"Godzilla and The Smog Monster"
Chapter Twenty-Three
Later that same morning…
Roy glanced up, as the door to ICU's Room 604 suddenly flew open.
Nurse Cheryl Norquist came rushing in, closely followed by his Captain.
"How is he?" the concerned pair simultaneously inquired.
"He-e's hangin' in there," Roy solemnly replied and greeted them both with a forced smile. "They're keeping him heavily sedated," he continued, seeing they were staring rather anxiously down at his perfectly still—and silent—partner. "But I know he knows I'm here," he added and gave his sedated friend's warm hand a reassuring squeeze.
The pair gave the vertical paramedic grateful glances and some forced smiles of their own.
But then Cheryl's worried frown returned and deepened. "There's a policeman on the other side of that door. So they must feel John's still in danger…"
Roy glanced sadly and solemnly down at his feverish friend and nodded.
"Dr. Kurtz tells me that you are considered an essential cog in the recovery machinery around here," his Captain quietly reported. "So I've requested a special leave of absence for you."
"Thanks, Cap!"
Hank stared down at his critically injured crewman—and friend—in complete and utter disbelief. "Do they really feel someone may try to kill him—again?"
"And again," someone suddenly said.
The three of them turned in that new voice's direction.
William Jenner was standing in the room's open doorway. "Until they either give up…or finally get it right," the Fire Department's Head Honcho added, a bit morbidly, and stepped the rest of the way into the hospital room. "Request granted!" he informed John's Captain. Then his solemn gaze shifted to Gage's partner. "DeSoto, isn't it?"
Roy nodded.
"You can hang around here for just as long as you like!" Jenner assured him.
DeSoto's gloom-filled face brightened—considerably. "Thank you, Sir!" he told the chief Chief. Then he turned to the nurse. "Looks like you won't have to relieve me, after all."
"I'll come by later on this afternoon, then. That way, you'll be able to go home for a few hours and spend some time with your 'other' family," Cheryl proposed, sounding extremely pleased with her plan. The pretty woman's foreboding frown returned. She stepped up to the unconscious young man with the heavily bandaged head, and placed her right appendage over his free hand. "Take care, John…and I'll see you a little later," she promised in a whisper. "If either of you needs me," she reminded the fireman's partner, "don't hesitate to call!"
Roy flashed the woman a warm, grateful smile and gave her another nod.
The nurse gave the horizontal paramedic one last, lo-ong parting glance—and his feverish hand a final squeeze—before reluctantly leaving the room.
Hank turned to their Supreme Commander. "Do the police have any leads yet, Chief?"
Jenner just stood there, staring solemnly down at the motionless young fireman, lying so perfectly still in his hospital bed—too still.
The un-bandaged portion of the paramedic's face bore a death-like pallor. His respirations were so shallow, they were barely even perceptible. Why, if it weren't for the steady 'beep' 'beep' 'beep' ing of the fireman's cardiac monitor, the Chief would have sworn the young man was dead!
Jenner swallowed hard and finally glanced up.
Both John's Captain and his partner were anxiously awaiting an answer.
"I think I can trust the two of you to be 'discreet'," the Chief reasoned. "But, nothing I tell you must ever leave this room!"
The two conscious firemen readily nodded their consent to his terms.
So Jenner proceeded to brief them. "The Fire Marshal's report states that the structure fire, that Gage—and the rest of Station 16—responded to the other night, was caused when someone cut the power to the burglar alarm system, in the building's basement.
Two of the live wires came into contact with one another and started arcing. The 1500-degree heat that was generated by those sparking wires ignited combustible building materials in the wall surrounding the alarm box.
The fire then spread rapidly through the walls. Eventually, the entire east end of the building's basement and first floor became involved.
It was at that point that passing motorists noticed the smoke and reported the fire.
