Since I haven't updated in a while, here is an extra long chapter!
Disclaimer: still don't own anything except Jamie...but if you'd like to discuss prices...
Chapter 9
The police and ambulances arrived, along with Joe Morelli's unmarked Crown Vic. Jamie was trundled off to the hospital with gunshot wound in her arm.
Morelli stood very close to me as Ranger and I answered police questions.
"I thought Jamie said she would take care of this." He said through clenched teeth.
"She did. But I guess it didn't work out the way she planned. Have you found him yet?"
"No. Every cop in the area is out for this guy."
"Yeesh."
All the cops were gone, and Ranger had driven off to save the world somehow, and Morelli and I were standing by his car.
"I'd really like it if you came home with me. I don't have anything else to do today so we could just stay home and mess around."
"Tempting, but no. I have to call my parents and I need to go over to the hospital."
"This Jack guy is psycho, Steph, aren't you scared?"
"Yeah but he's not going to get me at the hospital with my family all around me is he?"
Morelli sighed because he knew I would never give in to hiding. He gave me a ride to the hospital and on the way I called my parents.
"Hello?" My mother answered.
"Hey mom it's Stephanie…uh…Jamie got shot and I'm on the way to the hospital."
I heard a clunk. "Mom? Mom?"
"Who is this?" Grandma Mazur answered.
"It's Stephanie, Grandma. Where's mom? What happened?"
"Why do I have children who get shot? Mrs. Sjakack's daughters don't get shot. Why do mine? Why me?" I heard my mother in the back ground.
"Who got shot? Valerie got shot?" asked my Grandma
"NO! Jamie got shot. She's going to be okay though, she got shot in the arm."
"Were you going after felons?" Grandma wanted to know.
"No. We were out running." I said.
"Running? Why? You hate to run. Oh I bet it was because you want to fit into something tight for that cop. Or is it for the bounty hunter with the nice package?"
I sighed and disconnected.
Morelli dropped me off at the hospital. He would have come in, but his pager beeped right as he pulled up to the front door.
"Are you still staying at my house?" he asked hopefully.
"Yeah."
He French kissed me goodbye and drove off to make the world a safer place.
I went in through the front doors and asked the nurse at the desk where Jamie was. The nurse said she was still in surgery but would be out soon. So I sat in the waiting room, flipping through million-year-old magazines. Honestly, can't the hospital people take the time to change the stupid magazines? I don't want to read about the Moon Landing. What's done is done. Let's moooooove on.
My parents arrived twenty minutes later and joined me in the waiting room. Finally we were able to see Jamie so the nurse led us into her room.
Jamie was lying in her little bed covered in a blanket. Her arm was bandaged and in a sling. She was asleep, so were only allowed to stay for a few minutes.
"When can she be discharged?" I asked the nurse.
"We'd like to keep her overnight but she can probably go home tomorrow sometime." (A/N I have no idea how long you have to stay for a gunshot wound such as this….but humor me, ok?)
I sighed with relief. We all stayed for a while, waiting for Jamie to wake up, but nothing happened. I had to shower and get to work, so I told my mother I'd pick Jamie up tomorrow and then I left.
I went to Joe's house and cautiously when inside. Jack could be waiting for me, I thought. I crept inside, doing the whole James Bond going through rooms banging open doors routine and didn't find anything. Hallelujah Jack wasn't the leaving-the-dead-guy-on-the-couch type of person or the threatening note type of person or the pretty-but-deadly-flowers type of person. But then again, he probably didn't even know I was living with Joe. I dropped a couple of grapes and peanuts into Rex's cage before stripping and hopping into the shower. After my shower I dressed in my usual uniform of white stretchy tee shirt, flannel shirt, jeans and boots. I had a quite healthy lunch of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff on worthless white bread. I downed it with a beer, grabbed myjacket and shoulder bag, and closed door behind me. I would've taken my gun but it god torched in the fire.
It was two o'clock when I got to the office. Connie and Lula were inside, arguing over who was hotter, Ranger or Tank.
"Ranger is sooooo freaking hot," said Connie, "Omigod! Whenever he's around I have a hot flash!"
"Yeah, sure, he's hot, but that Tank. Man, there's a man I'd like tie to my bed." Said Lula, fanning herself. Oh boy. That was going to leave me with wonderful images.
"Ranger is SO much hotter than Tank." Said Connie.
"NO WAY! Tank is bigger, in more ways than one."
"And how do you know that?" asked Connie, raising an eyebrow.
"Big hands, big feet, big…"
"Ranger's hands are so much bigger than Tank's."
"Nu-unh."
"Yuh-huh."
"Nu-uhn"
"YEAH HUNH!"
"NU UNH!"
Ranger had come in but Connie and Lula didn't notice. I put my finger to my lips to signify SHUSH!
"RANGER IS SO MUCH HOTTER THAN TANK!" yelled Connie.
