The Baby Doctor Read online

  ‘All of her cattle stations are thriving.’ His amused lilt caressed her ear and Sienna’s hand opened to stroke the shell. She listened dreamily as he said in his deep, sexy voice, ‘We’ve had rain.’

  ‘I know. I saw that on the news. I’ve been paying attention.’ Since Douglas, she had noticed breaking drought and smiling farmers. She heard a bell in the distance and the phone muffled. Was there someone at his door? She could imagine Douglas’s big hand blocking his voice. He’d go. He lived his job, which was only fair, she supposed. She lived hers, after all.

  ‘I need to go. Think about it,’ he said. Then more softly, ‘Please.’

  She wasn’t committing to anything. ‘Bye, Douglas.’

  Before she knew it, Sienna’s mind had galloped ahead. Surely Blanche wouldn’t search her out here and expect her to drop everything again, she thought. Knowing the woman as Sienna did, something like microcephaly would fire her off like a gun. And that bullet would land smack bang on Sienna’s desk. And ricochet around her life, causing major disruption. ‘Damn it,’ she said to the empty office. ‘Who told Blanche?’

  A sudden misgiving drew her brows together. Was it Douglas? She didn’t know how, but she suspected that that was the truth of it. He’d tell Blanche because he knew she’d make it her next crusade and bribe Sienna’s hospital to send her. Did he have an ulterior motive? Of course he did. The babies. But was he also trying to show her she could survive in the outback?

  As she sat frowning, an internal email popped up on her computer and diverted her thoughts from blame. Her eyes narrowed.

  Damn. Now she had an emergency meeting scheduled with the administrator of the hospital before she left that evening. She could guess what that would be about. She’d learned from last time about Blanche’s fiscal persuasive power. And Sienna’s possible lack of choice about going. At least Douglas had given her enough warning to consider how she would create some benefit for her department from the donation.

  But that didn’t change the fact that the outback pushed her way outside her comfort zone.

  Chapter Two

  An hour later Sienna stood on the top floor of the hospital outside the administrator’s office. The administrator was the man who wielded the financial operations of this tertiary health service with scalpel-sharp precision.

  She’d used the stairs to reach the floor up from her office, her stilettos clacking, and she’d passed one of her junior residents, who’d glanced at her shoes. What’s with the awe? Couldn’t people walk in high heels any more? She didn’t understand why. Sure, she didn’t perform surgery in six-inch heels, but she made sure she slipped out of those perfunctory crocs as soon as she was back in the change room. She loved the sound the heels made on the hard floors. They made her feel feminine and fearless. Which she needed to be now.

  The office of power held the same views over the harbour Sienna’s did, only higher, and the man who sat behind the desk exuded authority in an aura that made him seem bigger than he was.

  Dominic Dauntry rose as she entered and gestured for her to sit in a chair opposite the huge expanse of his mahogany desk. He studied her like a specimen under his stare-worthy monobrow.

  When she was seated he said, ‘Thank you for coming. I’ve had a request that you carry out an investigation in a town called Spinifex.’ Dominic waited for an incredulous response, some response, but Sienna deliberately took longer to show one. Fools rushed in and she was nobody’s fool.

  ‘I see.’ She stared back. Found her mind wandering which so wasn’t like her. Monobrows were just plain wrong. Surely the man had a wife who could pluck a small gap in the hairline above his nose. Seriously? The silence lengthened.

  When she didn’t answer he said, ‘Apparently, you have been near there before and would understand why you’ve been asked to go?’

  ‘No. I hadn’t heard of the place.’ She shrugged delicately. ‘But, yes, last year I was seconded to an outback Queensland town called Red Sand. That was for an investigation of poor neonatal outcomes.’ Her lips firmed in a line before she said, ‘My hospital requested me to carry out an analysis of the rise in stillbirths and pinpoint the cause.’

  ‘I see. Well,’ he paused, ‘We would like you to do something similar again in Spinifex.’ Unlike her previous boss, Dominic didn’t seem to savour the power of telling Sienna what to do, but she could see that the promise of such a large donation from an unexpected source had created more animation than she’d seen before in his expressionless face.

