High Country Nocturne

Chapter Twelve

Lindsey lay face down on the pavement.

The back of her white blouse was red and wet with blood.

I swept the surroundings with my.38 but the woman was gone. Then I knelt beside my wife and gently turned her over.

“Dave…”

“I’m here.”

“Your face is bleeding.”

“I’m fine.”

“Bad time for a walk, huh?” Her lips tried to smile.

I looked around again, but the parking lots across the street were empty and the edges of the wall looked clear of any lurking killer. The half-smoked Gauloise was burning five feet away.

“Don’t leave me.” Her voice sounded groggy.

“No. Never.”

“It hurts. Hurts.”

The entry wound was in the middle of her chest.

I needed a trauma kit.

I needed a trauma team with surgeons.

Her breathing was rapid and shallow. I took her pulse. Weak, thready. Classic shock symptoms. She was bleeding out.

“Stay with me, Lindsey. I love you. Stay awake.”

She stared at me, tried and failed to speak while I shakily dialed 911 on my iPhone, gave our location, my badge number from memory, and called for help.

“My wife has been shot. She’s badly wounded.”

Fire Station Four, with a paramedic unit, was only five blocks away. I heard the sirens from McDowell. It took somewhere between forever and eternity for the first emergency lights to appear on First Avenue.

The memory of Robin dying in my arms was banging in my vision. I couldn’t let it happen again.

Couldn’t.

“Keep breathing, baby. In and out.”

She nodded.

“Hold my hands tight.” She did, but her strength was fading.

Then her eyes closed.

Stripping off the blazer, I carefully rolled her to one side and used it as a makeshift dressing against her back. I wouldn’t let the word enter my mind: useless.

Firefighters and cops were arriving. Red and blue lights bounced off the wall, doors opened and closed, and uniforms approached. I moved aside and let them work, giving a description of the shooter to an officer who broadcast it on her portable radio. A helicopter appeared overhead and blasted us with white light.

More sirens were approaching from the distance.