Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

is still intact, it might be enough circulation to supply your leg with blood. And keep it alive.”
    “That means you’re going to have to dig around in there.”
    “We need to isolate which artery is bleeding.”
    Arlo shook his head. “No way.”
    “If it’s the anterior tibial, we only have to slide between a few muscles, just below the knee.”
    “Forget it. Don’t touch me.”
    “I’m thinking of what’s best for you. There’ll be a little pain, but in the end you’ll be glad I—”
    “A little? A
little?”
Arlo croaked out a desperate laugh. “Stay the fuck away from me!”
    “Listen, I know it hurts, but—”
    “You don’t know shit, Doug.”
    “Arlo.”
    “Stay away! Elaine, for God’s sake, make him stay away!”
    Doug rose to his feet. “We’ll let you rest, okay? Grace, you stay here with him.” He looked at Maura and Elaine. “Let’s go in the other room.”
    They met in the kitchen. Elaine had left a pot of water to heat on the woodstove, and it was now simmering, ready to sterilize instruments. Through the steam-fogged window, Maura could see the sun was already dropping toward the horizon.
    “You can’t force him to go through this,” said Maura.
    “It’s for his own good.”
    “Surgery without anesthesia?
Think
about it, Doug.”
    “Give the Valium some time to work. He’ll calm down.”
    “But he won’t be unconscious. He’ll still be able to feel the incision.”
    “He’ll thank us for it later. Trust me.” Doug turned to Elaine. “You agree with me, don’t you? We can’t just give up on his leg.”
    Elaine hesitated, obviously torn between the two terrible options. “I don’t know …”
    “Ligating the artery is the only way we’ll be able to remove that tourniquet. The only way we can restore some blood flow.”
    “Do you really think you can do it?”
    “It’s a straightforward procedure. Maura and I both know the anatomy.”
    “But he’ll be moving around,” said Maura. “There could be a lot more blood loss. I don’t agree with this, Doug.”
    “The alternative is to sacrifice the limb.”
    “I think the limb is already a lost cause.”
    “Well, I don’t.” Doug turned back to Elaine. “We need to vote on this. Do we try to save his leg or not?”
    Elaine took a breath and nodded. “I guess I’m with you.”
    Of course she would be. Arlo was right. She always sides with Doug
.
    “Maura?” he asked.
    “You know what I think.”
    He glanced out the window. “We don’t have a lot of time. We’re losing our daylight and I’m not sure we’ll be able to see enough with the kerosene lamp.” He looked at Maura. “Elaine and I both vote to go ahead with this.”
    “You forgot a vote. There’s Arlo’s, and he made it pretty clear what he wants.”
    “He’s not competent to make any decisions right now.”
    “It’s
his
leg.”
    “And we can save it! But I need your help. Maura, I can’t do it without you.”
    “Dad?” Grace was standing in the kitchen doorway. “He doesn’t look so good.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “He’s not talking anymore. And he’s snoring really loud.”
    Doug nodded. “The drugs must have kicked in. Let’s get someinstruments boiling. And we’ll need needles. A spool of thread.” He looked at Maura. “Are you with me or not?”
    It doesn’t matter what I say, she thought. He’s going to do it anyway.
    “I’ll see what I can find,” she said.
    I T TOOK THEM an hour to collect and sterilize all the items they’d managed to scavenge. By then, the window admitted only a weak afternoon glow. They lit the kerosene lamp, and by the light of the hissing flame, Arlo’s eyes were sunken in shadow, as though his soft tissues were collapsing, his body consuming itself. Doug peeled back the blanket, releasing the sharp smell of the urine-saturated rug.
    The leg was as pale as a shank of cold meat.
    No amount of scrubbing could cleanse all the bacteria from their hands, but Doug and Maura tried anyway, lathering and rinsing until their skin was raw. Only then did Doug reach for the blade. It was a paring knife, the most delicate one they could find, and they had sharpened it before sterilizing. As he knelt over the leg, the first hint of uncertainty flickered in his eyes. He glanced up at Maura.
    “Ready to release the tourniquet?” he said.
    “You haven’t tied off the artery yet,” said Elaine.
    “We need to identify which artery it is. And the only way is to see where he’s