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I showed my ID to the officers, and we strode through the side yard. The stepping stones had sunk into the soil drenched from the snowmelt. My lungs filled, but not to their depth, and it was difficult to breathe. I stopped and braced my hands on my knees.
“Hold on.”
Laura turned around and gripped me by the arm, trying to lift me, but I resisted.
“You’re not feeling well. Sit down.”
“No. Kensi.” I clenched my jaw.
Laura inhaled patience into her lungs and took me under my arm, helping me up. Stress and fatigue dripped down my back.
“That way.” I pointed to the mature maple. “That’s the treehouse.”
Halfway across the lawn, Laura let go of my arm and hurried ahead. The world spun around me and I couldn’t keep up with her pace, no matter how hard I pushed forward. I stopped again about a dozen feet away from the treehouse and braced my hands on my waist for a deeper breath. My lungs couldn’t fill. A low buzz pierced my ears. I lifted my head, watching Laura’s fading silhouette scale the steps to the treehouse, and blacked out.
CHAPTER 19
LAURA
Iclimbed up the steps to Kensi’s treehouse. The handful of warmer days on the east coast had melted the snow, erasing my daughter’s footprints. The air carried the smell of soaked wood and winter. Kensi’s treehouse bed had a pillow but was missing a blanket. I walked around the square space, dragging my fingers along the window seal, then the desk. Colored pencils and crayons lay scattered over the surface. Underneath them were pages of drawings of her family. I lifted a sheet from amongst the drawings where fluffy marshmallow clouds drifted away in the blue sky. Hurried hand strokes marked the corner of the page. My heartbeat strengthened.
I know where she is.
“James?”
I hurried out the door and down the steps, nearly tripping over my feet. James lay unconscious on the ground.
“James? Oh, my God! James!” I ran, stumbling over my feet. I dropped to my knees beside him and checked his pale skin for a pulse and lowered my face to his mouth.
He’s breathing.
“Help! Someone help! I need an ambulance.”
I checked his airways and the back of the throat but found no blockage.
“James? Can you hear me? You need to wake up, James.”
“Help!” I finally caught the attention of two paramedics and waved them down. “He’s breathing, but he’s unconscious. I don’t know what happened. He followed me to the treehouse but didn’t go up.”
“How long has he been unconscious?”
“Maybe… three minutes?”
They turned him over on his side and checked his airways again. James stirred and opened his eyes, disoriented. “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
“I don’t feel well. Dizzy. Very dizzy.” His eyes rolled back in their sockets.
“He looks very pale. He could be losing blood.”
“We’re close to the hospital, ma’am.”
Two more paramedics hurried toward us with a spine board. They strapped James in, gave him oxygen, and carried him to the ambulance. I watched as the medics drove away.
This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t lose him. My trip back home to find my daughter was turning into a nightmare. A stiff wind blew through the front yard, and I gripped Kensi’s drawing in my hand, realizing I hadn’t gone with James for a reason.
I hopped into his car, turned on the ignition, and drove to the Silver Securities building in Manhattan. I scanned into the building and took the elevator up to my office floor. It was the weekend, and no one else was there. I walked in quietly and swept through the space, slowly crossing the floor to the area with marshmallow pillows and beanbags stacked into a fortress by the window. The corner of a blanket stuck out from between the pillows. The first wave of relief hit me. The second one came when I saw the pillows move.
