Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

Ruthlessly, he battened it down, refusing to allow himself even the tiniest leeway. He was going to treat Emma as a colleague from now on, even if it killed him!

‘Does he seem genuine to you?’ he asked, sticking determinedly to the matter under discussion.

‘It’s hard to say.’ She grimaced. ‘I only met him today so I don’t have any real idea of what he’s like as a person.’

‘So he hasn’t lived in Avondale all that long?’

‘No. Apparently he moved here three months ago.’

‘And almost immediately began visiting the surgery on a regular basis.’ Daniel frowned as he picked up the patient’s file again and flicked through it. ‘How come we don’t have any notes from his last GP?’

‘He’s been working abroad ever since he left university. He told me that he assumed his notes would be still at the practice his parents use but they’ve been unable to find them. Ruth has contacted the university to see if they were transferred to their medical centre but so far she’s not heard back from them.’

‘That’s a shame. It would have been helpful to see if he had a history of visiting his GP on a frequent basis.’

‘It would. To be honest, it’s not a situation I’ve come across before. Most people who are undergoing surgery have been seen by several doctors before they reach us. That tends to weed out any malingerers.’

‘Would it help if I had a word with him?’ Daniel offered. ‘I’m not saying I’ll be able to tell if he’s making it up, but it might deter him if he knows we’re dubious about the claims he’s been making.’

‘Would you mind? I’d hate to make any hasty assumptions about his credibility and overlook something serious.’

Daniel heard the relief in her voice and immediately stood up. He would do anything to help her, he thought as he followed her to the door. He sighed as they walked along the corridor together. If only he’d thought about that on Saturday night. Making love with Emma may have been wonderful, but it had caused problems for him if not for her. She might be able to chalk it up to experience but he certainly couldn’t. Just for a second his head reeled as he recalled how sweetly responsive she had been when he’d held her in his arms before he forced the thought to the deepest, darkest reaches of his mind. He couldn’t afford to think about that or he wouldn’t be able to function!

Alistair Grant was sitting in the chair exactly where Emma had left him. A thin young man in his late twenties with sandy-coloured hair and a pale complexion, he cut a rather pathetic figure. Emma smiled at him as she went into the room.

‘I’m sorry to have left you sitting here, Alistair. This is Dr Kennedy. He would like to have a word with you to see if he can get to the root of your problems.’

‘I hope somebody can.’ Alistair stood up to shake hands. He sat down heavily again as though he didn’t have the strength to remain on his feet for very long. Propping himself against the edge of the desk, Daniel regarded him thoughtfully.

‘You seem to have been through the mill recently, Alistair. I’ve read your notes and you’ve had a lot of distressing symptoms in the last few months, it appears.’

Emma took her seat behind the desk, leaving it up to Daniel to take the lead. She had to admit that the case had her stumped and she would value his help. She listened attentively while he asked Alistair how his health had been in general over the past year.

‘I was fine right up until a few months ago,’ Alistair assured them. ‘I never had anything wrong with me before that apart from the odd cold.’

‘Dr Roberts told me that you’ve been working abroad. Were you ill while you were there or did it all kick off when you came back to England?’

‘When I moved to Avondale, actually. I’d only been here a couple of weeks when I started feeling really rough—tired and as though I had no energy. Then I started with all these aches and pains, the headaches, etcetera.’

He sounded really despondent and Emma frowned. If he was making it up then he was extremely convincing. By the time Daniel finished talking to him, she could tell that he was as perplexed as she was.

‘I have to admit that it’s got me baffled, Alistair. I know you’ve had a whole range of tests done, but I’d like to send you for more blood tests and see what they show up. Where were you working when you were abroad, by the way?’

‘South Africa was the last place but I’ve been all over in the past few years—India, China, various parts of Africa. I’m a civil engineer so I go wherever the job takes me.’

‘Are you working here at the moment?’ Emma put in.

‘Yes. I’m overseeing the building of a new wind farm. We’re due to start in a couple of weeks’ time so I’ve been doing a lot of the ground work beforehand.’

‘I imagine there was opposition to building a wind farm around here,’ Daniel suggested.

Alistair sighed. ‘There was. It’s taken years to get the go-ahead and there’s a lot of folk who still aren’t happy about it. One of the local farmers in particular has caused us a great deal of trouble—dumping loads of manure and old oil drums in the middle of the track to block our access, that sort of thing. Last week he even warned some of the men off with a shotgun. When we called the police, he claimed it was all a misunderstanding and that he was out shooting rabbits.’

‘It can’t be easy, dealing with that kind of behaviour!’ Emma exclaimed.

‘It isn’t, although it wouldn’t be so bad if I felt a bit more up to it,’ Alistair stated ruefully.

‘Well, let’s hope we can get to the bottom of this as soon as possible,’ Daniel