Blood Tears (19 page)

“
I
guess we’re both about to learn something new.”

I took off at double
time, only to have him call me back immediately. “Actually, you
stay here and undress her. I’ll gather all the things we need.”

“
That
makes more sense. Can I grab one of your t-shirts? She so small
that it will do as a gown. Her shirt’s filthy.”

“
Yep.
Go for it. Third drawer down in my cupboard.

I sprinted into his
bedroom, and pulled out the first t-shirt, hoping it wasn’t an
expensive designer one.

Back with the girl, I
carefully rolled her from side to side to strip the sheets off the
bed – no point in ruining them. They probably cost the Sarge a
bundle.

I took the towels and
older sheets he handed me and eased the poor girl on top. I waved
the men out from the room while I helped undress her and pull the
t-shirt over her nakedness. It was only as I did that could I
discern a noticeable, but small, bump in her belly. She hardly
looked full-term, and the big shirt she’d worn had swamped her,
masking her pregnancy. No wonder Dave hadn’t noticed, and had
merely thought she was a little chubby.

“
What’s your name, sweetheart,” I asked in one break she had
from her contractions.

“
Annabel,” she said, before another contraction gripped. She
cried out loudly.

“
Come
on, Annabel. You can do it, sweetheart. Just breathe. In and out.
Nice and slow.” I had no idea if what I was saying was at all
useful, but it might distract her at least for a moment.

Just when I was
wondering where the hell Teddy was, he came running in with the
phone.

“
Neither Dr Fenn nor his nurse are available at the moment.
But I have the ambulance service on the phone.”

“
Put
them on speakerphone,” I said, probably a little sharp from
stress.

I’d apologise to him
later. I liked the guy – after all, I voted for him in the last
Council election. But I’d rather have one Sarge to support me than
ten friendly would-be politicians, no matter how willing Teddy was
to be of assistance.

The Sarge shooed the
other two men from the house, and leaned on the doorjamb, ready to
help when needed.

“
Hello? Hello?” called a female voice from the
phone.

“
Hi,
there. I’m Senior Constable Tess Fuller from the Mount Big Town
police. I have a young lady here about to give birth. Neither my
sergeant nor I have any delivery experience, and we only the most
basic idea of what to do. Hope you can help us.”

“
Hi,
Tess. My name’s Jacinta. I’ve done this a few times in the last
five years, so don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it. You’ll be
fine. I’ve dispatched an ambulance, but you know it’s going to take
a while to get there. Hopefully, it will reach you before the
baby’s arrived. What’s the name of our young lady?”

“
Annabel.”

“
First time mother?”

“
I
hope so. She’s only about sixteen.” I looked at the girl. “Is that
right, Annabel? You’re sixteen?”

She nodded, her face
contorting, sweat breaking out on her forehead.

“
Does
she know how many weeks along she is?”

Annabel shook her head.
“No.”

“
I’d
hazard a guess that she’s had little, or no, ante-natal care,” I
said. “Her jeans were soaking wet when she came here, so I presume
that means her waters have broken?”

“
Most
probably. We’re getting closer to delivery. It will all be over
soon.”

After conveying
information between Jacinta and Annabel, we established that
Annabel’s contractions had been going for hours. The pain had
driven her into town to seek help, where Teddy and Lee had found
her collapsed.

On Jacinta’s
instructions, I timed a couple of contractions, finding them about
ten minutes apart.

“
Yep,
this baby’s definitely on its way,” she confirmed. “But not just
yet.”

“
Okay. She’s in a lot of pain. What can I do to make her more
comfortable?” I asked.

“
The
poor girl’s going to be doing it drug free. Try to get her to
stretch a little; maybe walk around if she’s up to it. A warm bath
or shower can sometimes help, particularly if she’s experiencing
any back pain. Be sure to keep her hydrated, and if she’s hungry, a
small meal with carbohydrates might help.”

Jacinta gave me
instructions on breathing techniques to pass on to Annabel. She
suggested I hang up for now and try to get Annabel mobile, assuring
me she was on shift for a while, and I could ask for her by name
when we rang next for more advice.

A warm shower didn’t
seem to do much to help Annabel through a couple of contractions. I
started to become slightly alarmed, as they seemed to be getting
stronger, and closer together.

She managed to drink
some water, but refused to eat anything. I walked her slowly up and
down the hallway. At one point, I encouraged her to kneel on one of
the Sarge’s armchairs, clinging to the back as she suffered through
another couple of contractions.

To me, it seemed the
time passed infinitely slowly. I could only imagine how it felt for
the poor pregnant teenager.

“
Sarge, I think we should ring Jacinta back now. Annabel’s
contractions are getting really close together,” I said, after
timing her last couple.

Back on speakerphone,
she advised us to keep Annabel upright for as long possible.

“
My
baby. I need to push,” Annabel panted after a few extra long
minutes of trying to coax her to walk around some more.

I panicked. “What do I
do? She wants to push.”

“
Tell
her to get on all fours on the floor and bring her face to the
ground. That might help stop the urge for a short while. Tess, by
the sounds of it, this ambulance isn’t going to get there in
time.”

“
I
have to push
now
,” Annabel cried.

“
Let
her push if she needs to,” advised Jacinta. “Make sure your
sergeant is standing by with clean towels, and some kind of blanket
for the baby. Oh yeah, and you’ll need something to put the
placenta in.”

“
Sarge, pull the sheets and towels off the bed. Looks as
though it’s going to happen right here in the lounge
room.”

I barely had time to
slip on some gloves, and him to arrange sheets and a pillow, before
Annabel started pushing in earnest. She grunted mightily, and the
baby’s head crowned.

“
Oh,
God,” I muttered to myself, trying to position myself to ensure the
baby didn’t fly out on to the floor. “The head’s out.”

