When Angels Cry (31 page)

She’s terrified of me
, Gabriel thought, frowning.   Nausea rose
in
the pit of his stomach
,
and he tasted bile.  Shaking his head, he wondered how somebody could
have
hit a woman.  Or worse.  “I’m not going to hurt you
,
I promise.  I’m a fireman, and part of my job is helping people like you.”

Maddie shivered violently and sobs wracked her body convulsively.  
S
he tried to rise, but quickly tottered and fell.  Gabriel reached out and caught her.

“Take it easy.”  As she lay in his arms, her breathing quickened as sobs ripped through her body.  Her lips parted
,
and
the keening wail started again
deep at first, as though from the back of her throat, then shriller.  He peered at the huge bruises on her face and saw th
e
thick clots of blood matt
ing
the skin around her eyes and
at her
temples.  He exhaled sharply.  Hell, he’d seen bodies ripped apart by car accidents, but this
—this
willful act of violence
—ti
ghtened every muscle in his body.  And that sound, that mournful wail.
H
ow could he help her
now
?

A siren screamed.  He drew the blanket around her as he held her close and watched the wisps of her breath disperse in the cold.  Her cries faded to whimpers
.  He heard a car door open and close.

“What have we got?” a burly female EMT asked as she carted a box of medical paraphernalia and set it next to the woman who had, by now, slipped into unconsciousness.  As the EMT bent and began checking vitals, Gabriel relayed the few details he knew while hovering over her.
 

A fire truck pulled up and two fire men got out and
stood next to Gabriel, silently watching a procedure they’d all memorized.  A third  walked up
.
  He was a tall, bulky African American
who
set his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“You okay?”
  He
looked at Gabriel.

Gabriel nodded at his best friend, Elijah Ramsey.  “Yeah.  It’s just been a long night.”

Another wailing siren bathed the landscape in reds and blues as a police car pulled up   Two cops, David Ferguson and Steve Hansen, got out of the car, walked up to the scene, and looked at the EMTs before approaching the firemen.  David nodded at them
, bracing
his hands on his hips.  “What happened?” he asked as he chewed a toothpick.

Gabriel watched the EMTs work on her.  “About ten minutes ago
,
I pulled over to let the dog do his business.  Damned if Donner didn’t find her in pretty much the same spot she’s in now.”

David glanced at the woman.  “Did you see or hear anything unusual?”

“You mean besides her?” Gabriel retorted.  “No.  Everything was quiet.”

“Did you see if she had any identification?”  David shifted the toothpick to the other side of his mouth.

Gabriel shook his head.  “I don’t think she’s got a purse, and her clothes are pretty tattered
,
so my guess would be no, she doesn’t.”

Steve scratched notes on the pad.  Still, when they lapsed
in
to silence, the page was only half-filled.  So many questions, no answers.  In silence, the small group watched the EMTs load her on
to the
gurney they
set
in the ambulance. 

“You taking her to Memorial?” Steve called to the EMTs as he flipped his pad closed.

“Yeah,” the driver said.  “We’ll compare notes there.”

The four of them watched as the ambulance headed off into the night, blinding them with
its
red and blue lights, deafening them with
its
screaming wail.

Steve shook his head.  “Looks like it’s going to be a long one.”  He tapped his partner’s arm.  “Let’s head to the hospital and see what they can tell us.”

As the c
ruiser
drove away, Gabriel stared at the ground where he’d found her.
Another fire man,
Beck
patted his shoulder one last time.

“I’ll see you later.”  The fireman cocked a lazy half-smile at Gabriel before heading back to his fire truck and driv
ing
away.

In the faint moonlight, he couldn’t even see the impressions in the grass where she’d been, and he was tempted to think of
it all as
a dream.

Under the cover of night,
the ground looked just like all the rest, save
for the yellow tape where the
y’d
cordoned off a small section.  He knew he’d never forget her face.  He just wished he had a name to go with it.  At least that way he’d know what to call her in his nightmares.

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