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She needed to do something for Kim.
She needed to get help.
Her phone. She needed her phone. She had put it in her pocket when she’d gotten out of the car, and she found it there after a few more painful seconds of fumbling. She had to hang up twice, her adrenaline-fueled body unable to dial the numbers. It was supposed to be simple, so simple even a child could do it, but her irritation with herself grew as her shaking fingers couldn’t handle the task.
It rang, finally, on the third time. Once. Twice. Again. How long was she supposed to wait before someone answered the damn phone? It was supposed to be for emergencies, and this was an emergency.
“Answer the phone, goddamn it!”
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“It’s—oh God.” Eloise’s voice broke, a choked sob coming out instead of an answer as she tried and failed to control her breathing. “She’s dead.”
“Can you tell me what happened and where you are? Do you need an ambulance?” The voice on the phone was calm but it felt like they were speaking to her from somewhere far away, the questions blurry and uncertain.
“She’s—” Eloise fought down the urge to vomit again. She had to do this. Had to do it for Kim. Had to get help. “My friend. She’s dead. I think … I think she was strangled.”
“Okay, take a deep breath for me. Can you tell me where you are?”
“Sun Valley Financial. The headquarters building. I found her. She’s on the sidewalk leading up to the employee entrance. You can’t see it from the parking lot or the road.”
“Thank you. I’m pulling up the address now and I’m going to send help. The ambulance and police are on their way. Take some more deep breaths for me, okay? Can you start CPR?”
“What?” Eloise shook her head and then remembered the operator couldn’t see her over the phone. “No, I— She was cold and blue. Just staring at me. And she’d been strangled, I could see … I could see the bruises. I was scared and I ran back to my car. There was no one else around and I didn’t know … What if he’s still out there?”
“Okay, honey. Are your doors locked?”
“Yes.” Her teeth were chattering and her hands were still shaking but she double checked the door locks just to be sure.
“Can you listen for the sirens? You said they wouldn’t be able to see her from the road and we want to get help to her as quickly as possible. Can you come out when the ambulance gets there and help them find her?”
“I can,” Eloise agreed. “I just … I’m afraid whoever hurt Kim …”
“I understand, and I’ll stay on the line with you until the first responders arrive.”
“Thank you.” There was nothing for several minutes, just the quiet inside the car and the sound of rain as it fell on the asphalt, and the rhythm of their breathing. “I hear the sirens,” Eloise said, breaking the quiet and feeling some of the tension drain out of her. “Someone’s here.”
“Good,” the voice on the line replied. “Can you help them? I’ll stay on the line until they see you.”
“Yes.” Eloise opened the door and clutched the phone as she jogged back around toward the building, to where the ambulance could see her when she waved her arms. “They see me.”
“That’s excellent. Don’t worry, honey, they’ll take care of you now.”
Eloise hoped that was true, but even that seemed like far too little when her friend lay dead and unmoving on the sidewalk and there was nothing anyone could do to take it back. “Over here,” she yelled. She knew she must look like a wild animal, wet and muddy and panicked, but the cop that pulled in first didn’t seem at all fazed by her disheveled appearance.
“Ma’am?” He glanced her way and she stopped where she was when his hand settled on the butt of his gun. “Did you call the police?”
“Yes,” she was bouncing on the balls of her feet, restless and frustrated when the ambulance didn’t immediately arrive. “I think she’s dead and someone has to come and help her.”
“I understand. We’re just going to make sure the area is safe and then we’ll let the ambulance in to help her, okay?”
Eloise nodded and followed their instructions to wait by the car. They stopped briefly at Kim’s body, leaning over and checking for a pulse before moving on. It didn’t take long for them to search the immediate area, and she watched the ambulance roll in only a few minutes later.
She watched and chewed anxiously on her thumbnail as the EMTs did their work. They leaned close to examine her but in the end they didn’t do CPR or load her in the back of the ambulance. It confirmed what she already knew. Kim was well and truly gone before any of them had even known she was there. No miracle of medicine was coming to save her. It was already too late.
“Hey, what the hell is going on out here?”
Eloise looked up, surprised and confused, as Sarah and Chloe were both stopped by the police when they tried to leave the building. Sarah was being pushy, insisting they couldn’t keep her inside against her will and Chloe was trying to peek around the officers and find out what was going on.
