Free Black Friday by Alex Kava Page A

things to do.” He stopped suddenly, turning to Nick and looking around to see if anyone was watching them. “Mr. Banoff convinced them that it’s to their benefit if we sift through the tapes. It’ll save time and we understand the equipment so we can pinpoint angles, views, etcetera.”
    Then Yarden wiggled a long, skinny index finger for Nick to come closer. “You do understand what Mr. Banoff means when he says sift , right?”
    For the first time since he entered the mall Nick’s stomach twisted a bit. He hated to think that his new employer was simply worried about covering his own liability at a time like this. Nick didn’t answer Yarden. He simply nodded.

CHAPTER
20
     
    “K eep her still. Can you do that?”
    “Yes,” Patrick told the large, black woman in the too-tight blue uniform.
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her purple latex-gloved hands, quick and expert fingers working on the wound in Rebecca’s arm.
    The wound looked deep. Really deep.
    No, he didn’t think keeping Rebecca still would be a problem. If anything he thought Rebecca looked too still. He wished she would say something, anything. Open her eyes for longer than a series of unfocused blinks.
    “We’re gonna need some plasma over here,” the woman yelled over her shoulder, making Patrick jump. She noticed him jump, but pretended not to. He appreciated that small gesture. Instead she continued to give him instructions.
    “And warm. You need to keep her warm,” she told him as she pointed with her chin at the blanket.
    He immediately pulled it up and started tucking it in along the sides of Rebecca.
    “You’re doing good,” the woman told him. “Real good.”
    He knew she was giving him things to do to keep him from going into shock, too. He wanted to tell her he was a volunteer with a fire department back home in Connecticut and had some experience with this kind of thing but just as he thought of it, he quickly dismissed it. He realized he didn’t have experience with anything at all like this. Not bombs going off. Not friends hurt and unconscious. It was different with Rebecca lying here.
    He had barely caught up with her, squeezing and shoving his way through a swarm of people trying to exit the mall. Rebecca had been tapping frantically at Dixon’s iPhone while being jostled about. One minute she was trying to tell him something, drowned out by the noise engulfing them and the next minute she was slipping down into the mob, like a swimmer being sucked up under a wave.
    He had to pull her up. She was faint and feverish, her eyes rolling back into her head. She grabbed onto his arm and her hand was filled with blood. He had already noticed the wound in her arm. Glass impaled the skin, too deep for him to pluck it out. He knew it would bleed even more if he did that. Somehow he had managed to separate her from the mob and get her to sit down before she collapsed completely.
    “You got that plasma?” the woman yelled again, startling Patrick again, but this time, at least, he didn’t jump.
    He watched her finish the last sutures.
    “Is she gonna be okay?” He knew it was a lame question but he needed to ask it anyway.
    “Of course she is.” But she didn’t look up at him, concentrating instead on the rhythm of her fingers. Her right hand sutured while her left hand dabbed at the blood. “Your girlfriend’s gonna be just fine.”
    Patrick opened his mouth to correct her but stopped himself. Rebecca wasn’t his girlfriend. She would have been the first one to protest if she could. Not because they didn’t like each other. It was an independence thing. At least that’s what she called it. She connected independence with being totally on her own. He actually got that. Understood it completely. Or maybe recognized it since it was close to his own philosophy, his own creed.
    That fierce independence was probably what connected them in the first place. Although Patrick didn’t refer to it as independence so much as a