She wished she had brought the baseball bat after all. No one seemed to recognize her, and no one cared. It had taken her an hour just to get from the parking lot to the Emergency Room entrance.
Fortunately the one person who did recognize her was that bulldozer of a guy from “Open Fields”. He stood in front of her and pushed through to the doors. Cops were lined across the entrance arm in arm to keep the pandemonium from breaking inside.
“No one gets through.” The cop stared down the bulldozer. The bulldozer huffed. “Sorry.”
She peered around him and pulled down the dark glasses, showing off her red, bloodshot eyes. The cop recognized her. It took him a second but he put two and two together. She heard him say clearly but softly. “Let her through.”
A small opening was made. She felt herself being shoved toward it. She grabbed the bulldozer’s hand. “Him, too.”
“Just you ma’am.” The cop said.
“He’s my brother.” She lied. “We’re like his family.”
The cop took a deep breath. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” They popped through the line of cops and found themselves standing inside in ER.
“You didn’t have to do that, Ms. Allen.” The bulldozer said.
“I’d still be in the parking lot if it weren’t for you.” She said. “I know you…from…”
“Yes, ma’am. Ripley, Ripley Gunther.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I got a call from Jeremy Tyson.” He said. “He told me what happened.”
“Ronnie.” Saxon blurted out. “Have they told Ronnie?”
Ripley shook his head. “No ma’am. They won’t say anything, sticking with the plan.”
“What plan?”
“At sun up, Mr. Tyson gets the boys on a boat away from everything. As soon as they know something definite they’ll come to shore.”
“He’s been through so much.” Saxon looked around to see if she could get some information.
“They’re worried ma’am. Kellen’s downtown, they asked me to keep Mr. Justyn safe.”
“Safe?”
“Some one tried to kill him, ma’am. I’m to stay as close as possible until we know what happened.”
Saxon nodded her head. A nurse came up to them. “Miss Allen, come this way.” The duo started to follow, but the nurse stopped. “Not him.”
“He’s Ian’s bodyguard.” Saxon insisted.
The nurse looked Ripley up and down. “Not doin’ a very good job so far.”
“I was on a coffee break.” He sneered. “It won’t happen again.”
“Whatever.” She turned and headed into the ER. “Follow me.”
They were ushered through a maze of doors and hallways. Finally Saxon heard her name called.
“Tippy?” She said softly as the women embraced. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, honey, I don’t know.” She dabbed her eyes with Kleenex. “He’s alive or was before they left me alone in the ambulance and took off with him.”
Saxon grabbed Tippy’s hand. “Tippy this is Ripley. Jeremy called him, to keep an eye on things.”
“Oh thanks, honey.” Tippy took Ripley’s hand and squeezed it.
“Mr. Tyson said to tell you the boys are asleep.”
She nodded. “I just talked to Susan. She said Jeremy was trying to get hold of somebody. Glad you came.”
“Mr. Justyn is a nice man.” Ripley smiled. “I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“Oh God…” Tippy plopped in a chair. “I don’t even want to think about that. Why would anyone do this?”
“Excuse me…” a man in scrubs holding a clipboard said. “I’m looking for Ian Justyn’s family.”
Tippy stood and grabbed Saxon’s hand. “We’re his family.”
He looked at the paperwork. “Mr. Justyn’s insurance lists a William Jarvis as next of kin.” He looked up at Ripley. “Is that you?”
“No, sir.”
“Billy Jarvis is the other…victim.” Tippy trembled as she said it. “They brought Ian first. Billy should be arriving any moment.”
“Mr. Justyn is critical, ma’am. I need his next of kin’s consent to do surgery.”
“Ian doesn’t have any family, other than a ten year old boy.” Tippy squeaked. “He’s like a son to me, does that count?”
“It has to be a blood relative.”
Ripley stepped forward. “Any of us will take responsibility.”
“That’s not the point.” The doctor said.
“I don’t care what the point is. If Ian needs surgery, do it or you will personally answer to me.” Ripley growled.
“Well, I guess I could…”
“Now!” Ripley snapped.
“Yes, sir.” The doctor stepped back. “We’ll just deal with all the paperwork later.” He was gone in an instant.
“This is an ER, surely all that is taken in to account.” Tippy said.
“It’s also California, Tippy, the sue me capitol of the world.” Saxon put her arm around the woman.
A man in a security guard came over to them “Which one of you is the hired goon?”
“Guess.” Ripley puffed out his chest.
The man jerked his head towards the desk. “Follow me.”
“I’ll be right back.” Ripley told the ladies softly.
“Tippy, what exactly happened?” Saxon had to ask.
“Oh, honey. I’m not really sure. We were sitting by the pool over at our house, having a cup of tea and all of a sudden we heard shots, and glass breaking. We ran over to Ian’s as quick as we could. Billy was floating face down in the pool, Ian was on the ground covered in blood with a dead man laying across him and Kellen was standing there with a smoking gun in his hand.”
“Kellen?” Saxon helped Tippy sit down. “Kellen Jackson did this?”
Tippy shook her head. “No. He said he saw Ian and a man fighting, and then Billy joined in. Somehow they all fell over the balcony and before Kellen could do anything the man shot Billy.”
“He shot Billy?”
“Yes.” Tippy was almost breathless. “And Kellen fired at the man before he could shoot Ian. Kellen says the man was aiming for Ian’s head at almost point blank range.”
“But why?”
“Nobody knows.”
“Billy…is Billy alright?” Saxon asked, ashamed she hadn’t asked before.
“I think he will be.” Tippy said. “Colton and Jesse helped Reese pull him from the pool. They gave him mouth to mouth and Colton said it looked like he took the bullet in the shoulder. There was so much blood…”
Ripley came over and knealed before them. “Ladies, they’ve taken Ian to surgery. Someone will be over in a moment to take you up to a private waiting room on the surgical floor.”
“Do you know how he’s doing?” They both practically asked.
He put up his hand. “All I know is that they’ve rushed him to surgery, something about broken ribs puncturing his organs. Now, Mrs. Shores…”
“Tippy,” she tried to smile. “Call me Tippy, darlin’.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Ripley nodded. “I need a list of everyone that you called or might come to the hospital. No one gets in or around either Ian or anyone in the family without my say so.”
“Okay.”
“Now here’s my cell phone number. Let me have yours so we can stay in touch.” Ripley handed her a piece of paper.
“Yes, yes of course.” She gave him the number that he programmed immediately into his phone.
“Do not talk to anyone outside the family, but me.”
“What about the doctors?” Saxon asked.
“Check the I.D. of any medical personnel first.” He pointed to his chest. “They’ll all have little badges. Make a mental note of names and faces.”
Tippy nodded and began to make a list.
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