Part 3
"Hey Stantz! Are you listening to me? Do you understand your rights?" Frump demanded. Ray remained silent, blinking back tears of pain. "Stantz!?"
Frump roughly turned his prisoner around so he could see his face. "I asked you, do you understand your rights?"
Ray looked lost and confused. Alan had shot, maybe even killed Peter, and Ray had been useless to stop him. Alan really had thought of everything. Now, Frump was saying something but he didn't know what. Frump's voice was muddled, and nothing he said made sense. Ray looked around, desperately looking for some reassurance, some comfort, some indication that all this was just a bad dream. Then he saw Winston approaching him as Egon climbed in the back of the ambulance with Peter.
"How could you shoot Peter like that Ray? How?"
Unlike Frump, Winston's words sliced through Ray's pain-induced stupor like a sharp blade. Ray shook his head to clear it, which was a big mistake. All it did was make him dizzy. "I didn't shoot Peter, Winston. Alan did."
"Don't lie to me Ray! We saw you!" Before Frump or one of the other officers could stop him, Winston punched Ray in the stomach. Ray let out a groan and fell to his knees, doubled over with the pain. Just before he fainted from the pain, he tasted blood, and saw a few drops fall from his mouth to the ground. "Great," he thought, "internal bleeding. Just what I needed..."
Then everything went black.
********
One of the officer grabbed Winston, and heaved him off of Ray. Winton shook him off angrily and stared down at the unconscious man. "If Pete dies, I promise you I will make you pay."
"That's enough, Zeddemore. Now you just get into that heap of yours and get out of here."
Winston turned a vitriolic glance at the detective, got into Ecto and drove away. Frump looked down at the prostrate Ray, then turned to one of the officers. "Get him into an ambulance and take him to emergency too. But keep an eye on him."
****
Egon was pacing back and forth when the door of the waiting room, an action he was definitely not accustomed to. "Ironic," he thought. "This is usually Peter's job in these kinds of situations. Now here I am doing it in his place." But for all his musing, Egon was worried. Raymond seemed for all intents and purposes to have gone completely over the edge, and for no good reason. Try as he might, Egon could not think of a single event or instance that may have led to such a situation. It was completely illogical. And although Raymond was given to more than occasional bouts of over-enthusiasm, he was by no means an illogical man. Yet, facts were facts. Peter had been shot by Ray in plain sight of at least twenty people, and may not survive the night. Suddenly, the door of waiting room burst open, jarring Egon from his thoughts.
"Where is he? Where's my boy?" cried a familiar gravelly voice.
Egon hurried over to the elder Venkman. "Peter in the operating room, Mr. Venkman. Please sit down."
Charlie Venkman let Egon help him over to the plastic chairs. "How? Why?", he kept saying. "Peter is a good boy. Why would anyone shoot him? Why?"
Egon found himself placing his arm around the distraught man. "I don't know why he did it."
Charlie looked at Egon with hard green eyes. Even grief couldn't blunt the man's well-honed salesman's edge. "You know who shot my boy? Then you've got to tell me ! "
"Ray," Egon replied in a small voice.
"Ray? Peter's friend? Ray Stantz?" he asked, wanting to make sure he had heard Egon right. Egon nodded ruefully. Charlie stood up, his body shaking with rage. "I'm going to kill him if my boy dies. I mean it!"
Egon stood up and walked over to the window. "You won' t have to. I'm going to make sure Ray is put away in a place where he can never harm anyone again."
"Excuse me, Dr. Spengler?" Egon turned around to see a doctor standing in the doorway.
"Yes?"
"I'm Doctor Miller. I'm the surgeon working on your friend."
Charlie hurried over to him. "Is my boy going to be all right?"
Doctor Miller looked at him. "It was touch and go for a while there, but your son is a very strong and determined young man. He's not quite out of the woods yet, but we 're very hopeful."
Venkman smiled . "That's my boy. He takes after his old man. May I see him?"
"For a few minutes, yes, but don't disturb him. He 's needs his rest. I'll have Nurse Connor take you to him."
Egon watched as Charlie and the nurse left. "Is Peter really going to recover?"
"Yes but I'd say it was a miracle The bullet didn't hit any major organs."
"That impossible."
"Why?"
"Peter was shot at close range."
"Then your friend was one lucky man. I have to make rounds now Dr. Spengler."
Egon sat down, overwhelmed. Peter would survive. He pulled his glassed off his face, put his head in his hands and wept silent tears of relief.
****
Ray woke up on a gurney in the corridor of the hospital, with Frump standing over him.
"Well, Stantz. You've had a busy day, haven't you? Arson, and now attempted murder. And the broken ribs were a nice touch, by the way. Thought you could throw me off the scent, huh?"
Ray look up at him, his face stretched with pain. "Please. I've got to know about Peter." Frump look at him in disgust. "Why do you care?"
"Peter's my friend."
The detective let out a derisive snort. "If Venkman's your friend, I don't want to meet your enemies."
"I didn't shoot Peter!"
"Stantz, I think you'd better be quiet." Frump started to read Ray his rights again when he heard Egon's voice.
"Hold it right there, Frump. Raymond is not going with you."
Frump turned around and glare at Egon. "Don't try to stop me, Spengler. Stantz is going to jail."
"No, he's not," replied Egon sternly.
Hope began to glimmer inside Ray's mind as he lay on the gurney listening to the exchange. Maybe Egon was having second thoughts. Maybe he hadn't lost a friend after all. Frump started to say something when two orderlies in white with Belfe written on their jackets stepped up beside Egon. One of them was carrying heavy canvas straps. Egon pointed to the gurney. "That's him."
The two man walk over to the cart. Ray tried to get up, but was pushed roughly back. The taller man grabbed him and held him down while together they strapped the unfortunate Ray to the gurney. Ray screamed in pain as the straps damaged his injuries even more. "Stop! My ribs are broken, you dipsticks! Egon, please, help me!"
Egon stared sadly at Ray. "I'm helping you the only way I know how, Raymond."
Ray tried to fight off his two guards. "Egon, what do you mean? Please, help me! They're hurting me!"
