40 Like Pulling Teeth
Jesse had arrived in the ER only to find Susan Hilliard once again working as a replacement for an ill member of staff. It was Shannon Farley who was unwell, and Jesse knew that Alex would be cast in the role of anxious boyfriend until she was healthy again.
The first patient through the doors after Jesse came on duty had suffered a spinal injury at work; Wil Collins began treating him, and Jesse, remembering what Susan had said about working with bad backs, had shooed her off in his direction.
At a little after ten Jesse exited the elevator just in front of Lauren Yung's office. Her receptionist smiled and he saw her tick his name off on a list. "She's ready for you, Doctor; won't you please go right on in?"
"Thanks." Jesse tapped on the door, and when he heard a soft voice call out he entered.
"Jesse, take a seat, how nice to see you." Lauren smiled at her client, what she said was true; she did enjoy seeing the young man now sitting opposite her. He had begun to take steps in the right direction, and she was anxious to hear how he had coped with being home with his family since Rae had been taken ill. "The last I heard you called to let me know you were going to be looking after the children while Rae got some much needed rest."
"Yeah, but, well, you know what our lives are like, it sort of, didn't really turn out that way."
"Oh, but everything was alright?" Lauren looked concerned, but Jesse seemed relaxed and she was relieved to see him nod his head. Gradually she heard all about the Night Owl burglars, the way he had felt, how he had watched his wife and realised that she was just as expert in her line of work as he was in his, that each of them could help and protect the other. He told her about Rae cutting herself, how he had been able to hold her, to treat her, and then gradually begin to allow himself to get close to her again. Finally, he explained a little about the house and how he and Rae had stood in their front yard and kissed, really kissed, for the first time in months.
"Well, I think that you're doing great, don't expect it to be smooth sailing from now on, but you have made huge steps since I last saw you, and I am just delighted for you and your family."
"Thank you" Jesse beamed, he was pretty delighted himself. "There is just one thing." Jesse almost didn't want to mention it, he wanted to be positive, upbeat, but when he had talked with Rae something had worried him.
"What is it?" For a moment Lauren saw the concern in Jesse's eyes, and hoped that she would be able to dispel it.
"When I was speaking with Rae, telling her things, I … I couldn't remember some of the names or what had happened, why?"
"Good things or bad?" Lauren hoped he would say the latter and smiled when he did just that. "Oh, well, that's easy, I can answer that one." The smile which she got from Jesse was open and instant. "You are talking about stressful instances, your brain shuts out some of it, gets rid of the pressure, so you might not be able to remember a location, or a name, or just what you did, another time you might remember that, but forget something else."
"Thank you." Jesse was relieved, he knew now that Steve had gone to replace the lite beer he'd brought with them and that he had been with Trask, but when he was talking with Rae, neither fact would come to mind. "I'd still like to come see you, just for a while longer."
"Good, I think it would be for the best. Jesse, there will be setbacks, or glitches, there always are, if you're still seeing me we can clear them up right away." Lauren stood up and extended her hand towards her patient. "I'm delighted you feel the way you do, keep going and everything will be fine again."
Jesse nodded, and with a smile he took the offered hand into his own and shook it gently "When I need to see you can I just book up or should I make a monthly appointment or something?"
"I would suggest a monthly appointment speak to my secretary when you leave and she'll pencil you in, ok? I know you may have to change things at the last minute, but it's better if you have a set time." Lauren made a note on the pad in front of her and then looked at Jesse once more. He didn't have anything else to say and so, with the smile still on his face, he turned and left the room.
ooo
The recruitment agency was a light and airy place with lots of green plants in pots topped with little pebbles. Dominic had found himself a seat in the corner of the room so that he could watch all the comings and goings of the employees and clients. He liked to people watch, always had done. Even when he wasn't looking for anyone in particular he still watched.
Dominic had been in for his initial interview, had given the details of the various jobs he had held over the years and shown his references. Some of them, he had to admit, were not as genuine as they appeared, but no one had ever checked them all before.
"Mr. Large?" He had watched a young woman with shoulder-length hair as she walked towards him, now she spoke and he stood up.
"Yes, that's me."
"We have checked a couple of vacancies which may suit you. Usually people want to come work in California, not leave it."
"I know, it's a great place, but I want to travel around for a while, see some more of this country, or other countries, and get paid for it."
