Mopping Up
From Irina DiSanti’s journal
Saturday, 06 Aug 2011
Adams County General Hospital
Natchez MS
2235hrs, local time
The dust hadn't much settled from the vamp fight when I found myself in the emergency room of Adams County General, getting my knife wound stitched up. I barely felt it. I was too preoccupied with getting my story straight to cover our tracks: Caroline had been attacked by a dog, I'd run to her defense with a kitchen knife, and had tripped and fallen on it. That would explain the hole in my side, surely, but even a sleep-deprived intern on his last legs would look askance at the cut on Caroline's wrist and her part of the story would fail. From what little I managed to glean of vampire physiology, Cord's bite would have sealed up the second his mouth left her skin, leaving nothing but the knife wound Caroline had inflicted on herself. It would look nothing like a dog bite and as a cop, I’d seen plenty of both to know that there was no hiding the truth.
Stop thinking like a cop, DiSanti, and start thinking like an overworked, underpaid doc with a waiting room of patients to clear. Do you really think they're going to care how Caroline got that wound, as opposed to keeping it from killing her?
Now that last part, one could partially attribute to Cord. Not that he'd had much choice. His condition and Caroline's actions had pretty much decided the issue for both of them. I stared at the curtain blocking off the bay next to mine, listening to the docs and nurses working to save Caroline. She'd gone in long before I had, my wound being less severe, but even so, I'd be walking out of here sooner than she. From the sound of it, another transfusion had just been ordered to replace the blood Cord had taken. I could only try to imagine what the docs thought of that. They were probably wondering what the hell kind of dog could bite someone so bad as to bleed out so much and no doubt they were working on what they'd put in their report to Animal Control.
The image of a couple of county employees in a pickup truck with game nets flickered past my eyes. I didn't find it one bit amusing. For all I knew, Eliza Beauchamps would find it equally unamusing. Beyond the curtains, I could hear Renny spinning the story, ensuring the staff remained uncurious as to the circumstances. The cop in me disliked the idea intensely—witness- and evidence tampering went against everything I trained for and believed in—but I had long since left such black-and-white territory behind.
"Keep it clean and dry for at least 24 hours. After that you can shower or bathe, but put a waterproof covering over it like a plastic bag. Change the dressing twice a day and you can use an antibiotic cream to kill any germs and keep the bandage from sticking. Swelling and redness should fade after a day or so and you can take over-the-counter pain medication if you need them. Come back in a week to ten days so we can remove the stitches. If you feel fatigued or feverish, and if the suture site is red or puffy after the first day or so, and especially if you experience nausea or if the wound has weird colors, pus, or has red streaks under the skin going in the direction of the heart, get to a doctor immediately. Do you have any questions about anything?"
"No, I'm fine, thanks," I said, having heard it all before. This wasn't the first knife wound I'd suffered and it probably wouldn't be the last. "Do you know how my friend is doing? When can I see her?" I had a pretty good idea the answer would be 'bad' and 'not right now', but as long as the response wasn't 'dead' and 'never', I had to ask.
"Let the docs take care of her, Ms—," and the intern flicked a glance at my paperwork, "DiSanti, and you should go home and take care of yourself. Are you family? Would you like to be notified when she's in recovery?"
"Yes, please." I lied and told the truth. I took the clipboard from him and wrote in the space provided on the form. "Here's my number. Please call me as soon as possible. I have—." Questions to ask of the witness, I managed not to say, fatigue and shock making me drop into cop autopilot. "I feel responsible for all this, falling on my knife like an idiot and giving that dog more time to hurt her." Again, it was a mixture of a lie and the truth. I slid off the exam table before my mouth could get me into any more trouble. My side gave me only the barest of twinges for it. "Thank you."
I shook his hand and after a long look at the curtain hiding Caroline, I got out of there. I had to find Mason before he tore the waiting room apart. As I took the hallway back to the chairs and the atmosphere of dread and desperation, I sent Renny a text to meet me later. Of all the vampires who might be willing to help me be more effective in a vamp fight, it would be him. And if he couldn't do anything personally, I was willing to bet my last dollar he'd know the right direction to point me. For now, I had Mason to deal with. I knew, as sure as I knew my name, a major battle as what had happened at Evangeline's would be too big to avoid the police and the Sheriff departments getting involved. At least until Eliza Beauchamps could work her magic. Until then, I wanted to keep Mason calm and thinking straight. With luck, he will have settled down enough to coordinate our stories in case we got questioned. I paused a moment before the final turn and put my game face on, then strode on to find Mason.
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