Billy sat in a holding cell surrounded by very tough looking men. He prayed his father would be able to get him out of this. He knew he let his anger get the best of him, but the bitch drives him crazy. He had been a fool to let it go so far. His father had been telling him for months to get rid of her. He tried but she just would not take a hint. Now she is awake and talking to everyone, telling them what he did. He has to find some way out of this. If he hadn't been such a chicken, he would have gone down there and made sure she was dead. The thought of seeing her dead turned his stomach. She had always been his beauty, but he took care of that. She is ugly now, all bruised and cut up. No one will want her now. That was his main concern: she would find someone new.
After seeing her car down there, he thought there was no way she could have lived. He hadn't meant to run her off the road into the creek; he just wanted her to stop and talk to him. If she did die, it would have solved all his problems.
He glanced around the cell; a hulk of a man stood by the cell door and his eyes locked on his.
"What are you looking at mother fucker?" He asked as he walked across the concrete floor towards him.
Billy knew he was looking for a fight. Someone to pound on taking his frustrations out on. Apparently, he looked like someone he could smash his head in easily. Billy wouldn't mind fighting someone, but not this ape. Why had he looked up? Stupid has hit him again. It had to be that stupid gene his father was always talking about him having. What was he thinking, making eye contact with anyone in this place?
"Don't mess with me, I'm in for attempted murder," Billy said, puffing up trying to sound tough.
"Aah tough man. You try to kill your mama?"
"No, man my bitch woman. She thinks she can leave me," he told the man and stood tall. He couldn't understand why he had done that either. Why was he looking to have the crap beat out of him? "She would have been dead if they had taken longer to find her." He lamented.
"What a little bitch you didn't even finish her off," the man laughed and turned away. "What a pussy." Billy heard him say to other men as they laughed at him. Letting out a breath he was walking away. Billy relaxed sitting back down as the others continued to laugh at him. Laugh all you want he thought he would be out of here soon. His father won't leave him here for long.
Hulk twisted around walking back towards Billy. Shit here it comes Billy flinched preparing for the first blow. Sitting next to Billy, he reached around his hip and pulled Billy over closer to him.
"So, she lives," he asked quietly, his eyes darting to see who was looking at them.
"Yes, she was found just in time," Billy said, sounding disappointed.
"You have money I can tell by your fancy clothes. Five thousand and I'll finish what you started," the Hulk told him.
"You know she can't testify against you if she is dead," he pointed out.
"You can't help me, you're in here," Billy shot back looking around the cell at the other men.
"It was just a six pack. It is just petty theft is all they have on me. I'll be out in a few days," Hulk assured him.
"Why would you help me?" Thinking this is too good to be true.
"Money; dumb ass, I need it, you have it. Now it is ten grand I can see you're good for ten," he told him, pushing his knee with his.
"I'll give you something you can hold over me if I don't do as I say," he said, leaning towards Billy, his breath reeking of cigarettes and the sick belching vomit smell of beer. He must have drunk what he stole.
"Did you ever hear about the woman they found in Buffalo Bayou? Her car was found at Lowe's," He asked, nudging him again, "her husband wanted her gone. She is gone." He looked out at the other men. "Not a clue," he said and waved his hand out like the wind.
"I'll speak to my father," Billy told him, thinking he was crazy or a godsend.
The guard called out as he unlocked the cell, "William LeMoine come with me."
Billy stood and the Hulk of a man grabbed his arm. "Yes, or no? I need to know if I stay in the area," the Hulk asked in a harsh whisper, cutting his eyes to the guard.
"Warren Blanchard leave him alone," the guard yelled.
"Yeah, hang around I'm interested," Billy told him and walked away quickly.
Hulk chuckled. "That was an easy one," he murmured as he sat back and relaxed. He had to wait for the guard to walk him down to meet up with his attorney before the hammer drops.
Detective Mullen walked along the road. They stopped a good two hundred feet before the bridge seeing no damage to the metal guardrail as they drove by. "No wonder no one noticed her, no damage here," he pointed out to his partner.
"She is one lucky girl one more day and she would have been dead. How did she look?" Detective Flusher asked. Yes, Flusher, and yes, he has been teased all his life about that name. Now he uses it to make fun of the crooks, (You have been Flushed) he tells them when the charges stick.
"Much better, she looks better than she should. I'd be pissed if she left me too, but then again if she sat on my lap naked," he blew out a breath. "She would take precedence over the damn football game. It's sad they had to cut her hair. But she was talking clearly, and she looked good," he told him, thinking back to the conversation they had about the accident. "Ok, it has been a few days, but we should still be able to see the tracks," Mullen told Flusher as they walked along the road.
"Here," Flusher pointed out a patch of crushed grass.
"Yep, she ran off here slammed on her brakes and slid all the way to the edge and over on the slick grass." He said as they walked over the bridge, "As you can see the impact area has been worked over pretty well by the emergency crew."
