Body Parts (Rye & Claire 1) (12 page)

“This should just take a minute, I’ll be right in.”

He popped the hood on the
ambulance and began checking fluids. As he stepped onto the front bumper
and reached down into the engine compartment for the power brake fluid
dipstick, he was reminded how he and Claire had selected their ambulance
model with a test drive and that it was Claire who dubbed it the
“Beast.” He couldn’t believe it was still in the shop and that they had
to drive this back-up.

Checking the belts was the
last step in the twelve-point engine check he did after each run.
Closing the hood, he walked around to the left side, picked up the
heavy-duty 220-volt cord and plugged it in. This would keep all the
fluids warm for quick starts without a warm-up period.

The next step was inventory
and restocking. Although a mundane task, by nature Rye enjoyed this part
of what was referred to as the “after run.” Often he would find notes
from Claire; most were reminders to place an order, some were sexy, or
suggestions for movies. He wouldn’t find any notes today.

Walking from the attached
garage into the kitchen, still drying his hands, he was surprised to see
Claire on the phone. He stepped into the bathroom and tossed the towel
in the hamper. When he returned, she met him, hand on hip, and a big
smile.

“The good news is the Beast is ready and everything was covered by insurance.”

Rye walked to the refrigerator. “How could that be? I haven’t even filed yet.”

Claire’s smile broadened as
she took down two fluted glasses from a cupboard. Rye pulled out a
pitcher of their celebratory cider and filled the classes. “Phone
message, Lance said he called insurance right away. Apparently, a meth
fire attended by police and fire places us in a special high-risk
category. An insurance clause we’ve been paying into for years.”

Rye fell into a dining room
chair and tipped his glass in mock salute.“Great, at least we can ride
in style. If we get any calls that is.”

Claire sat down across the table from him. “Olden hasn’t totally jerked our license or we wouldn’t have gotten the last call.”

“You’re probably right about
Medford Ambulance being out of the area. But until we find Rusty I think
we’re doomed to play second fiddle. Maybe it’s time we help with the
investigation,” Rye said.

Chapter Twenty

Rye was up and dressed
when he leaned in and whispered to a still sleeping Claire, “C’mon sleeping beauty, we’ve got a 1086 just out the door.”

She rolled out of bed and was
in her jump suit—no shower, no makeup—inside of two minutes, barely
time to brush her hair. They hadn’t gotten a night call in months,
definitely bottom-rung-of-the-ladder stuff. Rye was in the garage
unplugging when Claire entered with the jump kit. “If this is another
retirement center, I’m going back to bed.”

He watched her slide into the passenger seat and slap her harness into the locked position.

“Hey, 1086. A pedestrian down,” Rye said.

Claire glared at him. “Just a rude awakening, that’s all. Better a night call then another nightmare I guess.”

He reached up and hit the
button that would send the big double garage door sliding into its
overhead position. Claire glanced down at the clipboard Rye handed her.
“You weren’t kidding about just out the door,” she said. “Make a left,
go to 2600 Snoop Drive, about six blocks down.”

Rye flicked two toggle
switches, setting four red and blue lights whirling. He slammed a big
red button on the dashboard that set only one siren into a single
squeal.

“Might as well not wake the neighbors,” he said.

The sensor on the dashboard automatically turned on all the normal nighttime running lights.

Snoop Drive was four lanes
and ran straight as an arrow. As soon as they were out of the garage,
Rye detected the spinning lights of the black and white that had called
in the accident.

“What are we looking at?” he said.

Claire turned to the second page of her clipboard. “Single vehicle and pedestrian.”

“Better alert the hospital,”

She unclipped the microphone and punched in dispatch at Medford General.

“This is Mad Dash responding to a 1086, ETA five minutes. Mad Dash, out.”

She snapped the microphone
back on the dash just as Rye brought the ambulance up next to the police
car. They exited the ambulance at almost the same time. Rye grabbed the
jump kit and headed for the car; Claire went in search of the officer.

“Over here.”

Her head snapped around scanning the darkness for the source of the voice and spotted a flashlight waving in the air.

