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“You’re supposed to check the casualty isn’t breathing before you start CPR.”
“As I said, a bit too eager. She was too pretty to die.”
Ally folded her arms. “I hope you don’t have to consider the patient pretty enough to save their life.”
“Of course not, you’d be in trouble if that was the case.”
“I swear to God, Josh…”
He grinned, turning to Chad. “You’ll be fine, although I’ve never locked lips with a man, might be strange.”
Chad raised his eyebrow. “You might find you like it.”
“Fuck off.” Josh shoved him.
Ally snapped her fingers. “You do know rescue breaths aren’t an impromptu kissing session, right?”
Josh spun to face her. “Huh?”
“You don’t kiss the patient; you create a seal and breathe into their mouths.”
Josh pointed to Chad with his thumb. “What the hell is she on about?”
Ally groaned. “I’m going to speak to the DI.”
Chad winced when she slammed the door. He glanced up at Josh, still sporting a perplexed expression. “You do know how to perform CPR, right?”
The confusion vanished, and he shot Chad a smile. “Oh, yeah.”
“The swimming pool story?”
“That’s unfortunately true. She screamed, and for a few seconds I was proud of myself, thinking I’d bought her back to life.” He sighed, then dropped a hand on Chad’s shoulder. “Nice work.”
“Nice work?”
“You solved the case, and you saved Shawn’s life, all while you were suspended. You’re giving working detectives a bad name.”
“Why does it feel like I failed?”
“Take a look through that hospital window, and you’ll see you haven’t.”
Chad stared at his hands. “If I take a look, I’ll see a little brother who’s just lost his big brother, who’s not going to understand why his brother tried to kill him. If I look, I’ll see a mother, torn in two, one son alive, and the other dead, distraught, coming to terms with a horrible reality.”
“Okay … maybe we’ll leave visiting Shawn for a while.”
“I care about the victims, their families, their friends. We found the killer. We got the result, but why do I feel for Tate? Why is he the one on my mind? Why do I care more about him?”
Josh drummed his fingers on the desk. “This is deep, too deep for me. It’s Ally territory.”
“Ally has already made her feelings very clear on how I should feel about Tate.”
“I don’t think you care more about Tate than the victims, his death … it’s raw. You saw him alive, physically saw him, and then you saw him dead.”
“He looked peaceful in the car.”
“I don’t know why he did what he did, but I do remember that day we spoke to him at the station. He looked haunted, and the first question out of his mouth was whether the victims felt pain.”
Chad winced at a twinge in his neck. Josh slid along the desk, knocking papers on the floor. “I can sort the muscle ache for you.”
