A Child in Need (3 page)

‘So… You're from Melbourne?' He had this almost overwhelming desire to kiss her and she was talking social niceties. It was as much as he could do to figure out what she was talking about.

‘I… Yes.'

‘And you're in Bay Beach on business?' She sounded politely interested—nothing more.

‘I am.' And then he weakened. He might as well tell her. Soon the whole district would know. ‘I'm taking over from Judge Andrews. Rotating magistrate.'

‘Rotating magistrate!' Her eyes widened, her eyes lit with pleasure and her lovely smile practically enveloped her face. ‘Then you're not leaving. You're here for two years. That's fantastic.'

He chewed that over for a bit. ‘Why is it fantastic?' he asked cautiously, and here it came. Of course.

‘Because Harry likes you.'

‘Yes?'

‘Yes. He does.' Her eyes darkened and intensified. ‘Nick, you mustn't look like that.' She put out a hand and touched the little boy's soft hair. Harry was dead to the world, sleeping the sleep of the exhausted as his body was cradled between them. He'd forced himself to stay awake far too late last night, he hadn't trusted anyone, but in Nick's arms he'd felt safe.

‘Harry's had a dreadful time,' she said simply.

‘I don't need to—'

‘He wasn't wanted,' she went on, ignoring his interruption. ‘His mother has two children by a previous marriage
and she didn't much like Harry's father. Peter was landed with him at birth.'

‘Peter. You mean…the father kept the baby?'

‘That's right. It was okay for a while. Peter took Harry with him everywhere, and he loved him to bits. But…almost a year ago he and Harry were in a car accident. Peter was killed. There was a little money from the sale of Peter's house, held in trust for Harry, so Bernadette—Harry's mother—decided she'd take Harry in again. Only…she didn't like or want Harry for himself, and it showed.'

‘You mean she mistreated him.'

‘Dreadfully.' Her luminous eyes swelled with tears in the dim light. ‘He had a smashed leg in the accident and after she took him home she never went near the doctor again. He needed physiotherapy and he never got it. If you knew the condition he was found in when Welfare finally took an interest…' She took a deep breath. ‘Anyway, that's in the past. He's safe now, settled in one of the homes of the local orphanage system. And with you he seems to have finally made some contact.'

‘I'm not a contactable person,' Nick said bluntly, and Shanni stared from all of six inches away.

‘Why ever not?'

‘I don't like children.'

‘Come on.' She teased him gently with her eyes. ‘You've let him give you a numb arm.'

‘Only because I didn't want him howling the place down.'

‘Liar.'

‘It's the truth.'

‘Sure.' Her tone said she didn't believe him, but she was moving on. She glanced at her watch and, as she moved, her arm shifted away from his. He was aware of a surge of emptiness as she did. A link broken that he'd valued… But
she didn't notice. ‘It's six a.m. I wonder how the siege is going?'

‘Patiently.'

‘They'll wait?'

‘For weeks if need be,' Nick told her. ‘I know our police force. They'll wait this out.' Please, he added beneath his breath. The thought of anyone bursting in here with guns blazing left him cold.

But… ‘A week! We can't live for a week on milk and fruit.' Shanni brushed her curls back from her face and stood up, decision written firmly all over her. ‘Good morning, Len,' she said softly, louder than she'd been talking to Nick but still not so loud that she'd wake Harry.

Len wheeled to face them. He looked dreadful, Nick thought dispassionately. The youth looked absurdly young to carry the weapon he had in his hands, and he looked…desperate. The hands that held the gun shook with weariness.

And fear.

Shanni saw.

‘You're exhausted,' she said softly. ‘You must sleep.'

‘I'll sleep when I want to sleep.' Len's voice was an attempt at a vicious growl, but it broke in mid-sentence, marking his youth.

‘Okay.' Shanni made a placating gesture and sat down on her mat again. With them sitting Len seemed to relax. As if they couldn't spring on him. But she kept right on speaking. ‘Len, I'm really hungry. How about if we order in pancakes?'

‘Pancakes!'

‘There's a fast-food outlet on the edge of town. They deliver.'

‘You've got to be kidding,' Nick said as Len stared in disbelief. ‘You're proposing we just ring up and tell them to drive in through the barricades?'

