24 Hours

Abby started to run to Karen, but Will caught her arm and pulled her back. Karen was not herself. If she was, she would have run to Abby as soon as she sighted her.

“Bring me the gun, Karen,” he said.

She seemed not to have heard. She kept pointing the Walther at Cheryl’s head, which was only two feet from its barrel. For her part, Cheryl seemed not to notice. She just kept stuffing bills into the briefcase. Will saw blood on her shoulder, but apparently the bullet had not done major damage.

He limped to within three feet of his wife. “Karen? May I please have the gun? I need it.”

“She’s one of them!” Karen cried suddenly. “Isn’t she?”

“It’s over,” he said, holding out his hand. “Hickey’s dead. And she’s not going anywhere.”

Karen jerked the Walther out of his reach. As she did, Will saw a large bloodstain on her upper abdomen.

“What happened?”

“He shot me,” she said, still following Cheryl with the gun.

“DROP THE WEAPON!” shouted a male voice. “State police! Drop the gun and lie down on the ground!”

Will turned and saw two uniformed state troopers pointing long-barreled revolvers at Karen.

“Hold your fire!” he yelled. “She’s in shock!”

“DROP THAT WEAPON!” one trooper shouted again.

Karen turned toward them but did not drop the gun. Will knew they might fire at any moment. He stepped forward and put his body between their guns and Karen, but even as he did, a fierce wind sprang up, driving gravel and cinders across the road in a punishing spiral.

A Bell helicopter with “FBI” stenciled in yellow on the fuel tank flared over the road and set down near the dwindling fire that had been Will’s plane. Two men in business suits leaped out of the cockpit and ran toward the state troopers, their wallets held out in front of them. A hurried conversation resulted in one of the troopers lowering his gun, but the other did not seem impressed by FBI credentials. One of the agents interposed himself between the stubborn trooper and Karen, and addressed himself to Will.

“Are you Dr. Jennings?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Frank Zwick, Doctor. I’m glad to see you alive.”

“I’m damn glad to see you. Can you help us? My wife has been shot, and she’s disoriented.”

“Can you get her to put down the gun?”

Will turned to Karen and held up his hands. “Honey, you’ve got to give me the gun. These people are here to help us. You can’t-”

Karen wobbled on her feet, then crumpled forward onto the ground.

Will ran forward and knelt beside her. Her radial pulse was weak. As carefully as he could, he rolled her over and unbuttoned the bloodsoaked blouse. The bullet had struck her in the left upper abdomen, probably in the spleen. He leaned over and put his ear to her mouth, listening and feeling for breath, watching her chest expansion. Her airway was open, and her lungs probably okay, but he could already see some distension in her belly from internal bleeding.

“What’s wrong with Mom?” Abby wailed. “Daddy, what’s the matter?”

“She’s all right,” he assured her, though the wound could be fatal if not treated quickly in an operating room.

“We’ve got paramedics about five miles out,” Zwick said. “They’re coming up the shoulder in an ambulance. I’d estimate fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“I want her in your chopper,” Will told him. “You can have her on the helipad at University Hospital in ten minutes.”

“That’s not an air ambulance, Doctor. It’s just a row of seats.”

“It beats waiting. Make it happen, Frank.”

The SAC nodded and ran over to talk to his pilot.

“Abby?” said Karen, her eyes fluttering.

“We’re all here,” Will said.

“Where’s Abby?” Karen struggled to rise. “Where’s my baby?”

“Right here, Mom.” Abby knelt beside her mother.

Karen seized her hand, then raised her head, looking right and left like a lioness guarding her cubs. “Where’s Hickey?”

“Dead,” Will told her again. “We’re all safe, babe.”

It took a few moments for this to register, but at last Karen sighed and closed her eyes again. Will estimated her blood pressure by checking her various pulses, carotid, femoral, and radial. Then he checked her nail perfusion. She was going into shock. They needed to get moving.

“Daddy’s going to make you all better, Mom.”

Karen smiled a ghostly smile. “I know, baby.”

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“With you holding my hand, nothing hurts.”

Abby laughed through tears.

“All set,” Zwick said, coming over from the chopper. “Ready to move her?”

“I’m a little under the weather,” Will told him.

“My dad got shot in the leg,” Abby said proudly. “He was trying to save me.”

“Whose money is this?” called a state trooper from the median. He was holding up the ransom briefcase. Beside him, his partner was cuffing Cheryl’s hands behind her back.

“Mine,” Will said. “That woman was shot in the shoulder, and she was in a fire. Put her aboard that ambulance as soon as it gets here.”

“That’s my money!” Cheryl yelled. She pointed at Will. “Ask him!”

“Take it with you,” Will told the trooper. “We’ll sort it out later.”

“How much is in here?”

“Three hundred and fifty thousand.”

The trooper whistled long and low.