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Caleb nodded. “Behind the counter. Under the register.”
She pushed herself to her feet and ran around the counter. Elyse was talking into her cell phone, giving the address of the coffee shop to the 911 operator. She stepped back so Penny could reach the red plastic case under the counter. Frantically, Penny dropped to her knees and tore through it, sifting through the Band-Aids and alcohol swabs until she found a small packet of aspirin. “Here!” She stood and tossed it to Caleb.
He caught it and tore it open with his teeth. “George, I need you to chew this up and swallow it, okay? You think you can do that?”
George gave a weak nod, and Caleb lifted his head a little as he slipped the tablet into his mouth. George grimaced as his jaw worked. When he’d swallowed, Caleb gently laid his head back down.
“Ambulance is on its way,” Elyse said, the phone still pressed to her ear.
“Tell them it’s a probable heart attack,” Caleb said.
George’s eyes fluttered closed as Penny crouched beside him again and squeezed his hand. “George?”
Caleb reached up to pat George’s cheek. “George, wake up. Can you hear me? I need you to keep your eyes open if you can.”
George’s eyes opened halfway, and Penny let out a relieved breath.
“There you go,” Caleb said, sounding impressively calm. “Concentrate on my voice, okay? I need you to stay awake for me.”
George’s mouth moved like he was trying to talk, but no sound came out. His hand felt cold and clammy in Penny’s.
She rubbed it between her palms, trying to warm it up. “Don’t worry, George, you’re going to be fine. The ambulance is on its way. They’re going to take good care of you.”
George’s hand squeezed hers weakly, then went limp as his eyes rolled back in his head.
“George!” Caleb slapped his cheek lightly, trying to rouse him. “George, open your eyes!”
George’s eyes stayed closed this time.
Caleb pressed his ear to George’s chest. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?” Penny asked as Caleb positioned his hands over George’s heart and started doing chest compressions. Panic sliced through her gut. Had his heart stopped? Was he breathing? Oh, God—was he dying?
Her Girl Scout troop had taken a CPR class when she was in middle school. It was so long ago, she’d forgotten most of it, but she remembered the instructor telling them to time chest compressions to the beat of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees.
It was all she could think about as she watched Caleb bounce up and down, pressing on George’s chest at a hundred beats per minute, in perfect time with the song in her head.
One. Two. Three. Four. Staying alive. Staying alive.
One. Two. Three. Four…
Oh God, please let him stay alive.
The next few minutes felt like an eternity. Penny and Elyse watched in anguished silence as Caleb performed CPR. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, and Penny wiped it away with her sleeve before it could fall into his eyes.
How long could he keep this up? How long did George have?
Where is the ambulance?
Finally, she heard a siren in the distance. It gradually grew louder and louder, until it was so loud it hurt her ears. A heavy diesel engine rumbled outside. Flashing red lights shined through the window, and the engine and siren cut out at once, leaving an unsettling silence in their wake.
Penny got to her feet as the paramedics came through the door.
“We’ve got him now,” one of them said, laying a hand on Caleb’s back. “I’ll take over.”
Caleb stood up and stepped back so they could work. “He started having angina about fifteen minutes ago and took one of the nitroglycerin pills in his pocket. A few minutes later he collapsed, and I gave him 325 milligrams of aspirin. I started chest compressions when he lost consciousness.”
“How long’s he been down?” one of the paramedics asked as he inserted an IV needle into George’s arm.
