Chapter 5

The ambulance pulled up at the emergency room entrance of the Memorial Hospital. The driver hopped out, ran around and opened the rear door.

"Go in and get some help out here. I need someone to carry the I.V. and oxygen," said the medic in the back.

The medic that had ridden with Béla was joyfully amazed that she seemed to be doing so well. Her blood pressure and pulse were weak, but steady, and, rather than going into shock and cardiac arrest as most anyone in her condition would, she was conscious and even trying to talk.

"Don't worry." He told her as she lay there, the blood pack inserted into her arm and her face covered with the oxygen mask. "You're gonna be all right."

But his gut told him that she would never be all right. Even if the girl lived, she would be chair-bound for the rest of her life. The thought made him feel sick inside.

He hopped out of the back of the ambulance, pacing back and forth.

'What's taking Doug so long?' he thought, impatiently. 'Christ! It's freezing out here!'

Seeing Doug, the driver, coming back out with two orderlies, he walked around the side of the ambulance toward them.

"It's about time you guys got out here!" he admonished them. "We got a multiple gunshot victim here! She could bleed to death any second!"

He turned back, leading the small group of orderlies around behind the ambulance and was met by a fierce blast of winter wind that blew his cap completely off. He climbed in the back, then suddenly stopped.

"Holy shit! She's gone!" he cried out. Stunned and surprised, he backed out of the van and looked around wildly.

"Somebody's taken her!" he yelled. "But that's impossible! I was right here the whole time!" Still looking around, he noticed a bloodstained sheet blowing across the lot behind the vehicle.

"She must have gotten out!" he exclaimed. "Come on! Look around for her! If she's walking around loose, she's probably delusional! We gotta find her before she freezes or bleeds to death!"

The men scattered, searching the grounds and the nearby parking lot. They didn't find her. No one had noticed the few tiny drops of blood that had rained down on their white uniforms while they were standing by the ambulance, moments earlier.

Back at the Target Club, Frank and Jessica were each telling the police their version of what happened.

"That evil sick bastard killed her!" Jessica was saying. She was angry and upset, her voice shaking. "He just stood there and shot her to death. Then Frank blew his goddamned head clean off!"

The police officer made Frank turn over his beautiful long-barreled .45 that Béla had gifted him with shortly after they'd met.

"Well, alright," the officer said. "As soon as we finish our investigation of the scene, we'll be done here."

They looked around the room. Tables and chairs were turned every which way. Many were broken into pieces on the floor. Some people Frank didn't know were carrying out the covered remains of the gunman.

"Can I take Jessica home, officer?" Frank asked, "She's been through a lot. Well, we both have. And..."

"Sure. Go ahead," the officer, Henry, told him. "Are you coming back?"

"Well, somebody'll have to clean this up..." Frank murmured, knowing the cops didn't do cleanup work, even after processing a murder scene.

Frank got car keys from the office, then took Jessica outside, leading her to Béla's little red sports car. She'd just bought it last week and was very much in love with it.

"Why don't we take your car?" Jessica asked, uninterested in being cramped into the passenger side of a tiny, obviously foreign car and freezing to death due to what she believed would be an air-cooled engine, like the horrible little Volkswagen her ex-boyfriend had once owned.

"I've got a headlight out," he answered. "Besides, I've been dying to try this little baby out..."

Privately, Frank wanted a car that would be easily recognizable and stood out, even at night, just in case...

'Bastard Asshole!' Jessica thought, furious with him, 'Béla's been murdered and all he can think about is driving her hot little sports car! God! Men suck!' She decided that the next time she saw him, she was going to spit in his face and quit! But right now, she was too upset.