"I signed the papers to have you committed. I just hope they can help you." Egon turned away. Ray felt like he had been punched in the stomach for the second time today. Then he stopped fighting. Alan had won. His best friend had been shot and his other two best friends had turned against him. The two orderlies wheeled the gurney out to a van waiting outside, and took him away.
*******
Alan laughed as he turned off the magic screen. "Oh I 'm loving this. But tell me, you old hag: why didn't Venkman die?"
Flo said nothing. Alan laughed again. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. Everyone thinks Stantz has gone nuts. Ha! And now his best friend Spengler has had him put away! Oh man, this is so delicious!"
*****
Egon watched as Ray's gurney was being wheeled away. "Broken ribs?" He thought. "Hmmm..."
Egon then turned and walk away but his mind was racing. This situation had seemed unbelievable at first, and now it was beginning to take a suspicious turn. He saw a doctor standing by the nurse's station and approached him. "Excuse me, are you the doctor that worked on the man who was just taken away?"
The doctor finished signing some papers before he answered the question. "No. Dr. Fisher worked on him, and I'll tell you he wasn't too pleased to have his patient taken from him."
Egon disregarded the barb in the doctor's last statement. "May I speak with Dr. Fisher?"
"Sure. He's in the doctor's lounge. Just be careful. Ted's not in a good mood."
Egon nodded and headed for the doctor's lounge. He met Winston in the hall; he had just come from seeing Peter. He was wearing a scowl on his face that Egon did not see often. Winston only looked like that when things were truly grim indeed. But Egon was beginning to suspect otherwise. "Winton, we've got to go talk to the doctor that treated Ray."
"Why? Man, as far as I'm concerned, Ray can rot in jail."
Egon fixed an intense stare on Winston. "I have reason to suspect that Ray is innocent. Something stinks here and I want find out what."
"Innocent? But you checked him out and said he wasn't possessed. We all saw him fire point blank at Peter!"
"I examined him for possession, but that's all I did. Any number of other factors could be at work, here, Winston, and I should have examined those possibilities as well. Just now, when Ray was being taken away, he mentioned his ribs being broken. Yet he stood straight when he fired at Peter. How could he have fired a gun with broken ribs?"
Winston looked shocked. "Broken ribs?? Oh man. I punched Ray out of rage."
"It's unlikely that your punch broke his ribs, Winston. But it's a possibility we need to discuss with the doctor who treated Ray."
In the doctor's lounge, they saw only one doctor sitting on a sofa drinking coffee. Egon walked over to him. "Excuse me, are you Dr. Fisher?"
"Yeah, and you must be Dr. Spengler, the ass who had my patient taken from me."
Egon was taken back by Dr. Fisher sharp tone, but presented only a calm face to the irate doctor. "I did what I thought was best at the time. Now I'm not too sure. Doctor, I need to know how long his ribs had been broken."
Dr. Fisher looked at the two men, his eyes narrow with suspicion and anger. "His ribs have been broken for at least a day or two and he'll be lucky if he gets the right care at Belfe. He had four broken ribs, two cracked ones and internal bleeding. I hope he gets the care he needs."
Winston felt his stomach lurch. "Was the internal bleeding caused by the broken ribs?"
Dr. Fisher stared at him. "No, I believe that was caused by something else. It could have been caused by the police manhandling him as they arrested him. But I understand someone punched him in the stomach at the scene. It was a wonder he wasn't dead by the time he got here."
Winston went pale looked down at his hands. Egon placed a hand on his shoulder but said nothing to him.
"Doctor, could he have held and fired a gun with broken ribs?"
"I doubt it. He could hardly stand up, let alone fire a gun. Now gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I have rounds to make."
Egon and Winston watched him leave. Winston looked at Egon with a look of horror on his face. "Oh God, Egon. What did I do?"
"Not just you, Winston, but me as well. I'm going to go see Ray."
"What are you going to do?"
"Listen to him and really listen."
Winston nodded. "Egon, tell him I'm sorry."
Egon returned the nod and headed for the door. He walked out into the parking lot and got into Ecto. After signing in at the Belfe Mental Institute for the Criminally Insane, he was shown down long, dark hallways to Ray's room. Occasionally, the slamming of steel gates or a scream from some tortured soul could be heard faintly from some other part of the building. The walls were a drab, institutional green, and little light filtered in through the small, dirty windows. The steel bars all the doors and windows added to the desperate gloom of the place. Somewhere at the back of his mind, Egon surmised that it wouldn't be long before they would be called to bust a spirit at such a place.
Egon was led down a corridor to the hospital wing, where injured inmates were kept, and where Ray was currently being treated. Two orderlies were standing guard at either side of Ray's door. Egon showed them his pass and they allowed him to go in.
As Egon entered the room, he noticed that Ray was still strapped to the bed and that he had a monitor and IV was hooked up to him. Ray was awake, and looking up at the ceiling.
"Hello, Raymond."
No answer. Egon sighed. This was not going to be easy. Ray could be far more stubborn than Peter, when he put his mind to it. "Ray, I know you're upset with me and I don't blame you. But I have come to hear your side of the story. No interruptions, no assumptions, no judgments."
Ray's lip was drawn in a thin line, and his jaw was set. He remained silent, resolutely staring up at the ceiling. "Ray, please say something."
Ray turned his head towards the wall. "Why should I?" he said, in a muffled voice that was hardly audible. "You wouldn't believe a word I'd say anyway."
Egon felt bad. Ray's words had a ring of truth in them. "I know I haven't listened to you before, and for that I'm sorry. I'm ready to believe you now."
The silence in the room was deafening. "Please, Ray."
Still getting no answer, Egon rose and left. He headed back to the hospital. His mind was racing again. He had to find out what happened. He remembered Ray saying something about Alan but what did the brash shoe salesman from Morrisville have to do with all of this?
When he got to the hospital Janine was waiting for him. "Egon, Peter's awake and he's asking for Ray."
"Okay Janine. I'll go talk to him."
As Egon entered Peter's room, Charlie Venkman was trying to hold his son down. In spite of his injures, Peter was trying to sit up. "Egon, where's Ray?" he demanded.
"He's at Belfe."
"Belfe?" exploded the elder Venkman. "After what he did to my boy? He should be rotting in jail!"
"Dad?"
"Yes Peter?"
"Shut the hell up."
