Truth or Lies?

by A. Gomez

  “Yes! That’s right, Isabel! They are very young. Think about it!” He stopped talking and froze. “Do you hear that?”

  We heard scuffling sounds coming from Pam’s office and a few grunts. Wow, Conny and Pam must like it rough, I thought to myself.

  “What’s that noise?” Josh asked.

  “Tim Conny and Pam are in her office having a good time, if you know what I mean.” I kind of smirked.

  “Those sounds aren’t the sounds of just two people having a good time.” Josh didn’t seem surprised about Conny and Pam.

  “Well, I just saw them in her office and nearly got caught being a voyeur.”

  “Isabel, please wait for me here, I will be right back. I need to make sure this floor is secure. Will you do me that courtesy?”

  I regarded him for a moment, biting my lip. “Fine,” I said, sounding perturbed.

  “Thank you, baby,” he said and kissed me hard on the lips.

  Sigh, no man was worth this headache. I had to use the bathroom in my office. That large drink from earlier was going through me. I walked in, turned on the light and it burned out. Crap! Now I had to pee in the dark. I cracked the door a smidge so I could see. I finished, flushed the toilet and washed my hands. I stayed in there for a few minutes, trying to see myself in the mirror with no light on. I applied lip gloss as best I could when I heard gunshots. I jumped and dropped my gloss in the sink. I heard shots again. I gasped and my first thought was Josh’s been shot! I slowly peeked my head out of the bathroom and saw no one. I got to my purse to fetch my gun and remembered that Josh never returned it. Shit! I took my phone and put it in my back pocket. I stealthily headed for the door and carefully tried to look in the direction of Pam’s office. I felt so helpless with no gun or any way to help Josh or Conny.

  I decided to call my house. If those other agents were really watching my house and block then they must have some way of hearing me if I scream for help. My phone at home rang and rang and rang and rang…for the love of Pete, how many rings until my answering machine picks up? Finally, I hear the beep, “Help! This is Doctor Langley. If y’all can hear me I need help! There is gunfire at the hospital on my floor. Josh and Conny are in the middle of a struggle and I can’t see a thing. Y’all need to get here STAT!”

  I heard a click, turned to see what the noise was and there was a large, Asian man with his gun to my head. I dropped my phone and raised my hands in defeat. Was this really happening? The man said something in Mandarin and indicated for me to walk out of my office. I heard one more shot. Josh rushed out holding his side, blood spilling through his fingers and running down his chin. I inhaled sharply—Joshua had been shot! The large man yelled something in Chinese, perhaps calling for his partner? Josh and I locked eyes, his gun pointing at the man. The man was still yelling. I heard him cock his pistol and then I reacted, slamming my elbow into his nose and then dropping to the floor. Josh fired and the man collapsed like a ragdoll where he was standing. I ran to help Josh but he was already falling. I tried my best to help him fall with a little more control so he didn’t hit his head. I gingerly moved his hand and saw that he was shot in his ribcage area; he was bleeding uncontrollably and starting to lose consciousness. Oh my God! Josh can’t die! This can’t be happening! This isn’t supposed to happen! This was just supposed to be a babysitting assignment.

  “Josh! Don’t close your eyes. Look at me. Stay awake for me.” I called the ER downstairs. “This is Dr. Langley, I need to speak with Dr. Summers STAT!” David got on the phone. “David, there’s been gunshots up here and Josh and another person have been shot. Please help.” I hung up and noticed Josh pointing at something. He was trying to speak but the only word he could get out was, “Isabel!” I looked behind me and saw a badly wounded Asian man pointing his gun at me. He fired and missed. I took Josh’s pistol and put three bullets in the man’s chest. He fell to the floor. Conny came out alone, with no Pam in sight, also holding his side. Had Pam also been shot? Oh, my Heavens! Not Pam! I put the gun down and turned to Josh who already had his eyes closed.

  “Joshua, stay with me. Don’t close your eyes. Please, baby, open them for me,” I begged. He didn’t respond. I was beside myself with fear that I might lose him. I started applying pressure to his wound. “Josh, if you don’t open your eyes and look at me I’m just going to have to spend the night with David.”

