Frantically, a woman jerked at the back door of the SUV without success.
As soon as Allan saw who it was, his heart took a dive. It was Franny White, wife of the new chef at their wolf-run Italian restaurant, Fame del Lupo. She didn’t go anywhere without her daughter. But the baby wasn’t in her arms and Franny was trying so hard to get into the backseat, he knew little Stacy had to be buckled into her car seat and submerged underwater.
“Cancel the call for the ambulance!” he said to Debbie, knowing that this was a risk he had to take. “Call this number!” He gave her the number for the medical clinic that catered to his kind, though Debbie would be clueless. “I know the woman—her baby is in the car. Just…call it.” He didn’t have time to make up a cover story.
Debbie hesitated, and he knew she had to be thinking his request was a dangerous mistake. That precious time could be wasted. But lots more was at stake if the human-run hospital’s ambulance picked up Franny and Stacy and they shifted. Debbie quickly called for the other ambulance and canceled the one for the main hospital in Bigfork.
As soon as he could safely brake the car and stop, Allan and Debbie were out of the vehicle, dashing down the steep incline on the crunchy snow and ice. Debbie had grabbed the emergency medical kit on the way out.
Seeing Allan and Debbie, Franny screamed, “My baby’s in there! She’s in a car seat in back.” She was soaking wet, her tearful words were slurred, and she was stumbling around as if she were drunk. She was wearing just a sweater and jeans as she stood in the nearly waist-deep water. Allan was certain she was hypothermic. Confusion and the natural instinct to warm herself could cause her to shift. Between that and needing to rescue the baby, they were in a hell of a fix.
“She’s only three months old!” Franny added, as if she didn’t recognize Allan—another sign she had hypothermia.
“Get the mom out of the water,” he said to Debbie as her boots crunched in the snow and ice behind him.
She slipped, her boot kicking the back of his. He swung around and grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.
“Thanks,” she said, looking a little embarrassed.
“It’s slippery.” He was having a difficult time staying on his own two feet, but with bigger boots and more weight than Debbie had, he was managing better.
When he reached the moving water, he waded right in. The icy cold sent a jolt of adrenaline straight through him, and he wished he were wearing a wet suit.
The driver’s-side door was open where Franny had managed to get out. Allan pushed through the strong currents to the SUV, while Debbie went after Franny. When he reached the car, he tried to get the back door open but couldn’t. He scrambled into the driver’s seat and squeezed through the front seats to access the baby’s carrier. Upside down and buckled firmly into her carrier, the baby was unconscious. The cold water covered her, and Allan feared the worst.
He shined his light inside the vehicle to give more illumination in the dark, though he could see well enough with his wolf night vision in most conditions. But this was so precarious, and with a life hanging in the balance, he didn’t want to make any mistakes.
Praying he could revive the unconscious baby in time, he yanked out his knife. The icy water made his hands so stiff and numb, he feared he would drop it as he cut the straps to the car seat, careful not to injure Stacy. He yanked at the straps until they gave way. Pulling the baby free, he cradled her against his chest and backed out of the vehicle. He held the lifeless infant close as he waded through the icy water toward the snow-covered shore.
Debbie was still struggling to guide the mom out of the water. Franny was stumbling, shivering—though they all were—and instead of moving briskly out of the water like Debbie and he were doing, Franny kept stopping and turning. Debbie kept reassuring her that she was taking her to her baby, holding the woman close to share body heat and trying to rush her out of the water as fast as she could.
If he could have, Allan would have given Debbie the unresponsive baby and carried Franny from the water. But he had to resuscitate the baby pronto. Every second counted.
“I’ll get the blankets,” Debbie said as she left Franny on the shore and ran up the incline to the vehicle while Allan administered CPR on baby Stacy.
The infant suddenly coughed up water and let out a weak cry. Allan swore his stopped heart came back to life. She wasn’t out of danger yet. She was lethargic, and her skin was bright red and cold.