Did he get my piece?"
"I don't know yet."
"Hold on, Lieutenant. I'm going to get these cuffs off." Phoebe didn't know who spoke from behind her, kept her eyes trained on Liz. "I need you to take my statement. I want you to take it." "That's what I'm going to do."
Phoebe couldn't stop the sharp indrawn breath as the cuffs slipped off, or bite back the whimper when she moved her arms. "I don't think they're broken. I don't think anything's broken." She clutched the jacket to her breasts even as someone wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. "Can you help me sit up?"
"Maybe you should stay down until-"
There was a rush of footsteps, and a shout. Then Dave was kneeling beside her. "What happened? Who did this?"
"I didn't see him. He caught me in the stairwell. He put something over my head." Tears slid down her cheeks to sting the abraded skin. "I think he got my weapon."
"I'm going to get her statement, Captain, if that's clear with you. I'll go with the lieutenant to the hospital and get her statement."
"Yes." But he gripped Phoebe's hand as if he couldn't bear to let go. "Don't call my family. Captain, please don't call them."
He gave her hand a squeeze, pushed to his feet. "I want this building searched, floor by floor. This is red status. Nobody comes in or out without a search. I want the whereabouts of every cop and civilian in this building accounted for."
"It wasn't a civilian, Captain." Phoebe spoke quietly as his furious face turned toward her. "It was one of us."
It all blurred, but Phoebe counted that as a blessing. The paramedics, the ambulance, the ER. There were a lot of voices, a lot of movement, more pain. Then less, blessedly less. She let herself drift while people poked and prodded, lifted. While cuts and scrapes were treated, she kept her eyes closed. When pieces of her were X-rayed, she shut down her mind.
There would be tears, she knew. There would probably be floods of them, but they could wait.
Liz stepped into the exam room. "They said you wanted to talk to me now."
"Yeah." Phoebe sat on the exam table. Her ribs ached, that rottedtooth throb she already knew would give her trouble for days if not weeks. But the sling around her arm eased the pain in her shoulder. "Mild concussion, bruised ribs, sprained shoulder."
Liz stepped closer. "Nasty cut on your forehead and a shiner coming on. Split lip. Your jaw's swollen. Son of a bitch did some work on you."
"He didn't kill me, there's that."
"Always a plus. Your captain was in. He left after the docs gave him your status. I'm to tell you he'll come back to take you home when you're ready."
"It's better if he stays at the house, finds... I don't know what there'll be to find. I was coming down from my office to the conference room for my training session. That's habitual. I use the stairs habitually." "Claustrophobia? "
"No, vanity. I don't always have time to work out, so I go for the stairs instead of the elevator. He was waiting for me."
"You said you didn't see him."
"No." Cautiously, Phoebe touched her fingers to her face, just under her eye. She'd never had a black eye before, never appreciated how much it hurt. "I was going down pretty fast, and I caught just a blur of movement out of the corner of my eye-on the right. Thanks."
She took the ice bag Liz offered, laid it gently on the side of her face. "He had me before I could even turn my head, before I could reach for my weapon. He knew what he was doing. Disabled me immediately with the blow to the head. Rapped me face-first into the wall, stunned me. Taped my mouth and cuffed me quick. He's used cuffs before. Anticipated my defensive moves, such as they were, and had the hood on me, or whatever it was."
"Laundry bag. It's in evidence. You're thinking you should have been quicker, fought harder. Don't."
"I didn't get a single lick in. I realize, intellectually, that I was stunned, physically outmatched, and still... My weapon?"
"It hasn't been recovered."
The look between them held for a long moment. It was a hard blow when a cop was disarmed. It was a harder one when the cop was female. "No one's going to blame you for that, Lieutenant. Not under these circumstances."
"Some will. You know it, I know it. He knows it. That's