Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) (31 page)

The first officer was already taking care of Lidia, who groaned and started moving around again. He pulled out handcuffs and slapped them on her.

A second officer flipped the valve and came over to me. “You’re bleeding all over.” He grabbed a nearby rag and pressed it to my shoulder. “Is your back or neck hurt?” When I shook my head, he helped me stand. “Let’s go outside where we can breathe and you can tell me what happened.”

As I looked up and met his gaze, I recognized the man who had responded when my tires were slashed, Officer Lambert. “She killed Valerie. She’s behind everything.”

“Okay, Come on, let’s go out.” He wrapped my good arm around his shoulder and helped me through the door.

Detective Tingey was getting out of his squad car when we exited the building. “Can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” he asked.

“Apparently not.” I was grateful when the officer sat me in the chair on the back patio. The other officer took Lidia straight to a squad car and put her in the back seat, then climbed in the front and pulled out his notebook.

Detective Tingey turned my attention back toward him. “Anyone else in there?”

“No, it was just her and me, duking it out.” I ached all over and desperately wanted something for the pain in my bleeding shoulder. “There’s a candle burning inside.”

The detective turned to the road officer. “Tell the paramedics they can come over.” He turned back to me. “What about a candle?”

“There’s a candle burning inside a room filled with natural gas. Someone needs to blow it out.” I winced when gesturing with my hand caused pain to shoot through my elbow. And my shoulder throbbed.

He turned and asked someone to take care of it, then looked at me more closely. “Looks like you got in the way of her gun.”

“I’m fine,” I said, but even I didn’t believe it, and the detective’s snort was more than enough proof that he didn’t either. Still, I tried to make light of the pain. “It grazed me. I’ll live.”

He looked at it again and gave me a withering look. “It didn’t graze you—it went all the way through. You’re lucky it didn’t hit a major vein or something. You’re bleeding everywhere.”

Surprised, and more than a little dazed, I looked at it more closely and realized he was right. From the amount of blood I was losing, I thought maybe it
had
hit a vein. I hadn’t realized the back of my shirt was shiny red.

The ambulance pulled up and Jack and his partner popped out. Again? Really? Did the man never take a night off? Jack came to me while his partner went to check on Lidia.

“It’s a flesh wound,” I said with a half-smile. “Just going into shock. Nothing serious.”

“Right,” he said in a smooth voice. “Because shock’s not serious at all.”

People were shocked on a regular basis, weren’t they? I wasn’t sure how he managed to sound sarcastic and soothing at the same time. Perhaps I was going light-headed, and seeing his face calmed me.

He turned to one of the other officers and asked him to get an oxygen tank from the rig and to grab a handful of four-by-fours—that had me wondering how he intended to use blocks of wood to help me. Or did he mean a truck with four-wheel drive? My head swam. He started asking me where I hurt.

Someone came back with some packages of gauze. I glanced at one as Jack ripped several open and noticed it said “4x4” on it. Oh, okay. His partner put on the blood pressure cuff and started pumping it up. Officer Lambert brought over the gurney.

“I don’t need an ambulance,” I said. I knew if they got me in there, he was going to try to stick a needle in me. I hate needles.

Jack scowled at me. “You are so stubborn. You’re going to pass out from blood loss if we don’t get you to the hospital soon.”

“I can drive myself.” Except my Outlander was still in Valerie’s apartment parking lot.

“Forget it.” He put a hand under my good shoulder and helped me stand, then turned me to sit on the gurney. I shot him a dirty look, but was too tired and achy to argue. Dang it, he was right.

“Hold this,” he said as he put the gauze on the front of my bleeding shoulder and set my hand on it. “Apply plenty of pressure if you can.”

I felt light-headed and trembly, but did the best I could.

He opened some more packages and threw them on the exit wound in back. “You’re lucky it’s not worse.” Someone kept a hand under my shoulder, holding pressure on that wound while we moved to the ambulance. Once inside, a couple of other EMTs I’d never seen before hopped in with him, and one held pressure on my wounds, while another cut my shirt from the sleeve to the neck, then wrapped a roll of gauze around my shoulder, under the arm pit, to hold everything in place. 

The one holding pressure started asking me all the same questions Jack had asked me on the day I was attacked.

After answering a few I turned to Jack. “Do you ever go home?” I watched him opening packages of tubing. The man had been everywhere this week. I thought he could use a cheesecake.

He smiled. “Not nearly enough. I’ve been pulling extra shifts because someone’s out sick.”

Oh, that explained it.

“What happened?” he asked.

“She was trying to kill me. She shot me; I managed to get away.”  I squeezed my eyes against the white-hot agony in my shoulder. “Can you give me something to numb the pain?”

“Sure. Just a minute.” I looked up when I heard a tearing sound and saw him adding the tubing onto a bag of the clear liquid they hook to IVs.

“Oh, no. No needles.” The ambulance careened around a corner and bumped through a pothole or something. I groaned as the pain spiked.

“If you want pain meds to get to you fast, this is the best way,” he said as he wrapped a rubber strip around my upper arm. “Besides, you need more fluid. You’ve bled quite a bit and your blood pressure has looked better.” He tore open a small package and pulled out a red-brown square.

I looked away, even more sure I was going to puke. “I might need something to vomit in,” I warned them. One of the other EMTs handed me a barf bag faster than you could say “ralph.” “I hate needles. I don’t want an IV.” The words came out more as a whine than a refusal.