‘I don't see why not.' Shanni smiled her very nicest smile at Len—the smile Nick was beginning not to trust. It could make a man do strange things, that smile. ‘My brother's a policeman. He's out there somewhere. If I talked to him I reckon we could swing it.'

‘No!'

‘Pancakes and maple syrup and hot chocolate,' she said beguilingly. ‘Steaming hot…'

Len could well have eaten nothing the day before, Nick figured then, watching the look of raw need flash across his face. He must have stolen the car on Thursday night and maybe he'd been on the run ever since. He'd had one glass of milk last night, and all that was left was fruit, cold and unappealing.

‘I can do this safely,' Shanni assured him. Then she paused, sneezed, grabbed a tissue from her sleeve and sneezed again. She grinned as she emerged from her tissue. ‘Sorry, guys. Hay fever. It's that time of the year. Anyway…' She sneezed again and reassembled. Honestly, she was incorrigible. ‘Just let me phone and you can listen to every word I say.'

She gave Len a happy grin, as if he was a friend, and then she sneezed again for good measure. One more sneeze and she was back to entreaty.

‘Hey, Len, if you don't like what I do you can shoot me in the toe—and it's not every day I offer a toe. I'm very attached to my toes.'

Len glared.

Shanni sneezed again. She sniffed and recovered and smiled once more. Her very nicest smile…

‘Len, I'm just a kindergarten teacher with hay fever,' she said, and the lawyer in Nick made him stare. If he heard this innocent little voice in a witness box he'd know she was lying through her teeth. But Len was no lawyer and she had him dazzled. ‘I'm not some hotshot lawyer with
brains like my friend, here,' she said, waif-like. ‘All I'm saying is that we're hungry and I can organise us a great breakfast. But you'll have to trust me.'

He still glared.

Shanni sneezed. She looked so innocent, Nick thought. She'd pulled off her trainers, she was barefooted, fresh from sleep, and her curls were unbrushed and tangling around her face. She sneezed again and he wondered how on earth she'd ever got this job. In charge of a kindergarten? She didn't look as if she should be in charge of anything. But…there was this tiny twinkle behind her eyes that he mistrusted…

‘Sorry. Drat my stupid hay fever,' she said weakly. ‘Late spring's my worst season. They're cutting hay all around the town and mornings are dreadful. And I'm so hungry. Len, please let me ring my brother. You can listen to every word.'

The room held its breath.

And finally Len nodded. Between pancakes, sneezes and smiles he seemed bewitched. As Nick was.

‘Okay. Be fast. And I'm listening.'

Shanni smiled. She sneezed once more and crossed to the phone.

And the twinkle stayed.

‘Hello?' She dialled emergency and to her relief it took her straight through to the command post outside. They must have had the line rigged so every call was monitored.

‘Police here.'

‘It's Shanni McDonald,' she said.

‘Shanni…' She recognised the voice of the local police inspector, and it was hoarse with worry. A siege like this must be every policeman's nightmare. ‘Are you okay, lass?'

‘We're fine.' Len nudged her in the ribs with the gun. On the mat Harry stirred in Nick's arms and Nick sat up,
cradling the child against him. They looked sort of cute, Shanni thought, looking across at the out-of-town magistrate and his baby—before concentrating carefully on sneezing again. Some things were important. Apart from cute lawyers…

And Len's patience was running out. The gun dug into her ribs, harder this time, and she turned her attention back to what she was doing.

‘Inspector, we're very hungry,' she said. ‘All of us.'

‘I can understand that.'

‘You're not planning on starving us out?'

‘Tell us what you want.'

She took a deep breath. ‘Pancakes,' she said. ‘Hot food and plenty of it. We thought fast-food pancakes, maple syrup, and hot chocolate. From Don's Diner.'

‘We can do that. How will we get it in?'

‘Have someone put it on the doorstep. Len won't shoot anyone carrying pancakes, will you, Len?' The youth was listening to every word being said, standing right against her as she talked while the gun stayed pressed into her side. She sneezed and he backed off a bit.

‘Inspector…?'

‘Yes.'

‘I need my hay fever pills,' she added. ‘Rob will know. The strong night ones.'

