“No case is as important as you.”
“Billy,” she complained.
“Okay. Okay.” I leaned down and kissed her on the temple. “Can I get you anything before I leave?”
“Maybe some tea and my pills from the medicine cabinet?”
“You got it.”
I stood, then went to the kitchen to make her some tea. Once it was ready, I grabbed crackers and some fruit and carried everything into the bedroom. I placed it on the table beside her, then went to the bathroom to grab her pills. By the time I returned, she was on the verge of falling asleep.
I knelt down beside her as I whispered, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”
“I’m good, Billy. Just go.”
“Okay.” I kissed her once more as I warned, “Be careful with those pills. You know…”
“I know.”
I stayed there for a moment, watching her sleep as I battled the thoughts racing through my head. I needed to go to work and finish my forensics report, but the thought of leaving my beloved wife in such a state had me riddled with guilt.
Grace sensed my trouble and placed her hand on mine as she whispered, “I’ll be fine. Go.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, and Kiersten will come straight home after school.”
She nodded, then rolled over, signaling that it was time for me to leave. I waited a moment longer, just long enough to make sure she wouldn’t change her mind, and then I gathered my things and headed to the car.
My guilt weighed on me as I left the house and drove into the office, but the second I got to work, I dove into my case, and everything else was forgotten.
That’s how it was with my work.
Once I started trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, I would become obsessed with finding the perfect match and naming the perpetrator behind the crime. And this particular case was a tough one and had me running in circles. Everyone knew that Ace, the Red Kings’ gang leader, was behind the rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old, but there wasn’t much evidence, and the DA was counting on me to find a way to prove it.
I don’t know how long I’d been at it when my cell phone rang. I grabbed it out of my pocket, and when I saw that Kiersten was calling, I immediately answered, “Hey, doodlebug. I’m sorry that I’m running late, but I should...”
“Daddy, there’s something wrong with Momma.”
“What do you mean?”
“She won’t wake up.”
“I’m sure she’s just really tired, sweetheart,” I explained. “She had one of her bad migraines and...”
“I know how she is with her migraines, Dad. This is different.” She sounded like she was on the verge of tears as she said, “Something’s really wrong. I’ve tried everything, and she won’t wake up. She won’t even move.”
Kiersten was thirteen and old enough to know if something wasn’t right, so I didn’t question her further. I simply said, “Call 911. I’m leaving now and will be there as soon as I can.”
I hung up the phone, then ran out of the lab and got into my car. My heart was pounding, and I could barely think as I raced to the house. When I pulled up, the ambulance was there, and Kiersten was waiting for me on the front porch. As soon as I reached her, she wrapped her arms around me and sobbed, “I’m so scared, Daddy.”
“I know, sweetheart, but I’m here now. Everything’s going to be okay.” I glanced over at the door as I asked, “How’s your mom?”
“I don’t know.” She sniffled as she looked up at me and said, “They told me to come wait out here.”
“Okay, I’ll go in and see if I can find out what’s going on.”
She nodded, then watched as I disappeared through the front door. When I got to the bedroom, I found the paramedics standing over Grace with somber looks on their faces. I knew right away something was terribly wrong, but I didn’t know how bad it really was until one of the paramedics said, “I’m sorry, sir, but she was gone when we got here.”
“What?”