"Doesn't matter, the slide is telling us everything." They both turned and walked back the way they came from. Flusher took pictures of the slide area while Mullen rolled the wheel to measure the length of the slide, then the skid marks on the road indicated the impact area. Dodging traffic as they worked, he picked up bits of broken glass that could be from LeMoine's turn signal. That was broken on impact, not in his garage as he claims.
As he signaled to Flusher to take pictures in that area Muller was writing the distance from where she left the road to the point when she slammed on her brakes. A white squad car drove by and made a quick U-turn. Detective Mullen waited as the officer jumped out and trotted down the road to him.
"You get him all settled," Mullen asked,
"I did and everyone was in place. Good job of setting this up," Officer Strickland told him. "She looked good didn't she," he asked with a beaming smile.
"She did, but I think the Doc has his eyes on her too," Mullen teased him. Strickland had been talking non-stop about this woman to everyone working this case.
His smile faded fast. "You think so. Shit how do I compete with a doctor?" He complained and kicked a rock down the road.
"I'm going to drive down the road. I need you to honk your horn. I want to see how far away you can hear it. Then we need to start canvassing the houses around here for anyone who heard a horn honking during the game last Sunday evening," Mullen told Flusher and Strickland, "she said he was honking his horn as he chased her down. Someone may have heard or seen him chasing her. We need more than he said she said and a few pieces of yellow glass," he told them holding the evidence bag in his hand.
*
Billy walked into a room his father, mother, and an old family friend sat at a table. Taking a deep breath, he took a chair. "Thank you, Officer, we won't be long," John LeMoine said glaring at his son.
Once the door closed, he began to speak. "What the hell is wrong with you," his father asked.
"I don't know. I got pissed," Billy whined.
"She did exactly what you wanted her to do, leave. We discussed this last month. Now look they may press attempted murder on you because you got mad," his father shrieked.
His mother took his wrist. "Oh Billy," Lydia whined.
"I know Mom, it was stupid."
"You have no idea how stupid. As we understand she is making all kinds of claims," John said, looking red-faced, veins ready to pop. He was so angry.
He didn't need this crap; he was getting ready to make a run for the Senate. He and his colleagues had it all planned out. Now this shit. No way will he be able to now, not with a son with these charges. All his work and planning were out the window. He didn't have ten years to wait for all this to die down.
"Well, until the charges are filed, I can't do anything for you. I just came to let you know not to talk to anyone. If they try to get you even into a polite conversation, tell them to talk to your lawyer," Joe Madison told him, he has been a long-time friend of the family and a partner in his father's firm.
"Yes, sir, I understand, and I haven't spoken to the detectives at all," Billy assured him and after some polite conversation he asked, "Could I speak to my father privately," he asked when the party seemed to be breaking up. Everyone had their turn to chew on his ass. A quick kiss to his mother and a handshake to his attorney.
"Dad there is a man in here who is willing to finish her off for ten thousand, he says he has done it before."
"Have you agreed?" His father asked, sounding concerned.
"I told him I would speak to you, yeah," he said tentatively.
"You told him yes to killing your girlfriend," he said, disbelieving what he just heard. Had he not heard anything they told him.
"Well, kind of," Billy whines back thinking he has screwed up again.
"Well, that is the clincher. I might visit you in Huntsville in a few years. Maybe by then you will be smarter," his father said, jerking open the door and storming out. An officer waited by the door to escort Billy back to his cell, doing his best to keep from laughing.
The guard walked him by the offices where the detectives worked, he thought maybe now they were going to talk to him. He would do as his father told him and keep his mouth shut. They would get nothing out of him; he knew the drill. A familiar hulk of a man dressed in a suit stood with his foot on a chair as they walked by. He caught his attention as he smiled displaying a recorder in his hand. The others in the office laughed. The guard kept him walking; he had him by his forearm with his hands cuffed behind his back. Billy knew stupid hit him again. How was he to know he had never even had a traffic ticket?
*
Today got out of Tomorrow's face, she had been kissing her all over her face, claiming to be kissing the boo boos away. She finally sat down at her mother's urging. She was seven months pregnant but looked five months. Everyone kept expecting her to blow up, but not so far. That didn't mean this turmoil couldn't cause it harm, everyone warned her to take it easy.
Today was just so happy to see her sister awake and seemingly fine.
"So, they have the son of a bitch in jail."
"Yes, for now. I'm sure his father is working diligently to get him out," Mom offered.
"I don't know Mom, this may be difficult. It is all over the radio how he was arrested. The mighty LeMoine's son is in jail, attempted murder is what they are calling the charges." Today said spitefully.
"Mom something is wroooooooo," Tomorrow tried to say and collapsed. Her heart monitor went straight, Today started pressing the call button frantically. Calling out to her to wake up, her mother ran to the hall looking for help.
"I told you to let her rest," Peggy admonished as she darted back into the room. A code blue was called over the loudspeakers. A cart and some nurses burst through the door as Today and Peggy scurried to the back of the room clinging to one another. Doctor Kennard came into the room moments later. "What the hell happened," he bellowed. This can't be happening to her, he has plans for them.
