Page 84 of The Getaway

“Right here, Marls!” Marshall shouted through labored breaths. “Still bleeding out on the floor. You good?”

“I think so.” Marley looked at Suzy quizzically, as if she could answer that question.

“You’re not bleeding out.” Hazel rolled her eyes at Marshall good-naturedly and got up. Somehow having a trauma ward to oversee had improved her mood. “I’m gonna check on Marley. Don’t move.”

“Not going anywhere any time soon,” Marshall said, his nostrils flaring as he fought against the pain.

Hazel checked Marley’s eyes with the flashlight, then fired off questions like How many fingers am I holding up? What’s your maiden name? And What’s seven plus seven? She answered everything correctly, and Suzy’s heart started to descend back into its proper place. Then the door slid open, and Sean and Lily walked in, trailed by two cops and a bunch of EMTs, walkie-talkies crackling. Wintour was tucked against Sean’s chest.

“Sean!” Suzy cried, throwing her arms around his neck. She was so relieved at the sight of him, she started to cry. “You’re okay!”

“Hey, yeah, sorry. That was intense,” he said, pulling back. He handed her Wintour and smiled. “Apparently this little girl is a hero.”

“What? How?” Suzy asked before showering Wintour’s head with kisses.

“It’s a very long story,” Lily replied, reaching over to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

Sean raised his eyebrows hopefully. “Is Marley okay?”

“Present!” Marley said from the couch. “Please tell me you caught that asshole.”

“We did, but he took your ambulance,” Lily said, walking over to the couch. She sat, pulled Marley’s feet onto her lap, and immediately started to massage them. Hazel, meanwhile, explained the status of her two patients to the EMTs. One of them had already strapped a blood-pressure cuff to Marshall’s arm.

“Great,” Marshall said. “More time on the floor for me.” He paused as two of the medical workers knelt next to him, flanking him. “So did he kill my brother? Was it him?”

“It was him,” Lily said grimly. “I mean . . . according to Gemma, he didn’t outright confess, but from everything he said . . . it was him.”

“Why? I don’t understand. He seemed so sweet,” Marley said, wincing again as a young woman inspected her wounds. “And I thought you all were all friends.”

“I don’t know,” Lily said. “We may never know. Let’s just hope he goes to jail.”

“We need to get you to the hospital,” one of the EMTs told Marshall. “Unfortunately it’s going to have to be in the back of a police vehicle.”

“I’ll take whatever I can get,” Marshall said.

The EMT got up to talk to the cops, who were sort of hovering near the doors, watching the proceedings. One of them nodded and then went out the back. The person working on Marley produced an ice pack and had her sit up slowly, holding it to the back of her head.

“What’s the prognosis?” Marley asked.

“You don’t need stitches,” the woman told her. “I’m just going to clean it up, and then you’re going to have a headache for a day or two. Ibuprofen should help.”

“I’m gonna go check on the kids and Tini,” Hazel announced. The moment she was gone, Suzy heard someone coming down the stairs. She looked at Sean. Until that second, she’d forgotten that Josh was even here. He strode into the room, fully dressed and showered, and took a look around at the triage scene before him. His gaze finally came to rest on the lake of blood around Marshall.

“Holy shit. What happened here?”

46

Marley

The sun was truly shining by the time the police SUV had pulled around to the front of the house for Marshall. Marley stood outside with the ice pack on her head as the two burliest of the EMTs toted her husband out the door on a flat orange board. They had attached an IV bag to his wrist, and one of the police officers held it up as they passed by.

“I’m gonna follow them out,” Josh said, lifting his overnight bag onto his shoulder as he stepped up next to Marley from behind. Tini was behind him, carrying Beckham, but she looked as shocked by his statement as Marley was. She also looked like she hadn’t slept in three days, which she probably hadn’t.

“Should I get Beckham’s things together?” she asked wearily.

Josh turned and looked at Tini with an irritated expression. “I can’t deal with him right now. You take him.”

Tini’s mouth dropped open. “I’m sorry, what?”