Between his anxiety and their past lines of questioning, Monk wasn’t a big fan of the two detectives. For a split second, he considered blowing them off. But the memory of Helia’s limp body in his arms spurred him to give voice to the memories playing on a loop in his head.
“A dart? Who uses a poison dart?” Vanessa asked when he finished, confusion heavy in her voice. He didn’t blame her. So focused on Helia and getting the item to the doctors, he hadn’t given it much thought. But what kind of person used a poison dart gun? In everything he’d seen during his time in the service, he could honestly say he’d never encountered one. And to have one used in downtown Napa?
“Someone with access to poison or drugs, whodoesn’thave easy access to Helia, but who didn’t want to start a general panic by using a gun,” he said, the picture growing clearer in his mind. With Helia tucked away at either Sundaram or the castle, she’d be a hard target to reach. But a shooting on a public street would cause mass confusion and call attention to the situation that the person responsible didn’t want. A dart was nearly silent andpractically unnoticeable. Had he not been there, and focused on Helia, it probably would have gone undiscovered altogether.
Problem solved, efficient and thorough. If it hadn’t been for him.
His stomach lurched at the sheer coincidence, at the reality of how close they came to losing her. He didn’t know what poison or drug the dart contained, but he doubted she was meant to live through it. The fact that he was there, found the dart, and had EMTs on-site in less than five minutes was probably the only thing standing between Helia’s life and her…he wouldn’t even think it.
He muttered a curse and sank onto a chair beside Vanessa. She reached over and grabbed his hand. “She’ll make it. I know she will.”
Nothing else was an option, so he nodded.
“Could you tell where the shot came from?” Carter asked.
Monk cast his mind back to the incident, then shook his head. “Her left side was to a building, so it must have hit her on the right. The dart was on the ground by the time I reached her, though, so I don’t know specifically where. If I did, I could give you a good guess.”
Carter and Jess exchanged a look. “We’ll get that information from the doctors.”
They peppered him with a few more questions, most of which he had no answers for, before falling silent. Both detectives were leaning against opposite walls in the waiting room when a doctor stepped in.
“Mr. and Mrs. Shaw?” he said, his gaze scanning the room before landing on Helia’s parents. Monk rose with them, and Carter and Jess straightened from their positions. The doctor’s gaze darted to the two detectives before settling back on Vanessa and Harry.
“She’s going to be fine, but let’s find a private room where we can talk,” he said. Relief nearly took Monk out at the knees; the only thing holding him upright was focusing on Vanessa. She’d sagged against Harry at the pronouncement, and Monk wrapped an arm around her other side as they followed the doctor out, Carter and Jess trailing behind.
When the door closed behind them, the doctor, a fit-looking man in his mid-fifties, crossed his arms. “She’s going to be fine,” he repeated. “Thanks to your quick work,” he added with a nod to Monk. Monk didn’t respond.
“The dart contained a lethal dose of a drug cocktail. I won’t speculate about intent, but I will say it would have killed her if she’d gone untreated for any length of time.”
Vanessa whimpered, and Harry mumbled comforting words as he pulled his wife closer.
“Where did the dart hit her?” Jess asked.
“Here,” the doctor said, raising his arm and pointing to a spot on his ribs.
“She lifted her hand to wave at me,” Monk said.
The doctor nodded. “That sounds right. It’s not an easy spot to hit otherwise.”
“Do you have a sample of the drug?” Carter asked.
The doctor nodded. “We did a quick analysis that allowed us to treat her with the right counteragents, but there’s enough left to do a more thorough workup. Several people handled it, though.”
Carter inclined his head. “Can you give us a list of everyone who touched it? We’ll take prints to rule them out, then see if we can find anything. It might be a needle in a haystack?—”
“But you won’t get any pushback from anyone here. No one’s seen an attack like this, and everyone will do what they can to make sure the person behind it is caught,” the doctor said.
“Can we see her?” Harry asked.
The doctor nodded. “She’s sleeping now, but will be in and out of wakefulness for the next hour or so.”
“After that?” Vanessa asked.
“She’ll wake more fully. She’ll probably be tired for the next twenty-four hours, but so long as her vitals stay stable and she stays on the track we expect, she can head home tonight.”
Vanessa and Harry would want her home. He understood the need to keep their daughter close. But he had ten of his brothers coming, and two of their partners, Callie and Lina, were former FBI and CIA, respectively. Helia would be far safer at the castle than anywhere else. Vanessa and Harry wouldn’t like it, but they’d agree in the end.
The Shaws asked the doctor a few more questions before thanking him. Carter and Jess followed him out, a nurse entering as they exited. A few minutes later, Harry and Vanessa sat on one side of Helia’s bed and he on the other. He didn’t like how limp her hand felt in his, but the warmth assured him that she was alive and healing.
