I
F KARMA IS REAL, I must have done something unspeakable in a previous life.
“This has to be some kind of mistake,” I say to my mother. I may have actually been pleading a little. “He doesn’t look anything like you.”
“He looks like his father.”
Harry makes puppy dog eyes and says, “Mom? Tell me about Dad.”
I don’t have time for this. Latham is bleeding and we’re surrounded by snipers. I need to kill the lights and grab the gun.
I poke my head into the hallway, on the opposite side of the fridge. While FMJs can shoot through it, the snipers can’t
see
through it. That means I can run to the laundry room and hit the circuit breaker without being spotted.
“He was a sailor,” Mom says. “I never knew his last name.”
“I’m going for the fuse box,” I say.
“What was his first name, Mom?”
Mom pats Harry on the head. “His name was Ralph.” She used the same soothing voice on me when I was younger and sick with the flu. “You have his eyes.”
“I’m going now,” I announce. “I hope I make it.”
“Did you love him?” Harry ask.
Mom says, “For about three hours.”
“Wow,” Harry says. “Three hours.”
“Latham!” I call out to my fiancé. “I’m going for the circuit breaker!”
I hoped for a
be careful
. Instead I got: “Is that creepy private eye really your brother?”
I rub my eyes.
“Ralph had a lot of body hair too,” Mom says. “All over.”
That’s my cue. I duck low, suck in a breath, then hustle out the door and down the rest of the hallway, skidding into the laundry room. No one shoots me. The circuit breaker is on the wall, next to the dryer. I hook a finger through the metal ring on the door and tug. It’s stubborn, and doesn’t want to open. The panel isn’t broken, it has a strong spring inside that makes sure it’s always closed. I pull really hard, my finger aching, and then it finally gives. I squint at the rows of breakers, and press the large black button that reads
MAIN
.
The house goes dark, and the panel door slams back into place. I don’t hesitate, scrambling back into the hall, using memory and feel to find my bedroom. I take four steps inside before bumping into the bed. Then I spread my hands out over the top, seeking the ammo bag. My fingers brush the carrying strap, and I jerk the bag to me. I work the zipper, stick my hand inside, and yank out my competition pistol, a Kimber Eclipse II.45 ACP. I flip the safety and jack a round into the chamber. I feel around for extra clips, find three. They’re all empty. Bullets have been on my shopping list for a while.
There’s also a nylon holster in the bag. I shrug that onto my shoulder, the straps getting twisted in the dark but still doing the job.
Then I head for the window to sneak outside and round up the bad guys.
W
HEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT in the house, Pessolano takes the Leupold optics off the quick-release mount, puts it back into his bag, and attaches a Gen 3 starlight scope to the rifle.
Night vision works by using an image intensifier with a photoelectric effect to amplify ambient light. At least, that’s what the instruction manual says. Pessolano doesn’t understand it, but he knows that it turns images from pitch-black into a phosphorescent green.
He peers through the scope, and there, silhouetted at the bedroom window, is the female cop. He has one remaining Lapua FMJ round left, so he aims carefully, trying to adjust for the wind that has picked up.
He sees the bullet strike the cop in the head, sees her jerk back, and smiles as she collapses.
“Bull’s-eye,” Pessolano says to himself.
This is so much more rewarding than working at a video store.
M
ARY STRENG IS STILL TRYING to wrap her mind around the possibility that this strange man in her bathroom might actually be her son.
Almost fifty years have passed since she gave up her infant boy. She doesn’t remember his exact birthday, only that it was before Easter, and bitterly cold. Labor had been lonely, frightening, miserable, the pain of childbirth exacerbated by the knowledge that she wasn’t going to keep her baby. She’d gotten pregnant at eighteen years old, still in high school. Dropped out when she began to show. Left home soon after that, never telling her parents the reason why, preferring their protestations to their judgments. Got a job at a deli in another part of town. Lived in a fugue for a few months, then moved back home and finished school when it was all over.
She used to fantasize that someone adopted her son. Someone rich and caring, who spoiled him with extravagant gifts. A year later she met her future husband and got on with her life. Mary still thought of her son sometimes, on cold days in March, but she managed to forgive herself.
Hearing that Harry had been raised by the state, and not by Mary’s imaginary perfect family, reopened a long-sealed box of regret. She wants to ask him about his life. If he’s happy. If his childhood was okay. If he hates her.
Then she hears the shot, hears the
thump
of her daughter hitting the floor, and all thoughts of her past flit away.
“Jacqueline!”
No answer.
A feeling of dread unlike any she’s ever experienced drops over her like a shroud. Without giving it a second thought she grabs a flashlight from the bathroom closet and rushes into the hallway.
“Be careful,” Harry says after her. “Keep low.”
Mary doesn’t bother doing either. She moves as fast as she can, hurrying into the bedroom. Jacqueline is on floor, beside the bed. Her eyes are closed. Her hair is soaked with blood.
Oh no. Oh no no no no.
