Damn it, I needed to get up and find out what had happened here. I tried to roll onto my side, but I was restrained by the straps. Frustrated, I yelled out, but even that small effort made my head pound and the noise sounded more like a low moan.
I raised my head and tried yelling again. Strobe lights flashed in my eyes, and now my head felt like it might explode. So maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. My head fell back against the gurney, and I was happy to keep it there for as long as it continued to spin.
At one point I thought I saw Detective Parrish from the sheriff’s department staring down at me, but I might’ve been hallucinating. Was she saying something? Her lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
“Brooklyn, darling,” Derek crooned a few seconds later—or it could’ve been an hour—and he leaned over to kiss my cheek.
“Home,” I whispered.
“Soon.”
Instead, two paramedics wheeled the gurney—with me on it—out to a waiting ambulance. Derek walked along beside me, holding my hand.
“Is this necessary?” I mumbled, and heard Derek chuckle. The sound soothed me as the tech pricked my skin with a needle and I floated into unconsciousness.
*
I gradually woke up out of a drug-induced sleep and found myself alone in a white room.
It took a little while to figure out that it was only a white curtain and that I was obviously somewhere inside the local urgent care center. I could hear activity on the other side of the curtain, and I desperately wanted to be a part of it. The fog was lifting from my brain. I needed to know exactly what had happened to Trudy and Amelia. Were they all right? And was the person who hurt them—and me—already in custody? Who was it?
Elizabeth!
I’d forgotten all about her. Where was she? Was she the one who got shot?
I took a few deep breaths and tried to do a little mental triage. My head still ached, but it was a vague pain, thanks to whatever medication the techs had given me. It no longer felt as if my brain were going to spin off its axis, so that was reassuring. I checked my legs and arms, moving them slightly to make sure they were operational. Yes, they were fine. My stomach was good, too, as long as I didn’t think too much about all that blood pooling under Trudy’s head—and probably mine.
Nothing else hurt, so I figured I was okay to leave the room. I wanted to find Derek and get to the bottom of what had happened at Trudy’s. I hated being left out of the loop.
I pushed myself up to a sitting position, and the world began to swerve. “Whoa,” I whispered, clutching both edges of the narrow gurney. Maybe I would take things a little slower for the next few minutes.
“Isn’t this perfect timing?” Derek said as he slipped through the curtain and into my space. “I thought you might try to make a move when I wasn’t watching.”
“Can we go? I’m fine, really.”
“I saw your head wobbling just now,” he countered.
“That’ll pass.” I hoped.
“Of course it will.” He smiled grimly. “If you’re sure you’re ready, then let’s go home. The doctor prescribed some pain medication to get you through the next few hours.”
“I probably won’t need it, but thanks.” I started to slide off the table, and Derek grabbed me before my feet hit the floor. A good thing since I was pretty sure I would’ve kept going until my face was planted against the linoleum.
“Thanks again,” I said, grateful to have him holding me up. “I’m going to be perfect any minute now.”
“You’re already perfect, love, just a tad unsteady.” He had his arm securely fastened around my waist. “I’m not letting go of you, so as soon as you’re fit to try walking, just say the word.”
With the help of a wheelchair, we finally made it to Derek’s car. It wasn’t until I was buckled up safely inside the Bentley and we were driving home that I found out that Amelia was dead.
*
Derek carried me into the house and set me down on the couch with some extra pillows. I heard Maggie whine a little as she moved close and nosed my hand, then planted herself along the edge of the couch to guard me. Charlie jumped up onto the couch and curled up on my stomach. I wasn’t sure I deserved so much wonderful treatment after the way I’d giggled and gossiped behind poor Amelia’s back. And what must Trudy be going through, knowing that her companion had been killed inside her own home?
And where was Elizabeth?
After handing me a glass of water and one of the pills the doctors had sent home with me, Derek sat down at the foot of the couch and we talked about what had happened. I told him everything I could remember from the time I got out of my car in front of Trudy’s until the moment when I lost consciousness.