But he would be back any minute.
Tom started through the doorway when he suddenly remembered the gun in his hand. As much as he wanted to take it with him, there was no way to conceal it under his gown, and he wasn’t about to try shooting his way out of the hospital. After a brief hesitation, he tossed it into the wastebasket inside the room and shut the door behind him.
He paced quickly down the hallway, grimacing with each step at the pain of his gunshot wound as he pushed the IV stand towards the elevator. A young female nurse suddenly appeared from a doorway in front of him. Tom looked up in surprise and gave her a pale smile. The nurse barely glanced in his direction before disappearing into another patient’s room. Tom sighed with relief and continued walking. Had the nurse looked more closely, she might have noticed he was dragging an IV stand that was missing its tubes.
He reached the elevator and hurriedly punched the button for the first floor. The pain in his leg was now nearly unbearable and a wave of nausea swept over him. Tom closed his eyes and grasped the IV stand tightly. Keep it together he commanded himself, forcing his body to remain standing. The silence in the hallway was finally broken by the sound of the arriving elevator. Tom opened his eyes as the elevator doors opened – and suddenly found himself staring into the eyes of a uniformed police officer.
The returning officer on duty stepped off the elevator and glanced at Tom.
“How you doin’?” he asked absently.
Tom stared back at him in shock for a moment. “Me? Oh… I… I’m fine,” he stammered. The officer nodded calmly. It was clear from his reaction that he didn’t know who Tom was.
“You looking for the nurse?” the officer asked as he glanced down the hallway.
“No, I’m… I’m just stretching my legs a bit,” Tom replied, glancing over the officer’s shoulder at the open elevator.
“Yeah, well, don’t overdo it,” the officer said as he turned and started walking down the hallway. “You don’t want another hospital bill, do you?”
Tom watched anxiously as he walked away. “No, I guess not,” he replied as he stepped closer to the elevator. The doors began to close and he quickly threw his arm out to stop them. As he glanced down the hallway one last time, Tom noticed the officer had suddenly paused and gripped his sidearm. He then saw what the officer was staring at.
Oh fuck.
Tom watched as his brother-in-law stumbled into the hallway, the IV tube he’d used to tie Alex to the bed rail still wrapped around his neck. Alex then pointed past the stunned officer and shouted in a strained, guttural voice.
“Stop him!”
Tom pushed his way through the elevator doors and flung himself inside as the officer turned and ran towards him. “C’mon! C’mon!” he shouted as he repeatedly punched the down button. A moment later the officer’s hand appeared in the gap and began slowly pulling one of the doors open. Tom picked up the IV stand and crashed it into the officer’s fingers. A piercing howl punctuated the air as the officer released his grip. Tom then lunged forward and began frantically pressing the doors closed. He’d nearly succeeded when the enraged face of the officer suddenly appeared in the thin gap between them. A quick flash of steel caught Tom’s attention. He looked down to see the barrel of the officer’s sidearm wedged between the doors. Before he could act, a fireball of light erupted from the barrel as a searing bolt of pain ripped through his chest. A second flash quickly followed, this one strangely silent, as another bullet tore through his body.
Keep it together. Keep it to–
Tom slowly slid to his knees, his strength drained. He vaguely noticed the elevator doors opening, the terrified face of the police officer shouting words he couldn’t hear. He looked down at his chest. A dark, sticky stain of blood covered his hospital gown and was pooling on the ground beneath him.
They’ll need bleach to clean up this mess he thought calmly as he dropped backwards onto the elevator floor.
The officer reached for his radio and disappeared into the hallway. Tom stared vacantly at the ceiling. The coldness of the floor was seeping rapidly into his body. His vision began to blur and darken as a familiar face suddenly hovered over him. He gazed up at the solemn face of Alex and smiled until the darkness met the cold.
Lots and lots of bleach.
63.
Jeri loosened her grip on the knife.
“Me? You were after me?” she asked, glaring at Chip. The older man nodded his head. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would you go to all this effort for me?”
Chip narrowed his eyes on her irritably. “You know, you’ve been suffering from this lack of confidence ever since your father died. I thought it was finally starting to wear off, but perhaps I was wrong.”