"You might want to mop up some of that blood." House grunted to an orderly as he hobbled toward the stained door. "Don't want anyone to slip and fall. That, and it's starting to get really creepy."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Came an unenthusiastic reply.
"Don't sound so excited." House mumbled as he stopped to study the scene. It ended with a bloody handprint on the door and haphazard footsteps leading to the nurses' station, but that didn't reveal where it might have started. House knew that was the most important clue of all in getting to the bottom of this.
In fact, he would have been out the door already, had it not been for a small trail of blood going in a different direction.
"All right. Listen up. Who was here when Mr. Soon-to-be-Scarface stumbled in?" he suddenly asked. "Anyone?"
"I was here." One of the nurses volunteered timidly.
House walked toward the blood splatter in question.
"He went one way, and blood went another. Which means either he was flicking it at somebody, or he had something in his hand and dropped it. Which one was it?"
The nurse looked at the resident. He shrugged.
"I… We didn't notice…"
"I did." The orderly held up a loaded pistol he had picked up shortly after Cameron's team had taken the patient back. "No shots were fired. Probably too disoriented from the blood loss to remember he was even carrying it."
He passed the weapon to House who studied it for a moment. After a thorough investigation of the firearm, he cocked a smile and nodded.
"Is there something important about it?" the resident asked. House didn't waste even a breath.
"Hell if I know. But it's a nice gun." He wrapped it in piece of linen and hid it behind the nurses' counter. "Keep it safe for me. I'll be back for it later."
The nurses exchanged some worried looks, but by the time they turned back to House, he was on his way out the door.