by Alex Kava
“No problem,” Maggie answered. “Just hate to take you away from more important things.”
Wilson nodded, satisfied. The other two men, Kesnick and Ellis, simply returned to their preparations. But Bailey caught Maggie’s eyes as she offered the flight suit again. And in that brief exchange, Maggie realized that Bailey had recognized her fear. Would the woman give her away? Put Maggie in her place?
Bailey handed Maggie the suit, holding on to it a count longer than necessary. With her back turned to the men she let Maggie see that she was slipping something into the flight suit’s pocket.
“It’s gonna be choppy out there today,” Bailey told her. “Be sure to buckle in tight.”
Then she left to pack the rest of her own gear, including a small bag with basic medical supplies. That’s when Maggie remembered that rescue swimmers were also certified EMTs.
Maggie slipped off her shoes and started putting on the flight suit. The aircrew no longer took any interest in her as they completed their preparations. She fingered the plastic inside the pocket, cupping it in the palm of her hand before bringing out two pink-and-white capsules.
Dramamine? Benadryl? Neither worked for her.
It wasn’t about motion sickness. It was about losing control. It was a thoughtful and gracious gesture, and on closer inspection Maggie noticed the capsules were not over-the-counter medication. Instead, the small print on the plastic package read: “Zingiber officinale.”
She looked up at Bailey but the young woman was climbing into the helicopter. Maggie’s nausea started to churn as she watched the others putting on their helmets and gloves. Soon her heart would start to race, followed by the cold sweats.
What the hell, she thought. Maybe the capsules were something new they gave to rescued survivors. Or maybe it was some prank to make the FBI lady sicker than a dog. At this point, Maggie realized that she was willing to take her chances.
She tugged open the plastic, popped the capsules into her mouth, and dry-swallowed them. Then she pulled on her helmet and headed for the helicopter, trying to ignore the wobble in her knees.
CHAPTER 16
Scott worried that he might throw up. He’d never seen body pieces. Not like this, carved and lined up, set out to rinse and wrap. His face must have registered his discomfort.
“How did you think it was done, buddy?” Joe Black asked, pushing his goggles up onto his tousled hair. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing dignified about disarticulating a body. It’s a messy job.”
“I guess I just … it’s not what I expected.”
He couldn’t move. Couldn’t stop his eyes from darting around the room. He didn’t want to step over the cardboard coffin stretched out in front of him. He didn’t want to step foot into the room at all.
“You’ll get used to it,” Joe assured him.
Joe picked up what looked like an ordinary carving knife. He glanced at Scott, caught him wincing, and put the knife back down.
“It’s a bit weird at first.” There was no condescending tone, more instructive like a teacher to a student. “You learn a lot by simply doing it. A bit of trial and error. Actually it’s not that different from carving a Thanksgiving turkey.” He smiled at Scott.
Joe turned back to the counter, picked up one of the pieces. Scott couldn’t tell what it was. He didn’t want to look and yet he found himself mesmerized by Joe’s hands pulling plastic wrap and folding it over and over with a slow, almost reverent touch.
“I try not to be wasteful,” Joe continued, keeping his back to Scott as he started wrapping the next piece in line. “It’s the least we can do when people are generous enough to donate their bodies. Right? Every week surgeons are learning some new, innovative technique. And they’d never be able to do that without me providing working models.”
Scott appreciated that Joe didn’t draw attention to his reaction. Instead, Joe remained calm while Scott was acting like a total jerk. He knew exactly what he had signed up for and had read plenty about the subject. He had no illusions about what were in the previous packages that Joe Black had sent to him to store. Although he had to admit that it was certainly easier when he could accept the UPS or FedEx deliveries and cart the packages into his walk-in refrigerator or put them in one of his freezers.
All along he knew the packages contained body parts that were used for educational conferences and for research. Early on Joe had bragged about the surgical conferences that were his specialty. On paper and in his mind, Scott Larsen had justified the extra income as a noble service. So he needed to get over his squeamishness.