"Well, one of these might just do that for you. Travel you said, maybe in the industry or a sales job, which takes you from place to place. We have both types of vacancy, so take your time and see what you think of these." The young woman gave Dominic three sheets of heavy paper with typewritten details on it; she then smiled at him again and left him to read through the information.
Fifteen minutes later he was hailing a cab, just outside on the sidewalk, hoping that the interview he was going to would be the beginning of a whole new adventure.
ooo
The home that Callum and Melina Edwards lived in was very spacious; it had beautiful grounds around it and was almost entirely white. It told all the neighbours and passers by that here lived a successful family although the sounds of raised voices heard regularly from inside also told them that they weren't necessarily happy.
Steve and Rae had decided in the car that she would do the talking, at least initially, and so it was Rae that pressed the doorbell and waited as the chimes echoed inside the house. They both heard the sound of high heels on a hard floor of some kind, which got louder as the owner reached the door.
Rae had her ID in her hand and she smiled as she spoke. "Hi, my name is Detective Yeager, LAPD; we'd like to speak with Callum Edwards please."
"Oh, um, yeah, sure, won't you please come in?" the young woman looked momentarily nonplussed, but she seemed to regain her composure quite easily and smiled as she indicated for Rae and Steve to enter. "Callum, Honey, could you come here a minute?"
"What is it now, Lina? I told you, no work no vacations, it's as simple as … Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise we had guests." A tall young man, with a pleasant open face and a ready smile came towards them his hand extended in welcome.
"That's alright, Sir, I'm Detective Reagan Yeager, LADP, and this is my partner Lieutenant Steve Sloan."
"I was wondering who you were." Melina's voice came out very seductively and, as Steve felt himself begin to blush, Callum rounded on her.
"For God's sake, Melina, leave him be. Detective, what was it that you needed?" Callum had glared at his wife, but the expression had been wiped as he turned back to Rae.
"We need to speak with you, Sir, and it may take some time, is there somewhere we can talk privately?"
"Sure, come on into my office." Callum led the way down the hall and into a large, bright and airy room. There was a bank of computers on one wall; Rae counted six in all, two laptops on separate desks and a handheld pad resting on a small stand. Also in the room were various musical instruments, all of them stringed. There was a violin and cello resting on a table and floor stand respectively, a guitar leaning up against a door, and a double bass which was sitting on its own in what appeared to be a specially built alcove.
"Wow, do you play all of these?" Rae looked around, she preferred the sounds made by the saxophone, but had to admit that the mixture of the technology of computers along with the more basic features of the various instruments was aesthetically pleasing.
"Yes, I do, and the piano too, but it sort of overpowered the place, so I have that in the next room." Callum opened a door near one of the huge picture windows and both Rae and Steve could see into a smaller space dominated by a grand piano.
"I'm guessing that you didn't come to purchase my latest teach-yourself CD Rom, so what can I do for you?" Callum Edwards looked friendly but obviously concerned by the presence of the police in his home. Melina had followed the three of them and now sat in one of the extremely comfortable looking black leather reclining chairs which furnished the room.
"We need to speak with you privately, Sir; you may not wish your wife to be present." Rae smiled as she spoke, but her voice showed that the matter was serious.
"I have no secrets from my wife, as boring as that may sound, so, unless you wish her to leave, I don't mind her staying." Callum indicated with his hand as he spoke and both Rae and Steve sat down.
For a moment the room was quiet, but then, gathering her thoughts together, Rae began to speak. "Sir, do you know an Elizabeth Masters?"
Callum's face clouded over. "I did, Detective, she was my birth mother, unfortunately she was killed a few months ago now. I wondered when you would discover my existence."
"We discovered it a little while ago but you were out of town, we figured we could wait for your return." Rae smiled, there was something very pleasant about the young man in front of her and, despite the evidence to the contrary, she couldn't see him killing his mother in cold blood.
"Have you been following us, Detective?" Melina Edwards turned her gaze on Rae until she had to look away.
"No, Ma'am, but we made enquiries so that we could come speak with your husband." Rae hoped that neither of the people in the room with her realised that the Chief of Police had indeed been following them all over the island of Barbados.