  “Fucking cocksucker,” he muttered, opening his eyes.

  “So, you can hear me.” I smiled with relief. “I thought that might get you. Don’t close your eyes. Keep looking at me.”

  “Isabel.” He could barely say my name.

  Davis came out of nowhere and startled me. “Whoa! Where did you come from?” He didn’t answer. I could see Stems cautiously going into Pam’s office. Conny was on his phone.

  “That was very smart of you calling your house the way you did, Dr. Langley.”

  “I told you to call me Isabel, Davis. My mother is Dr. Langley…got it?” I didn’t mean to snap at him the way I did but I was getting a little afraid for Josh.

  “Yes, you did, sorry about that, Isabel.”

  “No, I’m sorry for being so short with you. I’m just nervous and scared for Josh. And where the hell is David?”

  “Isabel, please,” Josh’s voice was feeble. “It’s not what you think. Please don’t leave me,” Josh was reaching up to touch my cheek. I looked around for any sign of David and noticed Davis had left Josh and I to go help Conny and Stems.

  “Hush now, Joshua, be still and don’t go to sleep. Do you hear me?” I was still applying pressure but it was all for nothing since his wound kept gushing. David finally showed up with four male trauma nurses.

  “It’s about time you got here, David!”

  “Sorry, I had to find male nurses that could help me and get some stretchers. I got him Isabel, you can let go.”

  “No!” Josh’s voice was a whisper. The nurse was already starting the IV. They placed him on a gurney and one of the nurses took him away. David stayed to attend to the rest of the injured people. He was looking at Conny’s side, it didn’t seem to be that bad, from what I could hear, but he told him to go to the ER; there was a room waiting for him. I walked into Pam’s office and saw Pam on the floor, unconscious, face up. She was dressed as if nothing happened between her and Conny. Maybe Stems did that. David was taking her vitals and the nurse had already started an IV on her. I hurried to be by her side but Davis stopped me.

  “Let Dr. Summers do his job, Isabel. You can go to her when he gives you the all clear.”

  I just nodded my head, unable to speak. I looked around the room and saw another large man bleeding on the floor. Was he dead? Allison Stems was doing nothing to help him, she just checked his pulse. I turned around and left Pam’s office. The hallway was full of blood. There was blood everywhere, especially in Pam’s office and some of it was Josh’s blood. The Asian man I had shot was still in the same spot, blood pouring out of him, running everywhere. I couldn’t believe I had shot another human. Why was I not more upset over this fact? Why was I not in shock? I walked over to him and just looked at him, not sure what feelings I should be feeling right then. He was someone’s son. He was someone’s baby. I squatted down to try and remove his jacket so as to expose his right arm. I wasn’t sure if the Triads wore their tattoo on that arm but I had a hunch. I managed to get it out; I rolled up his sleeve and saw the infamous tattoo. My head was starting to throb. Were they here to kill Pam or Conny? How did the Triads know they were here? Davis was at my side, helping me up.

  “Doctor Summers thinks it’s just a bad bump on the head. Pam isn’t bleeding from anywhere but they are going to take her straight to do a CAT scan and some x-rays.” Davis turned me toward him so he could look at me and asked, “Are you all right?”

  “Davis, this place is a mess. It’s going to ruin group therapy night. Luckily it isn’t for another two weeks.”

  He chuckled, “Don’t worry Doc…uh…Isabel, we’ll have it cle
aned up by then.” I saw the nurse passing us, taking Pam on the gurney to the elevators. David picked up one of the office phones to call downstairs, probably to make sure everything was ready for Pam.

  “Isabel, are you cold? You’re shaking.” Davis was rubbing my arms in an effort to warm me up. “Why is your arm wet?” He looked at his hand. “Shit! You’re bleeding! Doctor Summers!”

  “Huh? I’m what?” My head was starting to feel a little dizzy. I glanced at David, he looked at me and his eyes were wide with fear. Things were starting to dance around me and I heard David’s voice echoing.

  “Isabel Grace! Stay with me!” David’s voice sounded echoey. He yelled, “Catch her,” and then everything went dark.

