Page 36 of Save Me

“No, and hands off,” she mumbled.

All of the staff in the room knew Lainie, which made what was happening personal to everyone, including her, but when they began cutting off her clothes, she had no recourse but to let it happen.

Clay Wagner, the ER doctor, quickly moved to the side of her bed. “Welcome back, Lainie, and apologies upfront before we start. This is Della Pryor, a detective with the Denver PD, and she’s brought a tech from the crime lab with her. They’ll be taking photos of your injuries to back up their case against Justin Randall.”

Lainie winced as they kept cutting off her clothes. “Whatever it takes to put him away. And don’t lose the car keys in my pocket!”

Wagner continued his examination as every garment was cut away, and when more injuries were revealed, photos were quickly taken. They had her down to socks and panties when Detective Pryor asked them to turn Lainie on her side long enough for them to get photos of her back.

The scrapes and bruises visible there were purple, telltale evidence of the fingerprint bruises on her shoulders and neck where Justin Randall tried to hold her down. Being manhandled exacerbated the pain, but Lainie said nothing, and then they took off her socks.

There was a mutual gasp at the sight and then she heard someone crying. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen worse. It was just because they knew her, and knew everything she’d endured to stay alive. Lainie felt tears welling, and blurted out a joke to change the emotionally charged moment.

“Come on, guys, they feel even worse than they look, so nobody gets to cry but me.”

Joking among themselves was how doctors and nurses got through the trauma of what they saw, and the ensuing laughter shifted their emotions.

“Do we need to do a rape kit?” Pryor asked.

Lainie shook her head. “No, ma’am. He only wished. All we had was a nasty wrestling match, and I took him out with a rock before he could unzip his own pants.”

“Noted,” Pryor said. “We do need to collect DNA from beneath your fingernails. It won’t take long.” She then signaled her tech, who quickly gloved up and began taking scrapings from under Lainie’s nails.

“Apologies for invading the ER and your personal space, but I think we’re done here,” Pryor said, and she and the tech left the room.

The staff covered Lainie with a sheet, as a tech rolled in a portable X-ray, followed by a lab tech who’d come to draw blood.

Dr. Wagner moved to the foot of the bed to check her feet and the depth of the cuts, but at the first sign of pressure, Lainie screamed.

Wagner jumped. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize... As I look at the damage here, I think I’ll be better able to treat you if we do this in surgery, so we’re going to put you under.”

Still reeling from the pain, Lainie’s voice was shaking, but it was the best thing she’d heard since her arrival. “I second your suggestion, but you might want to run me through the car wash before you start.”

They laughed again.

“Having spent four days lost on a mountain, you don’t look so bad,” Wagner said.

“It was probably the soaking I took from that last creek I crawled into trying to bring down my fever. You know what they say in Texas about women’s big hairdos? The higher the hair, the closer to God? I can testify in all honesty that God did not pipe in hot water up there.”

They were still laughing when they wheeled her out of the room.

BY THE TIME Hunt reached the trailhead, he was exhausted. His clothes were drenched with sweat, and he was in no mood for the reunion he knew was waiting. What he didn’t expect were his parents on the scene, as well, but there they were, all running toward him with panicked expressions on their faces. His first thought was, What the hell? then he tuned in to what they were saying.

“Where’s Lainie? What happened?” Tina screamed.

Hunt dropped his backpack, started to reach into an outside pocket for something to wipe off the sweat, then used his shirtsleeve, instead.

“Nothing happened. A med-flight chopper picked her up halfway down.”

“What hospital? Where?” Greg shouted.

The moment Hunt heard that voice, he turned to face him, his voice deepening in anger with every word that he spoke.

“I told you, never look at me again. Never talk to me. Never speak my name.” Then he stared Tina down until she took a step back. “Lainie sent you two a message. She doesn’t want to see you. She doesn’t want to hear your voices, or see your faces. Ever. You don’t go to the hospital. You don’t interfere in any part of her existence, ever again. You lost the right to her the day she was knocked unconscious in her own bedroom. You kidnapped her like a criminal and locked her up in a velvet jail.”

Hunt’s rage was frightening, and Greg made a crawdad move backward as Hunt moved toward him, so close now that Hunt could see blood pulsing through a bulging vein in the old man’s forehead.

“I don’t know who you paid off to get away with what you did, but I know the truth. You ran your daughter down, rammed the back end of her car and caused the wreck.”

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