Charlie Venkman was taken back by his son 's words. "Pete, I was ..."
"Dad, I said shut up." Peter turned to Egon and Winston. "I don't know who shot me, but it wasn't Ray. It was somebody disguised to look like Ray. I saw his eyes. They weren't the eyes of our Ray."
"I know, Peter." Egon replied. "Ray 's ribs were broken. There's no way he could have fired that gun."
"Yeah, and I made it worse by punching him in the stomach." Winston's voice was despondent.
Peter closed his eyes. "What have you done, guys? Spengs, you get him back here now!"
"Peter, he's not talking to me."
Peter tried again to get up, but this time Winston held him down. "Pete you're not in any shape to get up."
Peter looked at Winston. "Then you'd better think of something. Because if Ray isn't here sharing a room with me when I get out of ICU, I'll never speak to any of you again."
Egon came over to stand at the side of Peter's bed. "You don't mean that, Peter. You're just upset."
"Why shouldn't I be? You just threw my best friend in the nuthouse. You'd better find out what really happened, Spengler, and get him out of that place. Now, get out, all of you. I need my rest."
"Do you want me to stay, son?"
"No, Dad, I want you to leave."
As they walked out Winston look at Egon. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Ray won't talk to me."
"Maybe he'll talk to me."
Egon and Winston turned to find Ray's Aunt Lois standing in the hallway in a dressing gown. Egon went over to her. "Ray's Aunt Lois!" He said affectionately, using the in-joke that the men shared with Ray's closest relative. "Why are you up?"
"I've been released, dear. Now, take me to my nephew."
Egon stood there for a moment, stunned by Aunt Lois' proposal. Had he not already been to see Ray, and had seen the hell-hole that purported to be a modern medical facility, he might have considered doing as the older woman asked. But with images of an insane asylum to rival Bedlam itself seared in his mind, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Aunt Lois. I can't take you there. I just can't risk it."
Aunt Lois smiled quizzically at the considerably taller physicist. "Now, Egon, someone needs to talk to Ray. But he's not talking to you, is he?"
Egon smiled at her. Now he could see where Ray got it from. "No, he isn't. All right, I'll take you, even if it is against my better judgement." he replied.
"Thank you, dear." she smiled sweetly. "Now let's go." She turned to Winston. "Are you coming Winston, dear?"
Winston looked grim as he shook his head. "No. I'm the last person Ray wants to see right now." Slowly he turned and walked away. Concerned, Aunt Lois exchanged glances with Egon. But the blond man offered no explanations, but offered instead his arm to the diminutive woman. In silence, they walked out to the parking lot.
"Egon?" Aunt Lois was the first to break the silence, as Egon steered Ecto in the direction of Belfe.
"Mm?"
"What's wrong with Winston, besides what's going on with Ray?"
"Nothing, really. He's just worried about Ray."
"Now, Egon! I know you're not lying to me, but you're not telling me everything."
"Did the doctor tell you about Ray's injuries?"
"Yes?"
"Winston may have been the cause of his internal bleeding."
Aunt Lois became quiet for a moment. Then she spoke in a quiet voice. "I'm sure Winston didn't mean to do it."
Egon didn't answer her, but turned the corner through the stone and iron gate that marked the edges of the Belfe Institution.
If Aunt Lois had any illusions as to the type of place which now had custody of her only nephew, they were dispelled now. They pulled up along a driveway to a grey, foreboding-looking institution. The overcast day cast a pallor about the place that even the well-kept grounds could not dispel. Four stories high and sprawling, the building had been built at the turn on the century and bore traces of what must have once been a well-appointed and beautiful institution. But the architectural details had long been stripped from the building's exterior, leaving it looking decrepit and bare. Egon knew that it was a mild preamble to what scenes waited inside.
Egon escorted her up the steps, and took her to the main office, where they both signed in. After undergoing a security check, they were taken to Ray's room. As they walked down the halls, Aunt Lois clung to Egon's arm at the sounds of the screams echoing down the dismal hallways. Once they arrived at the room, Egon showed the orderlies their pass and they were allowed in. Ray was still strapped to his bed, and was still staring at the ceiling. His aunt let out an involuntary cry, which made Ray turn. His lips were drawn tightly thin as he looked from her to Egon.
"Why did you bring her here, Spengler? You had no right!"
Egon was once again momentarily speechless. Never before had the younger man called him only by his last name. It betrayed a disdain, a disgust usually reserved for their enemies, such as Walter Peck. Before Egon could collect his thoughts, Aunt Lois walked over to the bed and laid a hand on Ray's arm. "I asked Egon to bring me, dear. I was hoping you would talk to me."
Ray closed his eyes. "I'm sorry about your home, Aunt Lois."
His aunt smiled at him as she patted his hand. "I know that wasn't you, dear. You would never do such a thing to me."
Ray looked at Egon. "At least she believes me, unlike some people I know."
Egon involuntarily straightened, as if offended by Ray's words, but said nothing. He knew only too well the role he had played in Ray's captivity. Ray looked back at his aunt. "Aunt Lois, do you remember Alan Favish?"
"That bully that was always picking on you in school? Before you came to live with me? Yes, I remember him. The little weasel. Does he have something to do with this?"
Ray cast a furtive glance at Egon. Despite his pride being somewhat wounded by his earlier remark, the physicist was hanging on Ray's every word. Ray sighed and became quiet.
"Ray, please go on, dear."
Ray fixed Egon with a stare, then said, "Egon, I'm still mad at you, you know. But you need to hear this too. You can come closer."
Egon pulled up a chair and waited for his friend to go on.
"As I was saying,...Okay, let me think. Oh this isn't easy."
"Take your time Ray." Egon returned his friend's stare, as if to offer him his own strength to continue.
"When I was chosen Grand Marshall of the Puma parade in Morrisville, Alan was jealous. He tried to ruin me then, and he almost pulled it off. Elaine and I found a book of spells in his shoe store that he had been using to manipulate spirits in that old haunted house. We stopped him, but not before he raised the spirit of the Winged Puma."
"Last week after a job, I was loading Ecto, when someone grabbed me. The next thing I knew I was on the ground in an alley, getting the, uh, hide beaten off me." He cast an uneasy glance at his aunt, more conscious of his language in front of his remaining close relative. "I passed out and when I woke up, I was in a room - a motel room I think, but I have no idea where - and a elderly woman was looking after me. Alan showed up as if by magic. I found out later that he had been taking on my appearance, posing as me, and doing awful things to make me look bad."
