Edge of the Heat 2 (Westwood Harbor Corruption) (3 page)

Jeffries opened the door and motioned the woman into the cell. She looked at him and nodded and walked in a few steps, then turned around and watched the officer. He walked to the man at the desk and said, “
Hey Curt, I need your help with something.”

“
What?” Curt answered.

“
I need your help with some records in the records room.”

“
Ok, get someone to watch the cell and I’ll be right there.”

“
I’ve got the guard watching on the cameras already.”

Curt grunted and got up and followed Jeffries out of the room. Th
e new woman watched them go.

As soon as they were gone she prodded Emma with her foot. “
Hey you bitch, get up, that’s my seat.”

Emma looked up at her incredulously. “
What? This is the floor.”

“
Yeah, that’s my spot on the floor. Move your ass somewhere else.”

Emma didn
’t want to get into any fights. She got to her feet and tried to edge around the woman. The woman watched her and then put her hand into her bra, pulling out a small, pink boxcutter. The blade glinted wickedly.

Emma
’s eyes widened and her heart felt like it was going to pound straight out of her chest. She put her hands out in front of her. She’d picked up people in the ambulance before who had been sliced with boxcutters. They were a gang weapon mostly.

“
Look, I don’t want any trouble,” she said, taking a step back.

She must have backed right into someone because she felt hands shoving her back forwards. Her eyes flicked to the woman who she had spoken with earlier for help. No help there - she had backed up to the far corner of the cellblock, h
er eyes wide and focused on the boxcutter too.

The new woman held the boxcutter in her right hand and held her left hand up too, and she bent over a bit, looking like she was about to pounce on Emma.

“Well then if you don’t want any trouble, maybe you shouldn’t start no trouble,” the woman said, stepping closer to Emma. Emma couldn’t go backwards, so she went sideways one step.

“
Ok, Ok, I won’t start no trouble,” she said.

The woman took one more step forward. “
Seems you already did or you wouldn’t be gettin this lesson, now would you. Your lesson is to keep your mouth shut and do what you are told.”

Emma tried to follow the conversation. Keep her mouth shut? Do what she was told? Did someone send this crazy woman in here to tell her that?

The woman lunged forward, the box cutter slicing through the air towards Emma’s face. Emma leaned backwards out of the way quickly.

The woman rushed her, silently. Emma wasn
’t expecting it and down they went. Emma didn’t feel cut. Her eyes desperately searched out the boxcutter. It was buried in her thick turnout jacket sleeve. Thank God she still had it on.

The woman straddled her and sliced again, aiming for Emma
’s chest. Emma grabbed both her hands and twisted as hard as she could. Dimly, she was aware of screaming in the room.

The woman didn
’t let go, but clawed at Emma’s hands with her other hand and twisted the box cutter, slicing into the back of Emma’s left hand and down her wrist.

Hot fire burned across her skin. The pain was bad, but Emma barely noticed it. She twi
sted as hard as she could, trying to get the other woman to let go of the weapon.

Emma heard a loud pop sound and the woman suddenly pitched forward towards her, her hand going limp. Emma wrenched the boxcutter out of her hand and slid it across the floor
quickly. Only then did she realize the room was silent and her attacker was motionless on the ground. She looked up. Two cops were standing at the entrance to the cellblock, one of them holding a shotgun. Neither of them was Jeffries.

Emma
’s heart was pounding with exertion and fear and her breaths were tearing in and out of her throat. Had they shot that woman? Emma didn’t see any blood on her. Then she saw what she thought was a beanbag. Oh, they had shot her with a beanbag gun.

The cop with the shotgun
pointed at her. “You, come here.”

She got shakily to her feet and walked to him. Adrenaline made her feel light headed.

He took her by the elbow and walked her out of the cellblock and out of the room to another small room just outside the door. Blood dripped from her wrist and left a grisly trail from the cellblock into the small room. The officer gave her some tissues from the desk and told her to sit down.

“
I’m going to call the medics to come treat you. When I come back you can tell me what happened.”

Emma nodded and sat down, holding compression on the slice on her hand and wrist. A subtle click told her she was locked in.

A phone!
The desk had a phone on it. Emma grabbed the receiver and punched in Jerry’s cell number quickly, ignoring the pain in her arm.

He answered. “
Jerry, I’m at the police station. I got arrested. Somebody cut me. Craig is at the hospital. Jerry you gotta come get me!”

Emma coll
apsed into tears for the hundredth time that day.

“Jerry , I can’t believe you did that! You could lose your job!” Emma whispered urgently as soon as the rear ambulance doors shut, cutting their low voices off from any police officers in the parking lot.

“
Some things are more important than my job Em, like what’s right, and good friends. Besides, I’m not going to lose my job. That is a pretty nasty cut, even if it didn’t graze any arteries.”

