The Recovery Assignment

A police officer let Hawk’s vehicle through the cordon and pointed towards a potential parking area behind a fire truck. An ambulance was parked at right angles to the fire appliance, its back doors open towards the car crumpled against the concrete post. Hawk glanced at the body lying between the ambulance officers. The man’s clothing had been cut to expose his chest. A male paramedic was taping an IV line to one arm. He lifted his hands and leaned back on his heels as the other paramedic pressed paddles onto the victim’s chest. Hawk grimaced at the convulsive jerk their patient made.

‘Doesn’t look very good,’ he muttered.

‘They’re defibrillating him so at least there’s some sign of cardiac electrical activity.’

‘What?’ Hawk’s head swivelled. He’d forgotten he wasn’t with someone who knew as little as he did about medical matters. ‘I thought they only zapped people if the heart had stopped. Flat-line stuff.’

‘Shocking someone can only interrupt and potentially reset the electrical activity. If there’s a flat line on the screen it means there’s no signal present so shocking someone isn’t going to do anything other than burn a bit of heart muscle.’

‘Oh.’ Hawk didn’t enjoy feeling ignorant. In future, he was going to keep his mouth shut and save himself a lecture.

‘The heart has stopped in that it’s not functioning as a pump, though,’ Charlotte added. ‘It’s usually fibrillating, which is a kind of fast wiggle that can’t produce an output—which is what creates a pulse.’

‘So that’s why it’s called a defibrillator.’ The annoyance of having his lack of knowledge exposed was replaced by a flash of satisfaction in learning something new. Hawk shook his head. ‘I’d never even thought about it.’

‘Why should you have? We gain expertise in what we’re trained in.’

‘Exactly.’ Hawk’s glance at Charlotte was speculative. ‘So are we going to get on with our job or do you want to go and help out with the victim?’

‘That’s my flatmate, Laura,’ Charlotte responded. ‘She and her partner, Tim, are both paramedics. They know what they’re doing.’

‘What are they doing?’ Hawk stared through the wind-screen as he opened his door. He hadn’t recognised the paramedics who had been listening to his talk yesterday. Funny, Laura looked far less mousy performing her duties. She looked competent…and busy.

‘Laura’s intubating him. It secures the airway and makes breathing for the patient far more effective.’ Charlotte pushed her door shut. ‘Let’s see if they have anything to tell us before we start on the scene, shall we?’

Hawk usually stayed well away from any paramedics when they were obviously occupied with trying to save someone’s life. His protocol dictated reporting in to any senior police or fire officer on scene to start gathering information, but Charlotte had already stepped towards the paramedics and Laura had spotted her.

‘Hi, Charlie! You’re on the job early.’

‘No time like the present. This is my partner, Owen.’

Laura tied the tape securing the endotracheal tube in place. She attached the ambubag and then glanced up briefly as she pulled her stethoscope from around her neck.

‘We met yesterday.’ She nodded. ‘Hi, Owen.’

Hawk simply nodded. He hated being called Owen.

‘Do you need a hand?’ Charlotte asked.

‘You could bag him while I draw up some drugs…if Owen can spare you, that is. Back-up should only be a minute or two away.’

Charlotte glanced at Hawk, clearly requesting permission to give assistance, and to his surprise, Hawk found himself nodding. It was only for a minute or two after all and he could easily use the time to gain an overall impression of the scene.

Laura was silent for a few seconds as she squeezed the ambubag and checked for air entry by listening over both sides of the man’s chest with her stethoscope. ‘We’ll go into Emergency under CPR if necessary but I’m still hopeful. It could be that he was unconscious for a while before actually arresting. Bystander CPR was initiated quickly and he was still in coarse VF by the time we arrived.’

‘VF?’ Hawk couldn’t help exposing his ignorance again.

‘Ventricular fibrillation.’ Charlotte gave him a quick glance. ‘The worst kind of wiggle. The finer it is, the closer to a flat line it is. If it’s coarse there’s more chance of converting it to a useful rhythm.’ She turned back to Laura. ‘Was the arrest witnessed?’

‘Kind of.’ Laura’s partner, Tim, had restarted chest compressions. ‘The car was seen to pick up speed as it came downhill and it veered across the other two lanes and left the road. It cut one car off and the witness said that the driver appeared to be slumped over the wheel.’

