by S. K. Lessly
I felt my company come up behind me, and I looked up to see Manley next to me.
“Fuck me, Lieutenant. What—” Manley began, but I briskly cut him off.
“Call the firehouse and get Mike and Candice over here now and tell them to haul ass!” Manley nodded and left my sight. I then looked to my left and saw Isaac and John. “You two check her house,” I gave them the address number. “See if someone is still there or see if you can tell what happened. Be careful, and don’t touch anything. Yeah?”
They nodded, and both ran. I noticed the rest of my team was standing close to me but far enough to give me space. I was grateful for that and knew they’d have my back if I needed them.
“Someone give me a coat,” I ordered, my voice shaking but firm.
I felt someone walk up close and once I saw the jacket they held out for me, I shifted my body and said quietly, “Put it over her.”
They did as ordered, but I couldn’t tell you who it was, my focus was on her.
I leaned close to her and whispered, “Come on, baby. I need you to open your eyes. Can you hear me, Lauren? Stay with me. Come on, baby, please. Stay with me.”
I looked at her face. It was so pale and lifeless. I touched the side of her face with my free hand. Her skin was so cold, and it had nothing to do with the winter air. It was a different kind of cold claiming her body.
No, no, no!
“Where the fuck are they?” I boomed at no one in particular.
Just then, I heard the sirens before I saw them.
Mike, the head paramedic, jumped out with his bag in hand and got to me first.
“What do you have, Lieutenant?”
“It’s Lauren, Mike,” I rasped gravely.
Mike had met Lauren a few times when she came to the firehouse to visit me or to bring us dessert.
“Yeah, I know it’s her,” he stated firmly. “I mean, what happened?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I-I saw her walking down the street as we drove by, then she collapsed. I raced over to her and saw she had a wound at her neck. I think someone sliced her throat.”
Just then, I saw a black car slowly driving toward us. I narrowed my eyes on the vehicle. It reminded me of the car I’d use to see sitting outside Sebastian’s house. I didn’t think anything of it at first, as it passed, but things slowly came into focus. I started to get up and head for the car. There was no telling who was inside, but I had a gut feeling the person in the car was responsible for Lauren’s current condition. Before I could make a move, Mike grabbed my wrist and stopped me.
Mike looked at me exasperated. “Paul, you can’t move. You’re the only thing keeping her from bleeding out. We need to do our jobs, and we need you to not move your fingers. Got it?”
I settled back down, but I memorized the license plate number. Later, I kicked myself for not getting one of the guys to stop the car before they got away. However, I wasn’t thinking straight at the time. At the time my focus had been keeping Lauren alive.
“I’ll keep my fingers right where they are, just don’t let her die, please don't let her die.”
I did as I was told while Candice and Mike worked around me. They finally got Lauren on a stretcher, but I knew I wouldn’t breathe easy until we arrived at the hospital. I kept bending down close to her ear and talking to her as we barreled through quiet neighborhoods, doing my best to keep her with me, praying all the while that God would spare her.
“You can’t leave me, Lauren,” I whispered to her. “I need you. I love you. Please just hold on, sweetheart. Hold on, baby.”
I watched as Candice checked her vitals and stuck her with needle after needle.
I cleared my throat and tried to put some authority in my voice but failed miserably.
“What’s her status?” I managed to croak out.
Without looking up at me, Candice replied, “She critical, that’s all I can say. You keep doing what you’re doing, Lieutenant. You’re keeping her alive.”
We finally made it to the hospital, and I stayed with her, being her lifeline until the doctor next to me took over.
“We got her, Lieutenant,” he announced, but I didn’t move right away. I didn’t want to let go. I was afraid if I had nothing else to concentrate on, I would lose it.
“Paul!”
I looked up and found a familiar face staring back at me, a stern expression on his face.
“Do you know her?”
I blinked a few times, and the doctor had to ask me again.
I quickly got my shit together and responded. “Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “She’s mine.” I told him next, not caring how that sounded.
“Okay, Paul. Why don’t you let us do our jobs now? You’ve done great, but we’ve got her. We’re going to take care of her.”
His name suddenly popped into my head, and I narrowed my eyes on him.
“You better, Jack.”
He nodded once, and I reluctantly backed away from Lauren and gave her one last look before I allowed the nurse to escort me out.
I walked toward the waiting room in a daze and collapsed in one of the chairs. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the pain in my chest. My hands were shaking, no doubt from adrenaline and straight fear. But before I lost my shit completely, I reached in my pocket and pulled out my phone. Her blood was caked on my fingers. I rubbed them on my pants then woke up my phone. I searched a number I never thought I would use and hit send. The call was picked up on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Mark it’s uh, Paul,” I announced trying not to let the dread I felt bleed through my voice. Hearing his hesitation told me I had failed miserably yet again.
“Paul, the neighbor?” he asked hesitantly, and I knew just by the sound of his voice he knew this wasn’t a social call.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Okay, what’s up? Is uh… Lauren… is she okay?” he asked me, and his voice shook slightly.
Fuck!
“Um… yeah, man.” I breathed out. “That’s why I’m calling.” I ran my hand over my face and inhaled a panicked breath. “How fast can you get here?”