Mary kneels next to her daughter and directs the light onto the wound, her hands trembling. She can’t see the injury – there’s too much blood. Mary grabs a pillow, pulls off the case, uses that to mop at the spot that’s bleeding.
It’s a deep gash, three inches long, an inch wide. Mary presses the fabric to Jacqueline’s scalp, pulls it away, and can see her daughter’s skull bone, a startling white, before the blood begins to flow again. The bullet must have grazed her head, digging a trench in her skin. Thank God the bullet didn’t strike an inch lower.
Mary’s relief is short-lived, because the blood keeps coming. She estimates Jacqueline has already lost close to a pint, and she’s still pumping it out. Mary wraps the already-soaked pillowcase around her daughter’s head, tying it under her chin like a babushka. In the bathroom, there’s a first-aid kit. She could go and get it, then come back, but she’s unsure if the kit will be enough to stop the bleeding. Better to bring Jacqueline into the bathroom. Then Harry could help.
Keeping low, Mary pulls the comforter off the bed, and then the sheet beneath it. She lays the sheet on the floor, and with a deep grunt she rolls Jacqueline on top of it, placing the flashlight on her daughter’s chest. The effort leaves Mary gasping for air, but she doesn’t pause, instead crawling to the foot of the sheet and grasping it as hard as she can in her arthritic hands. Then she scoots back on her butt and pulls.
Pain, like sparks, shoots from Mary’s knuckles, up her arms, where it meets with other pain from her shoulders and back. Mary grits her teeth, squeezes her eyes shut, and fights against the pain. Arthritis produces a deep ache, like a migraine in the bones. Mary takes drugs to control the worst of it, even though they make her dizzy. She’s missed her last pill. The agony is worse than childbirth. Worse than a toothache.
Jacqueline slides across the carpeting, about a foot.
Mary doesn’t rest. She scoots back again, takes a deep breath, and pulls.
Another foot.
And another.
And another.
She reaches the bedroom doorway, her whole body shaking. The pain in her knuckles has become so bad that she’s moaning. She can’t make a fist anymore, so she wraps the sheet around her hands, around her wrists, which presses her inflamed knuckles together.
Pull.
Pull.
Pull.
“You’re almost there, Mom!” Harry shouts. “Just a little more!”
To take her mind off the agony, Mary thinks about Jacqueline’s birth, of holding her for the first time and saying, “Hello, my angel. I’m your mother. I’m going to be taking care of you, for the rest of my life.”
How those words meant so much to Mary, because she’d given up her previous child. How she swore to keep that promise, even if she lived to a hundred.
Pull.
Hurry.
Pull.
Save your daughter.
Pull.
The most important job anyone can ever have is being a mother. Remember your promise. Now dig deep and move it, old lady!
“Gotcha!”
Harry stretches out, touches Mary’s shoulder, then grabs a fistful of sheets. He tugs Jacqueline up to the bathroom, and they both muscle her through the door.
Mary tries to stand but she’s too weak. Her hands are screaming. She shoves the flashlight into her armpit, crawls to the closet, finds the first-aid kit, fights with the damnable zipper on the nylon case, and opens it up.
Inside are Band-Aids, antibacterial ointment, smelling salts, packets of Tylenol, gauze pads, cotton balls, an Ace bandage, and various other items. Mary selects a roll of white medical tape.
“Harry, get this roll started.”
Harry picks at the end, trying to get his fingernails under it. He manages, and Mary tears off a strip with her teeth, the only part of her body that still works. She crawls back to her daughter.
Jacqueline is still unconscious, but she’s panting. Mary feels her heart, and it’s like she has a hummingbird trapped in her rib cage.
“She’s hyperventilating.”
“Tachycardia,” Harry says. “She’s going into hypovolemic shock.”
Mary stares at him. “What does that mean?”
“She’s lost so much blood that her body isn’t getting oxygen, so her heart is pumping faster to compensate for it.”
“What do we do?”
“Stop the bleeding, and get her a transfusion. Then feed her some liquids.”
Mary stares at him, impressed.
Harry shrugs, says, “I’ve got the first three seasons of
ER
on DVD. Great show.”
Mary hands Harry the flashlight, then turns her attention back to her daughter. She soaks up some blood with a hand towel and then pinches the wound closed and tries to use the tape to keep the edges together. It doesn’t work; the blood comes too fast, getting on the adhesive so it won’t stick.
“I need another piece,” she says.
Harry follows her example and rips off a strip of tape with his teeth. Mary tangles the tape in Jacqueline’s hair, unable to stop the bleeding.
“Do you have a sewing kit?” Harry asks.
Mary holds up her gnarled hands. “I haven’t sewn in twenty years.”
“How about safety pins?”
Mary checks the first-aid kit, doesn’t find any safety pins. She has to go into her bedroom.
“Hold the towel,” she tells Harry. “Keep the pressure on. I’ll be right back.”