Station 16 was first in. Captain Mason sent his Engine crew—fire fighters Chris Fowler and Curtis Hill—in to begin battling the blaze. He sent his Rescue Squad crew—paramedics Craig Brice and John Gage—in to make a routine sweep of the building.
The police report states that the building is one of many owned by Leevers & Langley, Inc.—which rents office space to a variety of private businesses.
The office John ended up searching—and getting shot in—along with the rest of the offices on the second floor, is currently being leased by a 'Special Investigations' agency, which specializes in investigating cases of insurance claims' fraud.
Mr. Peter Canton, one of the agency's co-owners and operators, claims that several pieces of irreplaceable evidence—crucial to one of the cases his company is currently working on—are now missing. The documents were taken from the same office in which John was shot.
I really can't tell you any more about the case, except that it involved 'special investigations' into a nation-wide arson ring, supposedly being run by an organized crime syndicate, supposedly based somewhere right here, in Los Angeles.
The guy must've been wearing gloves in that office…and when he came here, this morning…because there isn't a print to be lifted anywhere.
However, late last night, the police discovered John's turnout coat and helmet stuffed inside a trash bag. I've been informed that there were several clear sets of prints on both the helmet and the trash bag, and the authorities are running a check on them now—" Jenner stopped speaking, as the door opened and his aide poked his head into the room.
"Excuse me. Chief?" Robert Brevik requested, and motioned with his head for Jenner to join him out in the hall.
"It's okay, Bobby," the Chief assured the secretive gentleman and motioned with his head for Brevik to step into the room. "We can talk in here."
'Bobby' stepped inside and stared cautiously around the hospital room before continuing. "The police just made a positive I.D. on the prints. They belong to a Carl Iverson—an ex 'enforcer' for the 'mob'."
"Ex enforcer?" Jenner inquired, sounding as confused as he currently looked.
"Up until just now, Law Enforcement agencies had him filed under 'deceased'," Brevik explained. "Iverson was supposedly killed six months ago, while planting a bomb in Councilman Robert Browning's car. A man—matching Iverson's description—had been seen tampering with something under the vehicle, moments before the explosion. So it was assumed that it was Iverson's charcoaled remains that were found among the wreckage.
The police have that alley—and a four block radius around it—under constant surveillance, and they've all got pictures of the guy, now," he added and passed his boss a photocopy of the killer's image. "If he shows up anywhere near there, the authorities are bound to nab him!"
Jenner glared disgustedly down at the goon's picture. "Have the police released any of these photos to the press yet?"
Brevik shook his head. "They don't want the guy to know that they're on to him. If he is in the area they're currently covering, it could spook him."
"But, if he sees he's already been I.D.'ed, then he won't have to kill John to keep him from identifying him," the Chief reasoned.
"The cops already thought of that. They believe Iverson will still want him dead…to keep him from testifying. Gage, here, is still the only one who can actually place Iverson in that office. According to the police, the fingerprints on the helmet and trash bag don't prove a thing. Iverson could always say he found the coat and helmet lying on the sidewalk, and then decided to toss them out."
"I hadn't thought of tha-at," Jenner glumly confessed. He passed the disgusting photo of the paramedic's assailant on to his partner. "Take good care of him," he gently urged, and then added, a bit more gruffly, "That's an order!"
Roy returned the Chief's forced smile and nodded.
Jenner gave the critically injured fireman—and his crewmates—a final farewell glance, and then left the room with his aide.
"I'm gonna go call the rest a' the guys," Stanley determined and started heading for the exit, "and let them know how he's doing."
DeSoto watched his Captain disappear out the door. The fireman then resumed his vigil at his perfectly still partner's side. He gave John's limp hand another reassuring squeeze.
Gage gripped his partner's appendage back.
Roy looked extremely pleased—and not the least bit surprised. "I knew you knew I was here!" he smugly stated and gave his friend's hot hand another slight squeeze.
Again, John acknowledged his friend's grip with a rather feeble—yet definite—squee-eeze of his own.
TBC