Chapter Twenty-Five
John
Henderson stood at the open door of one of the ambulances. He nodded at me but his face grimaced as it filled with pity. She couldn’t be dead!
I threw the goggles and the mask at Henderson’s feet. I refused to believe she was dead as I clambered into the back of the ambulance where she lay on a stretcher, two medics working on her.
“Anabelle!” I shouted.
One of the medics glanced up at me. I demanded to know how she was.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Her partner. Please, please tell me she’s alive. Tell me she’s going to live.”
My heart plummeted again and faltered. She looked bad. Her body seemed a bloody mess and I was sure she was dead.
“Anabelle,” I cried desperately, and weak with grief, I almost fell.
My Anabelle!
Suddenly, her eyes fluttered and she groaned as the medic nodded. I grabbed the side of the ambulance to stop myself from falling with relief.
“She’s alive. Has a broken nose, I think possibly brokenribs.She’s been savagely bashed and burned. There may be internal injuries. She’s not out of the woods and… I’m sorry, but I think she’s been raped.”
I screamed to the heavens.
“Fuck! No, Anabelle!”
I wanted to get to her, but the two men were in the way. Cooper had come out of the building at some point and now took my arm, pulling me from the ambulance. I kept shaking him off but finally allowed him drag me out.
“Let them work on her,Pommy.”
I didn’t know what to think, what to do. Shit, I was a man who was always in control and now I was a blubbering wreck. I stared blindly at Cooper.
“Give me your guns.”
I pulled off the Kevlar and handed it over, as well as the Glock in my waistband. After pulling off the mic, I handed them over, never taking my eyes of Anabelle. Cooper spoke quietly.
“She going to be okay?”
“I don’t know.”
He tapped my arm a few times until I faced him.
“They’re the best. They’ll get her to hospital, and she’ll be fine.”
I just hoped he was right. He held out his hand and we shook.
“Thanks.”
I nodded my appreciation and went back to staring at Anabelle’s feet, the only part of her I could see. They were filthy and bloody. At least another long ten excruciating minutes passed until finally one paramedic climbed out and went to the driver’s door. The other looked at me and nodded. “We’ve got her stabilized and are taking her to Gosford Hospital.”
“I’m coming.”
“You can sit in the front.”
As I went to move to the passenger door, Inspector Clemson stopped me. “We’ll need a full statement from you, John. Cooper has told me what went down, but I’ll still need your report. Understand?”