"I knew it!" exclaimed Aunt Lois. "I knew there was something familiar about that...that man who attacked me and set my house on fire!" Vindicated, she shot a glance at Egon.
"Ray, how did he become you?" asked Egon, ignoring her pointed gaze.
"The old woman. She's a demon. Normally, she wouldn't hurt people, but if she's caught by someone bent on evil, she can be made to do their bidding. He had some kind of a collar around her neck that he used to control her."
Egon took out his electronic hand-held Tobin Spirint guide and ran a search. Then he held it out at an entry showing a beautiful woman. "Ray, is this her?"
Ray studied the picture, his eyes narrowing as he tried to mentally apply the aging process. "Yes, I think so, but the woman I saw was a lot older."
"Since Favish had a collar on her, he could have demanded that she appear old to you, to throw you off the scent. He wouldn't be so careless in casting spells a second time, knowing your background in the occult."
Aunt Lois stared at Ray. "Was he the one who broke your ribs?"
Ray look at her. "I think he was. I don't really know."
Aunt Lois's maternal instinct had long ago kicked in, as it often did when she was around her nephew, but she could hold it back no longer. She reached down and felt his forehead. "You're warm. Has a doctor been in to see you?"
"No." Ray was too tired to engage in his usual charade of protestations of humiliation and embarrassment at his aunt's fussing. He close his eyes, then wearily opened them again to look at Egon. "Please believe me Egon. I didn't do any of those things."
"I do believe you, Ray. I just wish I had believed you earlier. I promise, Winston and I will find Alan Favish. If he really is playing with spells again, he's as much a danger to himself as he is to others. We'll put a stop to it, and make sure he pays for what he did."
"Egon, find Flo first. She's the demon. If she's Alan's slave, he could hurt her."
The physicist nodded gravely. "I will. I promise."
Ray's eyes were by now glassy and bloodshot, and his breathing was much more labored. When Aunt Lois moved to get up from the edge of the bed where she had been sitting, Ray sucked in his breath through his teeth.
"Ray are you okay?"
"No," grunted the injured man. "Oh God, Egon! The painkillers are wearing off, I hurt so bad!"
"Didn't they give you anything?"
"Not since I came here, and what the hospital gave me is wearing off."
Egon spun on his heels, marched out into the hallway and grabbed one of the orderlies by his collar. "You have a man in pain in here. Now if I don't see a nurse here in five minutes I will inflict pain on you such as you cannot conceive."
The two orderlies looked at Egon, the physicist's use of large words and complicated sentence structure being too much for men employed primarily as thugs. And normally, they would think nothing of pounding a man such as this into submission. But something in Egon's eyes made them think the better of their instincts. The one he held nodded. "I'll go."
Soon, the orderly returned with a nurse. But she took one look at the unfortunate man in the room and said, "I 'm sorry, I can't give him anything until a doctor has had a look at him."
"Then you'd had better get a doctor here right now!"
Unused to being commanded by visitors this way, the woman's jaw set in a hard line. "We're busy right now."
But Egon was an old hand at dealing with unwilling doctors and nurses, since enough of their busts ended up with one or more of his teammates in the hospital. At length, Egon proved more obstinate than the nurse, and Ray's doctor was summoned.
"What is going on here?" demanded the doctor impatiently, upon learning of the quarrel.
"Oh Dr. Marks, I was telling Dr. Spengler here, I can't give anything to patient 3010 till you look at him."
"His name is Raymond, and if you are his doctor then you should know that my colleague is suffering from several broken or bruised ribs, and from internal bleeding as well. He needs to be given something for the pain."
"I have already examined 3010, and he doesn't need anything."
Egon's temper finally gave way. As he had done outside the partly demolished firehouse when Peck had accused the Ghostbusters of deliberately shutting down the power grid to the containment unit, he now lunged at the doctor, pinning him against the wall of Ray's room before the orderlies had a chance to react.
"Look again, doctor," he snarled.
Dr Marks looked in shock at Ray, who was now trying hard not to cry, and biting his lip hard. He turned back to the nurse. "Give him 40 CCs of morphine."
"40 CCs! That will knock him out!"
But by now, the doctor had regained his composure, and presented an air of disdainful authority to the frustrated ghostbuster.
"Dr Spengler, he's my patient not yours. Now, stay out of my way."
The nurse gave Egon an I-told-you-so look and filled a hypodermic needle with the drug. Then she roughly grabbed one of Ray's arms and plunged the needle into it. Ray let out a yelp, but his eyes quickly became glossy as the morphine started to take effect. The injured man slipped quietly into unconsciousness. Horrified by the violence of the nurse, Aunt Lois reached out and touched him. "Ray ?"
Egon put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. "What did she give him?"
"Enough morphine to knock him out for hours."
"How long?"
"I'm not sure. I think about nine or ten."
"Egon, please, get him out of here." She was now crying and Egon found himself holding her, albeit somewhat stiffly. He was still uncomfortable at the notion of embracing anyone, much less his colleague's elderly aunt.
"I will. I promise."
Egon took her to Ecto. As she settled into the passenger's seat, he said, "I'll be right back," and he walked back into the building, to the office. "I would like to see Dr. Beaker."
He was shown to a nicely-furnished waiting room, it's well-appointed decor sitting in stark contrast to the decrepit state of the rest of the hospital. Beaker came out of his office, an older man with hard features. "What can I do for you?"
"I was the one who signed the papers for Ray Stantz to be committed to this institution. But I have reason to believe that I made an error of judgement, and I would like to rescind my application."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Spengler, but you were made aware of the rules when you signed the papers. Neither you nor anyone else can stop the process once started. Raymond Stantz cannot be released until after his evaluation. And if we feel he is of sound mind, we will release him to the authorities. This is no longer your concern. Good day sir."
And with that, he went back in his office.
As the disappointed ghostbuster left, a pair of eyes glittered in the shadows. "So, now Ray 's got someone on his side. Doesn't matter, you'll never prove he's innocent without that demon, and I took care of her."
