“Are you all right, sweetheart? What’s happened?”
“Charlie,” I said more forcefully. “Where can I meet you?”
“They’re taking him to Northwest Hospital,” he choked out. “Vanessa, Jasmine, and me are following the ambulance.”
“I’ll see you there.”
◆◆◆
I had my mom drop me off near the ER. She wanted to stay but I knew it would be awkward for her, so I asked her to pick up some lunch for everyone instead. I had a feeling no one would be going home tonight.
I limped into the hospital as fast as I could. My crutches squeaked against the linoleum. Rain dripped from my jacket, leaving a trail behind me.
“Where did they take Detective Victor Campbell?” I barked at the lady behind the reception desk.
“They just wheeled him into surgery,” she said, pointing. “But it’s family only!” she shouted after me.
I elbowed past the door, flinging, “I am family!” over my shoulder.
I found them in the smaller waiting area just around the corner. Jasmine sat in one of the chairs, rocking back and forth while staring down at the floor. Her hair swung like two thick pendulums at the sides of her face. A curvy black woman stood by the window; she ran a hand over her forehead while she spoke to someone on her phone, her voice trembling and breaking over the words. Charlie was pacing the floor, still sobbing, twisting his ball cap in his hands, occasionally rubbing a fist against his eyes in a hopeless attempt to staunch the flow of tears. He was a kid, a little boy who’d lost everything. Again.
I was crying as I hobbled over to him. He saw me and lurched forward. I dropped the crutches to wrap my arms around his neck as his arms came around my waist. With his face buried in my shoulder, he sobbed even harder. His whole body trembled with the effort to eject the horrible feelings tearing him up inside. I smoothed the hair at the back of his head and said it was going to be all right, that Victor was strong and he’d pull through. I willed it to be true. I was too afraid of what Charlie would become if I was wrong.
◆◆◆
The woman, who I learned was the famous Vanessa Burkley, explained what happened after my mom had dropped off the sub sandwiches. She’d been with the twins when Victor was shot so she’d witnessed their powers. Jasmine felt the bullet enter through her right eye and collapsed. Charlie joined her on the floor and started convulsing, screaming at Vanessa to send an ambulance to the cross streets where Victor had been shot. She didn’t know Victor was in trouble. She just knew she had to trust Charlie.
When he’d come out of his trance and Jasmine had come back to life, the three of them had rushed to the scene of the crime. They’d found the Corolla wrapped around a street light. And Victor…
“He was breathing when the paramedics took him away,” Vanessa said as she chewed on her food. “They felt a faint pulse. He’s going to be okay.” She blinked away tears and swallowed, only to tear off another chunk of her sandwich.
“He died twice in the ambulance,” Jasmine whispered. She was still rocking and staring, refusing to eat anything. “They brought him back but—”
“He’s going to be okay,” Vanessa said, a little too loudly. “We found him in time. They got him into surgery right away. He’s healthy and strong. There’s nothing to worry about.” She repeated the words like a prayer. “There’s nothing to worry about.” But then she set her sandwich in her lap and started crying in earnest.
Jasmine and Charlie shared a teary, hopeless look. Together, they reached out to touch her arm. It was just the brush of their fingers but it was enough. I really hoped it wasn’t Victor’s death that finally made Vanessa part of their family.
◆◆◆
A surgeon came out to see us at a little after five, introducing herself as Dr. Abadi.
I’d been dozing on Charlie’s shoulder when he leapt up, tweaking my neck in the process. Jasmine and Vanessa joined him in assaulting the surgeon with questions. The kind woman explained that it was a clean shot; the bullet went through Victor’s eye and exited out the back of his head. She’d done everything she could to repair the damaged brain tissue and fix his skull. He had lost a lot of blood. Thankfully, the hospital had plenty of O positive in stock.
“He’s lost his right eye,” the doctor said gently, making Jasmine slap a hand over her mouth and look away, “and, if he survives the night, there’s an eighty percent chance of lasting brain damage as well as some paralysis in his right side.”
Vanessa’s knees buckled. She staggered away from the group, reaching for the wall. There she held on as if her life depended on it.
“But he’s alive right now,” Charlie said, his voice raw from crying. “Can we see him?”
The surgeon nodded, smiling kindly. “Of course. Follow me.” When I started to stand, she shook her head. “Only two at a time, please.”
Charlie and Jasmine sent me apologetic looks. I nodded in encouragement. They left with the surgeon. Vanessa didn’t even try to follow; instead, she regulated her breathing while she had a staring contest with the wallpaper between her fingers.
◆◆◆
When I finally got to see the detective, I felt like there was a burning hole in my stomach. This was the man Charlie respected above everyone else, the man who’d been a father to him when his real father had been too much of a coward. This was the kind and caring detective who’d visited me when I was in this very hospital and brought my attackers
