Chapter 21
“Iknow CPR.”Sam tried to push past the obstacle of Walker’s arm while the cat dashed back down the stairs. “We should at least check hispulse.”
“It’s a potential crime scene,” Walker warned. “Stay there,” he said curtly, pointing at the stairs. “I’ll check.That’s a kerosene can besidehim.”
Astounded, Sam stayed put.Kerosene? That dazed old man had burned the cross? Had he intended to burn herhome?
She took Daisy’s artwork from Walker and set it aside on a mosaic table. So much for protectivespirits.
Or had the spirits stopped him? Maybe she was the one who needed to broaden herthinking.
Walker pulled out his radioand ordered an ambulance, then reached over to check the old man’s wrist. “It’s weak, but I think I feelsomething.”
“How long will it take for an ambulance?” she asked anxiously, helping him lay Xavier flat on the balcony. His green blazer hung loose on an almost skeletalframe.
“Too long. Run over to Cass’s.” Walker began compressions, counting out the pace. “There’s a nurse wholives up here somewhere. She’ll know. It might be diabetic shock for all weknow.”
“Why on earth would he be on my porch withkerosene?”
“Keep him alive, and we’ll ask,” Walker said grimly, pumping. “After you fetch Cass, find the evidence bags in my car. We need to bag up thatcan.”
Sam took his keys and ran down the stairs, but before she could cross the lawn, she saw Cass’sirregulars on the move. She opened Walker’s car and found what she hoped was an evidence bag as the women approached, then dashed back to the balcony to warn Walker. “Here comes the light brigade, right onschedule.”
While she bagged the can and Walker kept up the compressions, Sam called to the approaching crowd. “We need medical help. Walker says there’s a nursenearby?”
“I’llfetch her,” Mariah cried, peeling off from the pack and jogging down the path to the cottagesbelow.
“Who is it?” Cass demanded. She carried a large flashlight and led the way for theothers.
“Xavier Black. Does anyone know if he’s diabetic or has a heart condition? It will be a while before the ambulance arrives.” Sam eased to one side, allowing only Cass up the stairs before blockingthe others. The balcony wasn’tlarge.
Cass checked under Xavier’s eyelids, then called to the women milling about below, “Who has thenaloxone?”
“Crap,” Walker said, sitting back on his heels and turning Black on his side. “He’s anaddict?”
“Painkillers mostly,” Cass said crisply. “He self-medicates but usually not to thisextent.”
“I won’t ask how you come to havethe antidote,” Walker saidgrimly.
One of the older women ran up the stairs and handed over a box that Sam passed on to Walker, who seemed to know how to handle the nasal spray. Xavier coughed briefly but didn’t regainconsciousness.
Walker took his pulse. “Stronger. Give it five minutes to kick in. Anyone know why he was on Sam’sporch?”
“He’s kind of been hanging aroundme a bit,” Sam said, fretting at her bottom lip. “I had the feeling he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. I really didn’t sense any harm in him.” Of course, he hadn’t been carrying kerosene at thetime.
Cass muttered an unladylike expletive and gestured at her audience. “You’d best all go home before the policearrive.”
Amazingly, they did as told. Wide-eyed, Samwatched everyone depart, chattering. “Police?” she asked. “Walker is the law up here. Why would they need anyoneelse?”
“I’m off duty,” Walker reminded Cass. “I didn’t ask for back up, and no one is likely to be here until morning, when the sheriff heads for the lodge. A drug overdose won’t rate suspicion,yet.”
He checked his watch and Xavier’s pulse again. The old man seemed tobestirring.
Ignoring them, Cass lowered herself to the top step. Emma arrived to bat her furry head against Cass’s leg until she was petted. Worried, Sam glanced from Walker and the unconscious man on her doorstep, to her great-aunt, who looked wornthin.
“You know something,” Sam concluded. She sat cross-legged on the only space remaining between Walker and Cass. She’d hoped tohave Walker naked and in her bed about now. He sent her a glance that probably meant he was thinking the same thing. That revived her alittle.
“I really haven’t given any of this enough thought,” Cass said. “Mariah dumped the announcement on us that the Kennedys are going through with the construction we thought we’d stopped all those years ago. I never wanted to look for the names ofpeople who were here when your father died. It would have stirred up all those old ghosts. Most of the people involved are gone, foreclosed on, dead, retired—there just aren’t that many of us left. It didn’t seemrelevant.”