TBC
"Hey Stantz! Are you listening to me? Do you understand your rights?" Frump demanded. Ray remained silent, blinking back tears of pain. "Stantz!?"
Frump roughly turned his prisoner around so he could see his face. "I asked you, do you understand your rights?"
Ray looked lost and confused. Alan had shot, maybe even killed Peter, and Ray had been useless to stop him. Alan really had thought of everything. Now, Frump was saying something but he didn't know what. Frump's voice was muddled, and nothing he said made sense. Ray looked around, desperately looking for some reassurance, some comfort, some indication that all this was just a bad dream. Then he saw Winston approaching him as Egon climbed in the back of the ambulance with Peter.
"How could you shoot Peter like that Ray? How?"
Unlike Frump, Winston's words sliced through Ray's pain-induced stupor like a sharp blade. Ray shook his head to clear it, which was a big mistake. All it did was make him dizzy. "I didn't shoot Peter, Winston. Alan did."
"Don't lie to me Ray! We saw you!" Before Frump or one of the other officers could stop him, Winston punched Ray in the stomach. Ray let out a groan and fell to his knees, doubled over with the pain. Just before he fainted from the pain, he tasted blood, and saw a few drops fall from his mouth to the ground. "Great," he thought, "internal bleeding. Just what I needed..."
Then everything went black.
********
One of the officer grabbed Winston, and heaved him off of Ray. Winton shook him off angrily and stared down at the unconscious man. "If Pete dies, I promise you I will make you pay."
"That's enough, Zeddemore. Now you just get into that heap of yours and get out of here."
Winston turned a vitriolic glance at the detective, got into Ecto and drove away. Frump looked down at the prostrate Ray, then turned to one of the officers. "Get him into an ambulance and take him to emergency too. But keep an eye on him."
****
Egon was pacing back and forth when the door of the waiting room, an action he was definitely not accustomed to. "Ironic," he thought. "This is usually Peter's job in these kinds of situations. Now here I am doing it in his place." But for all his musing, Egon was worried. Raymond seemed for all intents and purposes to have gone completely over the edge, and for no good reason. Try as he might, Egon could not think of a single event or instance that may have led to such a situation. It was completely illogical. And although Raymond was given to more than occasional bouts of over-enthusiasm, he was by no means an illogical man. Yet, facts were facts. Peter had been shot by Ray in plain sight of at least twenty people, and may not survive the night. Suddenly, the door of waiting room burst open, jarring Egon from his thoughts.
"Where is he? Where's my boy?" cried a familiar gravelly voice.
Egon hurried over to the elder Venkman. "Peter in the operating room, Mr. Venkman. Please sit down."
Charlie Venkman let Egon help him over to the plastic chairs. "How? Why?", he kept saying. "Peter is a good boy. Why would anyone shoot him? Why?"
Egon found himself placing his arm around the distraught man. "I don't know why he did it."
Charlie looked at Egon with hard green eyes. Even grief couldn't blunt the man's well-honed salesman's edge. "You know who shot my boy? Then you've got to tell me ! "
"Ray," Egon replied in a small voice.
"Ray? Peter's friend? Ray Stantz?" he asked, wanting to make sure he had heard Egon right. Egon nodded ruefully. Charlie stood up, his body shaking with rage. "I'm going to kill him if my boy dies. I mean it!"
Egon stood up and walked over to the window. "You won' t have to. I'm going to make sure Ray is put away in a place where he can never harm anyone again."
"Excuse me, Dr. Spengler?" Egon turned around to see a doctor standing in the doorway.
"Yes?"
"I'm Doctor Miller. I'm the surgeon working on your friend."
Charlie hurried over to him. "Is my boy going to be all right?"
Doctor Miller looked at him. "It was touch and go for a while there, but your son is a very strong and determined young man. He's not quite out of the woods yet, but we 're very hopeful."
Venkman smiled . "That's my boy. He takes after his old man. May I see him?"
"For a few minutes, yes, but don't disturb him. He 's needs his rest. I'll have Nurse Connor take you to him."
Egon watched as Charlie and the nurse left. "Is Peter really going to recover?"
"Yes but I'd say it was a miracle The bullet didn't hit any major organs."
"That impossible."
"Why?"
"Peter was shot at close range."
"Then your friend was one lucky man. I have to make rounds now Dr. Spengler."
Egon sat down, overwhelmed. Peter would survive. He pulled his glassed off his face, put his head in his hands and wept silent tears of relief.
****
Ray woke up on a gurney in the corridor of the hospital, with Frump standing over him.
"Well, Stantz. You've had a busy day, haven't you? Arson, and now attempted murder. And the broken ribs were a nice touch, by the way. Thought you could throw me off the scent, huh?"
Ray look up at him, his face stretched with pain. "Please. I've got to know about Peter." Frump look at him in disgust. "Why do you care?"
"Peter's my friend."
The detective let out a derisive snort. "If Venkman's your friend, I don't want to meet your enemies."
"I didn't shoot Peter!"
"Stantz, I think you'd better be quiet." Frump started to read Ray his rights again when he heard Egon's voice.
"Hold it right there, Frump. Raymond is not going with you."
Frump turned around and glare at Egon. "Don't try to stop me, Spengler. Stantz is going to jail."
"No, he's not," replied Egon sternly.
Hope began to glimmer inside Ray's mind as he lay on the gurney listening to the exchange. Maybe Egon was having second thoughts. Maybe he hadn't lost a friend after all. Frump started to say something when two orderlies in white with Belfe written on their jackets stepped up beside Egon. One of them was carrying heavy canvas straps. Egon pointed to the gurney. "That's him."
The two man walk over to the cart. Ray tried to get up, but was pushed roughly back. The taller man grabbed him and held him down while together they strapped the unfortunate Ray to the gurney. Ray screamed in pain as the straps damaged his injuries even more. "Stop! My ribs are broken, you dipsticks! Egon, please, help me!"
Egon stared sadly at Ray. "I'm helping you the only way I know how, Raymond."
Ray tried to fight off his two guards. "Egon, what do you mean? Please, help me! They're hurting me!"
