Roy sat slumped against one wall. His sister knelt down next to him. As an agent came up to them she said, “Give us a minute, will you?”
The Fed nodded and backed off.
Roy glanced at the bloodied Riley, who sat dead against the other wall, the knife still sticking out of her. She looked like a large, ghoulish doll on display.
“I killed her,” he told his sister.
“I know.”
“She was trying to kill Michelle.”
“I know that too, Eddie. You saved her life. You did the right thing.”
He shook his head stubbornly. “We don’t know that. She might still die.”
“She might. But you gave her a chance.”
He looked down, seemed as though he might be sick.
He looked up at her again. “I killed Dad.”
She sat down beside him, took his head, and leaned it against her chest.
He said, “All this time I couldn’t remember. I… I just thought you had done it. You’ve… always protected me.”
“That time, Eddie, you defended yourself. And you saved me. You did the right thing. You did nothing wrong. Do you understand that?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Eddie, do you understand that? You did nothing wrong.” She said this last part with urgency.
“I understand.” He swallowed a sob. “They took away my St. Michael’s medal.”
“I know. I can get you another one.”
He glanced over at dead Megan. “I don’t think I need it. Not anymore.”
“I don’t think you do, either.”
He started to cry and his sister held him.
The melancholy sounds of the ambulance carrying the horribly injured Michelle Maxwell dwindled away until there was only silence.
CHAPTER
88
THE HOSPITAL ROOM was colder than any morgue Sean had been in. It was dark, too. Most of the lights came from little machines that were making weird noises, signaling life or heralding approaching death.
He sat hunched over in the chair, his hands clasping hers, his forehead resting on the bed rail.
Michelle Maxwell was covered by a web of IV lines filled with things Sean had never heard of flowing into her body and carrying other things away.
She had died three times. Once in the ambulance. Once on the
operating table. And once right here in this bed. She’d actually flatlined while he was holding her hand. The Code Blue was sent out and the crash team hurtled in and did their magic, pulling her back from the grave while Sean had watched helplessly from the doorway.
The doctor told Sean, “That knife did a lot of damage. She almost bled out. But she’s young and in incredible physical shape, otherwise she never would have made it this far.”