by K Carothers
The firefighter nodded, and Melinda led Erin to an open door on the back side of the trailer. “We’ll go in here. This is the dirty end. Anyone who can walk goes inside, and it’s pretty private. You’ll strip down behind the first curtain and throw all your clothes into the container. Then go through the next curtain to the rinsing station. The shower will go on automatically. Rinse off and move to the next station, where a cleaning solution comes out in the shower. Wash yourself from head to toe, and rinse off again at the next station. On the other side of that is an area stocked with towels, scrubs, and sandals. Dry off and get dressed, then walk out through the clean door. It’s all pretty slick, and Bandit and I will be right behind you.” A smile briefly pulled at the corner of her mouth. “At least I won’t have to give him a bath tonight.”
Erin went through the stations and did as Melinda had instructed, cleaning herself thoroughly. She knew how serious the situation really was. Trace amounts of the fentanyl powder could easily have gotten onto her clothes, sitting there like a ticking time bomb, waiting to reach her skin and get into her system.
She quickly dried off and put on a pair of gray scrubs—a new color for her—and black plastic sandals afterward. Then she exited the trailer, glancing down at her flimsy attire with a silent sigh of resignation. Going commando and braless in scrubs was another new experience, but there was nothing she could do about it now.
A firefighter stood waiting at the bottom of the steps, decked out in full protective gear like the others. “Are you feeling okay, Dr. Pryce?” he asked.
“Yes, thanks,” she said, giving him an embarrassed smile. And after he assisted her down, she hurried over to the only ambulance still parked by the barn.
A group of police officers stood guard near it. She’d never met any of them before, but they all greeted her as if they knew her. The back of the ambulance was open, and Jesse was inside with the same two paramedics who’d taken care of him the last time. “Did they take Luke in the other ambulance?” she asked anxiously.
Amy Duncan was hanging a bag of fluids on a ceiling hook and smiled when she saw her. “Hi, Dr. Pryce. Yeah, they left a few minutes ago, and Detective Mathis was doing fine. They put an IV in and took him through decon, but he didn’t need any more naloxone before they left.” A weak chuckle escaped her. “I hope we don’t keep running into each other like this. It’s crazy.”
“Yes, I know,” Erin said, shifting her gaze to the stretcher. “How is Jesse doing?”
The boy raised his head, and his eyes weren’t nearly as dull as before. “I’m all right. They stuck a needle in my leg this time, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.”
Erin looked down at his left lower leg, and saw they’d put an intraosseous needle into the tibia, a few centimeters below and medial to his kneecap.
“I put the IO line in him,” Amy said proudly. “After he went through decon his pressure was only 78 systolic, so I got it in right away and pushed fluids while Jimmy worked on starting another line.”
“Hey, Dr. Pryce,” the other paramedic said, jumping out of the ambulance. “We’ve got the second liter of fluids running now. His last pressure was 104/58, and his pulse is better too, around 110. We’re ready to take off.”
Erin looked into the back of the ambulance again. “Jesse, don’t forget what we talked about.”
“I won’t,” he promised.
The paramedic closed the doors, and Erin watched them head out, lights flashing and the high pitch of the siren renting the air. Bella’s poor ears were certainly getting a workout. She glanced toward the house but didn’t see any sign of the family. She imagined Bella was taking everything in stride, though. Blind or not, the child wasn’t easily intimidated.
Then a thought struck her. Maybe Bella is so brave because of her blindness. A limitation is only as limiting as one lets it be. And it can even become a person’s greatest strength.
Erin smiled to herself. Jenna would love to hear her repeat that later.
“Dr. Pryce!”
Erin turned around, and a middle-aged man with short gray hair walked up to her in civilian clothes. “I’m Pat Connolly, Fire Chief. I was hoping I’d get a chance to meet you.” He held out a hand in greeting. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” she told him, shaking his hand. “Is everyone else doing okay?”
