What was wrong?

The door must have caught her as it crumpled, he thought as he checked the cut above her ear. Maybe that had been enough to knock her out.

Had it been enough to kill her? Who knew? If there was internal bleeding from a skull compression then maybe…

She was twisted away from him in the truck, so all he could see was her back. He was examining blind. His hands travelled further, examining gently, feeling for trauma. Her neck seemed OK-her pulse was rapid but strong. Her hands were intact. Her body…

His hands moved to her abdomen-and stiffened in shock. He paused in disbelief but he hadn’t been mistaken. The woman’s body was vast, swollen to full-term pregnancy, and what he’d felt was unmistakable.

A contraction was running right through her, and her body was rigid in spasm.

The woman was in labour. She was having a baby!

‘Amy?’

‘Jeff.’ Jeff Packer was the town’s police sergeant-the town’s only policeman, if it came to that. He was solid and dependable but he was well into his sixties. In any other town he’d have been pensioned off but in Iluka he seemed almost young.

‘There’s a casualty.’ He said the word ‘casualty’ like he might have said ‘disaster’ and Jeff didn’t shake easily. Unconsciously Amy braced herself for the worst.

‘Yes?’

‘It’s a young woman. We’re bringing her in to you now.’

‘You’re bringing her here?’

‘There’s nowhere else to take her, Amy. The bridge is down. We’d never get a helicopter landed in these conditions and Doc here says her need is urgent.’

‘Doc?’

‘The bloke she ran into says he’s a doctor.’

A doctor… Well, thank heaven for small mercies. Amy let her breath out in something close to a sob of relief.

‘How badly is she hurt?’

‘Dunno. She’s unconscious and her head’s bleeding. We’re putting her into the back of my van now.’