"I signed the papers to have you committed. I just hope they can help you." Egon turned away. Ray felt like he had been punched in the stomach for the second time today. Then he stopped fighting. Alan had won. His best friend had been shot and his other two best friends had turned against him. The two orderlies wheeled the gurney out to a van waiting outside, and took him away.
*******
Alan laughed as he turned off the magic screen. "Oh I 'm loving this. But tell me, you old hag: why didn't Venkman die?"
Flo said nothing. Alan laughed again. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. Everyone thinks Stantz has gone nuts. Ha! And now his best friend Spengler has had him put away! Oh man, this is so delicious!"
*****
Egon watched as Ray's gurney was being wheeled away. "Broken ribs?" He thought. "Hmmm..."
Egon then turned and walk away but his mind was racing. This situation had seemed unbelievable at first, and now it was beginning to take a suspicious turn. He saw a doctor standing by the nurse's station and approached him. "Excuse me, are you the doctor that worked on the man who was just taken away?"
The doctor finished signing some papers before he answered the question. "No. Dr. Fisher worked on him, and I'll tell you he wasn't too pleased to have his patient taken from him."
Egon disregarded the barb in the doctor's last statement. "May I speak with Dr. Fisher?"
"Sure. He's in the doctor's lounge. Just be careful. Ted's not in a good mood."
Egon nodded and headed for the doctor's lounge. He met Winston in the hall; he had just come from seeing Peter. He was wearing a scowl on his face that Egon did not see often. Winston only looked like that when things were truly grim indeed. But Egon was beginning to suspect otherwise. "Winton, we've got to go talk to the doctor that treated Ray."
"Why? Man, as far as I'm concerned, Ray can rot in jail."
Egon fixed an intense stare on Winston. "I have reason to suspect that Ray is innocent. Something stinks here and I want find out what."
"Innocent? But you checked him out and said he wasn't possessed. We all saw him fire point blank at Peter!"
"I examined him for possession, but that's all I did. Any number of other factors could be at work, here, Winston, and I should have examined those possibilities as well. Just now, when Ray was being taken away, he mentioned his ribs being broken. Yet he stood straight when he fired at Peter. How could he have fired a gun with broken ribs?"
Winston looked shocked. "Broken ribs?? Oh man. I punched Ray out of rage."
"It's unlikely that your punch broke his ribs, Winston. But it's a possibility we need to discuss with the doctor who treated Ray."
In the doctor's lounge, they saw only one doctor sitting on a sofa drinking coffee. Egon walked over to him. "Excuse me, are you Dr. Fisher?"
"Yeah, and you must be Dr. Spengler, the ass who had my patient taken from me."
Egon was taken back by Dr. Fisher sharp tone, but presented only a calm face to the irate doctor. "I did what I thought was best at the time. Now I'm not too sure. Doctor, I need to know how long his ribs had been broken."
Dr. Fisher looked at the two men, his eyes narrow with suspicion and anger. "His ribs have been broken for at least a day or two and he'll be lucky if he gets the right care at Belfe. He had four broken ribs, two cracked ones and internal bleeding. I hope he gets the care he needs."
Winston felt his stomach lurch. "Was the internal bleeding caused by the broken ribs?"
Dr. Fisher stared at him. "No, I believe that was caused by something else. It could have been caused by the police manhandling him as they arrested him. But I understand someone punched him in the stomach at the scene. It was a wonder he wasn't dead by the time he got here."
Winston went pale looked down at his hands. Egon placed a hand on his shoulder but said nothing to him.
"Doctor, could he have held and fired a gun with broken ribs?"
"I doubt it. He could hardly stand up, let alone fire a gun. Now gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I have rounds to make."
Egon and Winston watched him leave. Winston looked at Egon with a look of horror on his face. "Oh God, Egon. What did I do?"
"Not just you, Winston, but me as well. I'm going to go see Ray."
"What are you going to do?"
"Listen to him and really listen."
Winston nodded. "Egon, tell him I'm sorry."
Egon returned the nod and headed for the door. He walked out into the parking lot and got into Ecto. After signing in at the Belfe Mental Institute for the Criminally Insane, he was shown down long, dark hallways to Ray's room. Occasionally, the slamming of steel gates or a scream from some tortured soul could be heard faintly from some other part of the building. The walls were a drab, institutional green, and little light filtered in through the small, dirty windows. The steel bars all the doors and windows added to the desperate gloom of the place. Somewhere at the back of his mind, Egon surmised that it wouldn't be long before they would be called to bust a spirit at such a place.
Egon was led down a corridor to the hospital wing, where injured inmates were kept, and where Ray was currently being treated. Two orderlies were standing guard at either side of Ray's door. Egon showed them his pass and they allowed him to go in.
As Egon entered the room, he noticed that Ray was still strapped to the bed and that he had a monitor and IV was hooked up to him. Ray was awake, and looking up at the ceiling.
"Hello, Raymond."
No answer. Egon sighed. This was not going to be easy. Ray could be far more stubborn than Peter, when he put his mind to it. "Ray, I know you're upset with me and I don't blame you. But I have come to hear your side of the story. No interruptions, no assumptions, no judgments."
Ray's lip was drawn in a thin line, and his jaw was set. He remained silent, resolutely staring up at the ceiling. "Ray, please say something."
Ray turned his head towards the wall. "Why should I?" he said, in a muffled voice that was hardly audible. "You wouldn't believe a word I'd say anyway."
Egon felt bad. Ray's words had a ring of truth in them. "I know I haven't listened to you before, and for that I'm sorry. I'm ready to believe you now."
The silence in the room was deafening. "Please, Ray."
Still getting no answer, Egon rose and left. He headed back to the hospital. His mind was racing again. He had to find out what happened. He remembered Ray saying something about Alan but what did the brash shoe salesman from Morrisville have to do with all of this?
When he got to the hospital Janine was waiting for him. "Egon, Peter's awake and he's asking for Ray."
"Okay Janine. I'll go talk to him."
As Egon entered Peter's room, Charlie Venkman was trying to hold his son down. In spite of his injures, Peter was trying to sit up. "Egon, where's Ray?" he demanded.
"He's at Belfe."
"Belfe?" exploded the elder Venkman. "After what he did to my boy? He should be rotting in jail!"
"Dad?"
"Yes Peter?"
"Shut the hell up."
Charlie Venkman was taken back by his son 's words. "Pete, I was ..."