Allen Steins was kneeling over the writhing body of a young man obviously in pain.

“Hold on, Ben,” Steins said
to him, “this is an EMT.” He stood as Claire ran up. “Bad leg break,
hope you’ve got some really strong pain killer.”

“Thanks, Allen, give me a hand with the light.”

The officer stepped out of
the way holding his flashlight high enough so that the halo of the
powerful beam encircled the prone figure.

Claire knelt down setting the
jump kit next to the victim’s injured leg. “Hi Ben, my name’s Claire.
Looks like you have some nasty trauma to the knee. I’m going to give you
a shot of morphine, any allergies or addictions I should know about?”

Ben was shifting his body
from side to side, his face twisted into a grimace of pain. He was
braced up on his hands looking straight up. “No, no. How bad’s the
break?”

She gave him two shots of
morphine. The first was intramuscular so it would trickle in slowly, the
second was right into the tissue of the knee, so that she could align
it without Ben passing out.

“It’s your knee Ben, hard to tell how bad. Emergency will be able to give you the details. Just try to hold still.”

It was really bad. The
kneecap was pulled away from the patellar tendon and the more Claire
irrigated the knee the more damage she found. The lateral meniscus, as
well as the coruscate ligaments, the two that cross behind the knee,
were completely shredded. The car had apparently struck from the front
or side. Ben had probably seen the car coming straight at him and was
trying to turn away when it hit him.

Claire watched his tension and fidgeting fall away as the morphine kicked in. He laid back with his hands behind his head.

Rye ran up with a backboard
and a special knee splint. Stabilizing the leg, they lifted Ben onto the
backboard. The officer kept the light just ahead so they could see
where they were walking until they got within range of the giant
spotlights of the ambulance.

They slid Ben into the back
and transferred him to the gurney there. Rye stayed while Claire walked
over to the car to check on the driver. Rye said she seemed in shock.

When Claire got to the car, the officer was taking the driver’s statement.

“Candace Dagmar?” Allen Steins said, looking at her driver’s license.

“Yes D-a-g-m-a-r, just like it sounds.”

“And where do you work, ma’am?”

“I’m the manager at Across the Border Tacos. We close at two. I was on my way home.”

Candace Dagmar sat quietly in
her Geo Metro with the wool blanket Rye had given her draped around her
shoulders. Officer Steins met Claire as she approached the car. “You
mind staying with her while I call in her driver’s license?”

“No problem. She drunk?”

“Not at all, why?”

“The victim must have lit up
like a Christmas tree when her headlights hit him. He had reflective
tops on his socks, toes and heels of his shoes, too. He also wore a
reflective vest and hat.”

“She could be in shock, she seems coherent, but doesn’t express any concern for the victim,” Steins said. “I’ll be right back.”

Claire walked to the little car and leaned on the driver’s side door.

“Hello, my name’s Claire, I’m an EMT. Do you hurt anywhere?”

Claire knew that Rye had
asked the same question, but if the woman had been in shock she might
not remember that he was even present.

“No I’m fine. You know, that
runner came out of nowhere, just stepped right in front of me. I hope he
has some kind of runner’s insurance, cause it’s going to cost me.

“Look,” she said pointing to the deflated air bag draped over the steering wheel, “the air bag came out.”

Claire winced. If the airbag
deployed it indicated that the impact was solid and explained the
extreme condition of Ben’s injured knee.

“I’ll tell you one thing, Linda was sure surprised.”

Claire looked around puzzled. “I’m sorry? I didn’t know you had a passenger.”

“Do you see anyone? I was talking to her on my cell.”

“You were talking on the cell phone when you were driving?”

“Have you got a hearing
problem? I said I was talking to her on my cell.” Claire was turning
away as the woman became more belligerent. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

She met Officer Steins who was returning to finish the questioning.

“Allen, that woman just told me she was on her cell phone at the time of the accident.”

Steins made a face and picked
up his pace. Her license had come back clear, but news of the use of a
cell phone complicated her situation.

“Ma’am, were you talking on your cell phone when the accident occurred?” the officer asked.

