Read Online Web of Deceit by Peggy Slocum - Free Book Online Page B

Jeep’s tires squeal as it lunges to avoid Sarah’s falling
body. Sarah impacts the pavement with a crushing force. Her body skids several
yards before starting to roll. Beth’s left ribs slam against the front of her
open window before she is thrown back inside the Jeep as Elliot locks the
breaks and skids sideways to an abrupt stop in front of Sarah’s still body.
    “Call 911!” Beth
yells as she runs toward Sarah. “Sarah!” Beth falls to her knees beside her
unconscious friend. “Oh Sarah, please be OK,” Beth pleads as she moves Sarah’s
blood-soaked hair away from her forehead revealing the gash. The left side of
Sarah’s face is bleeding profusely. Her face is covered with blood from
multiple abrasions and peppered with small specks of stone from the asphalt.
Her lower left lip has been lacerated and is starting to swell.
    The sound of
distant sirens offer little comfort as Elliot kneels beside Beth. “It’ll be OK,
Beth. They’re on the way.”
    Within minutes the
ambulance arrives and pulls to the side of the road in front of the police
cruiser redirecting traffic. Three paramedics jump out with equipment in hand.
    Still by her
friend’s side, Beth gazes in a trance at the nearing men. “She jumped from a
van going over sixty miles an hour.”
    One of the men
regresses to the ambulance. The other two men are already in motion doing what
they do best. They are systematic and efficient.
    Feeling as if she
is in a bad dream, Beth steps back out of the way and watches through her
growing mental and emotional fog.
    “Put the C collar
on,” the paramedic in charge says. “You ready with that board, Harley?” he asks
the man that had gone back to the truck.
    “Ready,” Harley
says.
    “Log roll her.”
    They roll her body
to the right and slip the back board under her. Once the board is in position,
they roll her back onto the board.
    “Start bandaging
the head, Tom,” the lead paramedic says as he makes eye contact with Harley.
“Let’s get the heart monitor goin’ and then we’ll hook ’er up to the IV.”
    After stabilizing
Sarah, the paramedics load her into the ambulance. As the lead paramedic closes
the door, he senses Beth’s devastation. “You following us?”
    “Yes, we’ll be
right behind you.”
    Beth reaches in
her purse and pulls out her cell. She flips it open and notices she has three
new texts. No time. She dials a number. It rings.
    “Hello?” Sarah’s
mom, Elizabeth, answers.
    Tears stream down
Beth’s face as she struggles for control. “Hi.”
    “Oh, Beth, how
good it is to hear from you,” Elizabeth’s cheerful voice says.
    A sob tries to
escape Beth, she struggles to push back every emotion. “Sarah’s been in an
accident. We’re on our way to Boston General. I don’t know how bad it is yet,
but … she’s unconscious.”
    For a moment,
there is silence on the other end. Then Elizabeth’s tender voice says, “We’ll
meet you there.”
    The ambulance
pulls in front of the Emergency Room entrance. Thirty-five seconds later, the
paramedics are rushing Sarah through the open sliding-glass doors and down a
hallway toward a free trauma unit.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Elliot stops
behind the ambulance. “You get out here, I’ll park.”
    Beth, half out of
the car, thanks Elliot as she closes the door and rushes into the hospital, not
quite sure what to do or where to go.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Beth approaches
the nurse behind the desk.
    “Can I help you?”
the middle-aged nurse asks with disinterested nasality.
    “They just brought
my friend in. She was in an accident”
    The nurse reaches
for the clipboard with the appropriate forms attached. “Fill this out to the
best of your ability, please.”
    “Thanks,” Beth
replies as she takes the clipboard and searches for a chair distanced from the
other people in the waiting room. She finds a seat and fills out the
mind-numbing paperwork. Two minutes later, she lifts her head as Elliot walks
through the main