Ranger grinned all 200 watts and raised his eyebrows at me. I tried to suppress a giggle, but one escaped anyway. Connie and Lula looked at us and froze. Connie turned about twelve shades of red, and I could also see Lula blushing.
Connie recovered first and narrowed her eyes at Ranger, "hey was I fighting for you."
Ranger held up his hands in an I-give-up gesture. "I was just here to get a check for a body receipt talk to Stephanie," he said, handing Connie the receipt. Connie wrote out a check and handed it back to Ranger. She also handed some files over to me.
"Don't tell Tank." Said Lula as I followed Ranger outside.
"Well?" Ranger said to me, leaning against his Porsche, "Who do you think is hotter, me or Tank?"
Damn. That was a tough one. I stared hard into space for a minute and finally came to a conclusion. "You. Hands down. No contest."
Ranger did the half smile. "How is Jamie doing?" he asked.
"She's asleep right now. Tomorrow I can bring her home."
Ranger nodded and angled into his car. I watched him drive away down the road to god knows where.
Lula poked her head out of the office, "Is it safe to come out now?"
Lula and I were riding in her Fire Bird through the burg, looking for Dale Simon. He was arrested for sexual assault and Lula and I were pumped up to kick his ass. Well not really…just to drag his ass to jail. Simon lived in a duplex just a couple blocks from my parent's house. He lived next to one of Granda Mazur's friends, Tanya Greenburg. Tanya was out tending to her flower bed when Lula and I drove up. She looked up and smiled.
"I bet you two are coming to get Dale, aren't you? Well I'm glad. That man is a menace to society."
Oh boy. "Is he here?" I asked.
"Yep. You go right on in, missie. He keeps his door unlocked."
Lula beat me to the door. She pushed it open and clomped inside on her Via Spigas. "Oy Dale Simon! We're here to drag your sorry little ass to jail!"
Simon was slouched on his couch, beer in hand. He was 6 feet tall, 230 pounds. I don't know exactly why I chose this guy to apprehend. I suppose it was the 60,000 dollars I would get ten percent of if I brought him in.
"What the fuck?" he said, looking up at us.
"You missed your court date, Mr. Simon. We need to take you down to the station to get you rescheduled." I said, stepping inside.
Simon got up and towered over me. I took a step back, only because of his scent. Defiantly not Bulgari.
"I don't think so," he said, advancing on me. I was about to whip out my pepper spray but Simon gave a squeak and collapsed like a sack of rocks. I looked over at Lula, who grinned. "Fastest stun gun in the east," she said.
I cuffed and shackled Simon, who started to wake up as Lula and I were dragging him outside, so Lula gave him another jolt.
"Want to see him wet his pants?" she asked me.
"NO!"
It took us a while to get him to the car, and then we were faced with another problem. Actually getting him into the car. Lula helped me hoist his legs up into the backseat, then she went around to the other side.
"Okay. On the count of three, you pull, and I push." I said.
"Got it." Said Lula.
"One, two, three," I said and pushed hard. Lula pulled his ankles and eventually we got him inside. His legs were bent and his feet were propped up against the window.
"Ugh," I said. I needed another shower. I was drenched with sweat. Simon had drooled all over my arm, and the scent coming from him was almost palpable.
After dropping Simon off at the police station and retrieving my body receipt, we drove back to the office where I got my Mini and drove to Morelli's house. I took another shower, ate another sandwich, and went to bed.
I woke up around eight. Pizza smells drifted up from downstairs so I staggered groggily down the stairs, following my nose to a Pino's pizza. Morelli was slouched on the couch, Bob at his side, with a half eaten pizza on the coffee table, baseball game on the television.
"Rough day?" he asked, not looking up. He sounded kind of pissed.
I told him about Simon and took a slice of pizza.
"We found Jack Summer," he said after laughing at me.
"Really? What happened?" I asked.
"He got away, that's what. I don't even know how it happened. But he got away. And now we can't find him."
"Damn," No wonder he was mad.
"Fuckin' A."
The next morning I got up at eight, showered, ate left over pizza, and drove to the hospital to get Jamie. I found Ranger in her room.
"Yo," I said to Ranger.
"Yo yourself," he said back.
Jamie was obviously drugged because she was giggling like a mad person.
I walked in and stood by her bed, next to Ranger. "What's so funny?"
"I was just thinking about the time I duct-taped Tank to a chair and gave him a makeover," she said, giggling.
Ranger shook his head, "You've got it all wrong, Jamie, that was Lester, remember?"
Jamie's eyebrows furrowed and I could hear the gears turning in her head. "Oh right."
I looked at Ranger. "What?" Jeez. Does this girl have a death wish, or what?
"We were in San Francisco. Jamie and Lester agreed to stay at the hotel. When Tank and I came back we found Lester duct-taped to a chair, Jamie sitting on his lap putting on lipstick."
It took me a while to recover from laughing.