  I woke up in a hospital room with machines beeping and an IV attached to me. I looked down at myself and saw I was attached to the beeping machines, wearing a hospital gown. I looked around to see what section of the hospital I was in and it looked like the children’s wing. I saw a nurse pushing medicine through my IV.

  She pushed the intercom button on the bed. “Tell Dr. Summers his patient is awake. He said to page him STAT when she woke up.”

  “Where am I?” I asked in a raspy voice.

  “You’re on the fifth floor in one of the children’s wings of the hospital. There are two very scary looking fellas outside your door, making sure I am the only one that goes in and out of this room and that Doctor Summers is the only doctor seeing you. You must be someone important, sweetie. I also heard there was a commotion about you in the ER.”

  “Would you mind telling me if one of those fellas outside is named Davis?”

  “I don’t know that, sweetie, but I’ll check.” She scurried to the door and peeked her head out to ask. She was an older lady with a gentle face and a very chipper voice. She was undoubtedly the perfect personality for the children’s wing.

  “Angel, they said neither of them is Davis but he’s on his way up with Doctor Summers, as we speak. And don’t worry about using the potty, love. You have a Foley catheter in. We pumped you full of blood and fluids. You should be fine. The bullet went straight through you,” she patted my hand. Bullet? I was shot?

  David came in the room, panting as if he had run a marathon. He had beads of sweat on his brow.

  “Why are you breathing so hard, David? Did you run here?” I was trying to focus but my eyes weren’t working very well.

  “Yeah, well, sort of. The elevators were taking too long so I ran up the stairs.” He was trying to catch his breath.

  “So, you ran up five flights of stairs…for me…hmm. The last time you hurried to get to me, you thought you were going to get to pop my cherry but instead you decided to copulate with nurse slut.” Oh my, I sounded rude.

  “Ha,” he chuckled. “It must be the pain medication that’s making you so feisty.” He laughed awkwardly, looking at the nurse. “Thank you, I’ll take it from here,” he told her.

  The sweet nurse nodded, her eyebrows raised, shocked at what I had said, and left. David examined me and took my vitals. It looked like he enjoyed this since he got to touch me a lot and in places he hadn’t touched in years. My eyes were beginning to focus a little better and I could see his face more clearly. Surprisingly, he was not grinning while he was groping and prodding me. I felt too weak to care anyway. He came around to my left side and undid the large bandage that was on my upper arm, close to my shoulder. It looked like it wrapped around my arm. I looked at my arm and saw that I had five very dark stitches. He examined the back of my arm as well.

  “Why are you looking at the back of my arm? What happened there?”

  “Well, my love, this is where the bullet exited. And since you’ve been unconscious for several hours, I just want to make sure everything is still looking okay here.”

  “Am I okay? Is my arm going to be okay? Why didn’t I feel it when I got shot? Was my adrenaline pumping that hard?” I let my head fall onto the pillow, trying to process all this.

  “Yes, love, your arm is going to be fine and you’re going to be just fine. You lost some blood but all you needed was two units. I think once you’re finished with this bag of fluids you should be fine to leave. The bullet missed your bone and you probably did have a pretty good surge of adrenaline, hence you not feeling a thing. Thank goodness I was here to help you.” He kissed my bare shoulder, sending goose bumps down my arm. He grinned at my body’s reaction to his kiss and put the bandage back in place.

  “David, stop kissing me and calling me love and honey. We are not together and I suspect Ginger still thinks y’all are not broken up. She has a volatile personality and I venture to say you’re afraid of what she may do if you truly tell her it’s over,” I said with a hint of disdain in my voice.

  “Okay, for the record, I did tell her I’m still in love with you and it was over between us, but yes, you’re right, for some inexplicable reason she thinks there’s some ray of hope and we can work it out. And, I might be just a tad nervous at what she’ll do or how she’ll react.”

  “Thought so.” I popped my head up and glared at him. “Where’s Davis?”

  “He’s just outside. I told him to wait outside until I finished examining you.”

  “I’d like to speak with him. Please send him in.”

