‘She’s great,’ Laura said quietly.

Jason broke the short silence that fell a minute or two later. ‘Talking about food at the beach…I’m starving.’

‘I’m not surprised. It’s three o’clock and we haven’t had lunch. Did you see that fish-and-chip shop we passed just down the road?’

‘Let’s go.’ Jason put Megan upright against his shoulder and was rubbing her back with what seemed like an automatic gesture. She obliged by burping loudly only seconds later, and then Jason was on his feet. ‘She’s going to need a nap soon.’

‘She’ll sleep in the car.’

‘We could take a longer route home. I’ll drive this time, if you like. Let’s go over the hills and back through the Hutt Valley. I haven’t been out that way for years.’

Neither had Laura. ‘I never knew there was an animal park out here. Look, it says it has deer and donkeys and goats and you’re allowed to feed them all. Be great fun for kids.’

‘We’ll bring Megan some time when she’s awake.’

‘She might be a bit young to appreciate it.’

‘We’re not, though.’ Jason turned to grin at Laura but she clutched at his arm.

‘Look out, Jase!’

Jason swore roundly as a car, passing them at speed on the downhill stretch, cut in way too sharply. ‘What’s he in such a big hurry for? Idiot.’

The black BMW containing the idiot had reached the bottom of the slope. Laura’s mouth gaped as she saw the swerve when its outside wheels left the tarmac. An instant later, the car had vanished.

‘Oh, my God-it’s gone over the bank!’

Jason already had the hazard lights on Laura’s car flashing. He pulled off the road well before the bend so that oncoming traffic would see the vehicle.

‘Stay here,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll go and see what’s happened.’

‘We know what’s happened. That was a hell of a crash we just heard. It’s highly likely that someone’s injured. I’m coming, too.’

‘But we can’t just leave Megan.’

‘She’s sound asleep and perfectly safe in her car seat.’ Laura was pulling her first-aid kit, in a small green backpack, from the back of her car. ‘Come on, Jason. We’re wasting time.’

The bank was steep. They could see the wheels of the unfortunate car, one still spinning, as it lay upside down towards the bottom of the bank. They couldn’t see any occupants due to the shrubby undergrowth beneath the trees. Laura’s foot slipped as she scrambled down after Jason and he caught her arm and steadied her.

‘Careful, babe,’ he warned. ‘Take it slowly.’ He released her arm but took hold of her hand instead and Laura was quite happy to make the journey a team effort. He was quite right, of course. The first rule for any rescuer was not to become one of the casualties, and it would be only too easy to slip and break an ankle or wrist on terrain like this when she was wearing trainers rather than her heavy work boots.

Jason was equally careful as they neared the wreck. ‘Don’t go downhill from the vehicle,’ he warned. ‘It’s not secure enough to be safe. Can you smell any fuel?’

‘No.’ Laura sniffed again just to be sure.

‘Good. Neither do I.’ Jason peered into one of the back windows of the vehicle. ‘I can’t see anyone.’

Laura looked at where the driver’s window was half-buried in soft earth. Or had the roof been compressed that far down? She knelt down and found she could see more than she expected of the front seats. Unexpectedly, she couldn’t see any people. Had Jason missed seeing someone crumpled behind the front seats on the roof that was now the floor of the vehicle perhaps?

‘Hello!’ She called. ‘Can anyone hear me?’

‘There’s a branch been knocked off this tree.’ Jason picked up what could have passed for a tree trunk with ease. ‘I’ll see if I can jam it somewhere on the other side to stabilise the-What the…!’ Jason dropped the tree branch and spun around. His laugh was one of embarrassed relief. ‘It’s a dog!’ he exclaimed. ‘I thought someone was grabbing my leg.’

The dog was black and curly and very fat. It cringed at the first movement from Jason but then wiggled apologetically closer and sat on his foot.

‘It’s shaking,’ Laura observed. ‘It’s probably been thrown clear of the car.’

‘Doesn’t look like it’s hurt too badly.’ Jason moved his foot but the dog moved swiftly and recaptured the contact. ‘It’s OK,’ Jason told it. ‘You’re safe now. Can you get out of the way so we can find your owner?’

Jason was satisfied enough with his positioning of the branch to let them confirm that the car was empty. The dog obviously hadn’t been the only passenger to be thrown clear of the wreck. They searched the surrounding area in expanding circles, with Jason still insisting that Laura take the higher ground.

‘Up here!’ Laura shouted a minute later. ‘I’ve found someone.’

‘He can’t have been wearing a seat belt, then.’ Jason was beside her within seconds. ‘How is he?’

‘Unconscious but breathing well,’ Laura told him. ‘I can’t see any major head injury. We’ll have to assume he was the only one in the car for the moment. Can you come behind his head and keep his neck stable?’

