Page 29 of Colton in the Wild
It was a lesson they’d learned the hard way.
Chapter 15
As promised, staff at the trauma center was ready and waiting. There was no helipad per se, just a marked-off area in the parking lot. With his typical skill, Dad set the bird down so gently, Spence wasn’t even positive they were down until the crew with the gurney started heading toward them.
They handled her as gently as he ordered them to. He caught Hetty watching him as he gave that order. She had an odd look on her face, and somehow he knew she was thinking of those hours last night when feelings they’d kept buried for over a decade had broken free. Once she was up and around, they would have to go there again, but for once he didn’t dread what would surely be a talk with a capital T.
Hetty didn’t hate him.
The moment when they wheeled her past those swinging doors and they closed after her, shutting him off from what would happen next, put him in mind of a million movie and TV scenes. In reality, he felt more than a bit nauseous, his gut churning as she disappeared. One of the staff asked if the cut on his forehead needed attention, but he said no. Nothing mattered right now but Hetty.
He stood there staring at those closed doors for what seemed like a long time. Then he started pacing. Dad appeared with a cup of hot coffee. He drank it for the jolt, if nothing else.
It seemed like forever before someone came out to talk to them. A weary-looking woman with the hospital cap holding back graying dark hair. “It missed the artery and there doesn’t appear to be any damage to the femur. She got lucky there,” she said, “but she’s still lost a lot of blood. We’re transfusing now.”
“If you need more…” Spence began, but the doctor, whose name tag said “W. Masters” followed by some letters he had no idea the meaning of, shook her head.
“Not for her, but donations are always welcome at the blood center.” It sounded like something she was saying by rote, but he supposed that was a reflexive, and normal, request for an ER doctor. “We found no pieces of the bullet, and cleaned out all the other debris that we found, which should hopefully prevent infection. We’ve placed a drain for now. We’ll be moving her into the ICU. You won’t be able to see her for a while, so see to yourself for the moment, Mr. Colton.”
When she’d gone, his father put an arm around his shoulders.
“Come on, let’s go outside. I think you need a bit of non-hospital-smelling air.”
He couldn’t deny that, but couldn’t seem to remember how to move. Dad had to practically push him toward the doors. Once they were outside, he automatically sucked in a long, deep breath. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if that could make it all go away, but it only brought the image of Hetty, down and bleeding, vividly back into his mind.
“She’s a tough girl, Spence. She’ll be all right.” Spence looked at his dad in time to see him grimace. “And in the meantime, I’m sure there will be some folks with badges who will need to talk with you eventually.”
The rest of what had happened out there slammed back into him. “Dad… Hetty found a body out there.”
Ryan Colton went rigidly still. “This guy killed somebody else?”
“Not unless he’s been at it and gotten away with it for a while. That body was…not fresh.”
Spence could almost see his dad processing, and thought he should get it all out before he had to spend what would probably be a couple of hours with the state troopers. So he quickly poured out the whole story. He watched his father frown at the news of the plane’s engine losing power then smile briefly at Hetty, getting them down safely. Ryan frowned again hearing about the shots fired near the campsite, the plane’s radio being taken out, the shots fired there, their escape, and finally what Hetty had seen in the moments before she’d been shot.
“She saw the guy?”
“At a distance, but yeah.”
“Does he know she saw him?”
“I…don’t know. I was…”
“Preoccupied with keeping her alive overnight. I get it, son.” He looked past Spence suddenly, and when he turned to see what had caught his eye, Spence saw two men headed their way, one in uniform, one not.
Dad nodded slowly. “I see they’ve already notified the authorities.”
“Gunshot wound, I think they have to.”
“Probably,” his father agreed, watching the two men approach.
“I was half expecting Eli,” Spence said with a grimace.
“If they knew about the body, it probably would be him,” Dad said.
Spence guessed he was right. Crimes didn’t get much more major than murder, and as a lieutenant in the Major Crimes Unit of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, his cousin Eli Colton, a big believer in being involved, had a lot of say in when and where he got assigned to cases. In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Colton name was what had netted them a two-person response instead of just the local in uniform.
“So once they find out…” he began then stopped as the men got nearer.