“Fine I’ll wait until you pass out and do it anyway. It should take all of two minutes.”

I scowled.

As the IV needle went into my elbow a minute later despite my half-hearted arguments, I decided Jack didn’t deserve the cheesecake after all.

It seemed to take forever for the doctors to sew up my bullet wounds and check for anything else that might be wrong. By the time they left me in peace to answer all the police officers’ questions, I had been given almost a pint of blood and a full bag of the clear stuff. At least they gave me some good pain medication, I thought as I looked into Detective Tingey’s grim face.

The detective asked, “Feeling better?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not going to pass out or puke on you,” I answered. I thought those were relevant issues.

He seemed to agree as he took the rolling chair next to me. “What happened?”

I gave him a brief summary from the time I’d spoken to him earlier that afternoon. “There are videos. My surveillance system’s on. She tried to kill me, to make it look like an accident. To shut me up.”

He scribbled notes. “Why would she do that?”

I gave him the short version, not sure if my words made sense.

“Where’s the security system set up?” Detective Tingey asked.

I told him and he made another scribble in his notebook. “I’ll have Officer Lambert retrieve the videos as evidence. Someone phoned Honey and she said she’d lock up for you. I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”

“Good. Are you going to let Millie go now?”

“Yes, as soon as I talk to the judge. She may be out of jail tonight. Of course, there will still be charges for theft, but they’ll be minor in comparison.”

I decided now was a good time to ask the question that had been nagging me for the past half hour. “How did you know I needed help? Why did the police show up?”

“A woman stopped by to talk cakes with you—said you were expecting her. She heard the gunshot, so she called for help.” He gave me a hard look. “Apparently she’s smarter than
some
people I could mention.”

I felt my face heat with a blush, but didn’t respond.

He studied me for a long moment. “Looks like it’s a good thing you still have insurance with your old job,” he said.

“Two trips to the ER and an ambulance ride in less than a week. It makes me think this small town might be more exciting than I remembered.” And I’d thought things were supposed to be slow-paced in Silver Springs.

He shook his head like he couldn’t believe my comments. “It’s only exciting when you’re around. Do I take it you’re going to stay?”

I smiled weakly and nodded. “Yeah. Looks like it. I have to head back to the city to settle things there, but I’ll be open for business by Easter.”

“I’ll stock up on Tums.”

I laughed at that, which meant the drugs were probably doing a great job.

He handed me a couple of papers. “Now, I know you told me what happened, but can you write me a full report from the moment you pulled up at Lidia’s? Do you feel up to it?”

“I’m a little fuzzy right now. Do you mind if I take care of it later?”

“That’s fine. I’ll come by for it tomorrow. I may have some more questions for you by then.” He stood and took one more look at me. “Try to stay out of trouble, will you?”

I grinned. “I’ll do my best.”

He disappeared through the curtain.

Honey arrived a few minutes later and fussed over me. “I can’t believe you went out there alone,” she said. “I should’ve gone with you.”

“And she would have tried to kill us both.” I wasn’t about to put her life in danger. She had a husband and children. Besides, it was only supposed to be reconnaissance, not a confrontation. Apparently I needed to work on my sneakiness in the future.

“No way—she would have been stealthier and tried to take us out individually,” Honey protested. “You wouldn’t be here at all if we’d used the buddy system.”

“She’s probably right,” Jack said as he entered the screened room where I lay. His eyes studied mine. “You look better. More color. Has the doctor said you’ll live?”

“Yeah. I’m harder to kill than Lidia thought. How is she?”

“She’ll survive to face the courts, despite her concussion. Remind me never to get in a fight with you.” His mouth quirked up on the right. “You know, when I first met you, I thought you were one of those city women who were focused on their careers to the exclusion of everything else. You proved differently. I’m sorry if I was a little cold.”

His words somehow made the pain a little less acute. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

He stepped back, as if needing to put space between us. “So when are you going to open your shop?”

“Before Easter.” I plucked at the blanket covering my legs. I wondered if I could really get everything together that fast, then made up my mind to be sure I did.

“Good. Count on me to stop by for some treats.”

“See you then.”

With a wave, he disappeared down the hall.

Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought. Perhaps, if I could go more than two days without him coming to check my wounds and poke holes in my veins, we could even become friends.

Nah.

Honey turned a wide grin on me. “
Now
what do you think of him?” She wriggled her eyebrows.

“You can’t be serious.” I gave her my best scowl. “He stuck me with a needle. No way am I going to go out with a guy who stuck me with a needle.”

“Lamest excuse of the century.” She straightened the blanket on my legs. “What? Is he not good enough for you?”

I shook my head. “He seems nice, but guys are totally off the menu for me right now.” I looked at the IV bag and noticed it was almost empty. “Can you go find someone to disconnect this thing?”

“I’ll let you change the subject—this time.” She disappeared out the door and left me smiling.

Now if I could get through a week without a major catastrophe, life would be good.

A week later I was amazed how much I could accomplish toward getting the business set up when I wasn’t running around interviewing murder suspects. As I waited for Honey to pick me up for the drive to the airport, I took stock of the restaurant-turned-bakery. My sign was in the window, the paint and trim finished. All the supplies and equipment that had come in were put away, my oven was installed and I’d placed an order for baking supplies, the delivery for which Honey would come accept on my behalf while I was gone.