‘Who was the witness?’

‘That guy over there in the pinstripes. He was the one who made the triple-one call. He started the CPR as well as soon as they got him out of the car. He’s a bit shaken up,’ Laura added. Her smile at Charlotte was sympathetic. ‘You might like to tell him what a great job he did.’

‘I’ll go and talk to him,’ Hawk said. Another ambulance was pulling up and he felt out of place. So much for his statements from only yesterday about being on the same team and the desirability of knowing as much as possible about how each branch of the emergency services did their jobs. If Hawk had been that interested in what paramedics did, he would have become one himself, instead of joining the police force. Knowing each other’s jobs too well meant that it was possible to step in and assist instead of getting on with what they were supposed to be doing.

As Charlotte was demonstrating so ably. A second shock had elicited a normal but very slow heartbeat. Charlotte was handling supplies from the paramedic kit with the ease of complete familiarity. Her long fingers were snapping ampoules and drawing up drugs into syringes. Hawk found himself mesmerised for a split second. Her fingers were as long and elegant as the rest of this woman. The flash of curiosity regarding what they might feel like touching his body came from absolutely nowhere and it was as startling as it was disturbing.

It was easy to summon anger to blanket such an undesirable emotion. This was precisely what Hawk had feared might happen. His partner was doing someone else’s job and he was being left to work alone on the tasks she had actually been employed to do.

Except that she was only a step behind him by the time Hawk had conferred briefly with the scene commander and opened the back hatch of the squad car to get the equipment he needed. He picked up a digital camera and a can of spray paint.

‘Have you spoken to the witness?’

‘Not yet. There’s pressure on to shift the wreck and get traffic flowing. I’m going to mark its position and get some photos before the tow truck moves in.’ Hawk glanced up as the ambulance rolled past. The vehicle’s beacons were flashing blue and red and its siren was activated as soon as it cleared the cordoned-off area. The noise was deafening for a moment and Hawk frowned.

‘What’s with the siren? That’s not usual procedure for a return trip, is it?’

‘It’s a status-one patient. Post-arrest.’ Charlotte told him. ‘They need to get him to hospital as quickly as possible.’

‘Is he going to survive?’

‘I hope so,’ Charlotte said quietly. ‘His rhythm looked good and he was breathing spontaneously by the time he was loaded. We found his driver’s licence,’ she added. ‘His name is Duncan Thomson. He’s only forty-four.’

Only eight years older than Hawk. Suddenly the incident became more than a job. More than a scene of a traffic snarl-up and a major inconvenience for a large number of people trying to get to work. The strength of his own hope that the man would survive took Hawk by surprise. He didn’t get emotionally involved with the victims of serious crashes. Never had. You couldn’t afford to if you wanted to stay in this line of business for any length of time. Had the fact that he’d been more aware of what the paramedics were doing made the difference? If so, it could be another black mark to chalk up against having to work with Charlotte Laing.

Charlotte watched Hawk as he turned abruptly and strode towards the wreck. Her eyebrows rose as he walked straight past the man in the pinstripe suit, who was standing with a junior police officer. The witness still looked pale and shaken but he was clearly pulling himself together. Charlotte saw him look at his watch and then point to a sedan parked on the road’s shoulder some distance uphill. Clearly, he wanted to leave the scene. Pulling a small notebook and pen from the pocket of her shirt, Charlotte also picked up a can of spray paint from the crate in the back of the squad car and moved purposefully.

‘I’m Charlotte Laing,’ she introduced herself to the witness, ‘from the Serious Crash Squad. Thanks so much for waiting so long. Can you spare another minute or two to answer some questions for me?’

‘Sure…I guess.’ The man looked at his watch again. ‘But I’m running awfully late for work.’

‘It won’t take long,’ Charlotte promised. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Andrew Duggan.’

‘You did a great job, here, Andrew. It was you who made the triple-one call, wasn’t it?’

The man nodded.

‘And you started CPR?’

He nodded again. ‘I did a first-aid course at work only last month.’ His voice shook. ‘I never thought I’d have to do it for real, though.’