He nodded. “Yep, no one else has had any symptoms.” And with a look of gratitude on his face, he added, “I sure am happy we’ve got the decon trailer. Hightower Industries donated the funds for it this spring. I’ll have to let them know we’ve already put it to good use.”
Erin mentally groaned. Oh, great. Lexi is going to find out about this. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to tell the woman to stop breathing after all. But to Pat she said, “If everything is under control, I think I’ll head home. I’m staying with Jenna Godfrey next door.” Her lips twisted into a half-smile. “I’d only intended to go for a short walk when all this happened.”
“You’re walking back over my dead body,” Pat said. “Hop in my truck. I’ll give you a ride.” He motioned to a big red pickup marked with his title, then yelled to a group of firefighters nearby, “I’m taking Dr. Pryce home! I’ll be back in a minute!”
Erin climbed up into the truck after he cleared the front passenger seat off for her. And as they backed out of the driveway she saw that the firefighters were standing there watching her with big grins on their faces.
The chief chuckled. “It’s a good thing I’m getting you out of here. My boys won’t be able to do their jobs otherwise.”
Erin felt her cheeks get hot. They all probably knew she had nothing on except the scrubs.
Pat started down the road toward Jenna’s house and briefly glanced at her. “I heard you’re from Boston, and yet you look familiar somehow.” He shook his head in bewilderment. “It must be my imagination. I’ve never been to Boston, though I’d like to visit someday. It’s one of the few places this side of the Atlantic that’s anywhere near as Irish as New Dublin.”
Erin looked at him and realized that she’d finally been recognized because of her mother. But it didn’t make her want to jump out of the truck and run. Instead, it made her smile. “I went to school here, but I don’t think we’ve ever met. You probably knew my mom, Anne Harris.” Or at least that’s the name he would have known her by.
Pat raised his brows in surprise as he pulled into Jenna’s driveway. “You’re Annie Harris’s daughter?” Then he parked the truck and turned to stare at her. “My God, you do look just like her. Annie and I went to school together. Class of ’85.” A distant smile crossed his face. “Boy, I’ll never forget how talented that girl was. She could draw, paint, or make anything in the art room. I was more of a shop guy myself, but I always looked forward to checking out the latest thing she was working on. If you wanted to find Annie, you only had to go to the art room.” He laughed softly. “But I shouldn’t call her Annie. She never did like that.”
“I didn’t know she was an artist,” Erin said in amazement. But almost as soon as the words left her mouth another memory stirred…
They were near the beach. Her mother was standing at an easel drawing a picture of a man and woman posing in front of it.
Erin sat cross-legged on the ground by her feet, watching in admiration as she recreated their images on paper with precise, confident strokes.
“How’s your picture coming along?” her mother asked after a while, glancing down at the sketch pad in Erin’s lap. “Ah, another ocean scene. Very nice.”
“I’m drawing a mother and daughter mermaid and their pet dolphin. They’re swimming to Hawaii.”
Her mother chuckled. “Wow. I can’t wait to see it.”
Erin smiled up at her, and then they both happily went back to work…
Sadness filled Pat’s hazel eyes. “It’s a real shame what happened
to Annie. Seth should have rotted—” He stopped abruptly and gave her a pained look. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”
Erin shook her head, tucking away the latest memory of her mother. “No, you’re right. He should have rotted in prison.”
She opened the door to leave, but Pat stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm. “Luke’s a lucky man. I’ll be sure to remind him of that. And if you ever need anything—anything at all—you just let me know.” He grinned, revealing years of laugh lines around his eyes. “You have me and the entire New Dublin Fire Department at your service, ma’am.”
Erin smiled back and climbed out of the pickup. “Thanks, Chief.”
She stood there a moment, waving briefly as she watched him leave, and wondered how one little walk could have led her down so many unexpected roads. Then she headed up to the house.
Jenna was waiting at the door for her. “Erin, thank God you’re okay!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never heard so many sirens in my life! What happened?”