  Sienna smiled dryly. She must be getting wiser because her blood didn’t boil like it had last time. No, she wasn’t angry that now her new hospital thought that picking her up from her clinics and projects and teaching commitments and dropping her in outback Spinifex was no problem – she chose to be coldly calculating in response. Sienna was a fast learner. The odds were she’d end up going. Blanche would make sure of it. If she was honest, it wasn’t quite so bad because she knew what to expect. And, Douglas would be there. Though she wasn’t telling Dauntry that.

  Dominic wasn’t the only person who wanted something. She’d already decided what she’d bargain for.

  He stood up and went to the window to study the harbour. She stood too so he didn’t stand over her.

  ‘How much has Blanche offered, Dominic?’ No doubt he would have heard how her last boss had won a state award, for facilitating advances in cancer research, when he spent his money from Blanche.

  She watched his index finger lift to scratch a small brown-edged lesion she could see on his bald scalp. What was it with bald heads and bosses? She wished she’d worn higher shoes; she could have had a better look to see if it resembled a melanoma. Once a doctor always a doctor.

  Dominic turned to face her. ‘Blanche Mackay, yes.’ He peered up at her then turned away, walked a few paces to even out their heights. She knew what he was doing because her old boyfriend had done that.

  She thought briefly of that relationship with Mark, a trendy up-and-coming obstetrician she’d left in Melbourne. She couldn’t go back to that kind of fairweather man. Not enough substance and heaven forbid, not enough morals when she compared him with Douglas. But Mark had been easy.

  Douglas wasn’t easy.

  Douglas had too many morals. Mark and his kind would be like sickly diet cordial instead of Douglas’s smooth single malt whisky. There was no comparison, even if her new affiliation constituted a very off-again-on-again relationship.

  Dominic steepled his fingers and the movement brought her back to the present. Her brain seemed less tenacious to topic lately. She needed to stop that and concentrate on the moment.

  He smoothed the sleeve of his impeccable suit. ‘We have been offered generous research funds from our possible benefactor. Two million for your expertise.’ At least he didn’t rub his hands. Her last boss would have. ‘She wants you and only you on the job. For as long as it takes. And she has the support of Queensland Health.’

  Sienna spared a thought for her sister Eve’s husband. Lex was the managing director of Mackay Holdings and the person who had to balance the books after his mother carved out huge chunks for her pet philanthropy projects. ‘And my brief?’

  ‘Discover why three Spinifex babies in the last month have been born with microcephaly.’

  Sienna stilled as she thought about those babies. And their families. The problem did deserve an escalation of urgency. If she didn’t go who would?

  Dominic went on, oblivious to Sienna’s lack of movement. ‘She wants you to follow the women through the documents of their pregnancy, see if there is anything suspicious. Find a causative factor. She believes these women need you more than we do for a short time.’

  Time was the unwelcome side issue. ‘How short?’

  He shrugged and Sienna felt his lack of concern. It wasn’t his backside sitting in the dust and heat. And his department was safe.

  ‘A couple of weeks should suffice. I would cap it at a month and want weekly updates. The intellectua
l resources of this hospital will be at your disposal, as well as the local obstetric departments.’ What local obstetric departments? She’d checked the position on Google Maps before she’d come up here, and apart from the town health centre, and the low-risk midwifery-led unit four hours away in Longreach, she’d be on her own. And apparently, Sydney Central could carry on without her. Lucky she’d trained Cilla as much as she had.

  Dominic knew Sienna had already fostered two new cutting-edge, research-based medical advances. Their hospital saved lives. Made breakthroughs. She did feel a little more appreciated here, but it rankled that they could still be bought to let her go.

  Dominic went on. ‘This Mackay woman believes you have a nose for anything suspicious.’

  Sienna almost sniffed at that. She had indeed become excellent at suspicious. Especially in Melbourne. The jury was out on this chief.

