“Gram,” Josie croaked.
One of the nurses shouted out her vitals. Dr. Nashat dropped the basin and tweezers onto a nearby tray table. “We have to get her up to CT. We need to know what’s going on inside.”
Lisette’s head turned slowly. Her eyes searched the room until they locked onto Josie. Everything around them faded for a few precious seconds. Lisette’s mouth moved but beneath the mask, Josie couldn’t make out what she was trying to say.
“Detective.”
Josie tore her eyes from Lisette long enough to see Dr. Nashat standing before her.
“We need to get this woman upstairs. She needs a CT scan, and, given the placement of some of these wounds, I’d say she’ll most definitely need surgery.”
Josie stepped aside. “Would you please keep me updated? She’s my grandmother.”
Dr. Nashat froze momentarily, his professional demeanor slipping for just a moment. Then he patted her shoulder. “You’ll know everything I know.”
The nurses wheeled Lisette out the door. Josie managed to touch her bare shoulder as she went past. Her skin was cold.
Twenty-Six
Josie felt a paralysis unlike any she’d ever known. Thoughts escaped her mind. She stood in the hallway until a security guard appeared and ushered her into another area of the Emergency Department. It was a small, private waiting area. She was aware that he said something about her not going into the main area because she would frighten everyone else, looking as she did. He planted her in a chair and handed her a towel. She held it limply in her lap, eyes staring straight ahead but seeing nothing. Nurses, doctors, and other patients passed by. Some asked if she was okay, to which she simply nodded. Her mind replayed the scene at Harper’s Peak over and over, trying to figure out what she could have done differently.
They shouldn’t have been out there.
She should have sent Lisette back to Griffin Hall with Sawyer. Emily would have been long gone from the place Lisette had last seen her. What did it matter where she went into the woods?
But what was Rory doing there? Why was he at Harper’s Peak? He couldn’t have known that Emily was there. Could he? Why had he shot at them? Maybe it hadn’t been Rory. But who else would be wandering around in the woods with a shotgun? Mettner had driven Pax back to the produce market after he gave his statement. Had Josie misread Pax? He had been in the woods earlier that day the first time Josie was shot at.
“Josie!”
She looked up, fighting her mental fog, and saw Noah rushing toward her. Behind him was Trinity, Drake, Shannon, Christian, Josie and Trinity’s brother, Patrick, and Misty.
Misty’s hand flew to her mouth.
Trinity said, “Is any of that your blood?”
Shannon leaned down and put her arm across Josie’s shoulder. Into Josie’s ear, she said, “Where’s Lisette?”
“Mom,” Trinity said. “Don’t.”
Christian said, “I’ll go find a doctor or something and see what we can find out.”
Josie wanted to tell him to ask for Dr. Nashat, but her mouth wouldn’t work. Noah knelt in front of her. In his hands were her phone and gun. She made no move to take them. He pocketed them and touched her face. “Josie,” he whispered. “Can you talk to me?”
She said nothing. He palmed her cheek. “Sawyer told us what happened. He’s outside.”
Finally, words came. “Someone should be with him,” Josie said. “Gram would want someone to be with him.”
Christian appeared again with Dr. Nashat by his side. “I didn’t have to look far,” he said.
Dr. Nashat looked down at Josie, concern creasing his features. “Detective, are you okay?”
Josie looked at Noah. “Sawyer,” she said. “He shouldn’t be alone.”
Shannon said, “Let’s hear what the doctor has to say, and then Drake and your father can go sit with Sawyer.”
Dr. Nashat said, “Mrs. Matson is in surgery. While most of the buckshot injuries were superficial, and I was able to remove the pellets myself, she did sustain severe damage to her right radius and ulna. We’ll have an orthopedic doctor look at it, but right now the priority is trying to repair the internal damage. Scans show multiple perforations of her liver and intestines. There are two bullets lodged within her anterior inferior right ventricular wall.”
Trinity said, “For non-medical professionals, please.”
Shannon said, “Her heart wall.”
“Oh my God,” Misty squeaked.
Dr. Nashat said, “The good news is that there’s no active arterial hemorrhaging in her chest cavity. But she’ll be in surgery for some time. She’s quite advanced in age, and while she was very lucky—these were not close-range shots—the odds of her making it through the stress of multiple surgeries to remove the pellets and repair the internal damage are, I’m afraid, quite low. If she does survive, post-surgical complications could—”
Trinity said, “That’s enough. We get it. Is there somewhere we can wait or get updates from the surgeons?”
Dr. Nashat nodded. “Fourth floor. There’s a surgical waiting area. She’s the only one on the floor right now. Dr. Justofin is the trauma surgeon. He’ll either send someone out to update you or see to it himself. It will be several hours, though.”
Josie heard footsteps behind Dr. Nashat. Dr. Feist pushed her way past him and rushed toward Josie. “My God. I just heard what happened. Josie—”
She stopped and looked around at all of them. Meeting Dr. Nashat’s eyes, she said, “I just spoke with the surgical resident. She let me know what was going on. I’ll show them to the waiting room upstairs.”
Dr. Nashat nodded and left. Drake nudged Christian’s ribs and said, “Why don’t we see if we can find Sawyer.”
As they walked off with Patrick in tow, Dr. Feist put a hand on Noah’s shoulder. He stood and moved away. Dr. Feist said, “I don’t suppose anyone assessed you, did they?”
She placed two fingers on the side of Josie’s throat.
“I’m fine,” Josie rasped.
Trinity said, “You’re a mess. We have to get you out of these clothes.”
Dr. Feist
