“And?” This was the part that was going to hurt. But unlike ripping off a Band-Aid, she feared the sting was going to be long lasting.

“You suffered damage to your ocular nerve, Detective Poe.”

“What’s that mean?” she asked.

“It’s the nerve that translates brain messages into vision. Your brain hemorrhaged after the blow, and the subsequent swelling cut off blood to the nerve, which was deprived for too long. It means your vision is limited now and may be for a long time.”

She gazed into the darkness, realizing with a sinking heart that the lights were not off in the room. Was she blind? Her heart rate kicked up several ticks as a chill shuddered through her body. This could not be right. There had to be a mistake.

Mentally, she scrounged for better news. “May be. Might not be?”

“Likely,” he said carefully. “There’s significant damage.”

“How will you know for sure?”

“We’ll turn the lights up in the room and evaluate what you see.”

“So, they’re off?” she asked with renewed hope.

“They’re dimmed,” Dr. Kensington said. “Anyone with normal vision can see fine.”

“Spencer, is that true?” she asked.

“Yes,” Spencer said.

“Why have the lights been lowered if my vision is impaired?” she asked.

“You might have light sensitivity,” Dr. Kensington said.

“I can’t see well, but the light could bother me. That’s a hell of a contradiction,” she said.

“It’s not uncommon in people with some types of visual impairments.”

Jordan plucked at a loose thread in her blanket. A weighty sense of dread burned through her. “Turn up the lights.”

Dr. Kensington came up beside her. Click. “I’ve turned on a penlight,” he explained.

A faint light flashed across her eyes. “It’s very dim, but it’s there. Does this mean I’ll get better?”

“Maybe. What you see now could change,” Dr. Kensington said. “We might not really know for months.”

“I could see again?”

“Maybe.”

“What does maybe mean? I want a yes or a no.”

“I can’t give that to you right now.”

“Can I lose what little vision I do have?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Spencer moved around the foot of the bed and now stood at her left side. The steel radiating in his body shored up her resolve. For the first time since she arrived at the hospital, she took a deep breath. Tears welled in her eyes, and when one spilled down her cheek, she wiped it away.

“Jordan, close your eyes for a moment,” the doctor said.

Jordan closed her eyes. The rest of her life, her career . . . everything was on the line. She could not lose what she had worked so hard to build.

“What was Detective Poe struck with?” Dr. Kensington asked.

“We recovered a billy club on the scene,” Spencer said. “It had traces of her blood and hair on it.”