"I had known her for just over a year when she … when she died, and I was starting to enjoy her company, to look forward to spending time with her." Callum began to talk as if neither Melina nor Rae had said anything, then he paused for a moment but Rae made no move to fill the silence. "I wish that I had been man enough to forgive her for what she did to me when I first met her, maybe then we would have had more pleasant times together and less tense ones."
"I see, so it was a little stormy when you first made contact with her then?" Rae had taken her notebook out of her pocket and was marking down the odd comment here and there.
"We didn't contact each other, I left my name with the agency which arranged the adoption, stating that if my birth mother or father wished to get in touch with me then I wanted to be notified. When Elizabeth did the same thing the agency let both of us know and we talked on the phone." Callum paused, it had been an amazing moment when he had spoken to his real mother for the first time, and one he had imagined and fantasized about ever since he had found out he was adopted at the age of eight. For the first week or so he had just been astonished and delighted, but it hadn't stayed like that.
"And you had been talking to each other ever since then?" Rae had expected the mother and son to have only found each other very recently, the passing of a year between the original conversation and her murder didn't make any sense to her, but sometimes neither did anything else about her job so she battled on.
"Yeah, first of all we arranged to speak to each other on the phone once a week to try to learn a little about each other. But it's hard, you know, to talk to someone about the trivialities of life when you really want to ask deep and meaningful stuff. I … I wasn't very nice to her, and I regret it now."
"Yeah, well, she was a starchy old crone, twelve months to unbend enough to let Simon call her grandma." Melina joined in the conversation in a voice that showed exactly what she thought of Elizabeth Masters.
"It wasn't anything like twelve months. Lina, you had very little to do with her, so just leave it, ok?" Callum looked at his watch, "Don't you have to be at work soon?"
"What? Oh yeah, whatever, if I'm not there on time Sheila will stall for me, she always does." Melina checked her own watch and then shook her head.
"I may run a successful business, but we need your money too, so I would suggest that you get a move on!" Callum seemed to forget the two police officers in the room and began to vent his fury on his wife.
"Sir, if you don't mind, we would like your wife to remain, she may be able to help us as well." Steve decided that it was time for him to join in the conversation, something was niggling away at him and he didn't think letting anyone leave was a good idea right now. He knew that Rae had a feeling that she had missed something about this case, and he felt that way too. She had told him about watching the video, about the strange movements the man had made, and when he had seen it himself he had recognised it as someone cracking their neck. Rae had shuddered, told him that it gave her the whim whams, and he had been a little concerned to see she grew pale at the thought of it.
"Oh, oh, well, in that case, that's fine then." Callum seemed to splutter a little bit, but soon recovered himself. "Sorry, where was I?"
"You and your mother didn't really know what to say to each other." Rae looked up from her notes.
"We didn't, it was, awkward, y'know? So I suggested that we e-mail each other, we could ask any questions we wanted to, and if the other person didn't want to answer then they just ignored them. You can read over an e-mail too, change the things that are rude or whatever. We found out a lot about each other that way, and it seemed to break the ice. After one month of calls and three months of writing we arranged to meet." For a minute there was silence as Callum seemed to retreat into his memories a little, but then his wife joined the conversation again, shattering the moment.
"And how did it go? That's what you're going to ask, isn't it? Well, why don't you answer that one, Callum?" Lina's voice was getting harder all the time, and Rae knew that whatever it was that was annoying her was getting closer and closer to the surface; she also knew that if it carried on then she would have to ask her to leave.
"Lina and Simon came with me, I guess that was a bad idea, but I thought, hey, safety in numbers, y'know?" Callum's speech patterns had changed and Rae knew he was getting nervous. "It was a disaster, for a start it rained, Elizabeth got soaked because we were late, she sheltered in her car, but she had been waiting for us by a newspaper stand, and wasn't impressed that she got wet on the way back to the parking lot. The whole day was just a strain from start to finish."
"She was, I don't know, real rigid, formal; she didn't seem to bend at all. Every time Simon laughed or giggled she glared at him." Lina had relaxed a little, but it was still clear that she didn't like Elizabeth Masters one bit.
"I called her up the next day to apologise, and suggested that we meet again, just the two of us and she agreed."
"Was it better second time around?" Rae had been taking notes but missing bits, and she hoped that Steve was more caught up than she was.
