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‘She’s never been in practice, if you ask me.’ The sniff was scathing. ‘Why doesn’t she just go back where she came from?’

Laura turned to look at Shelley, sitting in the far corner of the staffroom, flicking the pages of a magazine. She smiled as she caught an audible muttering from Mrs Mack concerning the desirable location of a great many Sassenachs.

‘The problem is that she wants to take Megan back with her.’ Laura kept her voice as low as the whole conversation had been. ‘And Jason isn’t prepared to let her.’

‘I should think not,’ Jean hissed. ‘She’s no fit mother for the likes of our wee Meg.’

Shelley must have been able to feel the heat of the glare she was receiving. She sent back an ‘oh, whatever!’ expression and returned to her magazine with an audible and very bored sigh.

‘She’ll get sick of sitting around here, pretending to be interested in being a mother.’

‘I hope so,’ Laura murmured. The novelty of having Shelley on station might wear off for the rest of Green Watch as well. Despite even more obvious support for Jason and Laura than Maxine’s visit had inspired, there was no getting away from the fact that the men found Shelley astonishingly attractive.

Stick had been seen to poke Jason hard in the ribs as they’d left for their first callout that morning. ‘Didn’t you say she had an identical twin sister? Bring it on, mate!’

‘You don’t want to go there,’ Jason responded.

‘Are you kidding?’

‘She’s dead, mate.’ Jason’s voice had faded as the door swung shut. ‘But you’re welcome to the one that’s left. She’s dead keen on finding a New Zealand husband. Be my guest.’

Jean McKendry’s attitude took a turn for the worse that afternoon. Waves of righteous indignation met both Jason and Laura when they arrived back from separate jobs at almost the same time.

‘She just left her lying on the couch and walked off.’

‘Where did she go?’

‘Last I saw she was getting on a bus at the stop across the road. That’s when I went to check on Megan and found the puir lassie just lying on the couch.’

Jason looked worried. ‘Thank goodness she didn’t take Megan with her. We’re going to have to keep a closer eye on her when she comes back.’

‘I hope she’s no’ coming back at all,’ Jean snapped. ‘That bairn could have rolled off that couch and done herself a right mischief.’

But Shelley did come back. Laura groaned inwardly when she arrived along with Jason, Megan and Oscar again early the following morning. Jason looked tired and his grim expression deepened as the day got busier for his crew. Shelley looked sullen but determined, and totally ignored both Laura and Jean, who were not about to leave her alone with Megan.

Thankfully, she also ignored the baby and, other than disappearing for several hours in the middle of the day, spent her time watching television and reading magazines.

Laura and Tim had an unusually quiet day. The call that came in at four in the afternoon was only the third one for the shift. An hour later, they had treated a child’s asthma attack, transported the young girl to hospital and were returning to the station, planning to give the ambulance a wash down and check equipment stores.

The sight of Mrs McKendry standing at the door of the garage and practically wringing her hands sent a chill snaking down Laura’s spine.

‘What’s wrong? It’s not Megan, is it?’ The difficulty with which Jean was struggling to find words was unusual enough to hit panic buttons. ‘What’s happened? Is she – is she all right?’

‘We don’t know. She’s… she’s gone!’

‘Gone where?’ Laura’s tone sounded curiously blank. Her brain felt foggy, the thought processes slowing enough to make her feel stupid.

‘We don’t know,’ Jean repeated. ‘She’s just… gone. That woman has taken her.’ A stifled sob broke through. ‘It’s all my fault but I had to go and see about the water, didn’t I?’

‘Where’s Jason?’

‘They arrived back just a few minutes after I found she’d gone. They’ve taken the fire engine and the whole crew has gone looking for her. She wouldn’t have got far on foot. But… but Jason doesn’t know about that man yet.’

‘What man?’

‘The one that left the puir wee bairn on the doorstep in the first place.’

Jason learned about the man soon enough, and Laura heard enough to piece the whole sorry story together as she sat on station in the company of two fire and ambulance crews at shift changeover time.