  “Of course.” He looked searchingly into my eyes and cupped the right side of my face with his hand, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “I’ll fix this, Isabel. Losing you is the worst mistake I’ve ever made. I’ll be back after rounds.” He headed out and signaled to Davis he could come in.

  Davis stealthily walked in, and wearing a serious look. My heart skipped a beat. Was it Josh? Maybe it was about the commotion in the ER. I forgot to ask David about the commotion the nurse mentioned. Maybe Davis would enlighten me. My heart was pounding and my pulse was racing. Davis could see that, since I was attached to all those machines. We looked at each other for an immeasurable moment. My pulse quickened even more and sent the machine into overdrive.

  “Isabel, calm down, it’s all right!” His hands were pumping the air as if that would help slow my heart rate down.

  “How can I calm down if you look like that?” I spit at him.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to look like this. I thought I was wearing a pretty good poker face. Or maybe you’re just really good at reading people.”

  “Please! Just say it. Is it Josh?” I was fearing the worst.

  He took a deep breath. “Pam is doing fine. She has a concussion but nothing serious. She’s in a room resting and they want to keep her overnight for observation. Conny is still in the ER, he’s getting x-rayed. The doctor thinks he has some cracked ribs.”

  Why is he telling me about Tim Conny? I don’t give a shit about Conny.

  “And Josh?” my voice sounded jittery and the machines were still beeping loud and fast.

  “Josh is in ICU.” He exhaled loudly. “Doctor Rodriguez had to go in and remove the bullet that was lodged close to his liver. The surgery went fine, she was able to repair everything and he should be able to function like a normal person. He just may have a hard recovery with the pain.” He sounded like he was leaving something out.

  “What are you not telling me, Davis? This all sounds like good news but your body language is saying something more,” I said.

  He started to fidget, not knowing what to do with his hands or even how to stand. “Josh is going to be fine and he should make a full recovery, but there was a small incident in the ER that has Tim Conny concerned.” Davis rubbed his head. “Stevens and I were in his room waiting for him to wake up. Conny was getting seen by a doctor so he wasn’t present to witness any of this, plus we were worried about Josh so we insisted on being by his side. Josh started to come to and the first thing he wanted to know was about you and how you were.” He paused and glanced at me.

  “I didn’t stop to think and just blurted out that you were upstairs getting treated for a gunshot wound. Well, he came unglued and practically busted his staples open try
ing to get out of bed to get to you. I don’t know where he thought he was going, frankly, since I never said you were in the children’s wing. He was just determined to come find you. His wound started bleeding profusely, we had to hold him down and the nurse came in and pushed some medicine through his IV to relax him. He kept mumbling how he loves you and you found some texts?” He looked at me quizzically. “Anyhow, they patched him up again and he’s resting comfortably. Isabel, Conny is thinking Josh has feelings for you and being on this case with you will just cloud his judgment. I agree, so Josh is off the case. He needs to recover anyway so this is a good thing for him. He won’t need to worry about anything except his recovery.”

  “I agree,” I said matter-of-factly. “He needs to be far away from me. I am glad to hear he’s doing well, though,” I said, wringing my hands. “So, what will he do once he’s strong enough to work?”

  “We have this other case, kind of related to this case, that requires a lot of sitting in front of the computer. He’ll be placed on that and only that until he’s fully recovered.”

  “I see,” was all I could say.

  “So, what was he talking about when he said you found some texts? Were they related to the Triads?” Davis sat down beside me.

  “No, it was nothing, really,” I lied. “I was trying to silence his phone and noticed about a dozen texts and social media pictures from these two college-age girls declaring their love for him, blowing kisses. He may be referring to that.” I leaned my head back on my pillow, trying not to look at him.

  “Oh, those girls. And you said you only saw two?”

  “Yes, why do you ask? Should there be more?” I felt a spasm of anger.

  “Uh, yeah. Usually there’s more.” He was rubbing his chin, looking pensive.

  “So, you know about all these girls? On his phone?” Davis just nodded his head, giving nothing away. My anger started to bubble inside me and the damn machines were giving me away. Davis stared up at them and then looked at me, a little perplexed.