Erin's Way (28 page)

Erin needed him. He might not be able to crawl underneath and bring her out himself, but he could make sure that this time she had the help she needed. He wouldn’t fail her again. Sam pulled his cell phone out, relieved to see he had a signal, and tapped 911, all the while keeping his eyes trained on Jake as the big man crawled through the dirt toward Erin. Sam would have recognized her hand anywhere.

“This is Sheriff Sam Barnes, I need an ambulance and detectives sent to thirty-one, six-twenty Branch Road, a mile off the Shady Valley Church Road.”

In the background, he heard Jake call over his shoulder, “She’s breathing.”

Sam had to lean hard on the cane as he swayed with relief. She was alive, and the euphoria flooding his every pore made him lightheaded.

“We’ve found Erin Richardson. She’s unconscious.” He paused for a moment to regain his composure. “Have someone tell her family.”

He jammed the phone back into his pocket, watching as Jake carefully unhooked the cuffs holding her wrist. Jake uttered a muffled curse.

“What is it?”

“Her wrist is raw, looks like from trying to get loose, but that’s not all. Sam, this sleep isn’t natural.”

She could simply be exhausted, but if that were the case, surely releasing her wrist would have roused her.

“Can you wake her?”

From beneath the trailer, he heard Jake’s urgent voice. “Erin! Erin, can you hear me, honey? It’s Jake Allred. Sam’s with me…no, nothing. She is breathing though.”

Sam forced himself to breathe evenly, to think as he’d been trained to so he could get past the emotion. “Is there anything lying nearby? If she’s ingested something toxic, we’ll need to be able to give them an idea of what.” Frustration made him clench and unclench his fingers. He should be in there, not looking on while Jake pulled her out.

“Just a canteen. Appears to still have something in it.”

“Bring it.” Hurry, he wanted to yell. His whole body shook with the need to see her, to put his hands on her, and reassure himself that she really was alive.

“Okay. I’m putting her on my back so I can crawl out. She appears to have some contusions to her face along with the injuries to her wrist.”

All Sam could see at this point was the flashlight bobbing as Jake crawled back to the opening with Erin on his back. When he reached the gap in the aluminum, Jake held the canteen and the flashlight out for Sam, who took them even while his eyes devoured Erin. She was filthy. Her wrist was raw and bruised. Through the dirt and tear tracks on her face, he spotted a fading bruise along her cheekbone, a cut near her hairline, and a scabbed-over split lip.

Anger, like acid, rose in him until he thought it would eat away his insides. If Andre Delacroix hadn’t already been dead, Sam would have killed him for the tear tracks alone because he knew just how much it took to make Erin cry.

“I’ll carry her out to the truck,” Jake murmured gently.

Sam wanted to hold her, wanted to be the one to carry her out of this hell hole, but he pushed his pride aside. It was all he could do to walk on his healing leg, and there would be no way at all he could support even a portion of her weight with his right arm. One thing he could do, though. He could stay with her. Sam was not going to leave her now that they’d found her. Not ever again.

Jake laid her on the back seat. “Go around to the other side, get in there. Talk to her. Maybe you’ll have better luck getting a response from her.”

Sam’s leg throbbed. He hoisted himself into the back and leaned over her recumbent form, stroking her dusty hair. She’d told him she loved him. Maybe that would give his words and his voice more weight. He cleared his throat before he spoke, but his voice still sounded choked to his own ears.

“Come on, Erin baby, wake up for me. You’re safe now. No one will hurt you, baby, not again, not ever again.”

He continued to talk to her, croon to her. They were nonsense words, but he just wanted her to hear his voice in the hope it would give her something to reach out and hold on to. He brushed his fingers along the edge of her hair, along her cheek, and down her neck. His hand trembled. Weakness or relief, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was being able to touch her again. She felt thinner, but then he knew she had eaten nothing at all for two days and wasn’t sure about the days preceding. For all he knew, her last meal might have been dinner the night before he was shot.

In the distance, he heard the wail of the ambulance. Thank God. “Help’s almost here, baby.”

Jake stuck his head in the window. “I’m going to walk out to the end of the farm road and flag them down to guide them in.”

