Page 40 of Trail to Trouble

“Let’s get you to the hospital before Hunter’s siblings get here,” the chief said as he gestured for her to rise.

Pain ripped through her knee, and she wobbled. Chief wrapped his large hand around the upper part of her arm.

“I fell and hurt my knee.”

“We’ll get that looked at, too.”

The chief looked at the officer. “You follow up about Sebastián and call in Officers Hansen and Collins so we can do a briefing. I’ll take Hannah to the hospital. I’d like to think this shooting incident is...” The chief paused and looked back at the firefighter, “Matt, can you put your firefighters on alert to keep an eye out? Spread them out through town. Obviously, don’t say anything to alarm the citizens.”

“You got it,” Matt replied.

His firefighters?

She glanced at the man’s shirt.Chief Ganea.

Police Chief Ricco escorted her down a long, narrow hall and out the back door of City Hall. He opened the passenger door to an SUV squad detailed with the Iron City Logo and marked ‘Chief.’

She slid into the vehicle and then he did the same on the driver’s side.

“The hospital is only a few minutes away.”

She nodded.

The chief pulled up to the emergency entrance of the small hospital and escorted her into the building. Only one person occupied the waiting room. The older man looked up from the magazine he’d been reading.

“Hey, Chief,” he said, then inclined his head, “Miss.”

“Hi, Will,” the chief said.

“Hi,” Hannah replied.

She and the chief walked up to the reception desk.

“Hi, Gloria, can we get Hannah checked out? She hurt her arm and knee.”

“Sure thing. Come on back.”

The older woman wore pink scrubs with little clouds on them. Almost looked like pajamas.

The chief followed along but stopped at the doorway, not entering the examination room.

“I’ll be right outside the door if you need anything.”

She entered the room with Gloria.

“Alright. Let’s see what we have going on here,” Gloria said.

At Hannah’s hesitation, the woman smiled and spoke again. “I’m an RN. I was just covering the desk for a moment. Jackie should be back there already. She just needed to step away for a moment. She’ll get your information when we’re done here.”

The nurse looked at her knee and felt around it a bit while asking questions. It still hurt, but was already feeling better. Probably just scraped and bruised.

“I think it’s just bruised. Good mobility. Let’s look at your arm.”

She pulled the butterfly bandage off that Chief Ganea had put on her.

“Oh yeah. We’re going to need to clean and stitch it up.”

She grabbed a thick gauze square from a drawer and held it to the wound with one hand as she picked up the phone receiver with the other.