The Crag by Claire Sutherland

Author:Claire Sutherland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Affirm Press
Published: 2024-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

Skye smiled at the boy as she took the green whistle from his lips.

The painkiller had an instant effect. His contorted face relaxed and he started to laugh.

‘You’re a brave boy,’ she said to him. ‘You’re going to have a cool story to tell your friends.’

The teacher’s face remained worried.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Skye said. ‘It’s probably broken but it’s not a compound fracture. He’ll get a cast and be a hero for a few days.’

The teacher gave her a watery smile. ‘I guess it’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more often,’ she said. ‘Might be easier to put crash mats around the tree than try to keep the buggers out of it.’

‘I remember climbing that tree myself when I was about his age,’ Davo said from the driver’s seat. ‘You must have got a bit higher than I did, mate.’

The kid laughed like he’d just been told the best fart joke ever. The effects of the whistle wouldn’t last long, but the hospital was only four minutes down the road.

They handed over their charge as his mother arrived, looking concerned but not hysterical.

‘His brother broke his arm last year too,’ she told them as she followed them into the hospital waiting room. ‘Guess he didn’t want to miss out.’

Skye laughed and wished the pair good luck, then she and Davo got back in the van and headed towards the depot.

‘You back to helping the cops out after this shift?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, not this weekend unless something comes up, but Eric’s managed to keep me off most of the roster for next week.’

Skye had shown the photos of Adalita and Dane to Davo and most of the local climbers she was close to. There had not been a flicker of recognition from any of them.

‘You enjoying it?’ Davo asked.

‘It’s not as much fun as this.’ She gestured around the ambulance and laughed. ‘Actually, I am enjoying it, but that doesn’t seem like the right word to use. I would love to feel that something I contributed to ends up catching someone who could do something like this.

‘I’m looking forward to a weekend of not being immersed in it though. Well, largely not immersed in it. I’ve talked Elly – she’s my police boss, I guess – into having a crack at climbing. She’s only gym-climbed before so I’m going to take her up Spiral Staircase. She was pretty dubious, but I convinced her.’

‘That’s a nice day out. Bit of exposure, bit of abseiling, not too hard, she’ll love it,’ Davo said. ‘That’s the first one I ever did.’

Skye was cross-legged sorting out the rock-climbing gear when Callum arrived home.

He kissed the top of her head and she stood up and hugged him.

‘How are you? How are your folks?’

‘I’m okay. Mostly angry at him and sad for them. They knew it was coming but it’s going to take them a long time to adjust to the idea of having a son in jail, and they’re both haunted by the idea of the man’s children.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.