Sam looked her over. “You have a blanket in here? She’s got to be suffering exposure at the very least.”

Jake reached behind the seat and handed him one. “Here, put this over her. I’ve jacked the heater up, but she probably needs even more warmth.”

Sam took the blanket and spread it over her before touching her hair. It ate at him. He curled himself around her as best he could. With his arm and his leg screaming in pain, Sam still needed to touch her and reassure himself she was there. She was breathing.

“Please wake up, Erin.” Sam’s voice broke. Jake was right. This sleep wasn’t natural. Delacroix had to have done something to her. Sam thought back over everything Erin had told him about the scumbag. If Delacroix and his family had been heavily into transporting drugs, there was no telling what type of concoction he might have forced on her.

Sam picked up the canteen, unscrewed the lid, and sniffed. There was no obvious smell that would indicate anything in the water. He tilted it to his lips and put a little of it on his tongue. Bitter but not metallic. Even the nastiest well water around here didn’t have an aftertaste like that. The most logical conclusion was that Delacroix had somehow spiked the water. God only knew for what reason. It seemed unlikely it would be enough to kill her, but maybe enough to keep her docile…or passed out. Sam screwed the lid back on, set the canteen within easy reach, and once again stroked her cheek.

“Erin, baby,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Come back to me. I swear to God I’ll do a better job of looking out for you this time. Just come back to me.”

She shifted her head slightly against his hand, her neck arching backward, but still seemed totally unaware. Behind her lids, her eyes shifted rapidly from side to side. Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, they opened, but the beautiful blue-gray depths seemed empty, as if he were looking into a void. It was Erin’s shell, but the girl, teenager, woman he had loved for so many years wasn’t there.

Fear gripped him. If she had gotten so thirsty she drank a large amount of the water at one time, it was possible she might have overdosed on whatever was in the water. Based on what they’d found in Delacroix’s car, he had to think it was ketamine, but it could be almost anything.

The distinctive rumble of a diesel engine grew louder. The ambulance. He heard it easing its way down the road. Flashes of red light bounced around the interior of the truck and off the dead, brown kudzu vines surrounding them.

“Help’s here, baby,” he crooned. “Hang on for me. I won’t let you go. I’ll stay right with you.”

Jake opened the door.

“They’ll be here with the stretcher in just a minute. I had the patrol cars and Jim’s SUV pull past the entrance so we could get her out of here first. Then they’ll come in to rope off the scene and do what evidence gathering they can right now. Any movement from her?”

Sam sighed. “Movement, no awareness. I tasted the water. It’s got a bitter flavor like it might be spiked with something.”

“Hmm. Take that with you so they can analyze it. And remind them about the vial of ketamine.” Jake looked over his shoulder. “Here they are.”

Sam looked into the eyes of Castle County’s senior EMT. Over the years, they had worked a lot of incidents together, but nothing as important as this. “Be careful with her, Tony. I’ll get out so you can move her.”

Tony grasped Sam’s hand for an instant longer than necessary. “Don’t worry, Sheriff. We’ll take care of her.”

Sam nodded.

“Can I ride with you?” He’d beg if he must, fight if he had to, but no way was he leaving her side.

Tony’s gaze filled with understanding. “Of course, sir.”

Sam climbed awkwardly from the truck, grabbed his cane and the canteen, and limped to the ambulance. If this was all the time Erin had left, then at least he could spend it at her side. Even thinking it made his throat close right up.

Tony and his crew wasted no time getting Erin onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. One of the younger guys helped Sam inside. Sam sat to one side near her feet, staying out of the way as they worked on her. An oxygen cannula was hooked onto her, and a saline drip started. The EMTs were careful of her left hand, using her right arm to hook up their drip before gently attaching a blood pressure and pulse monitor to her finger. Heated blankets were tucked around her, dirt and all. Sam had seen how filthy and scraped her feet were before they tucked the blankets around those too.

Erin would hate being helpless like this. He swallowed as he looked again at the tear tracks on her cheeks. He had made her shed a tear—once—but not weep as those stains indicated. What had happened to her?

They bounced along the farm road. The ride didn’t smooth out until they hit the black top. Sam’s eyes never left hers, so he was the first to notice that the rapid movements of her eyes beneath her lids had speeded up. Twitching began in her feet and hands.