‘Pretty scary, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’ Andrew rubbed a hand over his mouth as though reliving the mouth-to-mouth breathing. ‘I’m going to carry one of those mask things from now on. Is he going to be all right, do you think?’

‘He’s very sick,’ Charlotte responded seriously. ‘But your actions gave him the best possible chance. He would definitely have died before anyone else got here if you hadn’t started the CPR.’

‘It took so long. By the time I realised there was something really wrong with him and called for an ambulance and found someone to help me get him out of the car…it seemed to take forever. And his face was all blue and…and…’

‘I know.’ Charlotte touched the man’s arm in a sympathetic gesture. ‘It’s not nice. It sounds as though he might have collapsed even before the accident happened so there was nothing anyone could have done to help any earlier. You said you saw him slumped over the wheel?’

‘Yes. I was in the inside lane.’ Andrew pointed uphill. ‘There was a car behind me in the middle lane and it was him leaning on his horn that made me notice the other car cutting in.’

‘What speed were you doing, do you know?’

‘Seventy-five, maybe 80 kph. The guy behind me slowed and I hit my brakes but I didn’t need to. By the time he got into my lane he was going pretty fast. I thought he was just changing lanes. It wasn’t until he kept going off the side of the road that I realised something was wrong. He hit the lamppost without even slowing down at all.’

‘Can you show me where you were when you started braking?’ Charlotte glanced over her shoulder to see Hawk’s long frame bent over as he sprayed marks around the wrecked car’s tyres. A tow truck was backing towards him. She continued making notes as she walked uphill with their witness.

One lane of traffic was now moving but Charlotte could identify tyre marks on the inside lane consistent with Andrew’s braking manoeuvre. She also found marks in the middle lane that fitted the trajectory of an out-of-control vehicle that had ended its journey at the lamppost. She marked the areas with her can of bright orange spray paint.

Ten minutes later Charlotte had collected all the information she felt was needed from the witness.

‘Thanks again,’ she told Andrew as he waited to drive from the cordoned-off area into the line of still slowly moving traffic. ‘You’ve been a great help. Are you sure you feel OK to go to work?’

Andrew nodded. ‘I feel a lot better now.’ He smiled at Charlotte. ‘If I did do what you say a paramedic would have done under the same circumstances then maybe I should think about changing jobs.’

‘I’d stick to supermarket managing if I were you.’ Charlotte grinned. ‘Less stressful.’

‘You’ll call me, then? If you need to know anything else?’ He smiled again as Charlotte nodded. ‘You could call me anyway,’ he suggested, ‘if you fancy a drink or something after work.’

‘They’re holding up the traffic for you.’ Charlotte waved Andrew away. ‘Take care, now.’ She turned, startled to find Hawk standing right behind her.

‘I was about to interview that guy.’

‘I’ve done that.’ Charlotte held up her notebook. ‘I think I’ve got everything we need.’

‘Including his phone number?’

‘Of course.’ Charlotte didn’t like the undertone. It was normal procedure in any witness interview. If Hawk thought she’d be following up any hint that the witness was interested in social communication, then she was quite prepared to give him a piece of her mind regardless of their situation.

Somewhat annoyingly, Hawk said nothing. He wasn’t even looking at Charlotte as his eyes focussed well past her shoulder. ‘What have you been marking?’

‘Tyre marks. There’s what looks like an acceleration scuff at the start of the yaw. I assume the car’s got automatic transmission?’

Hawk raised a single eyebrow. ‘Why do you assume that?’

‘It fits,’ Charlotte said calmly. ‘If the driver collapsed he could have had his foot depressing both the brake and the accelerator. It would explain the mark and why his car’s speed kept increasing. Being slumped onto the steering-wheel might also explain why the car travelled in a line that took him across two lanes of traffic and straight into a lamppost.’

Hawk’s gaze suggested he was less than impressed with Charlotte’s line of reasoning. She raised an eyebrow right back at him. ‘Do you have a problem with that scenario?’

‘I have a problem with someone making a decision on the cause of a fatal crash before an investigation is complete.’

Charlotte raised her chin. ‘Then let’s get on with completing it, shall we?’ She reached into the back of the squad car to remove one of the larger pieces of equipment but Hawk’s movement was swifter.

‘Here, I’ll get that for you.’

