Before the Storm. Diane Chamberlain

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ back, that’s how well I knew my son. Still, I wouldn’t let go of him.

      Maggie came to her senses first, pulling away from us. “The nurse still needs you, Panda Bear,” she said. She lifted his arm and I saw the angry red swath that ran from his wrist to the bend of his elbow. First degree, I thought with relief. I led him back into the cubicle and looked at the nurse as Andy climbed onto the bed.

      “Is that the worst of it?” I asked, pointing to his arm.

      She nodded as she fit the cannula to his nostrils again. “Check it tomorrow for blisters. We’ll give you a prescription for pain. He’ll be okay, though. He’s a lucky fella.”

      “I made a new friend,” Andy said. “Layla. I saved her.”

      “I’m glad, sweetie.” I dusted ashes from his hair until its nutmeg color showed through.

      The nurse carefully taped the gauze to his arm again. “He doesn’t seem to feel pain,” she said, looking at me.

      “Not when he’s wired like this.” Maggie boosted herself onto the end of the bed.

      “He’ll feel it later.” I remembered the swim meet last year when he hit his head on the side of the pool. He swam lap after lap, blood trailing behind him, not even aware he was hurt until the adrenaline had worn off.

      “Did you hear me, Mom?” Andy said. “I saved Layla.”

      “Emily’s mother told us you saved several people.” I smoothed the elastic strap of the cannula flat behind his ear. My need to touch him, to feel the life in him, was overpowering. “What happened?”

      “Not several,” he corrected me. “Everybody.”

      “You need to talk to him?” The nurse was looking over our heads, and I turned to see a man in a police uniform standing a few feet behind us. He looked at Andy.

      “You Andy Lockwood?” he asked.

      “Yes,” I answered for him.

      The man took a few steps closer. “You’re his mother?”

      I nodded. “Laurel Lockwood. And this is my daughter, Maggie.”

      The nurse patted Andy’s bare shoulder. “Give a holler, you need anything,” she said, pulling the curtain closed around us as she left.

      “I’m ATF Agent Frank Foley,” the man said. “How about you tell me what happened tonight, Andy?”

      “I was the hero.” Andy grinned.

      The agent looked uncertain for a moment, then smiled. “Glad to hear it,” he said. “We can always use more heroes. Where were you when the fire began?” He flipped open a small notebook.

      “With Emily.”

      “That’s his friend,” I said. “Emily Carmichael.”

      “Inside the church?” Agent Foley asked, writing.

      “Yes, but she’s my friend everywhere.”

      Maggie laughed. I knew she couldn’t help herself.

      “He’s asking if you and Emily were inside the church when the fire broke out,” I translated.

      “Yes.”

      “Where in the church were you? Were you standing or sitting or…”

      “One question at a time.” I held up a hand to stop him. “Trust me,” I said. “It’ll be easier that way.” I looked at Andy. “Where were you in the church when the fire broke out?”

      “I don’t remember.”

      “Try to think,” I prodded. “Were you by the front door or closer to the altar?”

      “By the baptism pool thing.”

      “Ah, good.” The agent wrote something on his notepad. “Sitting or standing?”

      “I stood next to Emily. Her shirt was inside out.” He looked at me. “She used to do that all the time, remember?”

      I nodded. “So you were standing with Emily near the baptism pool thing,” I said, trying to keep him focused. “And then what happened?”

      “People yelled fire fire fire!” Andy’s dark eyes grew big, his face animated with the memory. “Then they started running past us. Then some boys grabbed a…the long thing and said one two three and broke the window with the bald man.”

      It was my turn to laugh as the words tumbled out of his mouth. An hour ago, I’d been afraid I’d never hear my precious son speak again.

      Agent Foley, though, eyed him with suspicion. “Were there drugs there, Andy?” he asked. “Did you drink or take any substances tonight?”

      “No, sir,” Andy said. “I’m not allowed.”

      The agent stopped writing and gnawed his lip. “Do you get it?” he asked me. “The long thing? The bald man?”

      I shook my head.

      “Are you still talking about being inside the church, Panda?” Maggie asked.

      “Yes and the boys caught on fire, but there were no ladders, so I told them to Stop! Drop! Roll! and some of them did. Keith was there.” He looked at me. “He was mean to me.”

      “I’m sorry,” I said. Sara was my best friend and I was worried sick about her son, but Keith could be a little shit sometimes. “You mean there were no ladders to escape the fire, like the ladder we have in your room at home?”

      “Right. There weren’t any,” Andy said.

      “Okay,” Agent Foley said. “So while this was happening, where were you?”

      “I told you, at the baptism thing.” Andy furrowed his forehead at the man’s denseness.

      The agent flipped a few pages of his notepad. “People told me you got out of the church and—”

      “Right,” Andy said. “Me and Emily went out the boys’ room window, and there was a big metal box on the ground, and we climbed onto it.”

      “And then what happened?”

      “We were outside.”

      “And what did you see outside? Did you see any person out—”

      “One question at a time,” I reminded him.

      “What did you see outside, Andy?” Agent Foley asked.

      “Fire. Everywhere except by the metal box. And Emily was screaming that nobody could get out the front door because fire was there. I saw somebody did get out the door and they were on fire. I don’t know who it was, though.”

      “Oh СКАЧАТЬ