Gated Prey (Eve Ronin #3)(38)

“Oh, thank God,” Lopez said. “I was in a panic. It’s not often we get a chance to save a life down here. It’s a miracle she didn’t bleed out.”

That was the second time someone had said that to Eve and she didn’t believe in miracles.

“Actually, there was no blood at all. We found her asleep in a clean bed.”

She got onto the eastbound Ventura Freeway and soon saw the ambulance ahead of her, getting off at the Valley Circle/Mulholland exit.

“Was there blood anywhere else?”

“Not that I saw.” She sped up behind the ambulance as it turned onto Valley Circle and stopped leaning on her horn, letting the ambulance and its siren clear the traffic ahead for them.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Lopez said.

“That’s what I thought, given what you told me. How did the paramedics miss the bits of the uterus and ovary in the placenta?”

“Their focus is saving lives and stabilizing patients until they can get to a hospital. They had no reason to examine the placenta, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have known what they were looking at. They don’t deliver many babies and they don’t have much experience identifying partial organs outside the body.”

Eve stayed glued to the ambulance, riding in its wake, north to West Hills Hospital. “There wouldn’t have been other signs that something was wrong?”

“This kind of injury during birth should have resulted in enormous blood loss at the scene, and there wasn’t. It appeared to the paramedics to be an ordinary stillbirth in all respects.”

“What does it appear to be now?”

“I’ll let you know after I finish the autopsy.” Lopez ended the call.

Eve was sure Lopez knew or suspected more than she was saying.

A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived at West Hills Hospital and the attendants wheeled Anna in, where they were met by an ER doctor and several nurses. One of the nurses was Lisa, Eve’s sister.

Lisa spotted Eve coming in and approached her. “I was afraid we’d see her back.”

“Why?” Eve asked, watching as the medical team wheeled Anna into an exam room.

“She wouldn’t give us the name of her obstetrician yesterday and she refused to be examined. She checked herself out right after Duncan left and took an Uber home.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“It’s not a crime to refuse an examination after giving birth,” Lisa said.

“In a situation like hers, is it unusual for a mother to walk out of the ER before an exam?”

“A woman who has experienced the trauma of giving birth at home to a stillborn baby isn’t in a position to make sound decisions, especially without a spouse, loved one, or friend with them to act as an advocate. They are all emotion, pain, and raging hormones. I don’t blame her for wanting to get out of here.”

Eve handed her Anna’s clothes and purse. “Here are some fresh clothes and her purse.”

Lisa took them. “Thanks. Wait here and I’ll let you know if she’s okay.”

Lisa went back to the exam room. Eve stepped to a quiet corner of the corridor to call Duncan.

He answered on the second ring. “Oversleep again? I need you down here. I’m at the breakfast buffet, but without you with me, I’m getting lots of dirty looks for filling my plate.”

“I’m at the ER with Mrs. McCaig.” Eve told him about the call from the deputy medical examiner and what happened at McCaig’s house. “I’ll be back as soon as I know what’s what.”

“I’ll let the captain know. Hold on a second.” Duncan spoke to someone else. “This isn’t for me. I’m taking this up to Eve Ronin in room 306. She’s having her period. Terrible cramps.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Nobody,” he said. “Bye.”

Eve pocketed her phone and turned to see Lisa escorting Anna, now in a hospital gown, to a restroom by gently holding her forearm.

Anna yanked her arm away from Lisa. “I can walk on my own.”

Lisa paused at the door. “I’ll be right out here if you need me.”

“I can piss on my own, too.” Anna went into the restroom and closed the door.

Lisa saw Eve watching and walked over to her. “Doctor Bradford from obstetrics is coming down to examine her.”

“She doesn’t look critically ill to me,” Eve said. “But I didn’t go to medical school.”

“Appearances can be tricky. We once had a lady calmly walk in here with an arrow in her head and she seemed just fine, too.”

“Except for the arrow,” Eve said.

“That was the giveaway,” Lisa said. “Not every patient has one.”

The door to the bathroom opened and Anna came staggering out, bleeding down her legs. Lisa and Eve rushed over to her.

Lisa held her firmly by one arm, Eve by the other, and called out to some orderlies for help.

“What happened?” Lisa asked Anna.

“I don’t know . . . something just burst inside.”

The orderlies rushed over with a gurney, lifted Anna onto it, and wheeled her back into the ER, Lisa hurrying alongside them.

Eve snatched a pair of plastic gloves from a box at the nurse’s station and went into the bathroom. There was blood on the toilet seat and on the linoleum floor. She crouched to get a closer look and spotted a bloody ballpoint pen on the floor beside the toilet.