“What do you mean? Do you mean how long will it take to get to New Jersey or…?”
I replied quickly, doing my best not to get agitated. “Yeah, Mark, how long will it take for you to get here?”
I could hear rustling on the other line and assumed Mark was on the move. “I don’t know a few hours. Do you need just me? What’s happening? Where's my sister?”
“No. All of you need to be here and as soon as you can. Lauren is at Bloomfield General.” I paused to take a deep breath but I was two seconds from losing my shit. “It’s bad, Mark.” My voice took that moment to crack without my permission.
Mark cursed under his breath, and I could hear the distress and panic in his breathing. I added trying to speak past the boulder in my throat, making sure he understood just how dire it was that they get here. “Don’t take too long, okay, Mark?”
“Yeah. I hear you,” he replied softly. “We’re on our way.”
I ended the call and let my head fall back against the wall behind me. I closed my eyes again and the image of her pale and lifeless face popped into my head. I opened my eyes quickly and stood. I needed to do something with this time besides sitting around, or I was surely going to destroy this waiting area. I looked around the empty room, selecting the first piece of furniture I was going to rip apart, when one of the nurses working on Lauren came up to me in a rush.
“We need consent to give her blood, can you do that?”
“I can do you better. I’ll give her mine. We’re both O negative.”
The nurse nodded and signaled me to follow her.
14
Paul
A detective found me as I gave blood and took my statement. I gave him the license plate number of the car I had noticed, as well as the make and model, and explained how I used to see it sitting outside Lauren’s old house. When
the detective asked if I knew of anyone that would want to harm her, I said no at first. Then I remembered Eugene. I told the detective all I knew about the man and that she was a little creeped out by him. I also told him she was planning on breaking up with the guy.
The detective, I think his name was Sturgis, nodded and gave me his card. “Well, Lieutenant, if you think of anything else let me know. And we’ll run this plate and see what we come up with.” He then paused and asked solemnly, “Have you heard anything yet?”
I shook my head.
“Hang in there.” The detective rose and left me to my thoughts.
I made it back to the waiting room and found Samson, Tonya, and Tyler sitting there waiting. All three of them stood when I approached. They gave me the once over and had a weird look on their faces.
I panicked and asked, “What? What’s going on? Have you heard anything?
“No, not yet,” Samson replied, putting his hands up to calm me down.
I took a few breaths and tried to calm my heartbeat.
I gave them a pointed look. “Why are you looking at me like that then?”
Samson walked up to me. “Have you seen yourself at all?” He took a few more steps toward me. He leaned into me and said softly, “You have her blood all over you.”
I looked down and saw he was right. I had a lot of thick dark stains all over my white lieutenant's shirt and dark pants.
Tyler stood. “I have something in my trunk that you could fit.” Tyler walked away, and I found a seat and sat.
“You okay?” Tonya stood, awkwardly, rubbing her belly and moved to my side.
“I don’t know, Tonya. If she doesn’t make it, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“She’ll make it, Paul,” she said with conviction that I just didn’t feel. Honestly, the look in her eyes told me she wasn’t sure of her words either.
“You didn’t see her,” I confided in a whisper. “She was so pale. I’ve seen death before, and she had that look all over her.”
“But you’ve never met anyone like Lauren, right? She’s too stubborn to die this way. She has to make this son of a bitch pay for what he did to her. She can’t do that dead.”
I chuckled in spite of myself and shook my head. “Yeah, you’re right about that!”
* * *
Three hours had passed, and there still wasn’t any word on her condition. I knew they raced her to surgery, but I had no idea if she made it through or not. I was going out of my mind. Tyler had given me a shirt that looked small on me but I didn’t protest at all. When I saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I was sure I had scared most of the people I passed. No wonder the waiting room was empty.
Once I was presentable, I returned to the waiting area and resumed my pacing. I prayed, and bugged every nurse that I could find for an update. All anyone could tell me was that a doctor would be out to talk to me. The waiting was torture.
Detective Sturgis came back to the hospital and asked if I had any updates on Lauren.
“No, we haven’t heard anything yet,” I answered him, thankful for a distraction. “What about you?”
Sturgis rubbed his fingers against his forehead as if his head hurt then sighed. “Well, we’ve found some fingerprints at the scene, and we’re running them now. Have you been to her home recently?”
“Yeah, I helped her put down the hardwood floors I don’t know maybe a week or so ago. One of my firefighters went over there as well. I can give you his information too.”
“And you’re sure your firefighter didn’t—”
“Let me stop you right there, Sturgis. John was working with me when we found her. He was by my side the whole day. As I said when I found Lauren we had just come back from a call and pizza run. There’s no way John hurt Lauren. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can ask him yourself.” I gave him John’s full name and phone number.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. I know this is rough, but we need to be thorough. What about this boyfriend of hers uh…Eugene? Do you have a last name?” Sturgis asked.
“Yes, it’s Eugene Brooks and he wasn’t technically her boyfriend. They were just dating,” Tonya offered, and Sturgis pulled out a small book from his jacket pocket and started writing.
