What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2

officer told them as she knelt beside Cecile. “Your friend David and another officer are waiting for them out front. What happened here?”
“Bo was attacked by an unidentified animal. It’s over there.” Dean nodded to his right, where Sam saw a strange twisted lump, which had to be the thing that had bitten Bo. “It seems to have died.”
Sam and Cecile looked at each other as the second officer approached the still form, pistol aimed at the thing. It hadn’t occurred to Sam to point out the creature’s carcass without mentioning where it had come from. Clever, he thought, giving Dean a tiny nod.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ!” the male officer bellowed. “Collins, come look at this fuckin’ thing.”
The female officer—Collins, Sam assumed— glared at her partner, but rose and went to look. “Good Lord. Shephard, we better get animal control. I don’t know what the hell this thing is.”
Bo reached up, grasping weakly at Dean’s bare shoulder. “No,” he breathed, the sound barely audible. “Don’t let them. Need to…to study it…”
Taking Bo’s hand, Dean squeezed his fingers. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of it.” Raising his voice, he called to the police officers. “Hey, guys? I have a friend who’s a Biology professor at the University of South Alabama. I can take it to her, she has the facilities to study it. Would that be all right?”
The two officers looked at each other. Collins shrugged. “I guess. Animal control doesn’t much like coming out to collect dead animals anyway.”
“We’ll get a bag or something to put it in,” Shephard offered. Wrinkling his nose, he flipped the pistol’s safety on and holstered it. “Damn ugly motherfucker.”
At that moment, flashlight beams appeared from around the bend in the tunnel. Sam breathed a sigh of relief as David loped up, followed by another officer and two paramedics.
“All right, everyone please clear the area,” one of the paramedics said, her voice calm but brooking no argument.
With a reassuring smile at Bo, Sam stood and moved back, along with Dean and Cecile. He leaned against the wall between Dean and Andre as the emergency medics worked over Bo, starting an IV line and examining his wound. Cecile went into David’s outstretched arms. Her hands shook where she clung to his waist.
Within minutes, the paramedics had Bo loaded onto the stretcher and were pushing him down the tunnel toward the stairs. A clear plastic bag hung from a metal pole at the head of the stretcher, feeding fluids into the needle in Bo’s arm through a short tubing. Sam and the rest of the team followed, jogging to keep up.
David turned a questioning look to Dean as the bottom of the steps came into view. “How are they gonna get him up the steps?”
“They’ll fold the wheels and carry the stretcher,” Dean explained. “They don’t have to worry about jarring any broken bones or potential spinal injuries, so there’s no need to wait for special rescue equipment. Getting him to the hospital quickly is the most important thing.”
“How do you know all this?” Andre asked, voicing the question in the back of Sam’s mind.
“I used to work in the emergency room as a nurse’s aide. Learned all kinds of helpful things.” Dean’s mouth curved into a wan smile. “I kept my certification current until about a year ago.”
Under different circumstances, Sam would’ve wanted to know more. He felt a vague curiosity, but it faded fast when the paramedics reached the bottom of the stairs and began to haul Bo up them one laborious step at a time.
It was all Sam could do to hold himself back when Bo cried out in pain. He crowded as close as he dared to the stretcher, peering around the paramedic’s bulky shoulder to catch a glimpse of Bo’s face. Bo’s eyes were closed, his brow furrowed. His lips moved, murmuring something Sam couldn’t hear.
The moment they cleared the steps and the paramedics unfolded the stretcher’s wheels, Sam rushed to Bo’s side. He took Bo’s hand. “Hang in there, Bo. They’re taking you to the hospital. You’re going to be fine.”
Bo’s eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open. “Sam. Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.” Fighting tears, Sam kissed Bo’s fingers. “Bo…”
They reached the front door of the school, and Sam was forced to move again as the medics lifted the stretcher down the steps. Sam followed them and stood behind the ambulance, watching as Bo was loaded into the