“
Excellent,” said Jactina. “She’s a natural.”

“
The
umbilical cord is wrapped around its neck.”

“
Is
it loose?”

“
Yes.”

“
That’s good. Slip it over the baby’s head, but be
gentle.”

I did what she said,
terrified I would make some mistake that would harm the baby.

“
Done.”

“
Good. You’re doing great so far, Tess.”

Annabel pushed a couple
more times, making an animalistic noise that was difficult to
hear.

“
The
baby’s body’s out. It’s out!” I shouted.

“
How
does the baby look? How’s its muscle tone? It’s not floppy at
all?”

“
No,
it looks okay. I think.”

The baby gave a small
wail, followed by a louder one.

“
The
baby’s crying.”

“
Good,” said Jacinta. “Now we need to dry the
baby.”

I was shaking a bit, so
the Sarge kneeled next to me and took the baby from my arms.

“
What
about the cord?” I asked.

“
Leave it. The paramedics will deal with it when they arrive.
Is the baby dry?”

I checked to see the
Sarge gently rubbing the baby down with a towel. “Getting
there.”

“
Okay, now place it on Annabel’s stomach for her to cuddle,
and put a blanket over both to keep the baby warm. Get Annabel to
let the baby nuzzle on her breasts, or even breastfeed it if she
can, and it wants to. Is it a boy or girl? I don’t want to keep
calling it an ‘it’.”

“
A
girl.”

“
Oh,
lovely. Now all we have to do is see if we can deliver the
placenta. It could take up to about sixty minutes, but it could be
sooner. Annabel will want to push again soon. That’s what we’re
waiting for, but it will happen when it happens. We don’t want to
rush her.”

“
Okay, we’ll ring you back when that starts happening. Is
there anything else we can do for either of them?”

“
Keep
both comfortable and warm. Give Annabel something to drink or eat
if she wants. And try to encourage her to let the baby suckle. That
will help the placenta deliver.”

The Sarge brought back
a few more pillows for Annabel. It wasn’t ideal for her to be lying
on the timber floor, but she didn’t seem to mind, completely
absorbed in her baby.

We had a lot of
questions to ask her, but after a brief whispered conference, the
Sarge decided that this wasn’t really the time or place to start
digging into her back-story.

The placenta still
hadn’t delivered when the ambulance finally arrived. It was with
incredible relief that I handed over the care of Annabel and her
baby to their capable hands.

When Annabel and the
baby had been thoroughly checked over, the ambulance making its
slow way down the driveway back to Big Town, the Sarge and I looked
at each other. I expelled a huge draught of air.

“
Oh,
man,” I said, feeling a huge adrenaline slump, and suddenly needing
to sit down on the lounge.

He sat next to me. “You
did a good job, Tess,” he said with quiet sincerity.

“
We
did a good job,” I replied. “But it’s not an
experience I’m all that keen to replicate in the
future.”

He smiled faintly.
“That might be a bit difficult to avoid when you have your own
children.”

“
I
think that’s turned me off childbirth forever,” I joked, stretching
and yawning. I glanced around at the aftermath with no enthusiasm.
“Let’s do a quick clean up job. Then do you want to drive to Big
Town to talk to her when we’re done?”

His turn to yawn.
“Nope. Let’s try to catch a few more hours sleep. She’ll need some
too and she’s in good hands now. We’ll go visit her later
today.”

“
Okay.” I wasn’t going to argue.

We spent fifteen
minutes cleaning up his house, leaving a pile of soiled linen in
his laundry.

“
I
think I’ll just throw all those out,” he said, regarding them with
a scrunched nose. He dug up a big garbage bag, and stuffed the
towels and sheets into it.

When everything looked
neat and unruffled again, I could barely contain my yawns. “That’s
it for me. I badly need to hit the sack.”

He walked me to the
door, and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You really did a
great job tonight, Tess. I mean that.”

Our eyes fixed on each
other for a few ticks. And after so many months of being told how
badly I needed discipline, what he said was a much-appreciated
thing to hear.

“
Thank you,” I replied quietly, and let myself out.

Chapter
13

The next morning, I
didn’t make it to the station until about nine-thirty, having
managed to catch a few extra hours of sleep, but skipping my
morning jog. I let myself in, filled and turned on the kettle and
dumped teabags into two mugs.

The Sarge ambled in
about ten minutes later as I sipped on my tea and read the news
online.

“
Did
you manage any sleep?” he asked, making a beeline for the
kettle.

“
A
bit. How about you?”

“
A
bit. How about we take a drive to Big Town this morning to chat to
our young lady?”

“
Yep.
Sounds good to me. I think we both realise there’s a very strong
chance that she’s our mystery teen.”

His blue eyes darkened
with regret. “If so, we’re probably going to have to break the news
about Jamie to her.”

“
She
might have already found out.”

“
I
don’t know which would be worse – us telling her, or her finding
out when she was on her own and heavily pregnant.”

“
His
baby, do you think?”

“
Who
knows? Hopefully she’ll be able to tell us.”

“
If
she is Jamie’s little buddy, then she might also be able to tell us
something about his mysterious ‘father’. That would surely make Mr
X and Zelda’s day.”

“
Because, as you know, we live to please the dees in Big
Town,” he said dryly. “Have you started your report about last
night yet?”

“
Geez! I just got to work. Of course I haven’t,” I griped,
taking another sip of tea and reading the sordid details of the
latest celebrity scandal.

“
Good
to see you sorting out your priorities,” he reproved mildly,
standing behind me, and leaning over my shoulder to read the news
article. “Who are those people, anyway?”

“
No
idea,” I said, twisting around to look up at him. “I think she’s an
actor and he’s a model. Or
vice versa
.”