Like embalming and cremation, this, too, was just business.
“You really have a nice facility here,” Joe told him, glancing around as he started to work on the torso that was left on the other table. “And don’t worry. I’ll clean everything up. Get it sparkling the way you had it.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that.”
Scott hated to think Joe might believe he had a problem with any of this. In an attempt to restore their camaraderie Scott tried to take interest in what Joe was doing. “So I guess you have orders for all these different … parts?”
“More orders than I can supply.” He took out a jar of Vicks VapoRub, dipped a gob, and started smearing it on the torso. “It’s hard to keep up.”
“What’s that you’re doing?”
“A little trick of the trade. The torsos are popular with medical-device companies to showcase their new equipment, to teach a new technique. Sometimes the surgeons’ll work on them for several hours and well, I don’t have to tell you. A couple of hours and you know how bad it’ll start smelling.”
“Oh sure.”
“I rub Vicks VapoRub into the skin before I freeze it. Then when it defrosts it smells like menthol. Which is much better than what it ordinarily smells like.”
“Wow. That’s really … smart.”
“You morticians have plenty of your own tricks, right? You guys are like magicians when it comes to making corpses look good. Sometimes even better than what they looked like when they were alive.”
“Families have high expectations.”
Before Scott realized it, Joe had him talking about his own techniques. He even told Joe how he cheated sometimes and left off the socks and shoes because he hated dealing with feet. He couldn’t even remember when he stepped over the cardboard coffin and came into the room. Soon he was gowned up, rinsing and wrapping and telling more stories. Even made Joe laugh a couple of times. They cleaned up the room together and planned to meet for drinks later in the evening on the beach.
Scott had gotten so carried away, actually having a good time, that it wasn’t until after Joe had left that he realized he’d never asked where he parked. Nor had he dared to ask him about the second body.
CHAPTER 17
Liz watched the FBI agent grip the leather restraints in her gloved fists. She was pretty good at feigning confidence, making it sound like this ride was no big deal, even asking questions about the fishing cooler in sound bites as though she was used to the abrupt shouting conversations of a helicopter. Despite all that, she hadn’t fooled Liz at all. For whatever reason, the woman had panicked back there on the beach the minute she realized she’d need to climb into the copter.
So far O’Dell appeared to be doing okay. But just as Wilson turned the helicopter around after hovering over the spot where they had found the cooler yesterday, a call came in. A boat had capsized. A recreational-fishing cabin cruiser. At least one person was in the water. Initial radio contact reported injuries. Contact since had been lost.
“Sorry, Agent O’Dell,” Wilson shouted over his helmet mike. “We won’t have time to drop you off.”
That’s when Liz first noticed O’Dell’s white-knuckled grip. Now she wondered if the FBI agent would last. Liz couldn’t ask whether she had taken the capsules she’d slipped to her. Though they were definitely not a miracle cure, she hoped O’Dell had trusted her. Otherwise she’d be feeling sick ver
y soon. In the short time since they left the beach the winds had picked up over the Gulf. Away from shore, the seas were kicking high. And now, so was Liz’s adrenaline.
They found the boat quickly. Liz kept her helmet on, staying connected to their ICS while they figured this one out.
The cabin cruiser had tilted but hadn’t rolled yet. The waves were battering it and had already broken apart some of the cockpit and the rail. One person bobbed in the water, not more than a head in a life jacket with an arm hanging on to a torn piece of the cockpit that dangled, barely attached to the boat. A dog, what looked to Liz like a black Labrador, paced the deck, watching his owner while trying to keep his balance.
“Radio’s completely out?” Kesnick asked.
“Doesn’t matter. He can’t reach it,” Ellis said.
“Looks like only one rescue,” Wilson said.
“We can’t drop the basket in the water,” Kesnick told them. “Current will pull them under the boat.”