"Dad, I said shut up." Peter turned to Egon and Winston. "I don't know who shot me, but it wasn't Ray. It was somebody disguised to look like Ray. I saw his eyes. They weren't the eyes of our Ray."
"I know, Peter." Egon replied. "Ray 's ribs were broken. There's no way he could have fired that gun."
"Yeah, and I made it worse by punching him in the stomach." Winston's voice was despondent.
Peter closed his eyes. "What have you done, guys? Spengs, you get him back here now!"
"Peter, he's not talking to me."
Peter tried again to get up, but this time Winston held him down. "Pete you're not in any shape to get up."
Peter looked at Winston. "Then you'd better think of something. Because if Ray isn't here sharing a room with me when I get out of ICU, I'll never speak to any of you again."
Egon came over to stand at the side of Peter's bed. "You don't mean that, Peter. You're just upset."
"Why shouldn't I be? You just threw my best friend in the nuthouse. You'd better find out what really happened, Spengler, and get him out of that place. Now, get out, all of you. I need my rest."
"Do you want me to stay, son?"
"No, Dad, I want you to leave."
As they walked out Winston look at Egon. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Ray won't talk to me."
"Maybe he'll talk to me."
Egon and Winston turned to find Ray's Aunt Lois standing in the hallway in a dressing gown. Egon went over to her. "Ray's Aunt Lois!" He said affectionately, using the in-joke that the men shared with Ray's closest relative. "Why are you up?"
"I've been released, dear. Now, take me to my nephew."
Egon stood there for a moment, stunned by Aunt Lois' proposal. Had he not already been to see Ray, and had seen the hell-hole that purported to be a modern medical facility, he might have considered doing as the older woman asked. But with images of an insane asylum to rival Bedlam itself seared in his mind, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Aunt Lois. I can't take you there. I just can't risk it."
Aunt Lois smiled quizzically at the considerably taller physicist. "Now, Egon, someone needs to talk to Ray. But he's not talking to you, is he?"
Egon smiled at her. Now he could see where Ray got it from. "No, he isn't. All right, I'll take you, even if it is against my better judgement." he replied.
"Thank you, dear." she smiled sweetly. "Now let's go." She turned to Winston. "Are you coming Winston, dear?"
Winston looked grim as he shook his head. "No. I'm the last person Ray wants to see right now." Slowly he turned and walked away. Concerned, Aunt Lois exchanged glances with Egon. But the blond man offered no explanations, but offered instead his arm to the diminutive woman. In silence, they walked out to the parking lot.
"Egon?" Aunt Lois was the first to break the silence, as Egon steered Ecto in the direction of Belfe.
"Mm?"
"What's wrong with Winston, besides what's going on with Ray?"
"Nothing, really. He's just worried about Ray."
"Now, Egon! I know you're not lying to me, but you're not telling me everything."
"Did the doctor tell you about Ray's injuries?"
"Yes?"
"Winston may have been the cause of his internal bleeding."
Aunt Lois became quiet for a moment. Then she spoke in a quiet voice. "I'm sure Winston didn't mean to do it."
Egon didn't answer her, but turned the corner through the stone and iron gate that marked the edges of the Belfe Institution.
If Aunt Lois had any illusions as to the type of place which now had custody of her only nephew, they were dispelled now. They pulled up along a driveway to a grey, foreboding-looking institution. The overcast day cast a pallor about the place that even the well-kept grounds could not dispel. Four stories high and sprawling, the building had been built at the turn on the century and bore traces of what must have once been a well-appointed and beautiful institution. But the architectural details had long been stripped from the building's exterior, leaving it looking decrepit and bare. Egon knew that it was a mild preamble to what scenes waited inside.
Egon escorted her up the steps, and took her to the main office, where they both signed in. After undergoing a security check, they were taken to Ray's room. As they walked down the halls, Aunt Lois clung to Egon's arm at the sounds of the screams echoing down the dismal hallways. Once they arrived at the room, Egon showed the orderlies their pass and they were allowed in. Ray was still strapped to his bed, and was still staring at the ceiling. His aunt let out an involuntary cry, which made Ray turn. His lips were drawn tightly thin as he looked from her to Egon.
"Why did you bring her here, Spengler? You had no right!"
Egon was once again momentarily speechless. Never before had the younger man called him only by his last name. It betrayed a disdain, a disgust usually reserved for their enemies, such as Walter Peck. Before Egon could collect his thoughts, Aunt Lois walked over to the bed and laid a hand on Ray's arm. "I asked Egon to bring me, dear. I was hoping you would talk to me."
Ray closed his eyes. "I'm sorry about your home, Aunt Lois."
His aunt smiled at him as she patted his hand. "I know that wasn't you, dear. You would never do such a thing to me."
Ray looked at Egon. "At least she believes me, unlike some people I know."
Egon involuntarily straightened, as if offended by Ray's words, but said nothing. He knew only too well the role he had played in Ray's captivity. Ray looked back at his aunt. "Aunt Lois, do you remember Alan Favish?"
"That bully that was always picking on you in school? Before you came to live with me? Yes, I remember him. The little weasel. Does he have something to do with this?"
Ray cast a furtive glance at Egon. Despite his pride being somewhat wounded by his earlier remark, the physicist was hanging on Ray's every word. Ray sighed and became quiet.
"Ray, please go on, dear."
Ray fixed Egon with a stare, then said, "Egon, I'm still mad at you, you know. But you need to hear this too. You can come closer."
Egon pulled up a chair and waited for his friend to go on.
"As I was saying,...Okay, let me think. Oh this isn't easy."
"Take your time Ray." Egon returned his friend's stare, as if to offer him his own strength to continue.
"When I was chosen Grand Marshall of the Puma parade in Morrisville, Alan was jealous. He tried to ruin me then, and he almost pulled it off. Elaine and I found a book of spells in his shoe store that he had been using to manipulate spirits in that old haunted house. We stopped him, but not before he raised the spirit of the Winged Puma."
"Last week after a job, I was loading Ecto, when someone grabbed me. The next thing I knew I was on the ground in an alley, getting the, uh, hide beaten off me." He cast an uneasy glance at his aunt, more conscious of his language in front of his remaining close relative. "I passed out and when I woke up, I was in a room - a motel room I think, but I have no idea where - and a elderly woman was looking after me. Alan showed up as if by magic. I found out later that he had been taking on my appearance, posing as me, and doing awful things to make me look bad."
