“Coming!” He grabbed his phone from the counter. Looking at it, he halted. Mia had called him last night.
He couldn’t talk now. As soon as he could, he’d call her back.
Jackson spun around and sprinted after Swanny. He caught up with his partner at their ambulance and reached for the door, his hands shaking. Whether from the caffeine on almost zero sleep, the adrenaline humming through him, or the shock of hearing Elaine had been shot, he wasn’t sure. Maybe a combination of all those things. “You drive.”
Swanny gave him a startled glance but immediately let go of the passenger door and jogged around to the other side. Jackson hoisted himself into the cab and buckled up. It seemed to take forever for his partner to start the ambulance and slide out of the open garage doors, although he knew that was his anxiety talking. In reality, they were out in record time.
“You want to tell me what has you all shook up?” Swanny flipped on the siren. When he turned the corner, Jackson held on to the handle near the top of the cab. “This isn’t the first call like this we’ve ever gone on.”
“That address? I know it. It’s the Dirk family. My brother Dylan’s best friend, Reggie? The one he disappeared with? That’s his family. I’m almost positive it’s his mom that got shot.”
Groaning, Swanny banged his head back on his seat. “Dude. This is all so twisted. Why are you even still at work? Take some time off. You have vacation days.”
Jackson stared out the window. “I will. But I really thought that if I stayed at work and stayed connected to what was happening, I would be in the know. I also had the unrealistic dream that the boys would be found quickly. Instead, I feel like everyone is dragging their feet, as if two missing teens don’t matter.”
But they did matter.
The chief’s voice crackled over the radio. “Ambulance 12, Ambulance 15, stage at the grocery store until the police have cleared the house.”
“Understood,” Jackson replied.
Safety first. If an active shooter remained on the premises, anyone entering could be at risk until the cops got control of the situation. Patience came hard though. Jackson had talked with Reggie’s mom only last week. She and the teen were the only two who lived at the house. Had Reggie returned home? Had it been a robbery attempt?
Elaine Dirk was a little flighty at times, but she didn’t deserve her home to be infected with violence.
Despite the August heat pressing in on them, he shivered, chilled to his soul. One never got totally used to seeing evil.
He and Swanny made small talk for the next twenty minutes or so until a new voice came over the radio. “The house has been cleared. One gunshot victim inside. Victim is conscious and coherent. She’s given permission for us to begin searching. K-9 is being brought in.”
His stomach tightened. “Ambulance 15 on our way. We’ll be there in five.”
Jackson drummed his fingers on his leg. At least he knew Elaine was still alive.
How had she been shot? He didn’t even question whether this was related to whatever had happened with the boys. It was too coincidental not to be connected.
“Why would they bring in a K-9 so quick?” Swanny wondered aloud.
Jackson rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. But I’m guessing since we’ve had so many drug overdoses and disappearing kids, they want to rule it out, especially since her son is one of those missing.”
“I guess.”
“This is it.” Swanny interrupted his introspection. He edged the ambulance into the narrow driveway.
“That’s Mark’s car.” Jackson pointed to the black-and-white police car parked at the curb in front of the house. “And that’s the K-9 car behind his.”
Swanny and Jackson jumped from the ambulance and gathered their gear and a stretcher.
They wheeled the stretcher into the house, passing the newly hired K-9 handler, Officer Tyler Joanne Boothe, though everyone called her TJ. Jackson hadn’t worked with her much, but he knew she came from a long line of police officers. She held the leash of a very large, beautiful German shepherd.
She gave the dog a command, and it went to work. Within seconds, it had zeroed in on a hallway to the right. Jackson saw the look the handler exchanged with Mark. His stomach felt hollow. The dog was on the scent of something bad. What had Reggie gotten himself into? Had he dragged Dylan into it as well?
Jackson couldn’t think about his brother possibly being involved with drugs. Not now. Not when a woman’s life was at stake.
“The victim’s in the kitchen,” Mark said, pointing to the back of the house.
Jackson nodded. “Noted.”
Patient care was always the priority. They wouldn’t be asked to seal their feet, but they tried to avoid disturbing the scene more than critical care required.