Chapter
39
My heart hammered as I approached the other car. The entire front of it was crushed in. I went around to the driver’s side and peered
inside. My breath caught in my throat as
I could make out a woman slouched down in the driver’s seat, motionless. My hand shaking, I tugged on the
doorknob. The door was stuck though, and
it wouldn’t budge. I hurried around to
the passenger’s side, which was less dented in than the driver’s seat was. To my relief, the passenger door opened
without too much trouble.
I
crawled into the front seat. Then I
reached up and turned on the overhead light.
The car was immediately flooded with light, allowing me to get a better
view inside. I checked the backseat
quickly and sighed with relief when I found that the driver was the only one in
the car. My attention focused on her
next, and as I got a better look at her, I gasped. She was bloody from the crash, but I
recognized her. It was the receptionist
from the hotel, Jaycee, the woman who had looked so familiar to me before. I put my fingertips to her neck to check for
a pulse. I found one, but it was
weak. After checking her over, I found
that she was bleeding from cuts all over, and it looked as if she had broken
some ribs too. I knew she could have
collapsed lungs or other internal injuries as well. From the sound of her weak pulse and slow,
raspy breathing, I knew she was in a grave situation.
I
looked around the car, hoping she had a cell phone. I remembered mine was at home, charging up on
the kitchen counter. Brian hadn’t
brought anything with him, so I assumed he didn’t have his either.
I
looked around in the car, trying to find her purse. Finally, I saw it, shoved under the dashboard
on the floor of the passenger side. I
opened it up and sighed with relief when I found a cell phone. I quickly turned it on and dialed 911. When the operator answered, I explained what
had happened and where we were. I told
her I was a doctor, so she let me hang up without having to instruct me on any
first aid procedures.
I
shut off the phone and put it back into Jaycee’s purse. As I did so, her wallet fell out. It was unsnapped when I picked it up from the
seat, and I caught a glance of her driver’s license. Jaycee Bass, it read. Bass?
It was then that I realized
why she looked so familiar. She must
have been related to Lance! His sister,
maybe. I didn’t even know if Lance had a
sister, but this woman looked just like him.
I hadn’t realized it before, but after seeing her last name, I realized
her resemblance to Lance was striking.
She looked just like the female version of him, potato-head, Cover Girl
eyebrows, and all.
Suddenly,
I heard sirens approaching and saw the flash of lights as a police car and two
ambulances approached.
I
got out of the car quickly. Too
quickly. A sudden wave of nausea hit me,
and my stomach cramped up. I leaned
against Jaycee’s crumpled car, waiting for the sudden pain in my stomach to
pass. When it did, the ambulances had
just pulled up to the scene.
“There’s
a woman there in that car that needs help,” I said to one of the paramedics,
pointing to Jaycee’s car. “And my
friend, Brian, needs help too. He’s in
the other car.” I motioned to my car, a
few feet away.
Some
of the paramedics headed to Jaycee’s car, and the others ran to Brian’s
aide.
“Are
you okay, ma’am?” I looked up to see a
police officer standing before me. He
placed a blanket around my shoulders, and I welcomed the warmth, a relief from
the bitter January air.
“Yeah,
I think so,” I said. “I’m a little sore,
and my stomach kind of hurts, but I think I’m okay.”
The
officer studied me. “You should go get
checked out at the hospital anyway,” he said.
“Just to make sure everything all right with your baby, besides yourself.”
I
nodded, a new fear gnawing at me. My
baby. I hoped the pain in my stomach
wasn’t the result of any complications with my pregnancy that could have been
caused by the crash. With all my other
worries, that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, but now, it terrified me.
“Yeah,
you’re right,” I said. “I’ll just ride
to the hospital with Brian, if you don’t mind.
I can get checked out then.”
“That
sounds fine,” the officer replied. “Can
I get you to answer some questions for me while they’re working on him?”
“Yeah,
sure,” I replied.
I
let the police officer lead me over to his car.
He opened the passenger side and let me sit in it while he asked me
several questions about what had happened.
As
he did so, a message came through his walkie talkie. “Reynolds, we’ve got a situation, and we need
you here as soon as possible,” came a male voice.
The
officer, whose name, I figured, was Reynolds, motioned to me to wait one minute
and picked up his walkie talkie and spoke into it. “What is it?” he asked.
“Domestic
attack. One victim in critical with a
GSW, several others injured, along with the attacker,” came the voice.
“I
can’t be there right now, I’m at an MVA scene,” Reynolds replied.
“Will
you be done soon?”
“Yeah,
soon,” Reynolds said.
“Then
get over here.”
“What’s
the address?” Reynolds asked.
“702
Birch Drive.”
I
gasped, my heart skipping a beat, for the address the other officer had said
was my address.
***
What happened? Who
got hurt? How badly were they hurt? Will they be okay? As I rode along in the ambulance with Brian,
these questions and more raced through my mind.
I wanted to break down into tears, I was so worried about my friends and
family. Plus, there was the stress of
the accident, and my stomach had begun to cramp up again. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was
having contractions. But surely it
couldn’t be that. After all, I was only
six months pregnant. I still had three
more months to go before my baby was due.
“Julie?” Brian asked weakly, looking up at me from the
stretcher he was strapped down on.
“Yeah?” I asked, focusing my attention on him.
“Are you okay?” Brian asked, his eyes narrowing in concern
as he studied me.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Just
a little shaken up, I guess.”
I hadn’t told Brian what I’d heard on the police officer’s
walkie talkie. After it had happened, I
had shakily explained to Reynolds that the house he was heading to was my
house. He was very sympathetic and had
led me to the ambulance to wait and then left for my house, promising to come
himself or send someone else to let me know what had happened as soon as he had
surveyed the situation.
By the time he was gone, Brian was being loaded into the
ambulance, and it was time to go to the hospital. I was shaken, but I tried my hardest to keep
it all in. Brian was already shaken
himself and in pain, and I knew if I told him the truth, he would just get more
upset, for Leighanne or Hope, as well as any of the other guys, his best
friends, could have been the ones injured.
Not knowing exactly who had gotten hurt and how bad would just tear him
up, as it was doing to me now.
Brian offered me a grim smile, a painful smile. “Don’t worry, Jules,” he said softly. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
If only I could have believed him.
***
