Scratchgravel Road (Josie Gray Mysteries #2)(5)

Josie kneeled close to Cassidy’s head to block the sun from her face and placed two fingers on her neck. The girl’s face was bright red and her pulse racing. Her skin was dry to the touch and Josie feared heatstroke, which could turn fatal fast.

She pulled her portable radio out of her belt and signaled Lou.

“Call the clinic. Tell them we have a probable heatstroke. I need a medic fast. She needs IV fluids. Then call Otto. We have a dead male. Possible illegal. Body is due east of the blue Ford Focus on Scratchgravel Road. Call the coroner.”

During her time as a custodian at the police department, Cassidy had been good-natured and friendly. She had been a hard worker and Josie had hated to see her leave when their regular custodian came back from his medical leave. Jimmy was a sixty-something-year-old who was slow and quiet and rarely interacted with anyone in the department. Cassidy had been a welcome addition.

She lived with a man quite a few years older than she was, an odd guy, close to forty years old with a long scruffy beard and dark eyes that bothered Josie. During a traffic stop several years ago, he had avoided Josie’s eyes, never once meeting her gaze. She could not imagine what the attraction was for this pretty young girl.

Waiting for Lou to respond, Josie opened the water bottle and took Cassidy’s head in her hand, tilting it up, trying to wake her and get her to drink something. There was no response. She poured water over Cassidy’s face and her wrists, attempting to lower her body temperature. Cassidy’s hand moved but nothing more. Josie stood and put the water bottle in her gun belt. She bent at the knees and lifted Cassidy’s torso over her shoulder, then used her leg muscles to slowly stand and balance herself. She took careful steps through the fine sand back to her jeep. In the intensity of the afternoon heat, each breath felt like fire, but she had to get Cassidy into air-conditioning until the medic arrived.

Josie stood at a trim five feet seven inches, but the walk to the car was slow. The heat magnified every movement, slowing every bodily function. Just as she started to worry the girl would not make it in time she saw the dust of an approaching car, then the unmistakable flash of Otto’s patrol lights.

Officer Otto Podowski was sixty years old, a large man with little tolerance for the desert heat. He drove his own jeep to where Josie had parked, then ran to her and took the young woman over his own shoulder, carrying her the last forty feet to Josie’s car. She ran ahead and opened the backseat door, then helped Otto position Cassidy inside.

“Paramedic’s been called. I’ll try and get some water into her,” Josie said, climbing in beside Cassidy and slamming the back door.

Otto got into the driver’s seat of Josie’s jeep and aimed the air vents toward the backseat. Josie slowly poured water over the girl’s face. Her body was limp and leaning against Josie’s side. Otto turned the jeep around and headed out to the road to meet up with the paramedic.

“Is that the Harper girl?” he asked.

“Yes. She’s not doing well. Her face is red. Her pulse is rapid, and she’s not opened her eyes since I arrived.”

As Otto maneuvered carefully through the sand, Josie filled him in on the position of Cassidy and the dead body when she arrived.

“Think she found the body and passed out?” he asked.

Josie glanced up and saw Otto looking at her in the rearview mirror. She shook her head in doubt. “What are the odds Cassidy would pick this spot to take a hike on a day like this? She couldn’t have seen anything from the road. I had to climb on the roof of my jeep before I realized something was out there. It’s not like she saw someone and ran to help.”

“Since when did you quit believing in coincidence?”

“My first year on the job.” She looked away from him and tried to pour a trickle of water into Cassidy’s mouth again.

Otto pulled the jeep onto the side of the road as the ambulance made the turn onto Scratchgravel so fast Josie thought it might tip.

“That guy drives like a maniac. I’m gonna cite him for reckless driving after this is all over,” Otto said.

“Cut him a break. He’s just a kid.”

“You were hired on as a kid too, but you didn’t drive like a jackass.”

Thirteen years prior, while he was still chief, Otto had hired Josie as an officer. He had retired as the chief three years ago after a hip replacement surgery and aching knees kept him from doing the job he expected of himself. Josie had applied for the job as chief with Otto’s encouragement and he had been quick to accept her as his boss when she received the promotion.

Marvin Levin hopped out of the ambulance already sweating heavily in his EMS uniform. He had a paunch, and walked as if his belly slowed him down and annoyed him. He left the engine running and went directly to the back of the unit and opened the double doors.

Otto and Josie climbed out of the jeep and opened both back doors. Josie helped Marvin roll the stretcher over to the jeep.

“Fill me in,” Marvin said, already looking into the backseat.

“A female, twenty-two years old. Possible heatstroke,” Josie said.

Josie helped Marvin pull the girl out of the backseat and lay her on the stretcher. Marvin strapped her body down, and they rolled her back to the ambulance and slid her inside. He climbed into the back and started preparing IV fluids as Josie explained what she knew.

“I found her a quarter mile east of here. Passed out. She’s unresponsive. Won’t take any water.” Josie watched Marvin slide the needle smoothly into Cassidy’s arm and get the fluid dripping into her body. “She hasn’t opened her eyes since I got here.”