Erin walked inside, running a hand through her wet, tangled hair with a grimace. “It’s a really long story, and I’ll tell you about it on the way to the hospital. Luke was taken there by ambulance.”
Jenna gasped. “Oh my God! Was he shot?”
“No, Wayne Raabe had a bag full of drugs in the woods, and I’m pretty sure Luke got exposed to fentanyl. Fortunately, Wayne also had enough of the antidote for it in the bag, or Luke would probably be dead right now.”
“Dear Lord! What is fentanyl?”
“It’s a synthetic narcotic that’s cheaper and easier to make than heroin. And it’s a lot more powerful. The amount Luke got exposed to would be like you taking a bottle of your morphine pills all at once—or maybe even more than one.”
Jenna’s eyes widened in shock, and she put her hand to her chest. “Good heavens!”
“Drug cartels have figured out that they’ll make a lot more money by mixing fentanyl with other drugs like heroin and oxycodone. But a lot more people are dying as a result. They often don’t even know it’s mixed in with the other drugs—or they underestimate how powerful it is.” Erin slowly shook her head. “I still can’t believe I didn’t think of it and warn Luke. But I guess my brain wasn’t working right after everything else that happened—which included facing an angry bear, by the way.”
Jenna’s eyes widened even more. “A bear?”
Erin smiled wryly. “Yep. And your dad is still helping me, even after all these years. A bear and her cub came through the woods near us, but I remembered what he’d said about bears when we were kids, and I was able to fend the mother off—although she probably just lost interest. But I’ll tell you the whole story in a bit. I need to quick change before we leave.”
“You go, Erin,” Jenna told her. “I don’t think I can handle any more excitement today, and I’m sure it will be busy there. Just text me with an update on Luke when you can, okay?”
“Okay, Jen,” Erin said, giving her friend’s arm a quick squeeze before she headed over to the stairs.
“Did they at least catch Wayne and Jesse?” Jenna asked.
Erin turned back to her. “Yes, although I had the dubious honor of catching Wayne—before the bear could catch him.” She laughed shortly. “It’s part of the long story.” Then she ran upstairs as fast as her plastic sandals would take her.
Jenna stood in the foyer with a look of astonishment on her face as she watched Erin go up. Wesley trotted over to her a moment later, rubbing himself against her leg, and she reached down to pet the cat. “See, Wesley? I told you there were bears in those woods. It’s a good thing you’re a housecat.”
“Mrroww,” he answered back.
Chapter
19
Erin hurried down the hallway to the ER room Luke was in just as Chase McKellar came out.
He closed the sliding glass door behind him and turned around, smiling wryly when he saw her. “Hey, Erin.”
She returned the greeting, glancing past him to Luke’s room. But the curtain inside had also been closed, and she couldn’t see a thing. “How is Luke?”
“He was feeling lightheaded when they brought him in, and we ended up giving him four more milligrams of Narcan. He hasn’t had any more symptoms since then, but we’ll watch him for a few more hours to make sure.”
“Is Jesse still doing okay?”
“Yeah, better than I would’ve expected. His x-rays looked good, so he won’t need another chest tube, and he’s been stable otherwise. We got him started on some IV antibiotics, and Colin O’Reilly was just here to admit him. He’s going to clean out the bullet wound upstairs. And Wayne Raabe is doing fine, by the way.” Chase’s lips quirked up into another slight smile. “I heard you were the one who took him out. His head and neck CTs were negative, but you gave him a pretty good concussion, so he’ll have to stay overnight for observation.”
Erin nodded, though she had a hard time mustering up much sympathy for Wayne Raabe after what he’d done. “Thanks for your help, Chase.”
“Thanks for all the patients,” he said with a dry laugh before heading to the central workstation.
Erin eased the door to Luke’s room open and peeked around the curtain. He was in a hospital gown now, lying semi-reclined on the bed, and his parents were standing on the far side of it. “Do you mind if I join the party?” she asked.
“Erin!” Joanne exclaimed, and immediately rushed over to give her a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for what you did.”