Mary takes the flashlight and hurries into the hallway, heading for her room. She finds the box of safety pins in her desk drawer. She also sees an inkjet refill kit for her computer printer and takes that as well.
When she gets back into the hallway, the shooting resumes.
Mary drops down to all fours, her old bones creaking with pain. Round after round hit the refrigerator, but none penetrate it. Mary guesses they’re using hollow points, or something similar. They must have night-vision scopes as well. And suppressors; the gunshots aren’t nearly as loud as they should be. Mary wishes she still had her father’s Winchester rifle – she’d be happy to show these men how to shoot.
The onslaught ends. Mary hopes that one of their neighbors heard the shots, called 911, but quickly dismisses the notion. Their neighbors all know that Jacqueline is a police officer. They won’t call the cops on a cop making too much noise.
Mary crawls back to the bathroom.
“Help me open these safety pins.”
Harry is almost as useless with his left hand as Mary is with both of her hands combined, and they drop pin after pin without getting one open. It’s an exercise in frustration, made unbearable because neither one of them is keeping pressure on Jacqueline’s wound, and the blood is just pouring out of her.
“Got one,” Harry says.
Mary grasps the open safety pin, holding it up like a rare jewel.
“Hold the light.”
Harry aims the beam while Mary goes to work on Jacqueline’s head. It’s slippery, hard to see, and neither the pin nor her hands want to cooperate. But Mary stays focused, fights the pain, and she gets the pin through both sides of her daughter’s gash.
Closing the safety pin is even harder than opening it. She pinches it, again and again, but it resists her every effort.
Jacqueline’s breath becomes shallow, weak. Mary wants to cry.
“Staples,” Harry says. “TV doctors use those all the time.”
That might work. Mary tries to stand, but she’s too weak. Harry helps her up.
“You can do it, Mom,” he says.
Mary nods, takes the flashlight, and heads into the hallway again, back to her bedroom. She has a senior moment, unable to remember where her stapler is, but sees it on the desk. She opens the top, checking to make sure it’s loaded.
A shot comes through the window, knocking the computer monitor off the desk. Mary considers dropping down to the floor, worries that she might not be able to get back up, and hurries for the door instead.
In the hallway, the fridge is once again being used for target practice, round after round dinging into it. Mary stays low, makes it back to the bathroom, and sits next to Jacqueline. The safety pin is still in her daughter’s head, pinching the ends of the wound together even though it isn’t closed.
Mary swings out the stapler base, presses the magazine to Jacqueline’s head, and pushes down.
It works. The staple holds.
She repeats the process eight more times, the bleeding slowing to a trickle.
“There’s witch hazel in the vanity,” she says to Harry.
“Witch hazel. Stat.”
He hands it down, and she pours it on Jacqueline’s head, hoping that’s enough to sterilize it. Then she towels off the excess and uses the medical tape to seal the wound completely.
“Once again, the day is saved by television,” Harry says. “Eat your heart out, George Clooney. I kind of look like him, don’t I?”
Mary lets out a long breath. “You’re practically twins.”
Now for the transfusion Harry mentioned.
“I don’t have any IV needles,” Mary says. “But this came with my ink refill kit.”
She reaches into the box and takes out a twenty-cc syringe, still in its package.
“Is that even sharp enough?” Harry asks.
“I’m going to find out.”
Mary bites the wrapper off. The needle is long, pointy. She stares down at her own arm, looking for a vein.
“What blood type are you?”
“Does it matter? I’m her mother. I should be compatible.”
Harry shakes his head. “That’s not how it works. What are you?”
“Type A.”
“What’s Jack?”
“Type O.”
“Type O is the universal donor. Jack could give you blood. But if you give her blood, you’ll kill her.”
Mary stares down at Jacqueline, watching her gasp for oxygen that her body isn’t absorbing. Mary almost starts crying again. Seeing her daughter suffer, and not being able to help, is the worst torture a parent can endure.
“I’m Type O,” Harry says. “She can have some of my blood.”
Mary touches his face and says, “Thank you, son.”
Harry smiles. The smile quickly falls away when she jabs him in the arm with the needle.
“Jesus!” He shirks away. “I think you hit bone!”
Mary pulls the plunger, filling the syringe with blood.
“You don’t have any diseases, do you?” Mary asks.
“Nothing that can’t be cured with antibiotics,” Harry says through his teeth.
Jacqueline has thin wrists, and her veins are easy to find. Mary’s hands are curled into painful claws, and the syringe is hard to hold, but she manages to give Jack twenty ccs of Harry’s blood.
“How many pints do you think Jacqueline has lost?” she asks Harry.
“Two, maybe more.”
“How many syringes is that?”
Harry turns very white.
“How many, Dr. Clooney?” Mary asks again.
Harry mumbles a number.
“Pardon me?”
“Forty or fifty,” Harry says, rubbing his eyes.
Mary takes his hand. “Jack and I won’t forget this.”
Harry yelps when she sticks him again.