Precinct 11 - 01 - The Brotherhood Read Online Free PDF

can imagine from a doctor like myself. But, sir, I must tell you that if I were in your shoes—and I say this with all the compassion in my heart—I would pray that my wife did not survive her injuries.”
    “What?”
    “Please hear me out. The medical team working on her even as we speak, to a person, has never seen a worse burn case. The only part of her body not virtually destroyed is her upper torso and chest, where she pressed your son to herself. I don’t know how much you know about how burns are rated, but your wife suffered what we call fourth-degree, full thickness burns over every exposed surface of her body, reaching to her fascia, muscle, and even bone.”
    “But she’s alive.”
    “She is barely alive, Boone. But I confess it would not surprise me to hear any moment that she has expired.”
    “Then why can’t I see her?”
    “An entire team is doing everything they can, sir. If by some miracle she would survive even twenty-four hours, at the very least her extremities would have to be amputated, possibly even all four entire limbs. Her spinal cord is exposed, her hair and scalp are gone, her face was burned off. If God should choose to spare her, she would need constant care, and there would be virtually no quality of life as we know it.”
    “Can she see? speak?”
    “She has lost her eyes, Boone. There is some chance that what they are doing now to her throat and larynx would allow you to understand her, if she were lucid. As you can imagine, she is so heavily sedated that communication would be impossible for quite a while. She would not likely be aware you were even there, and of course you would not be able to touch her.”
    “I just want to be with her before she dies. She’s going to die soon, isn’t she?”
    “That’s likely. Now unless you have any other questions, let me go and check on her, and I’ll make sure you know as soon as you can see her.”
    As the doctor left, Keller returned. “I talked to CFD. I’ll tell you what they told me, as much as you want to know.”
    “I want it all, Jack.”
    Keller looked to the pastor, who shrugged. “It’s up to Boone.”
    “Are you sure, buddy?” Keller said. “It’s not pretty.”
    “I’m about to lose my whole family. I have to know why.”
    Keller peeked at his notebook. “The garage will have to be rebuilt, but they were able to save the house. . . .”
    “I don’t care about the stinkin’ house. I couldn’t live there anyway. What do they think happened?”
    “They have a pretty good account, actually, because of an old lady next door.”
    “Mrs. Gustavson?”
    “That’s the name. She says Nikki brought Josh home from the pool in the stroller and he was fast asleep. They chatted for a few minutes, and Nikki told her she was going to take him inside and put him down and then mow the lawn. She says Nikki said something about hoping the mower wouldn’t wake him.
    “Several minutes later, Nikki had the mower out and was having trouble starting it. She went into the garage for a can of gas, but when she went to fill the tank, she said it was already full. She found some switch that had to be flipped to start the thing.”
    “The gas line release,” Boone said.
    “Anyway, she put the can back inside the garage and started mowing. This woman, Gustavson, says it wasn’t five minutes later that she heard this horrible blast and the whole garage looked like a ball of orange, flames shooting out the utility door.”
    “How’d it get to Josh?”
    “Listen, Mrs. Gustavson said she stood up from her gardening and caught Nikki’s eye. As soon as Nikki let go of that mower—it must have an automatic shutoff—”
    “It does.”
    “—they heard screaming from the garage over the roar of the flames. She said Nikki didn’t even hesitate. She ran right into that fire, Boone. And then Mrs. Gustavson heard both of them screaming. She said Nikki was in there so long that she never expected to see either of them again.