An uneasy silence settled over the crash site, save for the slightly muffled cacophony of metal on metal as the hydraulic cutter sliced its way through the bolt under the centre of front seat. With a jolt, the cutter slipped forward as the bolt split in two and the seat shifted slightly. The firefighter in the back seat braced himself to take the weight; Doctor Halperin and the ambulance medic steadied the unconscious man between them, then they were in action.
With a speed that was almost too fast to see, Captain Baines yelled to his man in the back, who bent his knees and released the pressure against the front seat, which began to slide backwards, taking its passenger with it. Halperin steadied Mike's head as other hands reached into the car and within seconds he was free of the wreck and being placed onto a backboard, which was lying on the gray blanket now spread out on the ground beside the car.
Halperin scrambled across the front seat as Mike was extracted and knelt beside the unconscious man. The firefighters took a step back and everyone waited, breaths held.
On the other side of the car, Steve couldn't move. His stare was riveted on the faces of the firemen he could see, but dark spots were floating before his eyes. He knew he was close to passing out; it felt like he couldn't breathe. Time stood still.
As if in a fog, he heard Halperin's muffled voice and watched as the tension in the firefighters faces softened into relieved smiles and they went back to work. Moving quickly, Mike was lifted and placed into the Stokes basket.
At first not sure what was going on, Steve looked at Baines. With a grin, the captain reached out and grabbed the younger man's arm to steady him as Steve's knees buckled and he gasped in relief. "He's hanging in there," Baines said encouragingly and winked. "Let's get him up top, shall we?"
As Baines walked towards his men, Steve took a few steps back, then leaned forward, his hands on his knees, trying to stop his heart from pounding out of his chest. He watched as the litter holding his injured partner was carried around the car and a belaying rope secured to the head of the basket. Only Mike's bandaged head was visible; his body was wrapped in the grey blanket and snugly strapped into the wire litter.
As six fireman climbed into place at intervals up the hill on both sides, bracing themselves on the steep and now slippery terrain, Baines and the large man he'd addressed as Pete began to pull on the belaying rope. Slowly, steadied and guided by the men on either side, the litter made its way up the hill.
Reardon, the three city detectives and two firefighters, watching from beside the fire truck, positioned themselves so they could assist when the Stokes basket reached the road. Eager hands reached for the top of the litter as it slid into view, Haseejian and Healey almost elbowing the smoke-eaters out of the way. With understanding nods, the firemen backed away and let the cops carry their unconscious colleague to the waiting ambulance.
Watching anxiously from below, Steve glanced at Halperin when the bespectacled doctor appeared next to him, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezing. "Thank god we were wrong," Halperin breathed, shaking his head with a dry chuckle. "His heart rate and blood pressure are good, all things considered."
Watching the litter disappear over the top of the hill, he turned to Baines and Steve as he crossed to the rope, preparing to haul himself up.
"I've got privileges at both Marin General and SF General – and we're about equal distance from both of them right now. I suggest we take him into The City. You all right with that, Steve?" he asked, beaming.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, hoping the worst was over, the young cop nodded, and Baines clapped him on the back, chuckling gently. With a wink, Halperin, who, Steve realized, wasn't all that much younger than Mike, grabbed the rope and began to pull himself up the hill. "I'll get your bag, Doc, and we'll take care of your car!" Baines called after him and the physician nodded.
Letting the ambulance medics scramble up the steep hill before him, knowing they needed to get on their way as soon as possible, Steve pulled himself over the edge of the ravine in time to see the flurry of activity at the back doors of the waiting ambulance. With fluid coordination, Mike was removed from the litter and placed on the gurney, which was then slid into the ambulance, Dr. Halperin and one attendant getting in beside it. The other medic got into the driver's seat and within seconds the back doors were slammed and they were gone.
Devitt turned to the young man beside him; they had all moved close enough so that they'd seen Mike's blood soaked pant leg and the right side of his shirt under the suit coat. He slid a hand across Steve's shoulders and briefly pulled him close in an encouraging squeeze; he could feel the shallow ragged breaths as Steve struggled to hold himself together.
