Emergency Response

Emergency Response by Nicki Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Emergency Response by Nicki Edwards Read Free Book Online
Authors: Nicki Edwards
and turned right without indicating. It didn’t matter. There hadn’t been another car on the road since they’d left the airport. To her left was a Shell service station, its faded signage greeting weary motorists. Was it still operating? They turned left and he pulled up in front of a tired-looking, single-story brown brick structure. The sign simply read “Hospital” in faded red lettering on a white background.
    Well, she had wanted a change and by the look of it, she had one.

Chapter 6
    “Hi,” Mackenzie greeted an older woman seated at the front counter behind a glass window assuming she must be the receptionist.
    The desk obviously doubled as the main triage area of the small emergency department. The woman, who looked to be in her mid-fifties, peered over the top of her black-framed glasses and returned Mackenzie’s greeting with a look of curiosity. A white polo top stretched across her ample bosom, doing nothing to hide the rolls around her middle.
    Mackenzie shuffled her feet. “Um, I’m Mackenzie Jones. I’m supposed to be starting here tomorrow. In the emergency department. But no one met me at the airport and I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go.” She indicated her suitcases sitting forlornly on the pavement where the old man had unceremoniously dumped them before roaring off down the road in a cloud of dust. She hadn’t even remembered to thank him.
    The woman’s eyes widened as she looked Mackenzie up and down. She then glanced at her watch and hit her head, as though remembering something. The gray knotted bun on top of her head bounced.
    “Bloody Tom! I knew I should have reminded him the new nurse was comin’ today.” Her voice was cigarette-gruff, matching her features. “Give me a sec love and I’ll get him on the blower. He can come and pick you up here and take ya around to your house.”
    She took another long look at Mackenzie before shaking her head as she pressed buttons on the phone and lifted the handset to her ear. Mackenzie stepped back from the desk to give her some privacy, but she needn’t have bothered. As soon as the phone was answered at the other end, the woman screeched into the handpiece.
    “Tom ya bloody idiot. You were meant to pick up that new nurse … today … yes today, not tomorra … yeah … she’s here now …” The woman glanced in her direction and Mackenzie shifted beneath the intensity of her gaze. “Yes, Mackenzie .” There was a long pause. “That’s right. She’s standin’ in front of me …” Another pause. “Yes, now … how long will it take you to get ’ere?” She looked at her watch and shook her head in disapproval, making a tsk sound in the back of her throat. “I’ll show her around then. Call me on the phone when you’re out the front.”
    Who was Tom? Probably this woman’s long-suffering husband.
    “Well come on then, I’ll show you ’round. Won’t take too long. Just don’t go expecting a warm welcome. Doc’s not known for his charming bedside manner.”
    The older woman, who hadn’t bothered to introduce herself, got up from the desk and walked across to a set of glass doors. A lanyard hung around her neck with a plastic identification card. She swiped the card against a black box on the wall and the doors swung open inward. Mackenzie was surprised at the level of security at the tiny hospital – she certainly hadn’t expected that in the middle of the bush. She smiled to herself. Some paper-pushing bureaucrat had probably decided they needed it. Mackenzie shivered. Perhaps they actually did need the security. Mackenzie shuddered again, imagining all manner of reasons why she would need to stay behind a locked door in the middle of nowhere.
    As she entered and followed the other woman, Mackenzie surreptitiously glanced around her. The whole place was an anomaly. Peeling paint gave the place a rundown feeling but she was certain she could have eaten off the ground. The floors were so highly polished she

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