The Mountain Midwife Read Online Free PDF Page A

turned off the set. “But I can see why he’s a sensation.”
    Jason groaned. “Not you too. All the women at the station are drooling. I think he looks like a nerd.”
    “He does, but he also looks . . .” Ashley paused to think of the right word.
    The roar of a car engine and crunch of gravel in the drive announced the arrival of someone. Many someones, judging from the number of slamming doors and voices too loud for the quiet night. Fortunately, her nearest neighbor lay a quarter mile away. Unfortunately, this was likely the tech guys from the state police, and she would not be able to go to bed for a couple of hours before her workday began.
    “Kind.” Ashley finished her thought, then pushed away from the wall and made more coffee. May as well tank up. The techs rapped on the back door, and by the time Jason let them in and they began to swarm into the kitchen, she had set out napkins and disposable coffee cups beside the carafe on the table. The sweet tangle of blueberries and cinnamon wafting from the oven announced that the muffins would be warm enough to eat in mere minutes.
    The men stopped and sniffed appreciatively. The state guys gave the coffee longing glances but set to work taking pictures, dusting for fingerprints, and collecting blood samples.
    Jason returned to the table. “Sit down, Ash. Let’s go over everything one more time.”
    “Let me get these muffins out of the oven first.” She opened the oven door, and her mouth began to water at the richness of cinnamon and brown sugar steaming into the air.
    Behind her, someone moaned.
    Smiling for the first time since the strange man and terrified young woman had stumbled through her door, Ashley slid the muffins onto a plate and set them on the table. “Help yourselves.”
    Jason did. The others cast longing glances at the pastries, then continued their work.
    “You can take them with you if you like.” Ashley peeled the paper off a muffin and took a healthy bite. Chewing and swallowing gave her a moment to think about what she had already said to Jason and how to begin again.
    “I’m recording this.” Jason set a digital recorder on the table. “Today is October twenty-second . . .” He continued with establishing time, date, and place, then turned the mic her way. “Go.”
    “From where?”
    “Start with what time they rang your doorbell and why you let them in.”
    In her examination room, something rattled and thudded.
    Ashley winced at the sound and the absurdity of Jason’s question. “It was just past midnight, and why wouldn’t I let them in? I knew at once that the girl was in labor. Her contractions were coming close together and her water had broken.”
    “How did you know—” Jason stopped at the look of disgust Ashley shot him. He shrugged. “I forget how highly trained you are.”
    “I took her back here to the exam room and . . .” She progressed through the series of events right up to the truck roaring up her drive and chasing the man, woman, and baby off in their vehicle.
    “He came within a foot or two of hitting me, and that was because I heard him coming and jumped out of the way.” She shuddered in recollection. “Did you get tire tracks?”
    “Not good ones. You must have just laid down a new pile of gravel. Most of the tracks were obliterated by the stuff sliding back into the depressions.”
    “Preparing for the winter.” Aware of silence, she turned to see the crime scene techs standing behind her, their equipment packed up, their faces grim.
    “Why so much blood?” one of them asked.
    “She was bleeding more than normal.”
    She could have begun to hemorrhage again at any moment, especially with being moved so roughly, so soon.
    The rest of Ashley’s muffin turned to goo in her hand. “I left to call the hospital to warn them I was bringing her in and . . . the man took off with her and the baby. I’m sure they were running from whoever was in that other truck.”
    “Was she still alive