The View from Alameda Island - Robyn Carr Page 0,119

of the gun to his right temple.

“No!” Beau shouted, flying the few long steps across the great room to tackle Brad, knocking the gun away from his temple. They wrestled for control of the gun for a moment and then there was a loud pop. A full two seconds passed as Beau and Brad struggled. Then Beau slid to the floor, a growing river of blood running from the left side of his chest. His eyes were open in shock, his lips parted in a soundless cry.

“Beau!” Lauren screamed, running to him. She knelt on the floor and lifted Beau’s shoulders, holding him in her arms.

Brad, still hovering over them, just looked down at them.

“Help him! Brad! Help him!”

Brad just stood there, watching. A dazed look on his face.

Lauren pressed down on the wound with her hand as she stared up at Brad. She finally heard sirens, but they weren’t close enough. “Brad,” she said calmly. “If you help him, I will come home. We can put it back the way it was.”

Brad went to the kitchen, came back with a towel. He knelt on Beau’s other side, pressing the towel to Beau’s upper chest. The gun lay on the carpet and Brad went into his clinical mode. The police kicked the door and rushed in, weapons drawn. “We need medical,” Brad shouted. “We’ve had a shooting accident. He’s losing blood but he’s still conscious. Bullet to the upper left quadrant. It’s still in there.”

“How did this—” one of the officers attempted.

“I’m a surgeon,” Brad said. “We can get ahead of this. I’ll call ahead for a surgery setup.”

Lauren leaned over Beau, grateful to feel his breath on her face. “Stay with me,” she whispered. “It’s going to be all right.”

Paramedics arrived less than two minutes later, the police confiscated the gun from the floor. Then there was a great deal of commotion while the medics started an IV, packed the wound, applied a bandage and got him on the gurney. “I’m going with him,” Lauren said to the paramedics. “My ex-husband isn’t a practicing surgeon—take this man to the nearest suitable hospital.”

“We’re going to Alameda,” one of them said. “Go, go, go.”

“Wait,” Brad yelled. “Lauren! You’re coming with me!”

She stopped and turned to stare at him. Her clothes were stained with Beau’s blood. “God have mercy on your soul,” she said to Brad. “He’s the shooter,” she said to the police. Then she turned and jogged after the gurney.

“Wait!” Brad called. “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked the police. “Hey, Lauren! Tell them it wasn’t my fault!”

But Lauren got into the ambulance with Beau. She leaned her forehead against his and her tears fell on his face.

“Hey,” he said. “Hey, don’t be scared. I’m okay.”

“I think we’re okay, ma’am,” the paramedic said. “Missed his heart, lung and vital artery. Some worry about the condition of his shoulder...”

“You have to be okay,” she said.

* * *

Lauren had been aware of the gun, but ironically it had never interfered in her life or in her conflicts with Brad. Their house was burglarized years ago and Brad decided he wanted a gun for protection, but he had little interest in it. He was not a gun lover. He was not a shooting enthusiast. In fact, he probably hadn’t cleaned or fired the weapon in years. She found that to be a slight miracle.

Brad was not arrested immediately. The police interviewed Lauren while she was at the hospital waiting for Beau’s surgery to be completed, but they had the dispatcher’s tape of her 911 call. Since she’d left the line open the conversation between Brad and Lauren was recorded. After the completion of Beau’s surgery, Beau told them that it was true, he had intervened in Brad’s suicide attempt. “Because I didn’t even think,” Beau said. “You don’t want anyone to do that to himself, right? I just reacted.”

“If I’d lost you, I think it would have killed me,” she said.

“But you didn’t and I have no regrets. Since I met you, I’m even more aware of how precious life is.”

Brad was arrested and booked. The charges were murky because the worst thing he had done was violate an order of protection and point the gun at Lauren. In a split second, the result of that could have been catastrophic. But it was clear that Brad had snapped. Lauren learned that as they booked him he kept carrying on about being a surgeon, a well-known surgeon with many friends in high places.