“I’m not sure if he was there or not,” I replied cutting in.
“Actually, he was supposed to be there at four today.” Tonya offered. “She was planning on telling him she didn’t want to see him anymore. She found out he was married with a kid and hadn’t told her.”
“Was she nervous about it?” Sturgis asked.
Tonya was about to respond when we heard hurried footsteps echoing down the hall. We all waited with bated breath, hoping that it wasn’t a doctor or nurse with bad news. A thought occurred to me that it might be Lauren’s family. I stood expecting to see Mark come around the corner, but instead, it was Eugene.
He seemed frantic and nervous. His clothes were disheveled; shirt wrinkled, buttons not all the way done. His eyes looked manic and paranoid. I looked over at Samson, and he met my eyes with a hard look on his face.
“Hey, there you are,” Eugene breathed out as if he had been running all over the hospital looking for us. We were only on the first floor, around the corner from the main entrance.
Eugene approached Samson. “The nurse at the station said you brought my girlfriend here, how is she?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked instead.
Eugene finally noticed the rest of us and suddenly backed up a little.
He looked from me to the detective then back at me. He rushed out on a breath, “Well, I stopped past Lauren’s place today, and I saw cops at her house. They told me she was brought here and that she was hurt. So, naturally, I came here.”
“When was this?” Sturgis asked.
Eugene looked at Sturgis. “I’m sorry?”
“I said when did you stop by her house?”
“Oh, uh about forty-five minutes ago, I think.”
“And you’re just now getting over here?” I asked. The distance from Lauren’s place and the hospital was about twenty minutes.
Eugene did the ‘eyes darting back and forth bit’ again, and I wanted to throttle him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked again not fooled by his concerned expression. He was a horrible actor.
Eugene squared his shoulders and faced me head on. “I belong here. Why are you here?”
“Alright gentlemen, calm down,” Sturgis bellowed. He turned to face Eugene and asked, “I didn’t quite get your name?”
Eugene shifted from one foot to the next. “Uh well, it’s Eugene. Eugene Brooks.”
Sturgis started writing in his book. “Ah, so you’re the boyfriend.” Sturgis looked at Eugene through his lashes.
Eugene straightened smugly and nodded. “Yes, I am.”
“Uh-huh. And you…” Sturgis began but was cut off when his phone started buzzing. He pulled it and stared at it. He gave us the universal ‘give me a minute’ gesture with his finger and walked off.
I watched Sturgis disappear around the corner before I pounced.
“You did this to her, didn’t you?” I stated, jutting my chin in his direction.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Eugene remained standing in front of me, but his eyes started that back and forth shit again.
“What happened?” I asked him, a calm but deadly tone in my voice. “Was she in the middle of telling you how creepy you made her? How she felt you were stalking her?”
Eugene didn’t reply.
I continued to grill him, seeing the vein in his neck pulsating. I was getting to him.
Good!
“I bet she did,” I taunted. “I bet she told you that you weren’t her type, didn’t she? She told you that you weren’t good enough for her?”
“Watch your mouth,” Eugene scolded bitterly. I smiled and shifted closer to him.
“Is that what you told her?” I paused then asked, �
��Did you put that mark on her cheek? You hit her and expected her to stay down but…” I squinted my eyes at him. “She didn’t go down like you expected her to did she? No! She punched the shit out of you, didn’t she?” I laughed and took one step back, close enough to either attack or defend myself if I needed to. I pointed at Eugene’s face, noticing the redness and puffiness of his face, and looked over at Samson.
“Yeah, she punched the shit out of him. See that mark on his face.” I looked back at him and sneered a sardonic grin. “Did she kick you in your nuts first then BAM! Punched you in your face.” I punched my fist into my other hand for effect, the sound echoing in the sterile air around us. “And you dropped like the bitch you are, didn’t y—"
I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence. Eugene charged me just like I baited him to. As soon as he was within arm’s length, he swung toward my face with everything he had. I stepped to the left of his swing, blocking its movement then grabbed him by his throat. I drove him back into the nearest wall and slammed him up against it with everything I had. His head slammed against the wall with a loud crack. I sent a knee to his groin and squeezed his throat tighter.
I leaned closer and whispered in Eugene’s ear, “I should fucking kill you right now you son of a bitch. I know what you’ve done to her. If she dies, you die.”
“Logan, let him go!” I heard Sturgis come up behind me. I didn’t let go.
“No, this piece of shit tried to kill her. I know it,” I berated through clenched teeth.
“Then let us do our job!”
“Come on, man. Let him go,” Samson butted in. “He’s not worth it.”
“He needs to pay for what he's done,” I challenged, tightening my hold on him.
“And he will, Lieutenant, just not this way,” I heard Sturgis counter. I still wasn’t listening. I saw the life leaving Eugene’s eyes, and I squeezed harder remembering the look in Lauren’s face, the life fleeting her lifeless body.
“Paul?” I heard an unfamiliar female voice call to me through my revengeful haze. I looked to my right, and found a pair of warm brown eyes looking back at me. The woman had a kind face that seemed very familiar to me.