The Art of Deception

Faint Hope

As two male nurses rushed Matthews through Emergency into a curtained stall where blue-clad physicians awaited her, Matthews asked, “Was there a girl … a pregnant girl …?”

One of them aimed a small light into her eyes and pulled at her forehead, stretching and lifting her eyelids. She blinked furiously.

“You’re in Harborview Medical Center’s emergency room,”

a man’s voice reported calmly.

She took the doc by his surgical scrubs and pulled his face down to hers. “A girl … a knife wound … pregnant.”

The doctor separated himself, barked a few orders for injec-tions, and then checked with his nurse, a gentle-eyed black woman. This nurse shook her head gravely at the doctor while eyeing Matthews. “She didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”

“The baby?” Matthews asked. Someone pricked her skin with a needle. She winced. The clear plastic tubing of an IV rig was quickly untangled. A fluid dripped, followed by a warm wave of relaxation and peace. A sedative. The feeling threatened to consume her.

“We’re going to stitch you up,” she heard the doctor say.

“We’ve given you something to help with pain.”

“The baby?” she whispered at the nurse.

The nurse leaned into her, her face suddenly much more gentle. “They were going to try to deliver the baby postmortem.”

She could barely keep her eyes open. Sleep pulled her down.

But she managed to reach out and find the nurse’s hand. The woman leaned in closely. Matthews said, “LaMoia … police officer … is he okay?”

The woman looked at her with soft eyes. “Rest,” she said peacefully.

“No drugs,” Matthews said.

“It’s just something to relax you.”

“Not me,” she complained hoarsely, trying to sit up, but failing. The nurse eased her back down. “Cowboy … no drugs. He can’t have drugs. He …” She couldn’t get another word out, her tongue an uncooperative slug. A deep purple light fanned in at the edges of her eyes, stealing away the nurse and finally the overly bright light above the bed. Just before the goo dragged her down for good, she thought she heard the nurse say something, but it blended into a dream, and she lost all track of it.