“Vera?”
The woman stopped and raised both hands. “Stop. This was a mistake.”
Gretchen said, “No, it wasn’t a mistake. Whatever is going on, we can help you.”
Josie’s phone buzzed again with a call. Noah. She put her phone into her own jacket pocket and let it go to voicemail again. From where they stood, so close to the river, the sound of the current was even louder. Behind the barricades, it looked as though the water was flowing more quickly. Rain continued to splatter them, growing steadier by the moment. With every drop, Josie felt her heart sink even more. It would mean more flooding, more flash floods, more damage. But right now, she had to focus on Vera Urban.
Josie said, “Vera, you wouldn’t be here if you believed this was a mistake. You took a risk to meet us, didn’t you?”
The woman nodded. With the rain beading on her face, Josie wasn’t sure if she was crying or not, but her features twisted and a sob erupted from her throat. Then the concussive boom of a gunshot rang out and a dark red splotch bloomed across Vera’s stomach. She stumbled backward, hands reaching for something, face slack with shock, and fell.
Immediately, Josie ran toward her. Gretchen’s gun was already out and up as she panned it around them. Another shot shattered the air and a few feet away, a chunk of concrete burst from one of the barriers. “It’s coming from the building,” Gretchen shouted.
Flat on her back, Vera’s mouth worked like a fish out of water. “The—they—the—”
“Get her on the other side of the barricades,” Gretchen said, standing in front of them, gun pointed toward the bowling alley. Her right eye zeroed in on the iron sights of her Glock, but she didn’t take a shot. Josie moved around to the top of Vera’s head and hooked her arms under her armpits, dragging her behind one of the large concrete beasts. Gretchen followed and the two of them knelt down, pushing Vera as close to the barrier as they could so she wasn’t exposed. Another shot sailed over their heads.
“Put pressure on that,” Gretchen said, turning back toward the bowling alley, her gun ready. Another shot boomed, and they heard it hit the other side of the barrier. Josie’s ears rang. She took off her raincoat and bunched it up, pressing it to Vera’s abdomen.
Josie heard the familiar ringtone of Gretchen’s phone. Shouting to be heard over the aftershocks of the gunshots and the steady rumble of the river at their backs, Gretchen said, “It’s in my pocket. It’s gotta be Noah. Take it. We need units now.”
Josie kept one hand on Vera’s abdomen while the other plunged into Gretchen’s jacket pocket and pulled out the phone. She used her thumb to swipe answer but with the rain coming down, it took three tries on the slicked screen. “Noah,” she cried.
Vera’s hand gripped Josie’s shoulder. Her mouth worked again. Josie put her free ear down toward Vera’s face, trying to hear what she was saying. “Ple—please—”
In her other ear, Noah said, “Josie. Are you still on Lockwood? I’m on my way to you now. The railroad levee broke. With the thunderstorms overnight, it was too much. There’s going to be a big surge downriver. You should get out of there.”
The crack of another gunshot caused Vera to buck beneath Josie’s hand. Noah was saying something, but Josie couldn’t make it out. The rain fell harder. She felt something against her ankles and looked back to see that the surge Noah warned about was already happening. The water had been ten yards away only moments ago, and now it was at their feet. Panic squeezed at Josie’s heart. She had to stay calm. Focused. Noah was on the way.
“We’re pinned down,” she shouted into her phone, trying to be heard over the roar of the river. “Someone is shooting at us.”
“What? What the hell?”
“You need to call in extra units right now, and we need an ambulance right away. Do not approach alone and make sure you’ve got your vests on,” Josie told him. “We’re on the interstate. On the eastbound side behind the concrete barriers before the overpass. Vera—Alice—is wounded. Gunshot to the abdomen. She’s alive but I don’t know for how long.”
“Jesus, Josie—”
“Listen to me. Gretchen thinks the shooter is up near the bowling alley. Either inside the building or near it. I’m going to hang up. Call in extra units and approach with caution.”
As she put Gretchen’s phone into her pocket, she heard a siren in the distance. Her heart leapt at the thought that backup was so close, but then she realized it was just the fire company’s emergency siren. The river was about to ravage the city again, and Josie and Gretchen were in its maw, being shot at while trying to keep a wounded woman alive.
Twenty-Six
Gretchen retreated and pressed her back against the barrier, gun still at the ready. “There’s nowhere for us to go,” she said. Water now lifted Vera from her place on the ground. Josie slipped an arm beneath her head to keep her from dropping beneath the surface. “We’re about to go downriver whether we like it or not,” she warned.
“We can’t leave this position,” Gretchen said. “If we come out from behind the barriers, we’re sitting ducks. We can’t do it.”
Vera’s face was deathly white now, her mouth closed and her eyelids hooded. “I don’t think we can move her,” Josie said. Water swirled powerfully around her shins. “But we’re about to get swept away.”
She tried to keep pressure on the wound and keep Vera’s head out of the water, but it was a losing battle. Blood trickled from beneath her raincoat. “I haven’t heard a shot for a while,” Josie said. “Maybe they left. We should move her to the other side. Onto the highway, away from the water.”
Gretchen shook her head. “We can’t. If you’re wrong—”
Another shot boomed. They felt it slice the air just over their heads. Josie threw herself down over Vera, hugging the woman to her. She felt Gretchen’s hand on her shoulder. Her voice trembled when she said, “Boss, look.”
Josie turned her head, looking upriver to see the water level rising rapidly. They had only moments before a rush of churning, brown river swept them away. Noah and the rest of the cavalry would never make it in time to stop the shooter and come for them. It took a split second for Josie to make the decision. “Hold her,” she told Gretchen, lifting Vera toward her. Gretchen kept her gun pointed skyward and slipped her other arm under Vera’s lolling head. Josie stood, keeping her upper body bent so she couldn’t be seen over the top of the barrier, and pulled off her boots, tossing them into the water. Then she unzipped her jeans, peeling them off. Gretchen looked at her with wide eyes. “Boss, I don’t think this is the time—”
“Watch,” Josie shouted at her. The water was knee level now. She tied the pant-legs together. Holding the waist of the jeans, she flapped them, trapping air inside the legs. As fast as she could, she bunched and tied off the waist area. The pant-legs were fat with air. Josie said, “Help me,” as she tried to slip Vera’s head between them. Gretchen helped work Vera’s head through the inflated pant-legs so that the jeans acted as a flotation device. Then she let herself fall back into the rising water. A moment later, her boots bobbed to the surface and floated away. Then came her jeans. Josie kept one hand on Vera while Gretchen tied her own pant-legs together. She couldn’t get the air into the top, so she took hold of Vera while Josie did it.