‘Sure. Do you think he’s got a spinal injury?’

‘Given the mechanism of injury, it’s fairly high on the index of suspicion.’ Laura checked her phone but the reception had been patchy enough on the road when she had first alerted the emergency services. It had gone completely now and she would not be able to give them an update on the situation. Turning back to the accident victim, Laura ran her hands over the middle-aged man in a body sweep for any obvious bleeding. ‘He’s got a fractured femur,’ she told Jason, pointing to the obvious misalignment of the man’s leg. She carried on with a rapid secondary survey. ‘Pelvis is stable, that’s good.’ She was ripping open a woollen bush shirt as they heard a call from above.

‘Do you need any help?’

‘Have you got a phone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Call triple one,’ Laura directed. ‘Tell them we have one patient. No entrapment. Ask them how long it will be before they get here.’

‘And check on our baby, would you?’ Jason yelled. ‘She’s in the back seat of our car.’

Our baby. Our car. But Laura couldn’t afford to take the time to savour the feeling the words gave her. Her patient was regaining consciousness and groaning loudly.

‘Don’t try to move,’ Laura said. ‘It’s all right. You’ve been in an accident but you’re safe now.’

The reassurance in Laura’s tone was enough to attract the fat black dog, which lay down on its stomach and then wriggled forward like a snake until its nose was right beside Jason’s hand.

‘Hello again,’ Jason said. ‘You all right, dog?’

A long, curly black tail wagged in an embarrassed fashion.

The groans from the dog’s owner were becoming intelligible words. Laura hung her stethoscope around her neck, satisfied that her patient did not have a chest injury severe enough to interfere with his breathing.

‘Keep still,’ she said again. ‘You may have hurt your neck or back.’

‘I…I’m fine,’ the man groaned. ‘Let me sit up.’

‘Not yet.’ Laura kept a restraining hand on the man’s shoulder. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Bill Treffers. What’s yours?’

‘I’m Laura. I’m a paramedic. And that’s Jason, holding your head. He’s a fireman.’

‘Hi,’ Jason said. ‘Must say I’m impressed. It’s not everyone that makes sure they’ve got representatives around from the emergency services when they take their car for a flying lesson.’

‘Oh…God,’ Bill groaned. ‘My car. Is it wrecked?’

‘Were you the only person in the car, Bill?’ Laura queried.

‘Yes. It was just me and that damned dog. The stupid mongrel fell on top of me when I was going around the corner. It’s all his fault. I hope he’s underneath the car.’

Jason caught Laura’s glance but she was glad he didn’t voice his obvious reaction to the statement. The ‘damned dog’ had slithered back to sit on Jason’s foot again as soon as Bill had started talking.

‘Take a deep breath for me, Bill,’ Laura instructed. ‘Does anything hurt?’

‘No. I’m fine, I said. Let me get up.’ Bill tried to move and then swore profusely. ‘My leg,’ he groaned.

‘It’s broken,’ Laura informed him. ‘An ambulance should be here shortly. They’ll be able to give you some pain relief.’ She could make contact with someone who would give her permission to put an IV line in even though she was off duty, which might speed up the man’s analgesia, but Laura’s professional empathy for him was much less than it had been before he’d mentioned his dog. ‘I’m going to check your neck and back out now,’ she told him. ‘Try and keep still.’

The new arrival to the scene slithered part way down the bank. ‘Your baby’s fine,’ he called. ‘Seems to be sound asleep, and they said the police and ambulance would be here in about ten minutes.’

It was almost an hour later that Jason and Laura finally clambered back up the steep bank as they assisted with carrying Bill’s scoop stretcher. He was taken away in the ambulance and a young female police officer reluctantly handed Megan back. ‘She was crying,’ she explained. ‘So I picked her up. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?’

Megan was happy enough to go back into her car seat.

‘I’ll put it in the front seat this time, shall I?’ Jason asked. ‘I’ll sit in the back with Oscar.’

‘Are you sure about this?’ Laura eyed the fat black dog currently leaning against Jason’s leg with its mournful black eyes firmly fixed on his face. ‘He doesn’t smell great.’

‘So we’ll give him a bath. We couldn’t leave him behind. Bastard Bill was on his way to have him put down.’

‘Hmm.’ Further conversation had revealed that Bill’s mother had gone into a rest home recently and her dog, a six-year-old motley cross between a Labrador and a poodle, had been locked up in Bill’s garage because his wife refused to have him in the house. His messy search for food or a distraction in the rubbish bags that morning had been the last straw and Bill had been summoned home from work to deal with it. The SPCA would have been an alternative to having the dog destroyed, but Jason and Oscar had clearly formed a bond.