“Then where the hell are you dropping it?” Wilson asked.
Liz glanced at O’Dell, who was watching her prepare. Was O’Dell wondering why the men didn’t ask what she thought?
Silently Liz was planning her own strategy. Stay away from that railing. Don’t put any extra weight on the tip-side or it’ll roll. The boat was moving with the current, and as soon as Wilson dropped into hover the rotor wash would set the boat rocking. Initial radio contact reported injuries. If they dropped the basket onto the tilted boat, Liz would have to find a way to roll him out of the water debris, back onto the boat, and into the rescue basket.
“Direct deployment’s gonna be tricky,” Kesnick was saying. “Don’t push it or strain yourself. Let me do the dropping.”
Liz realized he was talking to her. She looked up at him.
“Let me do the heavy lifting, Bailey. We may need to quick strop him just to get him into the basket. Get it under his arms and let me hoist him while you guide him into the basket. Okay? I don’t wanna lose you both under that damned boat. You got that?”
She nodded. Gave him a thumbs-up. Let out a long breath. She started to remove her helmet when she heard Wilson.
“We’ve got one rescue, Bailey. Unless you find someone else in the water, that basket is only coming up once. We’re not sending it down again for that dog. You understand, Bailey? This isn’t New Orleans after Katrina. That dog is not coming up. It’ll have to wait for the cutter.”
She yanked off the helmet without a response. As Liz tucked her hair into her surf hood and strapped on her Seda helmet, she purposely avoided O’Dell’s eyes.
She readjusted her harness and rechecked her restraints. Her adrenaline was pumping and she needed to calm it down a notch, just enough to let it work for her, not against her. They could talk all they wanted, analyze and discuss to the last detail, but once she was out on that cable it was Liz who’d be balancing on the edge of that tilted cruiser. It’d be up to Liz to maneuver the survivor before a lift could even be made. And it’d be Liz’s ass if it didn’t work.
She scooted into position at the door. Kesnick waited for her glance then held her eyes a beat longer than usual. “Let me help you on this.” Maybe he had read her mind.
She nodded and he tapped her chest. She gave him a thumbs-up and crawled out. She slid down just a few feet to stop and wait for the hoist cable to tighten, but instead the wind caught it. The cable looped and bucked then jerked Liz like she was hanging on to the end of a whip. The rotor wash twisted her, pushing her in one direction then the other. Another jerk wrenched her spine. That’s when she started to spin. It was like getting sucked up into a wind tunnel.
All Liz could see was a blur as she hung tight to the cable. She closed her eyes and dug her heels down around the cable, managing to keep her feet crossed at the ankles. She tucked her chin into her chest so the cable didn’t wind around her neck. She made her body as rigid as possible.
She did everything she was taught to do. But the spin only accelerated.
CHAPTER 18
Maggie watched the rescue swimmer jump out of the helicopter one minute and within seconds she saw the flight mechanic, Kesnick, stumble and slide, diving headfirst toward the open door as if he were being sucked out behind Bailey.
Maggie reacted on instinct. She ripped at her restraints, her gloved fingers taking too long to break herself free. She grabbed for his safety belt that remained hooked into the deck of the cabin. She hadn’t even seen the hoist cable snag Kesnick’s helmet. Instead, she followed the safety belt’s line, using its tautness to pull herself to her feet.
She heard Wilson and Ellis trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She couldn’t see them and didn’t take precious time to wait until she could. Instead, she gripped Kesnick’s belt and pulled with all her weight. It was enough to jerk Kesnick out of his freefall stance. But the hoist cable that had caught his helmet still whipped his head back in the direction of the open door.
Kesnick let out a scream from the pain. For a brief, sick moment, Maggie worried it may have broken his neck. Her eyes followed the cable from its snag on his helmet to a hook on the top of the open door. She couldn’t reach the hoist cable but she could reach his helmet. She clawed at it, fumbling with the chinstrap, trying to remember what clicked into what.
