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“It’s search-and-rescue.” He almost yelled it for her to hear. “Yell!”
They kept yelling.
Then they saw it.
A beam of light. Coming right at them.
It was a woman. Young. No older than Autumn Jane, but Sean didn’t recognize her. She’d pointed the small penlight at herself just briefly. Enough for him to get the impression of a surprisingly beautiful face and light eyes. “I’m going to lead you out. There’s a path, but it can be a bit n-narrow in a few places. Detective?—”
“Callum. But I think under the circumstances, you can call me Sean.”
“Oh.” She said it quietly. “I believe we’ve met before.”
He got the impression it hadn’t been a pleasant meeting. He wracked his brain, trying to recall. Nothing.
He didn’t remember her.
“Detective Callum, you’ll probably have to shift to your side about thirty feet from here. I think Dr. Evers is going to have to be first.”
The table shifted above them again. “Let’s go.”
The hardest thing he ever had to do was stay behind while Autumn Jane crawled through the rubble.
12
She hadn’t recognizedthe woman who’d rescued her until they were at the end of the tunnel and were surrounded by light. Daryn, one of the ME’s assistants, was there waiting for her. A. J. stumbled to her feet. Daryn wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and hugged A. J. quickly.
Her brother Mike was there. He was bruised and limped and looked beautiful.
Everything around them was destroyed. Flattened. The rear annex of the TSP was nearly completely flattened, only a thirty by twenty section remained, with rubble all around it. The front part of the building had fared a bit better—only about half of it was destroyed.
Not the central area, thank God.
They’d been in that section. Just how lucky they’d been wasn’t lost on her. Mike scooped her up. “You ok?”
“Sean! Sean’s still in there.”
“She’s going back in after him.”
A. J. looked back. She recognized the woman now. They’d had a few introductory classes in psychology together eight or nine years ago.
A. J. couldn’t remember the woman’s name.
It didn’t matter. The woman was going right back in now.
“Come on. Let’s get you to an ambulance,” her brother said.
“No. I’m not leaving here without Sean.”
“Callum’s tough as leather, A. J. Let’s get you taken care of and to Mom and Dad’s.”
“Everyone else ok?”
“Mom and Dad are still at the hospital. Houston’s at the radio station. He’ll be there for a long while. Everyone else is accounted for. Except for you.” He hugged her again. Tried to lead her to the nearby ambulance.
A. J. shook him off. “He’s your best friend. Don’t you care he’s in there?”
“Of course, I care, but Sean isn’t my baby sister.”