Charlotte’s glance was measured very deliberately. ‘Thank you,’ she said coolly, ‘but I’m actually quite capable of lifting a theodolite all by myself.’

The hand retreated as though the tripod of the surveying gear was hot enough to have burnt him. ‘Fine. I’ll leave you to it, then.’

‘Fine.’ And Charlotte found herself watching Hawk’s back as he strolled towards the other officers still on scene. Any sense of victory in asserting herself diminished rapidly as she found herself left alone to take measurements while Hawk engaged in what was clearly an enjoyable conversation with his colleagues. Judging by the frequent glances in her direction, Charlotte could be sure that she was providing the main topic of interest and she didn’t like it. She was being assessed, and not only for her physical appearance or any impression of her personality Hawk might be passing on. She could bet that the occasional and very casual glances that came from the dark eyes of her new partner were taking account of exactly how well she was dealing with the task at hand.

Fortunately, it was a simple job. There was only one vehicle involved, the road was straight and there was no intersection. Permanent landmarks of trees and lampposts were ideally positioned to use as corners for her triangle and Charlotte’s field sketch came together rapidly. She marked the direction of north, drew the road layout and documented the final position of the car involved in the crash. She showed the marks on the road and located the reference points for her triangle. The measurements were noted in metres and Charlotte also wrote quick notes on the weather, road and light conditions.

Traffic was flowing in two lanes by the time she finished thirty minutes later and the congestion was finally easing. The wrecked car had been removed and only one police car other than the SCS vehicle remained, its beacons flashing to warn oncoming motorists of the obstruction in the inside lane. Hawk was leaning on the side of his car, still talking to the other officers protecting the scene.

‘So, he’s got a job, then?’ one was saying. ‘That was quick.’

‘It won’t last,’ Hawk responded darkly.

‘What, the new job or the engagement?’

Charlotte guessed they were discussing Hawk’s previous partner Cam. The man he didn’t want her replacing. Had they been comparing her performance to what his would have been perhaps? Or teasing Hawk about having to work with a female colleague?

‘Both, probably.’

Hawk’s apparently pertinent comment to her unspoken thought was startling, but as Charlotte leaned into the car to stow the theodolite she realised that the comment was referring to the permanence of Cam’s new interests. She straightened.

‘Is Cam likely to change his mind, then?’ She smiled sweetly at the three male officers. ‘And there I was thinking that was a woman’s prerogative.’

Hawk showed no reaction to the meaningful glances his colleagues bestowed upon him but his eyes narrowed as he slid behind the wheel of his car. So, that plump paramedic had repeated what he’d said to her friend, had she? That figured. You couldn’t trust a woman to keep her mouth shut. He’d have to be very careful what he said in future.

He’d spent less than two hours in this woman’s company and Hawk already had the uncomfortable feeling that working with her, even temporarily, was going to be more of a challenge than he’d anticipated. So far, the opportunities to try and establish control appeared to have backfired in some mysterious manner. Hawk was silent throughout the journey back to Headquarters. Another opportunity was bound to present itself and he needed to be ready for it. If ground rules were being set, then he intended to be the one to put them in place.

Charlotte used her lunch-break to collect the last item of her personal work supplies from her hatchback in the building’s basement car park. She also took the time to try calling Laura on her mobile phone.

‘You busy?’

‘No, we’re just heading back to station for lunch. We just took a kid with febrile convulsions into Emergency.’

‘How did it go with our car-accident victim this morning?’

‘Fantastic result! He was in normal sinus rhythm by the time we reached Emergency. He’s woken up since and has a bit of short-term memory loss but that’s all.’

‘Any evidence of an MI?’

‘No. They’re thinking the collapse might have been rhythm related. Long QT syndrome maybe. He’s lined up for electro-physiology testing in the next day or two.’

‘He’s been lucky.’

‘I’ll say. It was also lucky he didn’t have his family in the car or involve any other vehicles.’

‘Made my job easier,’ Charlotte said wryly. ‘Which was just as well seeing as I was under a performance review.’ She sighed. ‘We probably won’t need any of it, anyway, seeing as it’s not a fatal. All that stress for nothing.’

‘How’s it going with the hawk?’

‘Interesting.’ Charlotte found herself smiling. ‘Bit of a power play so far. Would you believe he holds doors open for me? And offers to lift heavy stuff?’

