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Jon flexed his arm. ‘Yeah, that would be great. I didn’t have much time to get them looked at when they happened, I was touring. I took a handful of painkillers and was back on stage the following evening. Being on stage in front of tens of thousands of people tends to make you forget about everything else.’
‘And you never had a doctor look at them?’
‘I was in hospital for a week in America. They said that my arm had become infected and gave me a course of antibiotics.’
‘You went to hospital for the burns? I didn’t see anything about that in your notes.’
‘No, I...’ Jon shrugged. ‘I needed a break.’
If he’d been in hospital for a week, it sounded as if there was a bit more to it than that. ‘Would it be okay if we contacted the hospital and asked them to send us through their notes?’
‘Sure. Knock yourself out.’
‘Thanks. I’ll have our administrator follow that up with you.’ Anna pulled up a seat, sitting down opposite Jon. ‘Can you tell me what happened when you burned yourself?’
‘One of the amps wasn’t working. I kicked it, and it burst into flames.’ Jon shook his head slowly. ‘Serves me right. I guess there’s a song there somewhere.’
‘I’d like to hear it.’ Anna bit her tongue. She’d resolved not to mention the songs.
‘I’ll sing it for you, Anna.’
Right. Another trace of Jonny Campbell’s charm. But it was faded and worn, like a mask Jon assumed when he didn’t want to face a reality that found him alone in a hospital room.
‘Will someone be coming? To visit you...?’ Maybe she was overstepping her boundaries a little, but the doctors here were given the time to get to know their patients as people, and were encouraged to do so.
‘Didn’t you know that I’m here incognito?’
‘I did. That doesn’t extend to family and friends, though, does it?’
‘When you tour, all you have is the band. We’ve been having our differences lately. That’s privileged information, by the way...’
‘It’s all privileged information here.’
‘That’s what everyone says.’ Jon twisted his mouth. ‘Then you see it in the papers the next morning.’
‘It’s not the way we do things.’ Anna searched for eye contact and found none. She wished he’d take the glasses off, but guessed he wouldn’t for a while at least. ‘It’s important that you understand that everything you say to us is completely confidential.’
Jon shrugged, as if it didn’t really matter one way or the other.
‘Blue-eyed Anna... It’d make a great song. Does that turn you on?’ He was retreating again behind the rock star persona, expecting her to go weak at the knees. There was nothing like meeting your heroes to inject a dose of reality.
‘Not particularly. Doing my job turns me on, and right now my interest in you is that you have scars that can be improved.’
Jon laughed suddenly, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Okay, fair enough. My twin brother is just the same. Being a doctor turns him on.’
‘You didn’t ask for his help? With the burns?’ The back of her neck was prickling, and Anna ignored it. Two and two didn’t always make four, and the feeling that she knew Jon Campbell was just an illusion, born from his fame.
‘Nah. We don’t talk. Jamie and I had a falling out.’ Jon shrugged. ‘He doesn’t know I’m here, and he probably doesn’t care. The rest of the family isn’t much impressed with me either...’
‘It’s up to you but...sometimes families can surprise you.’
Jon shook his head, taking his glasses off, and suddenly there was no question about it. Anna’s words dried in her throat. The jade-green eyes and ravaged face of Jonny Campbell really were familiar. His brother was Dr Jamie Campbell-Clarke.
CHAPTER TWO
MAYBE JON CAMPBELL had taken her wordless shock for granted, as the kind of thing that any woman would do when faced with a rock idol. Whatever. Anna couldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t think about Jamie Campbell-Clarke either. What she could think about was her duties as a surgeon.
She asked Jon if she could examine his burns, and he nodded his assent, rolling up his sleeve. The skin was discoloured, beginning to tighten and contort, showing that the injuries had been given very little care.