Jerry had jumped the ambulance call to the cellblock
for Emma, telling central dispatch he was right around the corner. He was working with Beth this time since Emma had taken wildfire duty. Jerry and Emma both liked and trusted Beth, one of the oldest and spiciest Paramedics in the department at 59. Beth could have had the supervisor position or even a Lieutenant’s or Captain’s position at any time, but she stayed in the trenches where she liked it best. She even preferred to float instead of work with a regular partner. She loved people, and she was a pure adrenaline junkie.

When Beth and Jerry got to the police station, Emma was telling Officer Cade what had happened. Officer Cade was calm and sympathetic, writing everything she said down into his little notebook. His manner and his kind brown eyes had rela
xed Emma. Why couldn’t all cops be like this?

Jerry didn
’t act like he knew Emma when he came in, he just got down to business. He had looked at her hand and immediately wrapped it up tight. He had turned to Officer Cade and said, “She needs to be transported quickly. That cut nicked an artery. Is she released or are you coming with us?”

Cade had looked flustered. “
She’s not my prisoner. Can you wait 2 minutes?”

“
If it’s any more than 2 minutes we’re just going to take her.”

Cade had rushed out of the room
.

Emma and Jerry had had a quick, whispered conversation in which she learned Craig had been in surgery an hour before but the hospital wouldn
’t say anything else. She gave Jerry the short version of how she had ended up in the cellblock. Jerry was livid for her. Beth didn’t say anything, but her face gave away her anger at what seemed to be Emma’s wrongful arrest.

Officer Jeffries had then entered the room, causing Emma to shrink back on herself. She didn
’t want to be scared of him but she was.

He had mad
e it pretty clear he didn’t believe that Emma was badly hurt but his Sergeant had made him release her pending investigation. He had made her sign a form and given her a large manila envelope and left the room.

Emma, Jerry, and Beth had practically run out
of there.

***

When they got to Westwood General Emma barreled out of the ambulance, wanting to run straight up to the surgical center or the ICU and start looking for Craig.

“
Wait, Emma, wait. If we don’t get that hand cleaned up you are going to get a nasty infection or worse. Look, it will only take 5 minutes.”

“
No Jerry, I’ll do it later, I gotta find Craig.”

Jerry looked to Beth for help.

“Emma,” Beth said. “Let Jerry clean you up. I’ll start calling around and figure out where he is and what’s going on. It will be faster than you just running around with no idea where to go.”

Emma knew they were right. They ducked into a trauma room and Jerry spent a few minutes cleaning the cut out well and then glui
ng it shut with skin glue. He bandaged it up tight and admonished her to keep a close eye on it for infection.

Emma watched the door the whole time for Beth
’s return. True to her word, she was back in 4 minutes.

“
He’s in the ICU, room 1214 but no visitors allowed, and no word on how he is.”

“
Perfect, thanks Beth, they’ll let me in,” Emma said, sighing her relief. He had made it through surgery.

As Jerry was cleaning up the mess they had made, his radio crackled. Dispatch was swamped with calls and not enoug
h available paramedics.

“
Looks like we are out of here Em, good luck.” Jerry kissed her on the cheek. Beth gave a wave and a smile and they were out the door.

“
Thanks guys!” Emma yelled after them. She took off at a jog to the elevator.

In the ICU, she rou
nded the corner towards room 1214 and saw two beefy looking men with short hair, wearing dark sports coats and dark pants sitting in uncomfortable-looking metal chairs in front of one of the doors. Emma immediately got an FBI vibe from them. Not that she knew a lot of FBI officers, but she watched TV.
How strange
, Emma thought.
Is that room 1214?

As she got closer she could tell it was. She had planned on just walking in the room like she belonged, not stopping at the nurse
’s station for permission. Well, maybe that would still work.

She walked up to the men and said “
Excuse me, I need to get inside.”

The men looked at her. “
No one gets inside but the doctor and the nurse,” the man on the left said.

Crap! What now?
She was getting inside that room, she didn’t care what it took.

“
Look, I’m his fiance, I need to get in the room and just check on him.”

The men exchanged glances. The one on the right smiled a little and crossed his arms. The one on the left was the spokesman apparently. He said, “
Our orders are no one gets inside but the doctor and the nurse. Not even fiances.”

“
Well who are you? Orders from who? What gives you that right?” Emma demanded, feeling very put out at this information.

The man on the left sighed and stood up. He was only a bit taller
than Emma, but very wide through the chest, with thick, jet-black hair and a 5 o’clock shadow. He put his hand in his coat and pulled out a badge.

“
We are FBI agents investigating the attempted murder of Craig Masterson. No one goes in but the doctor and the nurse. Period.” He spoke the period with finality and leaned forward getting in her face a little.

Emma hated confrontation, but when she got upset she could go toe to toe with anyone. And she was getting very upset. This
agent
didn’t have a clue what she had been through to get here.

“
Look, I want to see my fiance. Just for a second. I won’t hurt him, and I won’t try to kill him. You can come in with me. Just let me in!” She kept her voice low so it didn’t carry to the nurses station, but mustered every bit of authority she had.

“
No.”

Emma thought for a second. She didn
’t have the energy to flirt, and that wouldn’t work anyway. She could go away and steal a nurses uniform, but they’d already studied her face.