"Oh yes, definitely. We met at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Barbara and we talked and chatted for hours. We booked a reservation for seven and were still there at eleven. I … I dreamt all my life that somewhere I had a real family, one just for me, but it wasn't like I imagined at all, I'd had a brother and a sister, but they were dead, my mom was divorced, since before I was born, she said that my dad didn't even know I existed. That was hard, the hardest."
"And you didn't feel any need to get to know your husband's birth mom?" Steve looked over at Lina; there was something about her body language now that worried him.
Lina had stood up, she was behind the chair, almost using it as a shield. "Nope, she was all his as far as I was concerned. I don't talk to my own mom, why should I talk to anyone else's?"
"Sir, I have to ask you what you were doing on the day that your mother was killed." Rae looked Callum Edwards right in the eye but she saw nothing but pain.
"I was in London, there was a conference being held there, for the makers of educational music programmes. I … I." For a moment his eyes filled with tears and Callum struggled to control himself. "I think I was visiting my brother and sisters' graves about the time that my mother was killed."
"Oh, for goodness sake, Callum, you had never met them, hardly knew her, pull yourself together!"
"Mrs Edwards, maybe we could go and make a coffee or something, what do you say?" Rae stood up, hoping that it gave the woman the idea that the thing to actually say was yes.
"Sure, why not," Lina didn't even look at her husband as she left the room, and both Steve and Rae had no doubt as to the state of the Edwards marriage.
ooo
Jo had spent the best part of the morning listening to Debbie go on and on about the wedding in Mexico, looked at what seemed like hundreds of photos and two specially made DVDs. Making the excuse that she needed to get herself a drink she had escaped into the kitchen for a few moments, and as she leant against the counter Jo let her mind run back to when she had married Steve.
He had been so against a big wedding, had wanted something simple and intimate instead. The beach house had been the ideal location, and Jo knew that however many weddings she attended or watched later she would love her own one the best of all. For a few seconds she let her hands rest on her stomach, usually so slim it was apparent, to her at least, that she was pregnant, and she was looking forward to the time when everyone could see that she was carrying her husband's child.
The sound of the front door bell startled Jo but as Debbie had been whittling on about a parcel Davie had sent her for most of the morning she decided to let her sister-in-law answer it. Jo knew that most houses in the street had their mail left in boxes, but Pete, who delivered their letters, usually stopped for a brief chat with Michael at least once or twice a week and often came right to the door whether he needed to or not.
The door closed with a bang, Debbie wouldn't consider treating the man as anything other than an employee, and sure enough she was soon bemoaning him to Jo in the now spoilt sanctuary of her kitchen.
"Well, I don't know why you let that man come right on up to the house, you bein' in a delicate state an' all, an' no Michael either. He wanted to know who I was, whether I could sign for a letter, I told him, I'm her sister-in-law … I was gonna say some more, but then he thrust his little pad under my nose an' I had to sign it with a plastic stick!"
Jo couldn't help herself, she had to laugh. "That is just an electronic mail recorder, or whatever they are called. I must have had registered mail." Jo waited, she knew, or thought she knew, what it was that had come.
"Oh, yes, Honey, I'm sorry, I was so excited to get my parcel, I plum clean forgot. It's just this here envelope. It looks mighty official to me." The curiosity was apparent in Debbie's voice, and Jo knew that she would be delighted with the contents of her package.
"Come into the mornin' room an' I'll let you have your weddin' present." She smiled, the present wasn't really for Debbie at all, but for David, the home he had grown up in, but never owned was now his, she hoped he would get as much pleasure out of it as Rae and Jesse appeared to be getting from their house.
"Well, I will, but I just need to go an' get me somethin' from my room, would you excuse me?"
"Sure, I'll wait in there for you." Jo wandered off with the envelope still in her hand, the chance to be alone, even for a few more minutes very welcome.
Debbie watched her until the door to the morning room closed and then she slipped the second recorded delivery envelope out from underneath her own parcel. This would settle that woman's hash once and for all, and in the next half hour or so her carefully laid plans would ensure that there would be no way to connect her to any of it.
ooo
The kitchen, like the other parts of the house that Rae had seen, was white. The cupboards and closets were white, so was the floor, the counter was a medium wood and the blinds were a golden yellow. The whole effect was one of cost, probably at the expense of practicality, but Rae complimented her hostess on it nevertheless.
"What a lovely kitchen, you have a beautiful home, Mrs. Edwards."
