“House secure! Multiple casualties!” SWAT called over the radio. “Every medic inside, stat!”
Lucy jumped up again and this time Noah followed her.
Lucy, Noah, and one of the SWAT officers surrounded the woman on the lawn. The bullet had gone through her upper right shoulder just below the back of her neck. She was bleeding profusely. She opened her mouth over and over but no sound came out. Her hands flailed about and she suddenly grabbed Lucy’s arm.
“Bebé, por favor, bebé.” Her voice was weak. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and her body began to convulse.
The SWAT medic said, “I can’t stop the bleeding.”
“Put pressure on it!” Lucy took off her jacket and folded it, putting as much pressure as she could on the wound. In seconds the jacket was wet and sticky with blood.
“She’s not going to make it, Luce,” Noah said.
“She has to! Her baby.”
Lucy put her other hand on the woman’s stomach and felt the baby kick multiple times. She bit back a sob. “No. No. No!”
Noah said, “Can you deliver it?”
“I-maybe.” She had to try. “Where’s the paramedics? We need someone!”
The SWAT medic called in the ambulance that was waiting down the street. “House is secure. We need a paramedic stat.” He then pulled out a small emergency kit from his belt. He cut open the woman’s dress and liberally sprayed an antiseptic over her skin. “I’ve assisted in one emergency C-section when I was an EMT. We have to do it fast. She’s gone. I have no pulse. The baby won’t survive more than a couple minutes, if at all.”
He took out a scalpel and said, “This is all I have.” He hesitated.
“Do it,” Lucy said. “We don’t have much time.”
“I can’t. Not without authorization.” He looked pained.
Damn rules!
Lucy took the scalpel, took a deep breath, forced her heart rate to slow. She’d never cut into a living person before, but she’d cut into the dead. She knew how the body was designed, how the uterus expanded and thinned during pregnancy. It was a strong muscle, it needed a sure and firm hand.
At the top of the belly, she pushed down with the scalpel until she felt the muscle give. Then she made a smooth vertical incision down, across the large stomach, all the way down to her pelvis.
Thank God she’d cut through the uterus on the first try. She pulled it apart, separating it. There was very little blood. She saw the baby in the amniotic sac. She carefully punctured the sac, reached in and took hold of the infant.
“Scissors-we have to cut the umbilical cord before the toxins from the mother reach her. We need a clamp. Something to seal it.”
“Scissors?” The medic held surgical scissors in his hand.
Lucy nodded and without hesitating pulled the baby out. The medic cut the umbilical cord. Then he twisted the end still attached to the baby around the scissors and created a temporary clamp.
“She’s not breathing.” Lucy turned the small infant over, supporting her stomach with her hand and arm, and spanked her lightly. She was so small. So tiny. But she was perfect.
“She could have a blockage,” the medic said. He reached over and rubbed the infant’s back, then gave one light slap below her shoulder blades. He did it again. The legs kicked and suddenly a faint cry came out.
“Oh God,” Lucy said. “Oh God, thank you.” Noah took off his jacket and put it over the baby. Carefully, Lucy wrapped her up. “She’s small, about four pounds. We have to get her to a hospital.”
The paramedics rolled up with a gurney. They first saw the woman on the ground. “She’s gone,” the SWAT medic said. “But we have her baby.”
The paramedics ordered Lucy to put the baby on the gurney. Quickly, they wiped out her mouth then wrapped her in clean towels. “We’ll take her to the children’s hospital in Laredo,” one said. “Do you know anything about the mother? The infant?”
“No,” Lucy said. “The mother was dying, the baby would have died if we didn’t get her out. She wasn’t breathing at first…”
“That’s common in an emergency C-section. Good work.” They strapped the baby in.
“I want to go with her-” Lucy said.
“Meet us there,” the paramedic said and they rushed toward the ambulance.
Lucy stared after the baby. She couldn’t move. Suddenly her knees buckled, and she would have collapsed if Noah hadn’t caught her.
“You saved her baby,” he whispered in her ear. “It’s okay to feel, Lucy. It’s okay to cry.”
Lucy stared at the dead mother, then turned her head and buried her face into Noah’s chest. She clutched at him as if she were drowning.
She couldn’t think, she couldn’t put together a sentence. Waves of grief washed through her. Grief and anger. That so many human beings could hurt others with no remorse, no punishment. A baby who had no mother, no father. Alive, but what would happen to her?
Grief. Anger. And then a sudden relief that it was over. The last three days had been the second worst three days of her life. She wasn’t the victim this time, but she saw herself in the eyes of the woman who’d begged her to save her baby. She saw herself in the eyes of all these women. She could have been one of them.
There but for the grace of God go I…
She let Noah hold her. He sat on the ground and pulled her to him, his hand gripping her tight. She felt his chest, the sobs he was trying to hold inside. Suddenly, the tears came. Tears she’d never shed because she feared they would never stop.
They came.
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was nearly midnight when Lucy sat on the edge of the exam table. She’d washed off the blood, and Noah had insisted a doctor check her out. She was fine, she’d said. But she was drained.
“We should go to the hotel,” Noah said.
“Where’s Nate?”
“He’s still with Villines at the house.”
“I should have stayed. Done my job.”
“You did your job, Lucy.”
“I fell apart.”
“I would have worried more if you didn’t. Lucy-no apologies. You did what had to be done and saved that little girl. The SWAT medic told the story to everyone, including the nurses. They’re calling her Lucia.”
The tears threatened again and she shook her head to clear her thoughts. She couldn’t do this, not now.
Noah sat down on the doctor’s stool and took her hands. “Hey, Luce, it’s over.”
“It’s not. I overheard you talking to Villines. Marisol wasn’t in the house.”
“We found the Honeycutts’ phone in a closet, and it’s clear someone had been restrained inside. I’m going to make a run at Zapelli and see what he can tell us. His lawyer is raising Cain about unlawful detention and false arrest and whatnot, so we’re probably going to have to cut him loose.”
“You can’t!”
“You think I want to? I’m fighting hard to make sure we can keep him here, but I may not have a choice. We pushed the boundaries on this case. I told you to push, you did everything right, but we have to remember that we have rules for a reason. We don’t have cause. But I’m going to run at him, see what he can give us. The AUSA is staying up all night to see if she can make a case against him. But it’ll be up to a judge in the morning as to whether we cut him loose.”
Sometimes, she hated the system.
“They killed her,” Lucy said. “They must have killed her.”
“There was no evidence that she died at that house.” His phone rang. “It’s Dean Hooper, I have to take it. Then I’ll take you to the hotel.” He kissed her forehead.
“Armstrong,” he answered. He listened for a full minute, then said, “Where is he? I’ll pick him up tonight.”
He listened again, then swore under his breath. “Are you sure? Did he flee because he knew we were going to uncover this?… Really? Last week?… I’ll talk to his wife… This isn’t a joke, is it? Yeah, I know, you don’t joke about serious shit. Okay, I’ll be there first thing in the morning. I need a couple hours’ sleep before I can make the drive back, it’s been a fucking long day.” He hung up.