“Tony,” Sam said sharply, fear bubbling up inside him. “What’s going on?”

The EMTs were strapping her down as quickly as possible.

“Seizure,” Tony grunted as he tightened a strap across her lower legs.

Sam’s heart pounded. He didn’t want to distract either man working on Erin, but he recalled seeing a drug overdose in which the victim had gone into seizures before dying. While Tony and Drew talked back and forth about blood pressure and pulse, the siren blared as the ambulance raced along the narrow highway.

Jesus, Sam prayed, don’t let her die. Please don’t let her die.

He started to breathe a sigh of relief as the seizures suddenly stopped just as they turned into the hospital parking lot, then everything crashed. Her breathing had nearly ceased, her blood pressure plummeted, and her pulse beat erratically. Tony and Drew worked silently now, something that petrified Sam more than their earlier staccato conversations.

Sam slammed himself as far into the corner as he could, his heart thudding heavily and his breathing rasping. His mind screamed no. They couldn’t get this far just to lose her when they’d finally found her and gotten her to safety.

As soon as the rear doors opened, Sam scrambled to get out of the way, half- running, half-hopping in pursuit as Erin was wheeled into the emergency room. The driver must have radioed ahead. Medical staff surged forward to take charge.

So did Stoner and Catherine, who’d obviously beaten them to the ER. Their shocked expressions were no doubt a mirror of what he was feeling.

“I thought Jake said she was okay?” Catherine cried in disbelief, as they watched everyone frantically working on Erin.

Sam paused in his hopping half-run after them. “This just happened as we turned in. I’m going with them.”

He made it as far as the treatment room before an apologetic nurse blocked his way. “Sorry, Sheriff.”

Sam peered over her shoulder. “Come on, Karen. I’ve known you since you started kindergarten.”

She shook her head. “I can’t give that okay. You get Doc to give you a nod and that’s a different matter.”

“Can I stand right here?”

Karen sighed. “Yes.”

Sam refused to leave. Thank God it was a small emergency department. From his vantage point, he could see everything they were doing. Other than the bruising that discolored her cheek, her skin was deathly pale. Erin had always had beautiful skin, but now she looked nearly waxen, and that made Sam fear once again that he would lose her after all.

“Her breathing is stabilizing,” the young man near her head said.

“Blood pressure’s coming back again and her pulse is nearly back to normal,” another nurse added.

Now he would be able to tell her family she was okay. At least he hoped so.

“Sam? What are you doing out here?” Jenny asked as she hurried toward the room. She was still clad in surgical scrubs. Her gaze found his before traveling to the young doctor bent over her sister-in-law.

“What’s up?” she asked from the doorway.

“Looks like a drug overdose. The sheriff brought in a canteen containing water laced with something. We’re testing it right now, but he and Chief Allred both suspect Ketamine based on other evidence they found. What we’re seeing is consistent with that, so we’re treating accordingly. Respiration, pulse, and blood pressure crashed as the paramedics brought her in, but we’ve stabilized her.”

Jenny glanced at the monitors hooked to Erin before taking a moment to study Sam and nod. “Come on in. I need to ask you some questions while we’re working on her.”

Sam limped in ahead of her and moved to a place along the wall where he would be out of the way but still able to see what was going on.

“You’re moving pretty well, Sheriff. Everything okay?”

“I thought you needed to ask me about Erin, not about me.” Sam scowled. He didn’t want to be in here chatting about himself, so he replied shortly, “I’m getting around fine, Doc. It’s Erin I’m worried about.” He glanced at her, lying so still, tubes coming from an IV and more tubes providing an oxygen feed. “Is… Is she going to be okay?”

“We should know soon. How long has it been since you found her?”

Sam glanced at his watch. “About an hour.”

Jenny nodded. “Well if it’s Ketamine she’s taken…”

“Ketamine she’s been
given
,” Sam corrected softly but distinctly. “Jenny, she was cuffed in the crawlspace of a trailer, probably for almost three days, with nothing but a canteen full of spiked water. There was no choice here. She didn’t
take
anything.” Sam’s jaw clenched. The distinction might be small but it mattered. Big time.