Come on, come on, come on. You’re running out of time.
There. The plants on the windowsill had decorative glass watering bulbs inserted into their soil. She snatched one, cleanly cracked it against the edge of the stainless-steel sink. The head broke off with a clatter. She turned on the hot water and allowed it run through the tube. Thoughts of infection raced through her mind, but there was no time to properly sterilize the glass. She took off back for the living room, skidded to a stop by the butler’s pantry and its crystal decanters. She pulled the stopper out of the closest and doused the glass rod in spirits. It smelled like a very good single malt, which was heartening: it was pure alcohol. She brought the decanter with her.
The preparations hadn’t taken more than a minute. Back on her knees next to Ellie Scarron, she noted the woman’s skin beginning to blue. Hurry, Sam, hurry. She would save her, damn it. The woman had been lying on the floor bleeding out while Davidson screwed around outside.
She had one brief dark thought. At least June Davidson hadn’t tried to kill Scarron himself, but he’d had plenty of time to call someone to get out here and take care of things.
She splashed the Scotch on the woman’s exposed throat, then expertly pushed the knife through the skin at the base of her very small laryngeal prominence, going hard through the surprisingly tough cricothyroid membrane and into the trachea. The woman didn’t move, didn’t wince.
“Come on, Ellie. Stay with me. I’ve got you. You can’t die on me. I won’t let you.” As she talked, Sam used her finger to hold the opening apart, then gingerly placed the tube in the trachea. She pulled the skin together tight against the base of the tube, blew into it a few times, used the other to feel for a pulse and waited for the air to begin moving into Ellie Scarron’s lungs.
Sam heard a slight whistle, realized her own eyes were closed. She opened them in time to see Ellie close hers, not in death, but in a deep unconsciousness.
Xander whispered, “You did it.”
Sam blew out a breath of relief. “She’s alive for now. Davidson, we need to get her transferred to the hospital quickly. They’ll need to do a proper tracheostomy and get this wire out of her neck.”
Davidson said, “They’re two minutes out. Damn, woman, that was impressive. You brought her back from the grave.”
She had. Ellie’s pulse was bumping along merrily now that she wasn’t hypoxic anymore, and the color was coming back to her face.
Davidson squatted down next to them. “When will she be able to talk, to tell us what happened?”
Sam shook her head. “It’s too early to tell. She may never regain consciousness. There may be permanent damage to her vocal box. The wire is cutting through the skin there. I was careful as I could be, but I wasn’t gentle. It could have made things worse.”
“You were amazing. She’s lucky you were here. Whoever tried to kill her couldn’t have been more than five minutes ahead of us. Thank God we decided to head up here.” He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder, then went up the stairs to the foyer.
Sam met Xander’s eyes. He was still holding Ellie’s head straight so the field tracheostomy wouldn’t dislodge. She spoke quietly so Davidson wouldn’t hear.
“Whoever tried to kill her used the same M.O. as Benedict’s killer.”
He nodded. “Clearly someone is trying to make sure we don’t find out about Savage’s world. They’re killing off everyone who’s had anything to do with him.”
“Worse than that. You see what’s happening, right? They’re killing off people connected to the will. Keep your hands on her. I’ll be right back.” Sam stood and went to Davidson, who was waiting by the front door for the ambulance. She could hear the thin wail of the siren coming from the base of the mountain.
She looked at her hands and realized she was covered in blood. Davidson looked down at her, and silently handed her his handkerchief.
She wiped her hands on it, watching the white stain red.
His voice was shaky and she realized he was fighting back tears. Her estimation of him went up a few notches. He swiped at his eyes.
“I’m getting pissed off now. Ellie is a good friend of mine. What the hell is going on around here?”