“Classified information, I’m afraid, Ms. Crenshaw.”
“Yeah, yeah. Jake told me the same thing.”
The sheriff joined us again. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Sure. Someone decided to play bumper cars using real cars, and ran us off the road. Can we talk about this later? We really need to get up to Jake.”
It was decided it would be easier to go up to the place where we went off the road, and then work our way down to Jake. By the time we found the broken guardrail, two other vehicles had joined us. “How far down do you think he is?” one of the men asked me.
“I don’t know, maybe halfway? I’m not familiar with this area, and I had my eyes closed when we crashed through the guardrail.”
“We’ll find him,” the man assured me.
“You’ll have to crawl through the back window to get to him. Both sides are crushed in. His left shoulder is broken; I used an ACE bandage to secure his arm against his chest. He fractured a couple of ribs last week, and I think the accident may have made them worse.”
“Good to know. Anything else?”
“Those are the most serious injuries.”
“We’ll take it from here.” The man turned to McDonald. “Tell the ambulance to meet us on the road below. It will be easier to get him down, and less stressful for him.”
I wanted to go down there with them, but I knew I would just get in the way. The adrenaline rush I had been feeling for the last few hours suddenly disappeared, and I leaned against the nearest car. Garth helped me over to the car he and the sheriff had arrived in, and I gratefully sat down in the back seat. He drove us back down to where they had found me so we could wait for them to bring out Jake. “Why don’t you let me take a look at you?” Garth said while we waited. “Just to make sure you’re not doing the ‘take my buddy, he’s hurt worse than me’ routine.”
I waved him off. “I’m fine, really.”
“It’s either me or a free ride in an ambulance, which means you won’t be here when they bring him down.”
“That’s playing dirty.”
“Whatever works, Ms. Crenshaw.”
“Please, call me Lizzie. Ms. Crenshaw makes me sound so old.”
“Very well, if you insist. Why don’t we get out and stand in front of the headlights?”
He opened the back door for me, and held out his hand for me to take. I hesitated for a moment before placing my hand in his. Every muscle screamed bloody murder as I got out. “I feel like I’ve been through a brutal workout,” I groused as we moved to the front of the car. “I haven’t hurt this much since…” I stopped when I realized what I was about to say.
Garth must have understood what I meant, but wisely didn’t say a word. “You’ve got a cut near your hairline,” he said.
“It looked worse before I cleaned it up. Jake had a cut on his left cheek. It didn’t look too bad. I took care of it.”
When Garth reached out to check my arms for broken bones, I involuntarily flinched and stepped back. He held his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I know, it’s just…” I wasn’t sure how to put into words what I was feeling.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He hurried off.
I looked up the hill, wondering if Sheriff McDonald and the rescue crew had reached Jake yet. I knew leaving him had been the right thing to do, but I still felt a little guilty about doing it. All I could do now was pray.
“Ma’am?” I turned to see a young female paramedic standing next to me. “This gentleman tells me you were with the injured man that’s trapped in the SUV up there. Is this true?”
“Yes, it is.”
“And you walked away?” She sounded surprised. “Your friend here wants me to check you out, just to make sure that you’re not seriously injured. Why don’t we step back to the ambulance? We can do this privately.”
I looked at Garth, who simply nodded. He understood, and he wasn’t offended. “Thank you, Garth.”
“You’re welcome, Ms…Lizzie.”
“Will you let me know when they come out?”
“Absolutely.”
The paramedic and I walked back to the ambulance and climbed inside. She closed the door behind her while I sat down on the stretcher. “Your friend explained to me that you were a victim of an assault recently. He thought you’d be more comfortable being examined by me.”
“He’s a wise man.”
“Why don’t you take your coat off so I can check your vitals?”
Fifteen minutes later, I opened the ambulance door and climbed down. There was a band-aid on the cut on my forehead, an ACE bandage around my left knee, and an ice pack for my right shoulder. The paramedic had found an long, ugly bruise forming from my shoulder and across my chest where the seatbelt had been. She had suggested that I get some x-rays when Jake went to the hospital. I said I’d think about it.
I slowly made my way back to Garth’s car. He must have been watching for me in the side mirror, because he jumped out and hurried over to me as soon as he saw me. “What did she say?”
“Nothing broken, just badly bruised. Any word yet?”
“They’re still working on getting him out of the car.” We stood there looking up the hill for a minute. “Did you get a look at the truck?”
“Just the headlights.”
“Not much help.”
“Afraid not.”
Sheriff McDonald appeared, sliding his way down the hill. When he got to the bottom, he walked over to us. “They’re bringing him down.”
“How is he?”
He glanced at Garth briefly before answering. “He’s unconscious. Beyond that, I don’t know. I’m not a medic.”
“What did the paramedics say?”
“Nothing that I could really understand,” the sheriff said ruefully. “Biology was not one of my best subjects in school.”