“I’ll second that,” Greg said, greeting her with a heartfelt embrace as well.
“Hey, this isn’t fair,” Luke teased. “I’m the patient here, and she’s my girlfriend.”
Erin smiled and sat down next to him. “Hey, you,” she whispered, tenderly brushing a hand over his cheek.
“I need more than that, honey.” Luke grinned devilishly and drew her mouth down to his for a brief, but very enthusiastic kiss.
Greg chuckled, turning to Joanne. “Why don’t we go get some coffee and come back in a little while?” And on the way out he glanced back at Luke. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better, son.”
“I’m feeling a lot better now for some reason,” Luke said, grinning up at Erin again. And when his parents were gone he pulled her back down to him, murmuring into her ear, “Have you ever made out with a patient in a hospital bed?”
“I think you can guess the answer to that,” Erin responded with a light laugh, trying to ignore the way her body was reacting to his seductive words. They were in an emergency room after all—and he was full of naloxone.
Luke brushed his lips sensuously over her ear. “Mmm, good, because I definitely want to be the first—and only—patient who gets to examine you like this.” He gave her earlobe an affectionate bite, and then blazed a path of hot kisses over her neck, sliding one hand down to caress her bottom. “And I promise to be a very cooperative patient if you feel the need to rip this gown off and take me for a ride, Dr. Sally.”
“Luke, I think you’re still high,” Erin protested. But when his seeking mouth captured hers, she couldn’t help but kiss him back. As usual, he melted all her defenses.
“I knew it! You OD’d in the woods just so you could make out with your girlfriend!”
They abruptly broke the kiss to see Melinda Mann standing there with a puckish grin on her face. Bandit sat at attention next to her, his tongue hanging out as he watched them.
Luke lay back and smiled at her. “You look too small to know much of anything, Officer Mann.”
Melinda rolled her eyes in response, telling Erin, “They’re always making fun of me because I’m five foot two and my dog weighs almost as much as I do. And they think it’s real funny that my last name in Mann.” She gave Luke another wicked grin. “But you’re never going to live this one down, Mathis.
First you go and make out with your girlfriend in front of the station, and now she has to catch the criminals while you get high with ‘em.” She chuckled. “It is good to see the straight-laced detective loosening up a little, though.”
“Shouldn’t you be at the post office, Mel Mann?” Luke teased.
Melinda folded her arms across her chest and glowered at him facetiously. “Shouldn’t they give Dr. Pryce your badge, Mathis?”
Erin smothered a laugh. “Be careful, Luke. One word and I’m sure she can have that dog rip your arm off.”
“Oh, she knows it’s all in good fun. And Bandit would never do that. He loves me. Don’t you, boy?” Luke patted his chest. “Come here, Bandit.”
Erin watched in surprise as the big dog jumped up onto the bed and lay down with his head resting on Luke’s chest, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
“That-a-boy.” Luke playfully scratched Bandit under the chin, and the dog’s tail beat furiously against the sheets.
“You should pet him too, Dr. Pryce,” Melinda said. “He really is a big baby when there’s no work to do.”
Erin made no move to touch Bandit, though—not with the memory of him racing around the rock toward her still so fresh in her mind.
Luke laughed softly. “Erin is afraid of you, Bandit. Give her some kisses.”
The dog leapt up with amazing agility and started licking Erin’s face before she had a chance to move. And she couldn’t help but laugh as he continued to assault her with his tongue. “Okay, tell him to stop. I’m convinced he won’t eat me alive—although he kind of is right now.”
“Hier!” Melinda commanded, and the dog promptly jumped off the bed and sat at attention next to her again.
Erin wiped her face, smiling in amusement as she regarded the pair. Melinda was cute as a button with her short blond hair and lightly freckled face. Yet under the surface she was clearly as tough as nails. And Bandit looked every bit the part of a ferocious dog who would rip someone apart at the slightest provocation. But underneath it all he was, in fact, a big sweet puppy who simply loved the girl he let master him.