"I knew it!" exclaimed Aunt Lois. "I knew there was something familiar about that...that man who attacked me and set my house on fire!" Vindicated, she shot a glance at Egon.
"Ray, how did he become you?" asked Egon, ignoring her pointed gaze.
"The old woman. She's a demon. Normally, she wouldn't hurt people, but if she's caught by someone bent on evil, she can be made to do their bidding. He had some kind of a collar around her neck that he used to control her."
Egon took out his electronic hand-held Tobin Spirint guide and ran a search. Then he held it out at an entry showing a beautiful woman. "Ray, is this her?"
Ray studied the picture, his eyes narrowing as he tried to mentally apply the aging process. "Yes, I think so, but the woman I saw was a lot older."
"Since Favish had a collar on her, he could have demanded that she appear old to you, to throw you off the scent. He wouldn't be so careless in casting spells a second time, knowing your background in the occult."
Aunt Lois stared at Ray. "Was he the one who broke your ribs?"
Ray look at her. "I think he was. I don't really know."
Aunt Lois's maternal instinct had long ago kicked in, as it often did when she was around her nephew, but she could hold it back no longer. She reached down and felt his forehead. "You're warm. Has a doctor been in to see you?"
"No." Ray was too tired to engage in his usual charade of protestations of humiliation and embarrassment at his aunt's fussing. He close his eyes, then wearily opened them again to look at Egon. "Please believe me Egon. I didn't do any of those things."
"I do believe you, Ray. I just wish I had believed you earlier. I promise, Winston and I will find Alan Favish. If he really is playing with spells again, he's as much a danger to himself as he is to others. We'll put a stop to it, and make sure he pays for what he did."
"Egon, find Flo first. She's the demon. If she's Alan's slave, he could hurt her."
The physicist nodded gravely. "I will. I promise."
Ray's eyes were by now glassy and bloodshot, and his breathing was much more labored. When Aunt Lois moved to get up from the edge of the bed where she had been sitting, Ray sucked in his breath through his teeth.
"Ray are you okay?"
"No," grunted the injured man. "Oh God, Egon! The painkillers are wearing off, I hurt so bad!"
"Didn't they give you anything?"
"Not since I came here, and what the hospital gave me is wearing off."
Egon spun on his heels, marched out into the hallway and grabbed one of the orderlies by his collar. "You have a man in pain in here. Now if I don't see a nurse here in five minutes I will inflict pain on you such as you cannot conceive."
The two orderlies looked at Egon, the physicist's use of large words and complicated sentence structure being too much for men employed primarily as thugs. And normally, they would think nothing of pounding a man such as this into submission. But something in Egon's eyes made them think the better of their instincts. The one he held nodded. "I'll go."
Soon, the orderly returned with a nurse. But she took one look at the unfortunate man in the room and said, "I 'm sorry, I can't give him anything until a doctor has had a look at him."
"Then you'd had better get a doctor here right now!"
Unused to being commanded by visitors this way, the woman's jaw set in a hard line. "We're busy right now."
But Egon was an old hand at dealing with unwilling doctors and nurses, since enough of their busts ended up with one or more of his teammates in the hospital. At length, Egon proved more obstinate than the nurse, and Ray's doctor was summoned.
"What is going on here?" demanded the doctor impatiently, upon learning of the quarrel.
"Oh Dr. Marks, I was telling Dr. Spengler here, I can't give anything to patient 3010 till you look at him."
"His name is Raymond, and if you are his doctor then you should know that my colleague is suffering from several broken or bruised ribs, and from internal bleeding as well. He needs to be given something for the pain."
"I have already examined 3010, and he doesn't need anything."
Egon's temper finally gave way. As he had done outside the partly demolished firehouse when Peck had accused the Ghostbusters of deliberately shutting down the power grid to the containment unit, he now lunged at the doctor, pinning him against the wall of Ray's room before the orderlies had a chance to react.
"Look again, doctor," he snarled.
Dr Marks looked in shock at Ray, who was now trying hard not to cry, and biting his lip hard. He turned back to the nurse. "Give him 40 CCs of morphine."
"40 CCs! That will knock him out!"
But by now, the doctor had regained his composure, and presented an air of disdainful authority to the frustrated ghostbuster.
"Dr Spengler, he's my patient not yours. Now, stay out of my way."
The nurse gave Egon an I-told-you-so look and filled a hypodermic needle with the drug. Then she roughly grabbed one of Ray's arms and plunged the needle into it. Ray let out a yelp, but his eyes quickly became glossy as the morphine started to take effect. The injured man slipped quietly into unconsciousness. Horrified by the violence of the nurse, Aunt Lois reached out and touched him. "Ray ?"
Egon put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. "What did she give him?"
"Enough morphine to knock him out for hours."
"How long?"
"I'm not sure. I think about nine or ten."
"Egon, please, get him out of here." She was now crying and Egon found himself holding her, albeit somewhat stiffly. He was still uncomfortable at the notion of embracing anyone, much less his colleague's elderly aunt.
"I will. I promise."
Egon took her to Ecto. As she settled into the passenger's seat, he said, "I'll be right back," and he walked back into the building, to the office. "I would like to see Dr. Beaker."
He was shown to a nicely-furnished waiting room, it's well-appointed decor sitting in stark contrast to the decrepit state of the rest of the hospital. Beaker came out of his office, an older man with hard features. "What can I do for you?"
"I was the one who signed the papers for Ray Stantz to be committed to this institution. But I have reason to believe that I made an error of judgement, and I would like to rescind my application."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Spengler, but you were made aware of the rules when you signed the papers. Neither you nor anyone else can stop the process once started. Raymond Stantz cannot be released until after his evaluation. And if we feel he is of sound mind, we will release him to the authorities. This is no longer your concern. Good day sir."
And with that, he went back in his office.
As the disappointed ghostbuster left, a pair of eyes glittered in the shadows. "So, now Ray 's got someone on his side. Doesn't matter, you'll never prove he's innocent without that demon, and I took care of her."
TBC