young family. Adam carefully covered the wound with a new dressing. Taking some cotton wool, he began to gently clean the blood from the man’s face. Not that it would matter to his patient. The man would never wake. But his wife and children didn’t need to see him like this.

He was disposing of the soiled dressing when he realised that the room had fallen silent. One glance at his patient’s face told him it was over. He looked at his watch to note the time for the death certificate he would soon have to sign. Sister Luke crossed herself, and then gently placed the man’s hand back on the bed. A cotton bedcover lay on a chair in the corner of the room. Adam helped Sister Luke to lay it over the dead man, then took a deep breath and went to tell the family.

The station manager drove them back to the airstrip.

‘Are you sure about heading back, Doc?’

‘Yes. I have patients in my clinic back at the Creek,’ Adam said. He’d given the distressed widow some sedatives. Beyond that, there was nothing more he could do here.

‘All right.’

‘The police will be here soon,’ Adam said. ‘I reported the shooting from the plane. I know it was an accident, but that’s the law. I had to do it.’

‘I know. We had word the sergeant is on his way. He won’t get here until later tonight.’

‘He’ll take it from here.’

‘Okay. Thanks Doc.’ The man parked the vehicle beside the Beechcraft.

Adam slowly got out of the car. Jess was waiting in the shade of the aircraft wing. He saw the understanding in her face as she watched him approach. And the sympathy. He wanted none of it.

‘Do we have time to get back to the Creek before dark?’ he asked. The words came out harsher than he wanted, but that was not something he could change now.

‘Yes.’

‘Then let’s go.’

He walked past her and climbed the aircraft stairs. Again, where once he would have taken the co-pilot’s seat, he turned towards the rear of the aircraft. He dropped into the seat and clipped his seat belt tightly. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes. He was exhausted, but he knew he would find no rest on this flight. The rhythms of take-off and the gentle hum of the engines used to easily lull him into sleep. In the past, he’d slept away many a long, dull flight. Since Jess came, though, the flights hadn’t been dull. Nothing with Jess was ever dull, and he’d loved every minute spent in that co-pilot’s seat. Talking to Jess. Laughing with Jess while the great western plains had rolled away below them. She had a way of lifting the darkness inside him. She might even have been able to take away some of the pain that filled him on days like today – when his skill had not been enough to save someone.

But he’d never know, because that Jess was gone.

The Jess he thought he’d known cared about people. She was funny and caring and a good friend. All this time he’d known she had a secret … but he had not even begun to suspect it was drugs. Drugs! The healer in him hated drugs and everything and everyone connected with them. It wasn’t the illegality of it that shocked him so much as the disregard for the poor souls who lost themselves. How could Jess be involved in drug dealing?

He obviously didn’t know her at all.

It was going to be a very long flight back to the Creek. And then Jess would leave …

‘You’re not fooling me, you know.’

Adam opened his eyes as Sister Luke slipped into the seat across the aisle from him. He couldn’t help but glance towards the front of the plane. He could see the outline of Jess’s head moving slightly as she did that thing she always did – the constant rotation of her eyes from the window to her instruments and back again. There had been a time when she’d looked at him too. But that was gone now.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Adam said, with very little hope that Sister Luke would leave him alone. The nun was like a dog with a bone sometimes.

‘There’s something wrong between you and Jess,’ Sister Luke said.

It would do him no good to deny it. She knew him too well. ‘She’s leaving as soon as we get back.’

‘What? Why?’

Sister Luke looked genuinely shocked. Adam felt his heart clench. Sister Luke deserved to know, but she should hear it from Jessica. If Jessica didn’t have the courage to tell Sister Luke … well … he’d make sure she did what she had to do. Sister Luke deserved that.

‘You’ll have to ask her to explain,’ he said.

‘Do not let her go,’ Sister Luke told him, her voice firm. ‘Whatever it is, you need to fix it.’

Adam shook his head. ‘It can’t be fixed.’