  She sighed. The important point remained that babies had been affected and maybe she could help.

  More to herself than to him Sienna began thinking out loud. ‘It could be anything. Cytomegalovirus or toxoplasmosis during pregnancy or exposure to drugs, alcohol, toxins. Even PKU.’

  Dominic nodded. ‘Your brief, not mine.’

  She held his gaze. ‘It seems it is my brief. But I’d like to ensure a portion of the donation for my department.’

  Dominic blinked, brushed off the polite cloak he wore as though he’d walked through a spider web, and swept it away to expose the hardcore business man beneath. ‘What might that be?’

  Her gaze didn’t shift. ‘I want to mentor and add to my team two more obstetric consultants. One has left and we need to share the load, but we need people who understand the concept of dedication and constant improvements.’ She didn’t add, not just answering to the money men. ‘It’s tiring being the lone voice for innovation.’

  When he didn’t comment she went on. ‘I have two candidates that I think should apply. I’ll recommend my registrar,’ she said, because Cilla would soon have the balls to take these guys on and be ready to stretch herself. ‘If we don’t make a position for her we’ll lose a promising obstetrician.’ And that would be stupid.

  Dominic nodded.

  ‘The other is an O&G oncologist I met at a fundraising dinner with innovative,’ she didn’t say radical, ‘ideas that could do with some major funding. I make no apology that they’re both women, both young. The hospital would benefit enormously from their appointments.’ The three of them would make a formidable team.

  Dominic nodded, his eyes keenly watching her. She’d surprised him. Good. ‘Send me the proposal,’ he said.

  ‘It will be with you before I leave.’

  Sienna let herself into her secure harbour-view penthouse and paused to gaze across at the sparkling lights of the city. She loved this multimillion-dollar view. One she’d worked damn hard for.

  Twelve weeks ago Douglas had stood here sharing the vista, his hard, rangy body dominating the room. Even in caring mode he’d looked big and powerful and so damned sexy. She smiled at the memory and slid out of her suit jacket. Stood there holding it by the expensive collar, holding the thought of Douglas. And frowned at the implausibility of their arrangement.

  Below, the tiny fairy lights of the ferries scooted across the dark water between Circular Quay and the northern beaches. Beside the semi-circle sweep of the bridge, a tall cruise ship glittered like a tiara waiting for the next journey. Sienna’s next journey would be a long way from the five-star luxury of that ship.

  She considered the next week or two. And sincerely prayed to the shoe gods that it would not be a month. She also considered the thousands of kilometres she needed to traverse, not to mention the inconvenience.

  With a sinking heart she turned her thoughts to microcephaly. Three separate families. If that town had another baby diagnosed, they’d need a full-scale enquiry.

  If there was an additional case, at least she’d have some help. The whole escapade stood resource poor and barely viable. There’d be a fly-in fly-out midwife, but hopefully the health centre would have a full-time nurse, from whom she could find out about the antenatal records at least, maybe an office worker she could borrow to arrange meetings with the mothers and source all she’d need. Sienna would check the similarities, gestational markers, correlating facts and local knowledge of possible causes.

  In her office at Sydney Central, there’d be Cilla, who could take over her work, trial the extra responsibility a consultant carried, be the backup for the more junior residents and registrars in their team and cover Sienna’s on-call roster. She’d also be the back-end researcher if Sienna needed resources she couldn’t access from the freaking boondocks. In Spinifex. The name conjured the image of wizened bent-legged drovers watching tumbleweed blow past the pub verandah. Despite the bleak picture she smiled; she would have Douglas.

  She was not yet sure how she was going to insinuate herself into his house, and please if the stars aligned, his bed. He’d proved so darned old-fashioned and conscious of what a small town might expect of their police officer last time, but that was one of the carrots for this trip. The skirmish with Douglas. Could she win that battle?

  They’d have to have that tricky discussion before she left. While she still had some negotiating power. The policeman could be stubborn and she needed to be smarter if she wanted the upper hand. She smiled at the thought. It was not something she usually had to fight for with other men.

