Out of the Black - Lee Doty [85]
Who was she? Could she kill and just go on living?
Images of her crimes pushed their way back onto her mind's stage. She was too tired to fight them back into the wings, so the images of blood and ruined flesh passed before her again. She saw the surprised look on their faces as her bullets stole away their lives. She wanted to sleep, wanted to just give up for a while.
Alex waited patiently to talk; arm around her, acceptance in his eyes. Whoever she was, that was okay with him.
***
Josh from Physical Therapy pulled on her right arm. He was a handsome Nordic type with shiny blonde shoulder length hair. Hawthorne pulled on her left arm. Behind Anne, in the women's bathroom, a nurse and an orderly were trying to force her legs up enough to unwedge her from the wall.
Anne was laughing like a moron. Fortunately it was an infectious moronic laugh, aided by a repressed fear and a general sense of uncertainty. At least she didn't have to do it alone.
Mendez had been whisked away to the ER. A needle had torn through his gut, another through his upper right chest. The police had arrived shortly after the conflict. They were now doing preliminary reports on the four corpses on the other side of the room.
Back over at the Anne-hole, the four people laughed, pushed and pulled. Finally, they unwedged her from the wall and slid her forward to the point where she could get a little leverage with her hands. She pulled herself forward, then stood up, brushing sheet-rock and splinters from her tattered clothes.
The laughter petered out into uncomfortable silence. Attention turned inexorably to the police across the room and their grisly work. No one knew what to do next. On the other side of the room, the four befuddled officers documented the scene around the corpses. One looked in obvious confusion at the half-arch of foot-sized gashes in the wall that terminated near the top of the doorframe. His stylus tapped uncertainly on his tablet.
The lights flickered. They were only out for perhaps a second, but the instant of darkness left everyone disproportionately concerned- things like that don't happen in hospitals. It's funny how you take light for granted until the darkness explodes around you. The brief, lightless pause left an almost physical sense of foreboding behind.
Anne touched Hawthorne's arm. "So, how's about we get out of here before more mystery men show up?" She whispered.
"There will be more questions..." Hawthorne led Anne away from Josh and the two others staring through the Anne-hole in the wall.
"Thanks guys!" Anne said, holding her hand up as they moved away. All three were shaking their heads. "No prob, Anne." Josh said. "You get stuck in any more walls, don't hesitate to call."
They'd already done the badge exchange, so the officers just nodded as Hawthorne approached with Anne in tow. "Who were they?" Hawthorne asked.
The ranking officer, an age-rounded man of about fifty, responded. "The one your partner shot is an FBI agent named Neiland, according to the badge and Uni on him. Problem is that he doesn't appear in their database. Might have been undercover, I guess..."
"...but then why carry his badge?" Hawthorne asked.
"Good question. We're trying to find a human in his chain of command at the Bureau for confirmation, though that could take some time." He hesitated. "Then there's the other possibility..."
"That he was impersonating an agent? Pretty serious." She looked thoughtful.
"Not nearly as serous as shooting one." The Officer's open face and clear eyes contained no humor. They both nodded, thinking imponderable thoughts.
The officer broke the silence, "The other three are also