“Amber!”
The moan came again.
Decker ran down the hall and opened the bathroom door.
Amber was lying on the floor in her nightclothes.
As Decker knelt down next to her, she stopped breathing and went limp.
Decker started gagging again because the volume of gas in the bathroom was so high. He lifted herup and took her outside. Laying her on the porch, he started to perform CPR.
A few moments later he felt a presence next to him. It was Jamison.
“I’ve called 911,” she whispered, staring at her sister.
She knelt down and, synchronizing with Decker’s pushes on her sister’s chest, started blowing air into Amber’s mouth.
Finally, after about thirty excruciatinglylong seconds, Amber’s chest heaved up, air gushed out of her mouth, and she retched.
“Mommy!”
They turned to see Zoe racing out of the house. She dropped to her knees and hugged her mother.
“Mommy!”
Amber slowly put an arm around her daughter’s waist. She tried to sit up but Decker gently pushed her back down.
“No, just lie there. The ambulanceis on its way.”
It arrived a few minutes later and the paramedics put Amber on oxygen and loaded her onto a gurney. Jamison rode in the back with Zoe. Before the ambulance pulled away, a teary Jamison said, “Thank you, Amos.”
“Thanks, Amos,” said Zoe, still anxiously glancing at her mom.
Decker nodded, closed the ambulance doors, and stepped back as a gas companytruck pulled up along with a squad car.
Decker told them about the gas leak in the house and the men hurried around to the back to turn off the gas supply.
Decker recognized the police officer who approached as Officer Curry, the one who had responded when Decker had found the dead bodies.
“You okay?” asked Curry. “You look a little green.”
“I’m good.”
“Gas leak, huh?”
Decker looked at him. “Yeah.”
“That’s pretty unusual.”
“Yeah.”
One of the gas men came back around from the rear of the house and walked over to them looking grim.
“What is it?” asked Curry.
“Somebody tampered with the pressure valve going into the house,” said the man, shaking his head. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
“Yeah,” said Decker. “We are.”
“I wonder who would’ve done that?” said Curry.
“It might be a long list,” replied Decker.