I looked up in time to see them coming down the hill. Two in front, two in the back, a stretcher basket between them. Ropes were tied to the four corners of the basket, and they were carefully guiding it over the rough terrain. A couple of times, they picked up the basket and lifted it over a log or a hole. Garth and the sheriff went over to help them carry the basket over the ditch. I followed them to the back of the ambulance. They put the basket on the ground, and I noticed they had Jake strapped to a backboard, his neck immobilized. Carefully, they lifted him out of the basket, and put him on the stretcher. The female paramedic secured him to the stretcher before she and her partner, who had helped bring him down, rolled him into the back of the ambulance. I turned to Garth. “I’m riding with him.”
“I don’t think…” he started to say. I glared at him.
“It’s okay,” the female paramedic said, “she can ride with him.”
“Where are you taking him?” Garth asked her.
“Tazewell,” she replied.
He nodded and looked at me. “I’ll go to the house, get you a change of clothes, and meet you at the hospital with Mrs. Mathias.”
“Thank you,” I said as the ambulance doors were closed. A minute later, we started to move, the red and white lights flashing in the darkness.
Chapter 24
I’ve never been a patient person, especially when it comes to waiting. At one in the morning, I found myself pacing the floor in the waiting room of the emergency room, despite my soreness from the accident. Sheriff McDonald sat in a chair, talking quietly on his phone. For the third time, I walked over the admittance clerk to ask her for news. She held up her hand before I could say anything.
“I’m sorry, miss, I still don’t have any news. The doctors will come out to talk to you about your husband as soon as they can.”
The phone on her desk rang before I could tell her that Jake and I weren’t married. As I turned away, the sliding entrance doors opened, and Patricia rushing in, with Garth right behind her. She came over and gave me a gentle hug. “Lizzie, my goodness! Garth told me you weren’t seriously injure
d, but I’m not so sure. Have you been seen by a doctor yet?”
“No, ma’am,” I replied as Garth handing me a small overnight bag.
“Well, we’ll fix that little oversight right away. Any news on my son yet?”
I glanced over my shoulder at the clerk, who was staring at us. “I haven’t been able to find out anything.”
“Give me just a moment, dear,” she replied. She walked over to the clerk. “Carrie, what a pleasant surprise! How are you?”
“I’m just fine, Mrs. Mathias.”
“And how are those two darling angels of yours, Andrew and Angela? My goodness, they must be what, ten years old now?”
Carrie smiled. “Yes, ma’am, they are. Growing like weeds.”
“Children are wonderful, aren’t they?” Carrie nodded. “I was wondering if you could help me with something, Carrie.”
“If I can.”
“My son was brought in a little while ago. Ms. Crenshaw says she’s been unable to find out anything about his condition. Do you think you could go back there and see how he’s doing?”
Carrie hesitated for a moment, then got up and hurried away. I just shook my head, thinking how nice it must be to be so rich and powerful that people fell over themselves to please you. I walked over to Sheriff McDonald, who was having a quiet conversation with Garth. They stopped talking when I came over. “Are they going to be able to get any evidence off the SUV?”
“First, they have to get it back on the road. That’s not going to be easy. I’m amazed the two of you are still alive, quite frankly,” McDonald replied, shaking his head. “It looked like you bounced off several trees before finally coming to a stop. Just unbelieveable.”
I shuddered at his description. “So anything you could get might be compromised?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible, but this type of thing isn’t my area of expertise. I’ll get some crime scene techs from the state police. Hopefully, they’ll be able to find something. But even then, without a description of the truck, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“I figured as much,” I said. “I’m sorry I can’t give you what you need. The headlights blinded me.”
“How high off the ground were they?” Garth said. I gave him a puzzled look. “When a car gets too close to another car, usually the headlights are blocked by the back end of the car, which gives you a view across the hood. Do you follow me so far?” I nodded. “Good. Did that happen when the the other vehicle got close to the SUV?”
I thought about it for a moment. “No, they seemed to fill up the back window. All I could see was the headlights and the glint of the grill.”
“That’s good. So it was a truck. Did you see an emblem on the grill?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t focusing on it. I was too busy hoping we wouldn’t go over the edge.”
“Close your eyes and think about it for a minute,” Garth said.
Sighing, I did what he asked, but all I remembered seeing was bright lights. “Just lights. That’s all.”
“Keep trying…”
“I don’t want to keep trying,” I snapped. “I’ve had more than enough drama lately to last me a lifetime. Frankly, I wish I could forget everything that has happened this past month!”
Patricia came over. “Why are you two hounding this poor girl?” she admonished them. “Leave her be, or you’ll both answer to me, is that clear?” She led me to the other side of the room. “Why don’t you sit down and rest, Lizzie?”
“Not until we hear how Jake is doing. Does your husband know about Jake?”
“You’re going to wear yourself out. He’s in New York City on business. I called him; he said he’d fly home first thing in the morning.”
I sighed. “Jake wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He came here to get answers about Ethan’s past because of what happened to me.”
She held my hand. “Jake feels responsible for what happened, Lizzie. He’s worried that you haven’t been able to move past this. He’ll do whatever he can to make sure you have peace of mind. You wouldn’t have been able to stop him even if you tried to. He’s just as pigheaded and stubborn as you are.”