  Now, getting there – well she couldn’t fly directly to the town. She’d checked the flight timetables. She could fly to Mount Isa or Longreach and then hire a strange car to drive the rest of the way. That would still take hours and hours. Sienna disliked flying at the best of times because flights often were cancelled, planes broke down, and she had no control over any of it. Especially when it involved more than one flight. If she was going to do much more of this outback sleuthing, she’d have to get her pilot’s licence.

  At least if she drove she’d be in charge. And, of course, the plus side of driving was the Mustang. She’d bought herself the new car because she’d come back slightly shattered from that last outback trip and she’d needed the reassurance that she was in control of her perfect life.

  So, all the indicators suggested another road trip. At least this time she was leaving from Sydney not Melbourne, but the drive would still take days.

  She’d googled that, too, and it was almost twenty-three hours’ driving time. Two thousand one hundred kilometres. Near Winton in Queensland. Apparently, Winton had dinosaurs. Goody. She’d feel like a dinosaur by the time she’d finished that trek.

  It would take two long days if she did around twelve hours of driving. Just like her normal days at work. With an overnighter in Roma. She’d catch up with the Flying Obstetrician and Gynaecologist while she was there. See what the FOG thought of the cluster of affected babies.

  Did her hospital have any idea where they were sending her? She supposed it didn’t matter if they did or didn’t. She was going and at least the drive would be in comfort.

  Her new car had been part of the whole new life she’d made since coming to Sydney. Six months since the esteemed professor who’d recognised her potential early and been the wind beneath her skyrocketing career, had retired and suggested she should try creating a new team in a new hospital to reach her full potential. It had been a good move.

  So she’d ordered her new car before she left. Made that extra statement. It secretly amused her that her pony represented something a lot of men lusted after and couldn’t have. It had arrived in Sydney from the States at the same time as she’d arrived from Melbourne. And it was worth every last import-tax dollar.

  Her baby. In Lightning Blue, with long legs that could eat up the ridiculous number of kilometres between here . . . and Douglas.

  At least the new design would give her more clearance over the rutted roads than her last car. Not that she’d factored the ground clearance when she’d bought it. That decision had been based whim
sically on that enchanting cut out of light that had shone on the ground when she’d opened the door, shaped like the legendary pony that matched the emblem on the front of the car, and once she’d seen that, well, they’d had her.

  This time, though, she would hire a satellite phone of her own for the duration because last time she’d not enjoyed unsupported medical disasters and she wanted to be able to rely on emergency contact if she needed help. Phone coverage could let one down. She’d discovered things had a way of happening in those out-of-the-way places that disorientated her and she liked, no, needed, some illusion at least of control. She didn’t care if she never used the sat phone. She would have it as backup.

  She didn’t dislike the outback – apart from the fact that her father had left them to return to it, and she hadn’t been able to do anything about that except cut him out of her life.

  No, she acknowledged an inbuilt wariness and insecurity exposed because the outback shimmered into the distance under those big skies, and she felt insignificant out there, like a speck of sand in a vast desert, and she didn’t like being a speck. Douglas said she needed to become a part of it and not try to keep herself aloof – but that wasn’t part of her psyche.

  Another reason she and Douglas were not suited long term.

  She picked up her phone and rang Eve. Time to tell her little sister about the unexpected pleasure coming her way. Eve would laugh.

  ‘Diamond Lake Station.’ In Far West Queensland Eve’s voice sounded as though she sat in the next room, not nearly two thousand kilometres away as the crow flew, and Sienna felt her mouth curve at the warmth in her sister’s voice. Both women were above-average height and blonde, but Eve always looked bigger, stronger, softer, kinder, and Sienna knew it. Eve always sounded warm and welcoming. Typical midwife.

  ‘You not in bed yet?’ Sienna teased and a laugh drifted down the line.

  ‘Close. It’s almost dark.’

  She could imagine Eve turning off the lights and crawling into bed with her hunk before the moon rose. ‘And you do get up with the birds.’