"Thank you, and it's Lina, I like it, always have, Callum wasn't sure, but I knew, the moment I saw it, I just had to have it."
"Mrs. Edwards did you go with your husband to London?" Rae sat herself down on a high stool, her feet only just resting on the metal bar across the legs.
"Are you kidding? No way, I may be a dentist, Detective, but I don't like to be bored. I stayed here with Simon, and we had a far more exciting time."
"And the day in question, the 30th September, do you know what you did then?"
"No, Detective, I told you, I was with Simon."
"Your son attends school, Mrs Edwards, were you working during that time?" Rae sensed a change in the atmosphere of the kitchen, Melina Edwards was uneasy, and Rae, highly experienced and successful at her job, knew that she had the advantage, but she had no idea what it was yet, and she needed to keep questioning her.
"I don't know, probably, if it was a weekday, yes, I was working." Lina smiled as she finished speaking as if that was an end to it and she turned away from Rae, her back also telling the world that she had nothing further to say and then she moved in an instantly familiar way.
"My God, it was you!" Rae hadn't meant to speak out loud but she had suddenly realised what she seen on the tape. The back view hadn't been a man, the entire time she had been sure that the killer had been male, but she had been wrong. Melina Edwards kept her hair short, it was probably an extremely expensive cut, and on a slightly blurry video film it just looked like a man's style, but it was more than the style, it was what she did, that strange movement which had confused her so much, now that too was clear. "You would keep all your records on file, so that can be easily verified I'm sure." She tried to cover up her mistake, but the words sounded hollow to Rae's ears and she wondered whether her companion had picked up on it.
Lina moved closer to the kettle, opening one of the kitchen drawers as she did so. "And you can't take my word for it?"
Rae felt the beginnings of a dangerous situation, and battled to keep calm in a room certain to contain sharp knives if nothing else. Her own weapon was sitting reassuringly on her hip, but she didn't want to use it, not if she could possibly avoid it. "No, Ma'am, I think that we both know I can't do that. Please, move away from the drawer, come back into the middle of the kitchen."
"Detective, I think that we both know you may have to do that." Melina did as she was asked and turned towards Rae, who saw the gun that was now pointed at her.
ooo
Steve had smiled at Callum Edwards as the two women left the room. He felt no embarrassment for the young man that his wife was behaving as she was, it could be a way to get more information that he would normally do.
"You need to excuse Lina, we have a volatile relationship but she and I understand each other, we get on pretty good."
"Mr. Edwards, do you have the paperwork to prove that you were in London at the time of your mother's death?" Steve thought that Melina would have a volatile relationship with most people, but decided to say nothing.
"Yeah, it's over here, I keep all my things in this one room, so it won't take long." Callum got to his feet and made his way to a large silver cabinet. He opened the second drawer down and flicked through the files for a moment before pulling the one he needed. "Here we go. London, September 28th to October 5th, 2003. I wanted Lina to come with me but she wouldn't and I have to say she was probably right, it was a bit dull, but I'd never been to London before, and that part of it was fun."
Steve stood behind Callum as he sorted through the paperwork until he retrieved the stubs from his airline tickets, the booking slips and credit card bills, all of which proved that someone, probably Callum Edwards, but definitely someone, had stayed in London over the relevant period of time.
ooo
Rae swallowed down the taste of fear that had invaded her throat. "Mrs Edwards, please put the gun down, you are only making things worse for yourself and your family."
"My family is what this is all about, Detective. She had no other ties, but would she share? No. She wanted to see Callum, but not Simon; can you imagine how that hurt? Her own grandchild and she didn't want to see him. Don't move, Detective!"
Rae had tried to edge off the stool she was sitting on, but the movement had been seen instantly, and the gun wavered a little in Mrs Edwards's hand, giving Rae no reason to try it again.
"Look, this is my baby, why wouldn't she want to spend time with him?" Lina moved nearer to Rae, and for a second she considered trying to grab the gun but, as if anticipating her move, the woman stopped just out of her reach. The photo was of a four-year-old boy, Rae guessed, and she had seen it when she entered the room, sitting proudly in its frame on the counter. As she looked at it now though Rae knew why Elizabeth Masters had shut Simon out. "You know what? I'm glad she's dead, family should come before everything else, and she wasn't doing that."