‘That’s very gentlemanly.’

‘I think it’s intended to be more of a put-down,’ Charlotte countered. ‘But don’t worry. I got to one door first when he was showing me around so I held it open for him.’

Laura chuckled. ‘You sound like you’re enjoying it. What’s your office like?’

‘OK. It’s got everything we need. Bit on the small side.’

‘I’d reckon something the size of a football field would be on the small side with that man sharing it.’

Charlotte grinned. ‘We’ll sort it out. I think we’re due for a showdown of some sort before the day’s out and I might have just the thing to set it off.’

‘What’s that?’

‘My paramedic kit. I’m about to lug it upstairs and let him know we need to find room for it in an already over-stuffed squad car. It should open that can of worms fairly effectively.’

It did.

Hawk eyed the large modified backpack that Charlotte carried into the office as though it were an unexploded bomb.

‘What the hell is that?’

‘My paramedic kit,’ Charlotte replied calmly. ‘Lance Currie told me he’d let you know that I was authorised to carry it in our squad car.’

‘You could go camping for a week with a pack that size.’

‘I carry full intubation gear, cervical collars, IV supplies and fluid. Also a range of drugs, a Hare traction splint and a small oxygen cylinder. Basis equipment for resuscitation and stabilisation of a severely injured accident victim.’

‘Even I know that splinting something isn’t a priority in a life-threatening situation.’ Hawk’s resolve not to show his ignorance in medical matters had deserted him. ‘Whatever that rabbity thing is, it’s probably taking up unnecessary space.’

Charlotte tried to control the twitch of her lips but wasn’t entirely successful. ‘A Hare traction splint is used for a broken femur. It helps control bleeding. Blood loss from a long bone fracture can be as much as a litre. If that’s added to blood loss from other injuries, it can stack up to fatal hypovolaemic shock in a short space of time. Any blood loss needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.’

Hawk hated being in no position to argue. ‘We share a squad car, not an ambulance. If carrying all your luggage interferes with me being able to do my job then it’s gone.’

‘What’s your problem here, Owen? Finding room for my “luggage” or me being a paramedic as well as a crash investigator?’

‘Trying to do two jobs at the same time,’ Hawk snapped. ‘What’s probably going to happen is that I’ll end up doing the job you’ve been employed for while you’re fluffing around on scene, sticking needles into people.’

‘Like I did this morning?’ Charlotte made an incredulous huffing sound that filled Hawk’s silence. She wasn’t about to be intimidated by his aggressively prolonged eye contact either. She stared right back at him. ‘And did you really say fluffing?’

Hawk broke the eye contact and glared at the offending kit instead. ‘We have enough to do on scene without distractions. OK, you didn’t get so involved this morning because there was already an ambulance on scene. What happens if we get somewhere first? How can you possibly give this job the concentration it has to have if you’re dealing with patients?’ He was being unfair, he knew that, but this was the opportunity. Or he’d thought it was. Now he wasn’t so sure but he couldn’t afford to back down.

‘I “deal” with patients only if there’s no other medical assistance available or when my qualifications allow me to assist a crew that might not include someone with my level of qualifications. My input is limited to the point where victims are transported to hospital.’ Charlotte was clearly making an effort to maintain a tone of reason. ‘The preservation of life and the safety of everybody on scene is the first priority for any emergency service personnel arriving at any incident. Or would you disagree?’

Hawk was losing here, he could sense it. The sensible thing to do would be to retreat with as much dignity as possible.

‘I can hardly disagree with a blanket statement that all emergency services embrace. What I’m talking about is interference with a specific set of protocols that apply to the SCS. To me.’

‘Look, I understand your concern.’ Maybe Charlotte had the grace to allow a dignified retreat now that she had won yet another unspoken challenge on their private agendas. ‘Being involved for any length of time with patient care is not a situation that is going to arise very frequently, and when it does it can actually aid an investigation.’

‘Oh?’

‘Patients say things. Injuries can tell their own stories. You can notice a lot of small details coming at a scene from a slightly different perspective. The time that might be lost on scene is made up for later when we don’t have to interview the ambulance crew or try and extract patient details from hospital staff. The contacts I have with the hospital can also be useful.’