“
I want to talk to your boss,” she finally said.

“
No.”

“
What do you mean no? You have to tell me who your boss is. You are a public employee!”

The big man shrugged and sat down again.

Emma paced for a second. Then she came back to him, hands crossed over her chest to keep them from shaking. “Look. I saved him OK? He’d be dead if it weren’t for me. There was nobody guarding him up at the wildfire. No one could even
find
him until I looked in the woods and found him. If it weren’t for me he’d still be lying on the ground, covered with burnt wood, probably completely bled out!” Her whole body started to shake with the last few words. She didn’t want to have to admit this to herself, much less say it to a complete stranger.

The two men exchanged a glance again, this one much more urgent than
the first. The agent who hadn’t spoken whipped a phone out of his breast pocket and made a phone call.

“
We need you here,” he said and hung up.

Emma looked from one face to the other. “
Well?” she demanded.

“
Just sit tight,” the man with the phone said. “You’ll get to meet our boss in a second.”

The door at the end of the hall opened. They could all feel it and hear it but couldn
’t see anyone around the circular hallway yet. The two men sat up straight in their chairs. The one on the right stood up and crossed his arms over his chest.
Nervously?
Emma wondered.

Emma watched the hallway. Around the corner walked a wall of a man. He looked nothing like Craig, but reminded her of Craig anyway. Where Craig was fair this man was dark. He was a bit over 6 feet tall
, like Craig, and had a similar, muscular build. His jeans and form-fitting t-shirt were impeccably neat and crisp. He wore heavy workboots, but glided over the ground without making a sound.

The second agent walked over to him and said a few things in his
ear, gesturing once to Emma. This new agent’s eyes never left Emma’s. She could feel them searching her very soul, demanding answers of who she really was. She squirmed a little, not liking the feeling. Most people took her at face value. She was cute, she was smart, and she was good. This man seemed to already think she was none of those things.

He walked over. “
Miss Hill, my name is Agent Kinkaid. Would you come with me please?”

“
To where? Why?” she retorted, not wanting to leave without at least getting a peek at Craig.

“
To my office, so I can interview you regarding how you found Craig Masterson.”

“
I want to see him first.” She mentally dug in her heels, preparing to insist.

He nodded his head slightly to the agent left in front of the door. The agent s
tood up and cleared a path. Emma couldn’t believe it. She ran to the door and pushed it open.

The room smelled of antiseptic. It was small, only big enough for one bed, a chair, and a dizzying array of medical equipment. The beep beep beep of his heart mon
itor greeted her.
Regular
, her paramedic brain thought. She walked slowly over to the bed. He was covered with blankets and she couldn’t see his face but she could tell already he had a breathing tube down his throat, taped to his face. Tears formed in her eyes.

She walked up to him and put her hand gently in his hair. His eyes were taped shut. The right side of his face was swollen and bandaged. The right side of his head was shaved and she saw another bandage near the back of his head where she
’d felt the lump.

Her hands snuck down to his arm. His brachial pulse was strong. Good. She looked back at the door. Agent Kinkaid had followed her to the foot of the bed and was watching her intently, a strange, sad look on his face.

She checked the monitor for his heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. They all looked good. She really wished she could get a look at his chart. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Craig, come back to me please.” She stayed bent over for a moment, smelling his scent and willing him to stir.

Nothing.

She straightened. “I am ready,” she said to Agent Kinkaid. “Thank you,” she added as an afterthought.

He nodded and motioned her towards the door.

***

Emma followed Agent Kinkaid into a small, windowless room in the basement of the hospital. She sat down in the metal chair opposite a tiny desk with only a phone and some paper on it. “
The hospital lent me this office to set up operations while we investigate this crime and protect Firefighter Masterson,” he said, noticing Emma looking around in confusion.

Emma opened her mouth to ask why the FBI was involved but the Agent spoke again, quickly. “
Tell me exactly how you found him. Don’t leave anything out. Even the smallest detail could be important.” He grabbed a pen and hovered his hand over a pad of paper on the table.

Emma thought back to this morning at 10 o
’clock. 12 hours seemed like two lifetimes ago. So much had happened between then and now. Now that she had seen Craig was in no immediate danger and now that she was sitting, exhaustion overtook her. Hunger raged a quick second. When was the last time she had eaten anything? Or drank anything?

She started to tell how she had headed up the mountain an
d her conversation with the Captain. When she recounted exactly what she had said, the agent’s eyes narrowed and he interrupted her.

“
Wait, Craig hasn’t been threatened lately,” Hawk said.

Emma thought back. Why had she said that? Her thoughts were thick
and slow. Her vision started to blur and she felt nauseous.

Her head pitched forward and she fell slowly out of her chair. She tried to stay upright but had no strength in her body at all.

Once on the ground, her vision cleared and her head swam less. Agent Kinkaid swore under his breath and was around the small desk in an instant. “Are you OK? What happened?”

“
I haven’t eaten or drank anything in 24 hours. I need some food and water.”