"Listen, ah, Norm and I have this," Dan Healey said softly from slightly behind them. "We'll do the follow up, if that's okay?" He turned to Reardon and the CHP sergeant nodded. "You two, ah, you two go with Mike, okay?" Healey gestured with his head in the direction the ambulance had taken. "He needs you." He reached out and squeezed Steve's arm.
Shaking his head vaguely, Steve followed Devitt to the car and got in. As the captain turned the engine over, he glanced across the front seat and smiled. "We got to him on time; he's gonna be okay."
Staring at his shaking hands, Steve nodded as Devitt threw the car into reverse and spun it into a tight one-eighty, snapping the light and siren back on. Within seconds they were once more tearing down the 101, but this time, though still worried, they both felt a little more encouraged.
# # # # #
The glass door of the Homicide bureau opened tentatively and a young blonde woman, a youngster in her arms, stepped into the busy room. Her blue eyes, wide with wonder, scanned the detectives at their desks. All were busy, most were on their phones.
Hesitantly, she approached a good-looking young black man with a receiver to his ear, making notes on a long yellow legal pad on the desk before him. She waited patiently until he finished the call and hung up, then softly cleared her throat.
Inspector Lee Lessing looked up quickly, a bit startled. "Uhm, can I help you?" he asked, eyebrows on the rise.
"Ah, yes," the young woman asked quietly with a warm smile, hefting the small boy in her arms, "uhm, I'm looking for Inspector Keller, Steve Keller? He works here, right?"
"Yes, ma'am, he does," Lessing nodded, smiling at the child.
"Oh, uhm, he's not here today?" She glanced once more around the room.
Lessing shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. And I don't know when he'll be back. He's out on an emergency."
"An emergency?" she repeated, her blue eyes boring into his. "Nothing personal, I hope…?"
Disarmed, the young inspector smiled grimly. "Well, I'm afraid it is. His partner has been injured in a car accident –"
"Mike?" she blurted out and Lessing pulled his head back in surprise.
"You know Mike?" he asked.
"Well, sure, I've met him a couple of times. He's a wonderful man. What happened?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Well, ah, we're not sure right now, but it seems his car went off the road up in Marin."
"Oh my god," she said, dropping her eyes, turning her gaze inward. "But he's gonna be okay?" She looked at him again.
"I'm afraid I don't know… we, ah, we just found out about the accident a couple of hours ago. But we're all hoping."
"Of course, of course," she whispered. She stood stock still for several seconds, absorbing this new information, then she looked at him again and smiled slightly. "I'm sorry, I'll get out of your hair. I don't want to be in your way, you have so many important things to do."
As she started to walk away, Lessing asked, "Say, ah, can I give Steve your name, tell him you dropped by at least?"
She stopped and looked back at him, hefting the small boy in her arms again. "Sure, yeah, of course. Please tell him Donna came to see him. Donna Atkinson. And this here is Joshua." She turned her grin from the boy to Lessing, and the inspector smiled back. "He knows who we are."
"You bet. I'll tell him."
Still smiling, she turned towards the office door. Nobody saw the smile disappear, replaced by a growing rage by the time she stepped out into the corridor.
# # # # #
Devitt crossed the busy waiting room with two steaming cardboard cups of coffee in his hands. "Here," he said, handing one to Steve as he sat once again in the hard plastic chair beside the young inspector. "It's black. I think we both need the caffeine… untrammeled," he chuckled to himself as he took off the plastic lid and took a tentative sip.
Steve, who had been staring unfocused at the tile floor, managed a soft snort and a slight smile. He glanced at his watch again before taking the lid off his own coffee. "What's taking them so long?"
Devitt glanced over, knowing the question was rhetorical but deciding to answer it anyway. "Halperin knows we're out here. I'm pretty sure he wants to make sure he has all the information he needs before he talks to us."
