There was a moment of silence, and I looked up eventually to see David sat back, his expression grave, hands clasped round the back of his head.
‘So what would you advise her to do, hypothetically?’ I said and gave a nervous, miserable laugh.
‘When you say one-night stand, you mean?—’
‘Sex, yes.’
‘And exactly how old, is “much younger”?’
‘Seventeen.’
‘Oh, Alex.’ He closed his eyes and put his head in his hands instead.
‘I know, I know.’ I found myself near to tears and tried to choke them back.
‘I assume, hypothetically, she made it very clear to him that it was a one-off, something she wouldn’t have let happen in a million years had she known who he was, and how old he was, and that under no circumstances would it be happening again?’
‘Of course.’
‘And he got the message?’
I nodded. ‘He left, embarrassed and a bit angry, but he was under no illusions.’
‘Does this hypothetical colleague of mine think he’ll leave it there?’
I paled. ‘God, yes, I hope so. I can’t see why he wouldn’t. He said that he’d had a row with his girlfriend and his parents had asked questions. He went to the trouble of creating a fake identity to get an appointment with me, so he obviously doesn’t want it out in the open either.’
‘Does anyone else know about this?’
I shook my head. ‘Just you. He screwed up his temporary treatment form, and took it away with him, and the paper list of duty appointments documenting his fake name has gone missing. Nothing was logged, obviously, because the system was down.’
David sat back. ‘He didn’t ask for medical advice. He didn’t give his real name, so one can reasonably assume he would be unhappy about his real notes being accessed. There’s no paper trail, so it’s as good as if he wasn’t here. He’s got the message that it was a one-off. You didn’t know when you slept with him that he was your patient…’ He exhaled. ‘Nothing punishable, as far as I can see. Although now, of course, you must remove him from your list pronto – his parents too. But that’s fine, because you can use their duplicity from last night as the reason for that.’
I lowered my voice to a whisper. ‘I genuinely have no recollection of treating him professionally. I don’t remember seeing him here at all.’
‘Well, you sure as hell can’t open his notes to look, Al. You’re absolutely certain he got the message then? It’s just… you can really do without any love-struck kids hanging around giving people the wrong idea, given your history.’
I could feel my face turning red as I coloured, guiltily. ‘You mean Rob?’
‘Yes, of course. Who else could I have meant?’
‘Rob was a consenting adult, and we’re married now! We’ve been married for eight years!’
‘I’m not disputing it turned out to be the real deal. He was, however, already married to someone else when you both met, here, and you were his doctor,’ David gently, but correctly, pointed out. ‘You saw Rob over a course of appointments – it wasn’t a one-off – and while you were bloody lucky to get away with just a warning after his ex made that “anonymous” complaint against you; it’s still sitting there on the list of Registered Medical Practitioners. So, get this boy off your list now because, frankly, if he shows up to see you again, it’s going to make you look like this is how you pick up men, Al.’
‘Knock, knock.’
We both jumped, David twisting round in his chair, to see Rob himself standing in the doorway, his hand raised and against the doorframe. My mouth fell open. How much had he heard?
Rob reached into his pocket with his other hand and pulled out my mobile, holding it aloft. ‘You left this at home in the rush this morning. I just found it and thought you might need it in case the school called or something, so I brought it down. Bev let me in.’ He looked between David and I. ‘Everything all right?’ His tone was light, but I could hear a very slight edge to it.
David jumped up, smiled warmly and offered Rob his hand. ‘Rob! Good to see you again, mate!’
I winced inwardly. David wasn’t the kind of bloke who could pull off ‘mate’ with any conviction at all.
Rob shook his hand and looked at me silently.
‘We’ve had the morning from hell,’ David said chattily. ‘Systems all down, Internet up the spout, patients kicking off. Still, we got there in the end, thank God.’ He laughed. ‘Anyway, I’ll let you both get on, but as I was just saying, Alex, if you can pick up that man’s record we’ve got to report on, that would be great.’
He looked at me pointedly, obviously thinking that Rob might have heard the last thing he said, too.
‘Will do,’ I said quietly, suddenly exhausted.
‘Cheers, Rob, see you soon, pal!’ He patted Rob’s shoulder heartily and, head down, scurried off to his office, like the White Rabbit.
Rob came in, sat down and slid my mobile across to me.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘That was kind of you.’
‘That was a lot of “pal” and “mate” from David. He’s very chipper today considering the morning it sounds like you’ve had.’
‘Just relief that it’s over, I expect. It makes you go a bit giddy and weird when you’re working under high stress like that and trying not to mess up by giving someone something they ought not to have.’ I couldn’t meet his eye.
‘You look shattered.’ Rob reached out and beckoned with his fingers. ‘Give me your car keys and I’ll swap with you. I’ll take the Qashqai back and collect the girls from school – that way we don’t have to switch the car seats over. You take the BMW and come home when you’re done here.’
‘Are you sure?’ I glanced at him gratefully. ‘I don’t want to mess up your work.’
‘You’re not.’
‘Well, thank you.’ There was another pause and I said quickly: ‘I’m sorry that I can’t stop and say let’s go to lunch or something, but I’m not even going to get time for a sandwich today; I’ve got all this morning to catch up on as well as a load of other stuff.’ I smiled apologetically and gestured at the paper mountain.
‘There’s nothing going on that I should know about, is there, Al?’
I stopped short. He waited, and I shook my head.
He appeared to consider that. ‘OK.’ He got to his feet and leant over to kiss me goodbye. His mouth lingered on mine for a moment longer than I was expecting. I’d started to pull back before I realised my mistake. I managed to salvage it, though, and even felt myself starting to respond to his touch.
He broke away. ‘I think we’d better stop there, don’t you? I’ll see you back at home.’
* * *
I didn’t tell him then and there about Jonathan because I was at work. It wasn’t the time or the place. That’s all. And it’s lunacy to suggest I could – or would – have compromised an entire medical centre to prevent there being any computerised record of subsequent patient appointments that morning, even made-up ones. I was not anticipating Jonathan would come into the surgery, nor did I ask him to. We didn’t have any contact whatsoever after I left his parents’ property. I was only in early to look at and update Christy Day’s record because I was frightened the boy I’d seen at her house was below the age of consent.
Neither did I apprehend and destroy the handwritten appointment list, and I take issue that it’s even being considered an official document. It was barely more than a piece of scrap paper. In any case, I put it back on Bev’s desk. I wasn’t nervous and panicking. I was simply looking at the list to see if he was telling me the truth and been documented as Shahid Khan.
I’m just not that devious. It’s as simple as that.
4
Dr Alexandra Inglis