In Death 24 - Innocent in Death

nine-one-one, and I told them to come, and why. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing, so I did CPR until I heard them at the door.
    Then I ran down, let them in.”
    “What about Rayleen?”
    “Oh, merciful Mary, the poor child.” Cora paused, pressed both hands to her face, scrubbed hard. “She came out of her room just as I was running down for the door. I knew I had to hurry, and didn’t even stop.”
     
    286
    “Did she say anything?”
    “Well, she did. I imagine she was puzzled, as I must’ve looked to frighten the devil himself, and wasn’t supposed to be there at all. That’s what she said, come to that. ‘What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here.’”
    “Annoyed?”
    “Aye, I’d say. She likes things to run as they’re planned, and there I was on her day with her mum. Oh, Lieutenant, what an awful thing for a child. She just went into hysterics when the MTs charged in.”
    “I bet.”
    “If I hadn’t left-”
    “You came back,” Eve interrupted. “If you hadn’t, she’d be dead. If she pulls through this, it’s not just the doctors who’ll have saved her life. You did.”
    “Thanks. Thanks for that. I can’t stop leaking.” Cora wiped at tears. “She’s good as gold to me, the missus. Good as gold.” They headed back, then Cora clamped her free hand on Eve’s arm. “They’re bringing her out.”
    “Yeah.” Eve watched the trauma team move the gurney out of the room toward the elevators. “That means they’ve stabilized her.” For now. “Listen to me, Cora. Look at me.”
    “What?”
    “You have friends in the city?”
    “I do, yes.”
    “I want you to stay with them tonight.”
    “Oh, but…I’ll be with little Ray. She’ll need me, poor mite.”
    “No.” Eve wasn’t going to risk another innocent. With her latest plans thwarted, Rayleen might take out her frustration on Cora. “When you leave here, you’re going straight to your friend’s, and you’re going to stay there tonight. I’ll make arrangements for Mr.
    Straffo and Rayleen.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You don’t have to, yet. But if you don’t give me your word you’ll do what I’m telling you, I’m having you taken down to Central and held as a material witness. Your choice.”
    287
     
    “Well, that’s harsh.”
    “It’s going to get harsher. Straffo and the kid are heading up. You can go up and take Rayleen her juice, talk to them, reassure yourself as best as you can. Then I want you to leave, and do what I’ve told you.”
    “All right, all right then, I will. I suppose she’ll only want her da now anyway.”
    Satisfied, Eve headed for Louise.
    “Dallas. Small world.”
    “And why are you in it?”
    Louise smiled. “I’m a rotating Attending here, and took the big Valentine’s Day Saturday shift. Charles is busy, and we’re having our romantic rendezvous tomorrow.”
    As Louise’s main man was a high-class licensed companion, Eve imagined he was fully booked on heart day.
    “You look beat.”
    “Rough one. And if you’re going to ask me her chances, I can tell you they’re very shaky.
    We’ve got her on life support. She’s not breathing on her own yet, and may not respond.
    But if she’d gotten here ten minutes later, she wouldn’t have had any chance at all. So we take what we can get.”
    “My lab’s going to need a sample of what you pumped out of her.”
    “No problem. The au pair has a steady head on her shoulders. Gave the nine-one-one the name of the med, gave the MTs the bottle. We knew what we were dealing with straight off, and that made a difference, too. She’d started CPR, gave the patient another fighting chance. Beautiful woman, the patient. Husband, sweet little girl. You never know.”
    “Nope, you never know.”
     
    288

Chapter 21
    AS LOUIS NEEDED TO GET UP TO CCU, EVE TURNED to Mira. “Well?”
    “She’s an excellent actor.”
    “She’s in Drama Club.”
    “I’m not surprised. I’d need a longer session with her, probably more than one to be definitive, but I tend to agree with your analysis. She enjoyed having me focused on her, even though she was very aware of you. She wanted to be sure you were listening to her.”
    “And I was. She was pretty damn detailed in the conversation she claims to have had with her mother. ‘I love you best. I know you’ll be brave.’ Made sure she got in there, too, how her mother sometimes gets sick. She’s planned it all, rehearsed it all. Had to ad lib since