“You act as though I did something wrong. I hope you gave that runner a ticket, he stepped right out in front of me.”

“Please answer the question, ma’am. Were you on the cell phone when you struck the runner?”

“Well yes, I was instructing
my assistant manager in how to close. Oh, I know what you’re thinking,
that the phone might have affected my driving. That’s just wrong.”

“How’s that, ma’am?”

“I’m almost always on my cell when I drive. I’ve really perfected the ability to split my attention.”

Candace Dagmar seemed smug,
sure that she had vindicated her actions of talking on the phone while
driving. Meanwhile Officer Steins was shining the beam through the side
window as he listened, until he spotted the clamshell-style cell phone
peaking out from under her purse on the passenger seat.

“Ma’am would you please hand me your cell phone.”

“What, why?”

“Just a formality ma’am. It might be needed as evidence. Please hand it to me.”

“I will not! That phone is my link with my workers.”

Officer Steins walked around
to the passenger side of the Geo Metro and opened the door. When he
reached for the cell phone, the woman quickly reached in an attempt to
get it first. The two grabbed the phone at the same time. When Claire
saw what was happening she walked around to the driver’s side.

“Ma’am, maybe you should let the officer have the phone.”

“And maybe you should mind your own business.”

Claire’s eyebrows shot up at
the rebuke, but she smiled and stepped away from the car. “You’re on
your own, Allen. I’m going to go transport Ben, good luck.”

“Claire wait, I need a female
presence.” He nodded his head at the woman who was still clinging to
the phone. “I can’t call for back-up right now.”

“Right, I’ll just stand over
here,” Claire said, stepping back to the front of the car where she
could see the tug-of-war clearly through the windshield.

“Ma’am, you are obstructing an officer in the line of duty. If you release the phone now I won’t cite you.”

She tightened her grip. “This is my personal property, you let go.”

At that moment her grip
slipped, the release of the phone was such a surprise to Steins that he
lost his grip, causing the phone to sail over his shoulder. It landed on
the asphalt where it shattered on impact.

Steins smiled. “Thank you,
ma’am.” He turned and extracted a baggie from his coat pocket and began
to pick up the pieces of the phone.

As Claire walked back to the
ambulance she could hear the shrill voice of Candace Dagmar threatening
to sue the police department.

Chapter Twenty One

“So what’s up for you today
?” Claire said, stretching out on the couch watching the sun come up.

Rye lay on his back on the
floor, hands behind his head. “I promised Phil I’d make an appearance at
his bachelor party and I’ve got an appointment to meet Olden in the
afternoon.

“You’ve known Phil maybe thirty years?

“Something like that,” Rye said.

Claire nodded her head then
leaned on one elbow and looked down at Rye. “Watch yourself, the rumor
is someone’s bringing a lap dancer to the party. The only lap I want you
dancing with is mine.”

“Not to worry, I’ll probably leave early.” He flopped over onto his stomach. “What about you?”

“I’ve got some belt tests
around noon and sensei wants me to help him plan a winter tournament. I
was going to wander over to the hospital morgue, see if I could find
someone who knows this mystery doctor. But I think I’ll wait until
you’ve met with Olden.”

“Got a couple cellophane belts to give out?” Rye said.

“They’d kick your butt.”

“I don’t think so. I’ve got this personal body guard,” Rye said.

They shared a quick breakfast
and a protein drink, cleaned up the dinner dishes from the night before
and spiffed up the living quarters before going their separate ways.

* * *

Rye took a deep breath before knocking. A smiling Phil Panther answered the door.

“Hey guys, help has arrived. Anybody passes out don’t bother calling 9-1-1.”

Phil’s house was a modest two
bedroom, bath-and-a-half, Craftsman. The living room, decorated for the
party, was wallpapered with pin ups and helium filled balloons with
crude sayings. One was even shaped like a pair of breasts.

There were many who thought
that at age fifty, Phil Panther would never get married and that if he
did, he wouldn’t be able to curtail his bachelor ways.

During an evening run with
Rye, he’d confessed that he was tired of the dating scene and was ready
to settle down, whatever it took. This bachelor party was to be his last
hurrah.