Page 3 of No Safe Place
‘I need everyone to get back inside,’ Field shouted. ‘We don’t know it’s safe out here.’
No one moved.
‘I’ve got a major internal bleed here, Lea,’ the male paramedic said. ‘Coag bandage.’
People were craning round her, trying to see, and Field snapped. ‘Get back in your houses,now.’
They jumped – scurried away.
‘You—’ Field pointed at two men with bloodstained arms and T-shirts, who must have tried to help before the paramedics arrived. ‘Go inside, but don’t touch anything. Don’t take those T-shirts off.’
She scanned the street again, gripping the baton tighter.The front gardens were small, tiny patches of grass and some window boxes – not big enough for someone to hide.
She hoped.
More front doors were opening.
Field turned the volume up on the radio and spoke into it, eyes still ahead. ‘Control, I need that backup,now.’
She didn’t hear the response.
‘Detective, I’m going to need you to give us a hand here,’ the male paramedic said. He kicked a box of gloves towards her.
Field gritted her teeth, passed the radio to Riley.
As she kneeled, Riley moved closer to them, baton up.
She looked at the victim properly, for the first time, as she pulled the gloves on. His skin was grey, and his breathing was erratic, rattling. He was hooked up to a portable monitor and his BP was low – the red numbers glowing.
The fingers of his left hand were twitching. He was wearing a wedding ring.
He had collapsed below a silver birch tree, bark glowing in the gloom. Its leaves were casting dappled shadows across his bare chest.
The paramedic snapped her back to the present. ‘Right, I need to deal with the neck wound while Lea intubates, so I need you—’ he handed Field a thick wad of gauze ‘—to apply pressure here.’
The top of the man’s jeans had been cut away too, and Field saw a deep gash in his thigh, blood oozing down into the space between his legs.
How many times had this guy been stabbed?
She pushed down firmly on the wound and watched the man’s face, hoping to see him flinch or groan.
No response.
‘I’m Lea,’ the female paramedic at the man’s head said. ‘This is Mike.’
‘Field,’ she said with a nod, glad to have names for them. ‘That’s Riley.’
The exposed skin of the victim’s chest was patchy with bright blood, smeared by the medics. It was hard to see the wounds, but Field could count at least five.
The blood on the pavement looked darker, congealed. Field’s knee was an inch from the slowly growing pool.
‘Right—’ Lea spoke loudly but with a soothing tone. ‘This is going to hurt but we need to get this needle in, okay? It’s going to help with your breathing.’
She might as well have been talking to the tree.
Field focused her gaze on her own hands as the needle pierced the man’s chest plate.
‘Cars are arriving, boss,’ Riley said, somewhere above her. ‘At least one ambulance too.’
