my free hand uselessly over my head, preparing for my final moment and mentally saying goodbye to everyone I loved.
Chapter Four
"I think they're gone," whispered the little boy, tugging on my sleeve.
I peeled my head off the floor, noticing his mother did the same as the boy blinked before going wide-eyed. As I looked around cautiously, I knew he was right. The robbers were gone. The door they took the bank manager through was tightly closed behind them. I took a few more cautious glances before I risked sitting up fully.
"They're gone," I called out to everyone before I checked the injured cop. My hand slipped off his shoulder but he managed to cover the wound with one of his pale hands. He was conscious, his breathing somewhat stable, and he gave me a feeble smile.
"Where is everyone?" he asked, a frown spreading across his damp forehead. I knew he meant the emergency services. No sirens wailed, no one yelled through a loudspeaker for the robbers to give themselves up, and no phones rang. No one rushed into the bank with their weapons drawn either.
"That's a good question," I asked. With my free hand, I pulled out my phone, dialing 911 as some of the group darted toward the main entry doors.
"911, what's your emergency?" came the voice on the line.
"This is Lexi Graves. I'm at First Eastern Bank. There's been a robbery."
"A what now?"
"A bank robbery. Send all the first responders! And put a rush on an ambulance. There's an officer down!" I said in disbelief. How could the dispatcher not know? Surely someone must have seen the robbers entering or leaving? I expected someone must have pressed the security buzzer by now. The dispatch control room had to be humming with the news.
"We have no reports of any robbery in progress," said the operator. "I do have confirmation of an alarm test being conducted at the bank with a note not to respond."
"Are you kidding me?" I frowned hard, utterly perplexed. "I'm in the bank now and I'm telling you a robbery was just committed. The robbers just escaped and I fear they took the bank manager as a hostage. Make sure to inform Lieutenant Garrett Graves too. I'm his sister."
"Is this a... okay, I have some other reports coming in now," she said, her voice just as confused as mine. I glanced around. Yes, other people were on their phones and the tellers were starting to rise on the other side of the glass screen. "Help is on the way, ma'am."
I disconnected my call to concentrate on keeping pressure on the cop's wound as his hand began to falter. "You're Lieutenant Graves's sister?" he asked, pushing his head up to get a better look at me.
"I am," I confirmed.
"The Graves are practically a police dynasty in Montgomery."
"Kind of." I shrugged. It was hard to calculate an exact figure of how many relatives were serving members on the force, and even more who were retired, including my father. Not all of us were surnamed Graves — my mom was an O'Shaughnessy prior to marriage — but if you threw a stone at a police function, you were almost certain to hit someone with, or related to, Graves' blood.
"Are you on the force too? You don't look familiar." He squinted like he was trying to place me.
"Nope," I said. "Put your head back on the ground and try to relax."
Within minutes, the wail of sirens reached me. The crowd that ran to the main entry now had the last stragglers joining them before they hammered on the closed glass doors with their fists and pulled on the handles. The doors remained wedged shut. Only me, the cop, the security guard, and the mom and boy were left in the middle of the room, watching the madness expand around us.
"Are you a doctor?" asked the boy, watching me intently.
"No. Are you?" I asked.
"No," he said. "I'm seven."
"You're very brave for a seven-year-old. What's your secret?"
He thought about it. "I guess it doesn't make sense not to be."
I nodded. "That's pretty smart thinking."
"She's a nurse," said his mom. "The lady said so, remember?"
"That was a lie," I told them, shrugging. "I figured they wouldn't check."
The little boy glanced at the man and screwed his face up in thought. "That seems like an okay lie," he decided. "Is he gonna die?" he asked, watching the cop more intently now.
"No," said the cop. "It's just going to suck for a while. I'm Officer