Wilson and Ellis were yelling at each other, at Kesnick, at Maggie. Then the helicopter shifted and rocked, slinging Kesnick backward, his head in her gut. His helmet-less head. Thank God. She saw the cable snap and fling Kesnick’s helmet out the door.
Maggie grabbed on to a leather strap attached to the wall just as the helicopter rocked again and her feet started to slide toward the door. Wilson grunted a string of curses before he rocked it back and held steady.
Amazingly Kesnick was already on his knees crawling back to his feet.
Ellis yelled, “Are you okay, man?”
But without his helmet, Kesnick didn’t hear and couldn’t respond. He hurried back to the open doorway, clutching his safety belt still tethered by the line to the floor. He leaned out to look down for Bailey. Maggie had forgotten about the rescue swimmer. Was she still even there? Kesnick reached for the hoist cable, wrestling and jerking it until the loop that had knotted on the hook broke loose. Somehow he managed to tug it free.
“What about the rescue swimmer?” Ellis yelled at Kesnick’s back.
Maggie heard the howling wind roar through the helicopter. The thump-thump of the rotors and thump-thump of her heartbeat made it difficult to hear the words and she knew it was impossible for Kesnick to hear anything without the communication system inside the helmet.
She held tight to the leather strap, readjusted her weight, and shoved herself up onto her feet. Still holding on to the strap, she swiped up Bailey’s flight helmet from where she had left it and tapped Kesnick on the shoulder with it. His eyes shot her a look of surprise then he nodded, yanked on the helmet, and adjusted the mike.
“Liz’s caught in a crosswind,” Kesnick yelled. “She’s spinning.”
“Son of a bitch,” Wilson answered.
“I’m pulling her back,” Kesnick said, planting his feet.
In seconds Kesnick had Bailey back inside the helicopter.
Maggie handed Liz her own helmet. Then Maggie sat against the wall, gripping the leather strap with gloved fingers, noticing now how badly her hands were shaking. She could no longer hear the conversation taking place. Both Kesnick and Bailey looked remarkably calm.
It seemed like less than a couple of minutes and Bailey handed the helmet back to Maggie, replacing it with her lighter-weight swim helmet. Maggie checked her eyes in that brief exchange. There was no hesitation. No fear.
Bailey scooted back to the open doorway, waited for Kesnick’s tap on the chest, gave him a thumbs-up, and to Maggie’s disbelief, the young rescue swimmer rolled out of the helicopter again.
CHAPTER 19
Platt stared at the dead boy’s face. He looked so much younger than the nineteen years
recorded on his chart. Stripped of everything, including his life, his gray body appeared small, his prosthetic leg emphasizing his vulnerabilities. It gnawed at Platt to think that this brave kid survived Afghanistan and his battle wounds only to come home and die from some mysterious disease.
Gowned up again, Platt stood beside the stainless-steel autopsy table going over the chart when he realized the pathologist, Dr. Anslo, was waiting for him. The man’s almost nonexistent eyebrows were raised, their presence distinct only because Anslo’s shaved head and smooth face left nothing else to forecast his emotions. His latex-gloved hands were held up in front of him, signaling that he was ready—ready and waiting for this guest who had been imposed on him.
Platt quickly found what he was searching for: the boy’s name, Ronald (Ronnie) William Towers. It was a small thing, but he wanted to know how to address this young man, if nowhere else but in his own mind. It was the least he could do. Ronnie Towers deserved that small, last respect.
“I’m ready,” said Platt.
This part of his job always challenged his sensibilities. It didn’t help matters that he had just returned from Afghanistan and had witnessed the carnage that young men like Ronnie had to deal with every day of their tours. It battered his psyche as much as the exhaustion did. Each trip to Afghanistan or Iraq reminded Platt why, as an army doctor, he had chosen laboratories filled with vials, test tubes, and glass slides rather than the OR.
