‘Yeah. It’s what got me in here.’
He glanced up at Mags and she nodded. It probably wasn’t entirely the drink that had got Gary locked up for the night, but whatever else he’d done wasn’t Ethan’s business. He preferred to be the cog in the system that didn’t have to make judgements about others.
‘All right. Have you hit your head at all, or fallen?’
‘Dunno. Don’t remember. My leg hurts.’
‘I’ll take a look then. Is that okay?’
‘Knock yourself out, mate.’ Gary closed his eyes again, and warning bells began to ring at the back of Ethan’s head. He would have preferred it if Gary had been screaming for attention, because this lacklustre disinterest in what was happening around him didn’t bode well.
A glance over his shoulder told him that the custody sergeant was ready to step in if Gary started to kick. Kate was out of range, standing quietly in the corner of the cell. Taking the blankets from Gary’s legs, Ethan carefully rolled up the leg of his sweat pants.
Underneath was a haphazardly applied dressing of plaster and a bandage. Ethan cut off the dressings and saw the deep gash on the man’s leg.
‘This is a bite?’
He felt, rather than saw, Kate move closer, looking at the wound carefully. ‘I think that’s from a lizard. Lizard bites sometimes bleed very freely.’
‘This is deep.’ Ethan gently felt the skin around the wound. It was swollen and hot to the touch.
Kate turned her attention to Gary, poking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and kept them open, clearly liking Kate’s smile a little better than he did Ethan’s. Who could blame him?
‘Was it a lizard that bit you?’
‘Great, big ugly thing with sharp teeth.’
‘About this long?’ She held out her hands to indicate something of about three and a half feet in length. ‘Brownish colour with a light belly? Scales?’
‘Yeah, scales. Quick on its feet as well. My mate bought it from somewhere.’ The man closed his eyes again.
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‘It could be a monitor lizard. Their bites often don’t hurt much at first, but give it twenty-four hours and they can become infected very quickly. If he’s been drinking he probably didn’t register the pain.’ She turned to Ethan. It was a relief, but no particular surprise, to see that she was calm and collected. Almost welcoming the opportunity to do something which didn’t revolve around last night.
‘It’s certainly infected.’ Ethan took a surgical marker pen from the first-aid kit, drawing around the edge of the hard red lump that surrounded the bite, and noting the time so that any increase in the swelling could be monitored.
‘You think we should call an ambulance?’ Mags anticipated his next request.
‘Yeah, this definitely needs to be looked at. I’ll clean it and dress it to stop the bleeding.’ He looked up as a young man appeared in the doorway, holding a medical bag.
‘Sorry I’m late. If I could take a look at the patient now—’
‘This is Dr Conway,’ Mags broke in. ‘He’s worked with us before.’
‘Oh.’ The young doctor looked flustered and more than a little put out. Ethan stood, holding out his hand.
‘If I can fill you in on the details, maybe you can take things from here.’
* * *
‘His face... If looks could kill.’ Kate smiled up at him as they walked out of the police station.
Ethan shrugged. ‘If he’d got to the patient first, I don’t imagine he could have done any better. I personally thought my diagnosis of a lizard bite was quite inspired. And I made it so quickly!’
The look of smiling outrage that Kate shot at him was exactly what he’d been aiming for. ‘Your diagnosis?’
‘Yeah. It was me that said lizard first, wasn’t it?’