“Mrs. Mathias?” We turned to see Carrie standing next to a doctor in green hospital scrubs. “This is Dr. Morgan. He’s been taking care of Jake, and he’ll be able to answer your questions.”
“Thank you so much, Carrie,” Patricia said. “You give those two little angels a hug from me when you see them.”
“Yes, ma’am, I sure will.” She returned to her desk as our attention focused on the doctor in front of us.
“How is my son doing, Dr. Morgan?”
“I won’t lie to you, Mrs. Mathias. He’s not in good shape. He has a fractured clavicle…”
“A what?” I interrupted.
“His collarbone,” the doctor explained. “He also has four cracked ribs, a laceration on his cheek, bumps and bruises everywhere, and he’s still unconscious. We’re running some tests. Once we have the results, we’ll know how to proceed with his treatment. Do either of you know what happened to him?”
“A truck ran us off the road on Highway 16,” I said. “We were t-boned on Jake’s side of the SUV, and we ended up pinned against the trunk of a tree.”
Dr. Morgan looked at me from head to toe. “Did you come in by ambulance?”
“I rode in the back with Jake. One of the paramedics checked me out.”
“I’d like to do a physical examination, if that is all right with you, just to make sure you don’t have any broken bones.”
“I’m fine, really.” I moved closer to Patricia, who put her arm around me protectively.
“Dr. Morgan is right, Lizzie. I’ll be right there with you.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary, Mrs. Mathias,” Dr. Morgan replied.
She arched an eyebrow and gave him a stern look. “This young lady is a guest in my home, and that makes her welfare my responsibility. The only person she really knows is Jake. I believe it will put her at ease if I was with her.”
A nurse came up behind Dr. Morgan and whispered in his ear. “I’ll be right there,” he told her. “Very well, Mrs. Mathias. If you’ll follow me, I’ll have one of the nurses find a room for you.”
“Thank you very much. Why don’t you grab your overnight bag, Lizzie? Once they’re done, you can get cleaned up and changed. Oh wait, let me say something to Garth.” She hurried over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. “All set?” she said as she came back. “After you, Dr. Morgan.”
I won’t bore you with the details of the exam. The end result was that I was battered and bruised, but I’d live to fight another day. The imprint of the seatbelt across my chest had left some deep bruises, and from the waist down, I was one giant bruise. Dr. Morgan gave me something for the pain, and a young nurse came in to clean and disinfect the scratches on my knees, hands, and the cut on my head. Once she was finished, Patricia stepped into the hallway so I could change. She had thoughtfully packed a pair of my favorite sweats, and a very soft shirt.
When I left the room, I saw her talking to Dr. Morgan, who had one hand on her left arm. He nodded at me as I approached them. “They’ll take him to the operating room in a few minutes. I can give you a couple of minutes to see him if you want.”
“Wait, why are you operating? I thought you said he just had broken bones and bruises,” I said.
“There’s some internal bleeding,” Dr. Morgan explained, “which is why he’s unconscious. It looks like he has a ruptured spleen.”
He led us to a bigger room, where Jake was lying on a gurney, hooked up to a heart monitor. IV lines ran from the needle in his arm to a bag that was hanging on a tall, cold, stainless steel pole. I heard a sharp intake of breath from Patricia, and I reached out to grab her hand. We walked over to the right side of the gurney. She took his hand in hers and squeezed. I put my left hand on his arm, and we s
tood there like that, lost in our own thoughts, until they came to take him to surgery. We followed them down the hall until we came to a pair of double doors. “I’m sorry, ladies,” the nurse who had taken care of me said to us, “this is as far as you can go.” She hit a large button on the wall, and the doors swung open. “We’ll take good care of him, I promise. The doctor will come see you when the surgery is over.”
We made our way to the surgery waiting room. The clock on the wall said it was after 3 a.m. There was an old black and white movie on the TV, and I sat down on one of the couches to watch it. Patricia pulled out her phone and made a call. I decided to call T.J. and let him know what was going on, but there was no answer. So I called Trixie instead. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” she groused when she answered.
“About 3:30 in the morning here.”
“What in the name of all that is holy are you doing up at this time of night?”
“There’s been an accident.”
“Wait, what?” I heard her moving around, and figured she was probably sitting up on her bed. “What’s going on out there?”
I told her what had happened since we had been here, ending with Jake going into surgery. “Right now, all we can do is wait.”
“What do you mean, Jake’s having surgery?! How serious is it? What do you need me to do? Do you want me to come out there?”
“Not right now. There’s really nothing that you can do. I think they’re going to remove his spleen.”
“Oh my God. Have you told T.J. yet?”
“I tried to call him, but there was no answer.”
“That’s odd,” she said, “I saw him at supper last night. He and Owen were talking about a case they were working on.”
“I’ll try him again later.”
“If I see him, I’ll tell him to get in touch with you.”
“Thanks.”
“Have you talked with your mother?”
“No. I have no idea where they’re at right now. Somewhere in Europe. I don’t want to bother her with this. She’d insist on coming home, and I don’t want to ruin her honeymoon.”
“She’s been on her honeymoon for what, three months now? She’d want to know.”
Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) Page 19