"Mrs Edwards, please, put the gun down, it will be so much better for you if you do." Rae was getting more scared the longer this went on. She knew that in a few minutes Steve would wonder where the tea was and maybe he or Mr. Edwards would come looking for her. She didn't want that to happen. "Mrs. Masters was a very wealthy woman, but her life had been unspeakably tragic, and your little boy looks just like the son she lost, that must have been very hard for her." Once again Rae tried to move a little, hoping that she could somehow gain the advantage.
"I really wouldn't do that if I were you, Detective, I think you can guess what will happen if you move off that stool." Lina Edwards had the gun a little steadier in her hand now and it was pointing straight at Rae. She moved closer and Rae kept her hands in front of her, not daring to move for her own weapon, and feeling the hair on her neck stand up as she fought her panic down again. "You frightened me, asked me awkward questions and then reached inside your jacket, I thought you were going for your gun, so I just went for mine first."
"Mrs Edwards, please." Rae moved unconsciously on the stool and as she did so her whole body exploded in pain, she heard a loud noise, and then she was falling into nothingness.
ooo
The phone on Cheryl's desk was ringing intently as she returned from briefing the Captain on where his homicide officers were and what they were doing. The lectures he had given must have gone well, she didn't remember the last time she had seen him so relaxed.
"Detective Banks … ok, where? Yeah, I know where that is, I'll be about thirty, thirty-five minutes." Cheryl put the phone down and made a few notes. A middle-aged man, maybe fifty years old, accountant by trade, had been found by his, now hysterical, secretary sitting in his car in the underground parking lot with his brains all over the windshield.
Hoping against hope that there were at least some security cameras or guards to help her Cheryl shrugged herself into her jacket and headed for the stairs.
ooo
"You understand that I'll have to double check all of this." Steve leant over and picked up the paperwork.
"Oh yeah, but let me have it back, huh? I need it for my tax returns… What the hell?" As Callum finished speaking a sound filled the air, one that he didn't recognise, but Steve definitely did.
"That was gunfire!" Steve was on his feet, his own gun in his hand. "Stay here." The door to the office closed on his words and for a second Callum Edwards was alone.
Steve wasn't sure where he was going, but as he saw Melina come out of a room, a gun in her hand he flattened against the wall calling out as he did so. "Drop your weapon!"
Mrs Edwards wheeled round, firing again in the general direction of his voice. It went wide of its target and Steve dropped her with one shot before running towards her and kicking the gun out of her reach. The blood flowed from Lina's upper chest; Steve was a good shot he had hit his target exactly where he wanted to. He could see that she was still conscious and so he barked at her. "Get up! Rae, where are you?"
"Wh … what?" Melina's voice was a little fuzzy but Steve couldn't hear Rae and he had no time for sympathy. Hauling her by the left arm he pulled her to her feet and pushed her into the kitchen. Once there he took his cuffs off the back of his belt and pulled her hands together behind her, ignoring the cry of pain it caused. He sat her on the floor knowing that she would be unable to get up unaided. "Stay right there." Once he was satisfied that his prisoner wasn't going anywhere he looked around, first of all seeing nothing, but as he moved a little bit Steve saw his partner, partially hidden by the island unit in the middle of the room.
"Rae!" She was lying on her back, blood coming from a wound in her chest, and as Steve heard a gasp from behind him he turned, his gun still in his hand, to see the shocked face of Callum Edwards. "Sir, just stay there." Steve pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in a number. "This is Lieutenant Steve Sloan, 15H4K, I have a Code 3, repeat a Code 3 and an officer down at 229 Memorial Boulevard … How long …? No, I guess not." He listened for a second and then closed down his phone.
"Lina, my God, what happened, did you do this, Lieutenant?" Callum looked at his wife, the front of her shirt was now covered in blood and he grabbed a dishcloth from a drawer and pressed it against the wound.
"Arghhh," the painful cry escaped her before she could gather herself, but once she had done Melina Edwards just glared at her husband. "I did it, for you."
"What, you did what?" Callum, who couldn't see Rae's body, was still confused.
"She shot my partner, Mr …"
"Shot? You shot a cop for me, why?" Callum's interruption was one of astonishment.