Trying to swallow a frustrated sigh, Steve took a sip of the coffee and sat back, his eyes once more raking the room without really seeing anything. He felt Devitt jostle his arm gently and looked towards the far entrance; Doctor Halperin had entered the room and was obviously looking for them.
Standing quickly, they started towards the physician, who waved at them to stay where they were; seats in the crowded waiting room were at a premium.
If there was any fear left in their minds about the severity of their colleague's injures, it was quickly dispelled when Halperin's face split into a wide grin.
"You ready for some good news?" he almost crowed as he got close enough to talk without shouting. When Steve's eyes widened, he laughed, gesturing for them to retake their seats as he grabbed an empty chair nearby and pulled it up to face them.
"Seems that bolt breaking under the seat was the best thing that could've happened. The impact of the car hitting the tree was minimized when that seat gave way. If you want to call it a miracle, go right ahead, I won't argue."
"So, what does that mean?" Steve asked tentatively, feeling the tense muscles across his back and shoulders start to ease.
"That means that his ribs and sternum are just badly bruised, not broken, and he has no internal injuries. Now we're pretty sure he has a concussion but that can't be confirmed until he wakes up, and right now he's still out from the morphine. But even a concussion will clear up with time.
"The laceration on his right side has been stitched up – he's going to have a rather nasty scar. The bullet dug a pretty good groove, but it could have been a lot worse.
"But," Halperin continued, his grin getting even wider, "the best news of all is that bullet in his knee. It's actually not even in his knee, thank god. It's in the bone just above the knee. The x-ray shows that the bone is intact, there's no break or even a hairline fracture. The bullet does have to be removed, of course, and he's scheduled to have that done tomorrow morning. We want to give his body some time to recover from the trauma of the accident before we subject him to an operation, no matter how minor it is."
As Devitt chuckled softly and laid a hand on his young colleague's shoulder, Steve looked up at the ceiling and exhaled loudly. Then, shaking his head in relief, he looked at Halperin and managed a smile. "Doctor, what would we have done without you? Thank you." He held out his right hand and the physician shook it happily.
"You're more than welcome, and I'd love to stay and follow up on all this, but I have a whole afternoon's worth of patients I have to make amends to, and a receptionist who's going to have my ass in a sling, pardon my French, if I don't get back to my office toot sweet," he laughed as he stood, pausing to shake Devitt's hand before turning to leave.
"One of the ER doctors will be out to talk to you soon. Oh and, ah, give my best to Mike when he wakes up, will ya? He won't know who I am, but that's okay." With a broad grin and a wink, the doctor crossed the waiting room and disappeared down the corridor.
Steve had just looked at Devitt with a wide-eyed and relieved sigh when Dan Healey came into the waiting room, a dark brown leather briefcase in his hand. Spotting his colleagues, he crossed to them quickly. "How is he?" he asked in a rush as he got closer.
Devitt grinned. "He's gonna be fine."
Healey stopped and his entire body sagged with relief. "Oh, thank god. Norm and I have been worried sick."
Steve, who had recognized the briefcase as Mike's, nodded in that direction. "Why have you got that?"
"Ah," Healey said, raising it slightly. "We went through the car. We found Mike's gun; I just dropped it off at the lab. There are two empty chambers," he said suggestively and both of his colleagues nodded; neither was surprised. "And," he raised the briefcase again, "I found this in the trunk."
Healey put the briefcase on Halperin's vacated chair and snapped the latches. "Have a look," he said to Steve.
Eyeing Healey with a frown, Steve lifted the lid of the briefcase. There was a map, a small white envelope and several file folders inside.
"Look in the envelope," Healey suggested and Steve picked it up, lifting the flap and removing a 4"x6" colour photograph.
Devitt, who was looking over his colleague's shoulder, whistled lowly. "Holy hell, Steve, do you have a brother?"
Stunned, his mouth dropping open slightly, the homicide inspector turned the print over. On the back, in Mike's hand, was written
Kyle Sawyer (Joshua's Dad?).