Crowbones

CHAPTER 48

Aggie

Watersday, Novembros 3

Aggie fetched the bucket and set it beside the chair so that the Wallace doctor wouldn’t drop bloody bits on Miss Vicki’s carpet. Eddie slipped into the room with a clean basin and the kettle from the kitchen. Steam rose out of the kettle’s spout. He set the kettle on a mat Miss Vicki said was used for hot dishes, handed the basin to one of the EMTs, and slipped out again.

Aggie watched Jenna McKay pour hot water and some drinking water from a pitcher into the basin to wash her hands. She patted her hands dry with some toilet paper, then stood near the wall, watching the EMT humans assist the Wallace doctor while he put stitches into the Shuman guest.

Before all the medical humans arrived, the Shuman guest had bled a lot, and she’d wondered if he was going to die—and how she could snatch any of the best bits with so many humans in the room. Then Chief Grimshaw stepped into the room, and Aggie knew she’d missed her chance, because the Shuman guest hadn’t died, and now it looked like he wasn’t going to.

The medical humans put proper bandages over the wounds and helped the Shuman guest go up to his room, the Wallace doctor telling Grimshaw he would remain overnight to keep an eye on the patient and check vital signs.

She could have told the Wallace doctor that the terra indigene could check for these vital signs. Breathing, a human was still alive. Not breathing, the human was a snack.

Maybe there were more things to check? Maybe one of the young Sanguinati could shift into smoke form and slip into the room to see what the Wallace doctor considered vital and report back to the rest of them?

Once the medical humans left the room, Chief Grimshaw set the bucket with the bloody T-shirt and wads of toilet paper outside the room. Then he closed the door and stared at the remaining humans—just stared until someone knocked on the door and the other guests returned to the room.

“Peter Lynchfield died tonight,” Chief Grimshaw said, “and none of you are leaving this room until I know which one of you called him, because that person is morally responsible for his death.”

Aggie sucked in a breath and settled in a spot where she would have the best view to watch all the humans and try to spot clues, just like a civilian helper in the cop and crime shows.