"No ..." Melina lapsed into silence, but Callum had an awful feeling that if it wasn't Detective Yeager she was talking about then there was only one other explanation. His mind reeled, he couldn't take it in, his wife had killed one woman and shot another, and in shock Callum Edwards backed away before sliding down the smooth surface of the kitchen door to lean heavily against it, shutting and blocking the exit as he did so.
Steve listened, knowing he should be writing down anything that was said, but then he heard a movement from his partner and crossed the floor to be next to her.
"Rae, can you hear me?"
"Steve … Oh … God … what happ … ened?" Rae's breath was ragged and Steve could hear the air enter and leave the wound he could see on her chest. He knew that was bad and was even more worried than he had been.
"Shhh, it's ok, you've been shot."
"I … don't like … it." Rae pulled a face and moved her hand towards him.
"No, I don't like it either." Steve had to smile at her comment.
"First … first time." Rae took in another ragged breath. "She … I think … she did … I … Steve … I … can't … can't breathe." The perspiration on Rae's forehead stood out and she seemed to stiffen for a moment, but then she went limp and Steve knew that, for the time being at least, the pain had gone for her.
"What are we gonna do?" Callum's voice was shaky, and Steve turned from his partner for a minute to answer him. He could see that the man was very shocked and, although he didn't want to, Steve moved away from Rae and towards the seated man.
"We are gonna wait for the ambulance and the units I called. Mr. Edwards your wife tried to kill my partner." Steve couldn't continue and realising what he needed to do he moved over to where Melina Edwards was leaning back against the kitchen cabinets. "Mrs Edwards, can you hear me?"
"Yes … Lieutenant, I hear you." Her voice was edged with pain, but there was more, there was anger, his prisoner was furious.
"Melina Edwards I am arresting you for the attempted murder of Detective Reagan Yeager. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"
"Yes, Lieutenant." Melinda lapsed back into silence and Steve turned to return to his partner, reacting in horror again, but this time because Rae was blue around the lips, and her breathing was almost impossible to see or hear except where it shouldn't be either visible or audible on her chest. Steve crouched down beside her and lifted up her top, the wound, where the bullet had entered, was still letting out blood and taking in air, he knew that he needed to do something fast.
"Callum, come over here, now!" Steve's voice was full of urgency and something in it got through to the young man, who stood up, glanced at his wife and then moved slowly towards where the two police officers were. The air was silent, there was no sound, no traffic noises, or bird song, and Callum Edwards could hear his own heart beating so loudly that he was surprised no one had commented on it.
"Press down on the wound, try to stop the blood flow." Steve pushed a latex glove at the man, watched as he put it on and then pulled his phone out of his pocket and punched in the familiar number. "Emergency Room please … Doctor Sloan, please, its urgent … Dad?" Mark must have been standing right by the desk, and Steve felt the relief hit him in a wave as he heard his father's voice. "Dad, I need your help, Rae's been shot … in the chest … she's … she's … they said ten minutes for the ambulance, Dad, I don't know that she has ten minutes … I can hear air, like she's sucking it in … no, I'm calm … of course I do, but I don't see … oh, yeah, yeah, hold on…" Steve looked into the face of the man he knew to be Chief Masters' son, "I need tape, any type, sticky." He pressed back down on the wound himself and watched as the man rushed to a drawer by the sink and pulled it open.
"Here."
"You need to do it, pull some off when I tell you. Press this again." The instructions he was giving were barked, but Steve couldn't help it, he was scared, medicine wasn't his field, that was down to his dad, Amanda and Jesse, but he would do it, he'd helped people before, and would do again, this was just one of many times but he never liked it.
"Ok, we have the tape," Steve was taking his wallet out of his pocket as he spoke, his ear pressing the phone into his shoulder, and he shook out the first credit card he saw. "I've wiped it, but there isn't that much blood … yeah, right over it …? Hold on, I need to put you on the floor." Carefully but quickly Steve did just that and then he positioned the card over the bullet hole. He picked up his cell and spoke again. "Dad … It's done … Callum, tape." Steve watched as, with shaking hands, the white masking tape was used over the short end of his credit card, "again, twice more." The tape was puckered and way too long but the piece of plastic was now attached on three of its four sides to Rae's chest and Steve leant back on his haunches, he knew that there was nothing else he could do, except listen to her compromised breathing, wait for the sound of sirens, and pray that the ten minute time frame would be short enough to save his friend.