“No,” one of the EMTs said, and took the oxygen mask from Cliff Gates. “You’ve got to stay away from the ear.” Estelle felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. “Get me an ear cup,” Nina said. In a moment they had secured the padded plastic cup-nothing more than half of a set of inexpensive earphones-over Carmen’s left ear, sheltering the handle and stem of the pin from contact. With that taped securely in place, they lifted Carmen off the bed in slow motion, ten hands working in concert so that the position of her body didn’t shift.
Padded, strapped, and taped, with IVs dripping and rich oxygen flooding her injured brain, Carmen Acosta started her long ride to Posadas General Hospital.
As the EMTs orchestrated their way through the narrow bedroom door with the spinal board and its passenger, Nina Burns caught Estelle’s eye. “Dr. Guzman has arranged air transport to Albuquerque,” Nina said. “The air ambulance just left Las Cruces, so it shouldn’t be long.”
They crossed the small living room, and Village Officer Mike Sisneros appeared in the doorway just as they reached it. He immediately backtracked out of the way. Estelle saw Juanita Acosta behind Sisneros, rushing up the sidewalk toward the house. The village officer caught Juanita by the arm. He transferred his grip to a shoulder hug, keeping her out of the EMTs’ path.
Someone had released her husband Freddy from the back-seat of Mitchell’s patrol car, and he now stood in the dirt beside the sidewalk, hands thrust in his pockets, looking as if he wanted to punch someone.
Juanita’s heavy-featured face reflected fury more than anything else, perhaps through long years of practice. But her hands told a different story, clasped tightly together between her breasts as the EMTs approached carrying her motionless daughter.
“Por Dios,” she said. “Now what?” Estelle had a fleeting image of the heavy, powerful woman lunging forward, knocking the carefully balanced EMTs and their burden in six different directions.
“Mrs. Acosta,” the undersheriff said, and she reached out a hand to grip Juanita’s right wrist. Sisneros didn’t release his hug, and the two of them guided the woman out of the way. “Juanita, we don’t know what happened yet, but they’re taking Carmen to the hospital. She’ll be transferred by air ambulance to Albuquerque as soon as she’s stabilized. It’s important that you go with her.”
“Por Dios,” Juanita said again, and she turned toward Freddy as if he were responsible.
“You can ride right in the ambulance with us, ma’am,” Nina Burns added as she passed. “There’s lots of room.”
“Mrs. Acosta, I’ll go with you,” Chief Mitchell said, and he replaced Sisneros at the woman’s elbow.
A school bus nosed into Candelaria and eased to a stop, the driver facing the sea of flashing emergency lights. Estelle released Juanita’s arm with a final pat and crossed the scruffy grass toward Freddy.
“Sir, I need your help,” she said. The man nodded absently, eyes locked on his daughter’s silent form as it was whisked toward the yawning doors of the ambulance. “Sir?” She touched his shoulder.
“I just don’t know what happened,” he said, voice distant. “I came home, and there she was…”
“Mr. Acosta, are the other kids on that bus?”
He looked up quickly. “Oh. Yes. Lucinda and Josie.” Another Sheriff’s Department vehicle had swung into the street from MacArthur, blocking the bus’ path so the driver wouldn’t inadvertently block the ambulance. Deputy Dennis Collins got out of the Bronco and advanced on the bus, and Estelle saw the door flick open. Immediately behind Collins’ unit, Linda Real arrived. The Sheriff’s Department photographer weaved her small Honda around the bus and patrol unit, then accelerated quickly down the block, parking directly behind Estelle’s car.
“Here’s what I need you to do, Mr. Acosta,” Estelle said. She moved in front of Freddy, forcing herself into his line of vision. “Do you have somewhere that you and the kids can stay tonight?”
“Stay?”
“For tonight. You can’t stay here.”
Sheriff Torrez appeared behind her. “Freddy, take the kids on over to Armand’s.” It didn’t surprise Estelle that the sheriff knew the Acostas’ relatives; he may have shared a few of them. “Where are Mauro and Tony?”
“There are the girls now,” Freddy said, taking a step forward. Five backpack-toting youngsters had stepped off the bus. Deputy Collins ushered them as a group to the sidewalk, talked to them briefly, and ushered three of them around the corner to the first house on MacArthur. The other two children waited with the deputy.
Torrez keyed his handheld radio. “Dennis, keep the kids right there for a little bit,” he said. “Mr. Acosta will be up there in a minute.”
The sheriff pointed the stubby radio antenna at Freddy Acosta. “Freddy…where are Mauro and Tony? We got to know,” he asked again.
Apprehension buckled Freddy Acosta’s eyebrows together as if he had just remembered that he had two older boys to consider as well. “They don’t ride the bus,” he said.
“No shit,” Torrez said. “They have their own car?”
“Oh, no,” Freddy said quickly. “No…they usually ride with somebody, or walk. You know, when you cut right across, it’s not very far.”
Torrez leaned his head toward Freddy. “We know where the damn school is, Freddy. You don’t know where they are, then?”
“Well, you know,” Freddy said helplessly. “Sometimes Tony rides his bike. Well, until it broke, he did. Not Mauro. He usually catches a ride with somebody.”
With the ambulance now safely away, the school bus had backed out of Candelaria, and Estelle could see the two Acosta girls sitting on the sidewalk, backpacks making convenient chair backs.
“Sir,” she said, “you said that you walked uptown? When you did that, you left Carmen alone in the house?”
Freddy nodded. “I shouldn’t have left her like that,” he murmured.
“That’s not the issue, sir,” Estelle said. “When you walked up the street, you didn’t see anyone in the neighborhood who you didn’t know?” He shook his head slowly. “You don’t remember seeing any vehicles?” His head had settled into a methodical rhythm. “Do you remember what time that was?” The oscillation slowed, but Freddy didn’t reply.
“Sir, whatever you can remember is going to help us.” The dispatcher had taken the father’s desperate 911 call at 2:38 PM Estelle could picture Freddy plodding home, ambling up the driveway, entering the house through the kitchen door, and taking several minutes to notice the results of the ruckus. If he had paused in the kitchen, it was conceivable that he wouldn’t notice anything amiss for some time.
“I guess,” Freddy started slowly. “I guess that I walked up to the car place, there, right around noon. I was going to see if Juanita could break away for lunch, maybe. We sometimes do that. Right there at the burger place.”
“And that’s what you did today?”
Freddy nodded and then brightened a little. “You know, I walked in and Juanita was on the telephone. I remember her looking at the clock, and then she just shook her head at me. I remember that.”
“What time was that?”
“Just like…like twelve oh one. Something like that. Right at noon.”
“And then after that, what? You walked downtown?” Torrez asked.
“I thought maybe I’d get a pizza or something. But then I just went to Tommy’s and got some chips. I talked to a few people, you know…just people I know. I had a cup of coffee. I guess…”
“When you came back home, you didn’t see anything out of the ordinary?” Torrez said, clearly irritated at the man’s wandering reminiscence. “Nobody outside, no traffic, nothing?”
Freddy shook his head. “Just like…you know? Like always, I guess.”
Like always, Estelle thought.
“And then I came inside…” His lip quivered. “The first thing I saw…the first thing was the telephone on the floor. I almost stepped on it. I looked across the living room and that’s when I saw the television set, all smashed.” He looked helplessly at Estelle. “Who would do such a thing to Carmen?”