Kendra into the living room and slammed the front door. “But be careful of the hands and lower body. You were limping a little when you were going from the car to the garage elevator.”
“Because I’m sore.” She headed for the bathroom. “I’m not like you. I’m not accustomed to jumping off fire escapes. It’s not in my job description.”
“Keep it like that,” Jessie said dryly. “Or get a hell of a lot more training. You almost got yourself killed.”
“It’s not as if I had a choice. I did okay.” She looked back over her shoulder. “I’ll be right out. Metcalf and Griffin should have reached that crime scene by now. Call Metcalf and get a report while I’m in the shower.”
Jessie nodded. “But I won’t be in a hurry. You might take a little longer than you think.” She made a shooing motion. “If you need me, give a shout.”
“I won’t. I’m fine.”
“Until the adrenaline runs out.” Jessie grinned. “I’ll make coffee. The caffeine will work as a substitute.”
Difficult, Kendra thought again as she carefully removed her clothes and got in the shower. Jessie was treating her like a child who needed a bodyguard. Well, maybe she had needed Jessie in that moment before she’d exploded into the factory. She was certainly grateful, but it was time for Jessie to back off and treat her with—
Shit!
Pain.
She fell back against the shower wall as the warm water hit her hands.
It took her a moment to get her breath before she held up her hands to look at them. Several cuts had lacerated both hands on the backs and the palms. The blood was running down her hands to her wrists, washed off by the water from the shower. The cuts didn’t look too deep, and she couldn’t see any glass shards. She was probably going to be fine, as she’d told Jessie.
But she’d have to go very slowly during this shower if she didn’t want to experience that agonizing pain again. She reached out and tentatively picked up the washcloth, then looked warily at the soap.
It was going to sting like hell.
Yes, definitely go very, very slowly…
* * *
“Go sit down over there at the dining table,” Jessie said when Kendra came back into the living room. “I need to watch you walk and then bandage those hands.” She was digging into her backpack and brought out a first-aid kit. “I gather from the length of time you were in that shower that I’m not going to have any trouble convincing you to let me do it.”
“No, that would be stupid. You told me once you were trained as an army medic. You know what you’re doing. But I don’t think there’s any glass in the cuts, they’re just painful.” She moved slowly across the room toward the table. “And the only reason I was limping is that my hip and buttocks hit that fire escape so hard. I have mega-bruises, but I’ll be fine tomorrow. The warm shower helped with that problem.” She sat down and looked up at Jessie. “Did you call Metcalf?”
Jessie nodded as she laid out the bandages and ointment on the table. “You gave me plenty of time. It seems that the perpetrators were gone from the factory by the time they got there.”
“Shit! I should never have left the scene.”
“Yes, you should.” Jessie was examining her left hand. “You weren’t in great shape. Besides, we couldn’t be sure that they were the only ones in that building.”
“I didn’t see anyone else.”
“You mean when you were sliding down the fire escape? I wouldn’t bet on your focus at the time. And I was a little busy, too. Anyway, they recovered the husband’s body and searched his apartment. They found all the items that had been taken from Elaine’s house except the camera. Maybe that was stolen.” She was examining Kendra’s other hand. “But between us we might have managed to spill enough of their blood to get a DNA profile to send to CODIS. That might help, and, if it doesn’t, you did get a good look at those two goons who are the prime suspects. You’d remember them.”
“It would be hard to forget them. I probably should go down to the FBI office and look at mug shots and have one of their artists draw—”
“Tomorrow,” Jessie said firmly as she started to clean and bandage her right hand. “I’ll take a few notes now and call Metcalf back if you come up with anything