‘I didn't say anything about no…' Len started, but Shanni sneezed again. She gave him an apologetic smile.

‘Please?' she said nicely, and he grimaced.

‘Okay,' he snapped. ‘And tell him I want a helicopter.'

‘That might be harder than pancakes and hay fever pills,' Shanni said mildly, and Len swore and grabbed the phone.

‘I want a helicopter,' he told the policeman. ‘To get me away from here.'

‘You'll leave the hostages behind?' The inspector's voice was carrying and Shanni could hear every word.

‘They'll come with me. I'll dump them where I'm going.'

‘It'll take time to organise,' the policeman said urgently. ‘Maybe all day. There's been a storm north of here and emergency services are stretched.'

‘A helicopter by tonight or someone gets it.'

‘I'll try.'

‘And get them pancakes.' Len crashed the phone back on the cradle and went back to staring out the window. While Nick watched Shanni. Who'd forgotten to sneeze…

‘Are we having pancakes?' Harry asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes, and Nick nodded and gave him an impulsive hug. When really he wanted to hug Shanni.

‘Thanks to your clever kindergarten teacher we might well be having pancakes.' Then, as Shanni sat down beside them again, Nick lowered his voice so only she could hear and said, ‘And hay fever tablets to boot. How about that? If you're thinking what I'm thinking, Shanni McDonald, that could make us all feel very much better!'

 

The pancakes arrived and were delicious, though for the life of him Nick couldn't urge Harry from his knee. Shanni fed him his pancakes in pieces like a little bird, and every time Nick tried to put him aside the child forgot about food and turned and clung.

Nick found it claustrophobic—and Shanni's delighted smile made it worse.

‘I don't like children,' Nick said through gritted teeth, and she chuckled.

‘Yeah, right. I can see that. But you don't have to like children. Just Harry.'

And Len? Len ate his pancakes as if he hadn't seen food for a week. Shanni had opened the door and pulled the tray inside and Len had fallen on it as if all his Christmases had come at once. Luckily whoever had organised it had decided to provide enough to feed the teeming masses; otherwise there'd have been none for anyone else.

‘That was wonderful,' Shanni said after her third pancake. She sneezed as she carried the litter back to the bench and fetched the mugs of hot chocolate. ‘And what's coming is better still.' She twisted the cap off the bottle of hay fever pills. ‘My pills! Sorry guys. Now I can stop sneezing.'

She carried mugs of hot chocolate over to Nick and Harry, and then to Len at his watching post by the window.

‘Thank you for letting us eat,' she said softly, smiling down at him. ‘It was kind.'

‘Yeah…all right.' He looked longingly at the chocolate. It was thick and creamy with a melting marshmallow floating on top, but the sight disturbed him. ‘We shoulda got coffee. Coffee'd keep us awake.'

‘I'm sorry.' She sounded so contrite it was pathetic. ‘If you don't want this, I'm sure Harry would like two mugs.'

‘I'll drink it,' he snapped. ‘Go away.'

 

‘Hot chocolate.' Nick looked thoughtful as he sipped. ‘Now, why didn't you order coffee, Shanni McDonald?'

‘We have coffee here for Marg and I to use.'

‘Instant.' His tone said what he thought of that.

‘This isn't metropolitan Melbourne,' she snapped. ‘You've come a long way from cappuccino society here.'

‘I understand that.' He grimaced. He certainly had. ‘But I'd assume your fast-food chain provides decent coffee. Not as sweet, of course. Or maybe…' He cast a glance at Len, who'd drained his chocolate and was back staring intently out of the window. ‘Maybe not as disguising?'

‘Just drink your chocolate and shut up,' Shanni snapped.

‘And wait and see?'

‘And wait and see.'

‘Your sneeze seems to have stopped. Those pills must be very effective.'

‘I do hope so,' she said simply—and waited.

 

They waited an hour.

Len was rocking on his stool by the window. The curtains were still drawn and Shanni hadn't turned on the light.

‘It's cosier in the almost dark,' she said, and lay on her back and told Harry the story of
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
.

Still within the safety of Nick's arms, Harry listened and Shanni thought it was the first time she'd ever known Harry to listen at all.