An EMT truck arrived and parked next to Gazarra. Cops were directing traffic, securing the area, shouting over the static and chatter of the dispatch radio.
'It's uncanny the way you stumble into this stuff,' Morelli said.
'It's creepy.'
Grandma was standing behind us. Two disasters in one day,' she said. 'I bet its a personal record.'
'Not even close.' Morelli said. His eyes settled on my sports bra, I like the new look.'
1 used my T-shirt as a compress.'
Morelli removed his shirt and draped it around my shoulders.
'You feel cold.'
That's because my heart stopped pumping blood about ten minutes ago.' My skin was pale and clammy, and my forearms were goose-bumpy. 'I need to get back to my parents' house and have some dessert.'
'I could use some dessert, too,' Grandma said. 'Probably they don't have the lid up on Lorraine, anyway.' She turned to Sally. 'I know I promised you a good time at the funeral parlor, but it didn't work out. How about some dessert instead? We got chocolate cake and ice cream. And then we can send you home in a cab. My son-in-law drives a cab sometimes, so we get a break on the rates.'
'I guess I could eat some cake,' Sally said. 'I probably burned off a couple hundred calories just now from fright.'
Morelli buttoned me into his shirt. 'Are you going to be okay to drive?'
'Yeah. I don't even feel like throwing up anymore.'
'I need to check on a few things here, and then I'll follow you over.'
My mother was on the front porch when we arrived. She was rigid with her arms crossed over her chest and her lips pressed tight together.
'She knows,' Grandma said. 'I bet the phone's been ringing off the hook.'
'How could she know?' Sally asked. 'We were way across town, and it's been less than an hour, start to finish.'
'The first call always comes from Traci Wenke and Myron Flatt on account of they listen to the police band on their radios,'
Grandma said. 'And then Elsa Downing probably called. She finds out early because her daughter works as a dispatcher. And I bet
Shirley called to see if she could drop the kids off so she could go to the hospital.'
I parked the Buick, and by the time I got to ray mother her face was white, and I expected steam to begin curling out of her ears at any moment. 'Don't start,' I said. `I'm not talking about it until I've had some cake.'
My mother wheeled around without a word, marched to the kitchen, and sliced me a wedge of cake.
I followed after her. 'Ice cream,' I said.
She scooped half a tub of ice cream onto my plate. She stepped back and looked at me. 'Blood,' she said.
'Not mine.'
She made the sign of the cross.
'And I'm pretty sure Eddie's going to be okay.'
Another cross.
There'd been places left at the table for Grandma and me. I took my place and shoveled in cake. Grandma brought an extra chair from the kitchen for Sally and bustled around filling plates. The rest of the family was silent at the dining-room table. Only my father was active, head down, forking up chicken and mashed potatoes. Everyone else was frozen in their seats, mouths open, eyes wide, not sure what to make of me with the blood on my shirt
... and Sally in his earrings.