"We were talking, and she said, 'something is wrong' and then this happened," Today cried out to him. Her mother held her back. She wanted to go hit him. They hadn't done anything wrong; to her since he was her doctor, he was supposed to have fixed her.
Someone was straddling across Tomorrow's hips pushing on her chest within seconds. Another forced air in her mouth with a balloon thingy over her nose. Today and her mother were freaking out, clinging on to each other. Doctor Kennard was giving out orders as nurses scrambled to obey. A faint beep caught everyone's attention as they looked at the monitor.
"Call Doctor Stromberg to tell him I believe she has an embolism. We are taking her to the O.R."
They wheeled her bed and all out of the room as Today and Peggy watched. Was this the last time they would see her alive with all these people crawling all over her.
*
Looking up, Billy sees the detective from the hospital standing right outside his cell. He was placed in a new cell; he felt grateful for the change. However, it also told him he was not going anywhere else anytime soon. A pound on the cell door indicated that he had company, "Detective Mullen in case you're wondering," he said as his phone rang in his pocket.
"Yeah.
Oh, no, oh that's too bad.
Yeah, let me know," he hung up,
"Shit!" He said and looked at Billy dip shit. This case was shaping up to be a slam dunk, but it would be much easier if Miss Jones could have testified against him. Now this.
"Tomorrow had an embolism. They had to take her to surgery. May not make it. I'm sure you're really broken up about that."
"Yes, I am, I love her. She was talking crazy, I had nothing to do with her wreck," Billy offered, not very convincingly.
"Oh, is that right? It is funny how I found a witness to testify that a silver truck and a blue sports car were driving at a fast rate of speed. The truck driver was honking his horn; it appeared to be trying to get the blue car to pull over just a fourth of a mile from the bridge. You're really going to stick to that story."
"Talk to my lawyer," Billy said and snapped his mouth shut.
"They're going to ask for no bail, because you're already soliciting hit men and you're not even out of jail," Detective Mullen told him, "See how friendly I am, giving you fair warning and all." He walked off.
He needs to go contact officer Strickland he has been all twitterpated over Miss Tomorrow. He will want to know she is having trouble. He thought how sad she looked so good just hours ago.
*
"I had another wreck injury come in and I was dealing with him and put Miss Jones on the back burner. She was doing so well when I last saw her. No complaints, nothing. I told the family to let her rest," Doctor Kennard said, apparently, they didn't, he lamented.
"You did what you could, let me go in and find out if we can salvage a life for this girl," Doctor Stromberg said he was the neurosurgeon on call for the hospital. He was shared by three hospitals in the area. They lucked out he had been in the area when he was called. Kennard watched as the nurses cut and shaved away most of her long, beautiful hair on one side of her head. He should have known better that slow pupil response should have been warning enough. He watched them hook up replacement blood and the monitors beeping out that her heart rate was falling again. He had to get that pressure off her brain. He felt like screaming for him to hurry. If someone had screamed at him, maybe she would still be laying in her bed talking to her family. Taking a deep breath, he walked away. He had other patients to check on. Maybe with them, he can be more comprehensive.
Heading back to the Emergency area, he passed the surgery waiting room, Peggy jumped up when she saw him.
"They just started, I have no news," he told a room full of disappointed people. He was a little overwhelmed by the amount of people already in the room awaiting news. She was well loved. He realized what he thought and fixed it; she is well loved. He walked on back to tend to his other patients. A broken toe, a split lip, and some woman who thinks she has bacterial meningitis because she has a stiff neck. Don't you love the internet?
"Doctor Stromberg said it could be ten hours or fifteen minutes. It depends on what he finds when he gets in there," Peggy told her anxious children all huddled around her.
"Right fifteen if she dies," Chance said, and Peggy swatted his thigh. "Don't talk like that. They brought her back once pray they can bring her back again."
The waiting room slowly began to empty and the few updates they had received were positive. Peggy sat with Brice and Today, Brice held both of their hands. He kept his head bowed, they all knew he was praying. Whether their family was religious or not he had been raised in a strong Baptist home. He uses the power of prayer in a lot of situations surrounding Today and her family. These prayers were being put forth, especially powerfully as were the ones the congregation at his church were praying.
He loved Tomorrow as his own sister. She had to be Ok. Today will be devastated if she is not. He worried about what this stress is doing to his unborn child. Today had a positive attitude about life, but this was overwhelming for all of them. She was blaming herself for her condition. If she hadn't been so excited to see her awake, everyone rejected her concerns.
Doctor Stromberg walked in, and everyone stood to attention. Peggy glanced at the clock. It was 3:25 in the morning.
Holding up his hand to halt the exuberance. "She is alive and stable, but not out of the woods. She had a large hemorrhage just centimeters from the injury site. The blood put too much pressure on her brain. We have her in a chemically induced coma to cut down on the swelling and give her a chance to recover. We also have a little pressure cap on the top of her head to monitor the intracranial pressure. When the monitor says the pressure is good, we will back off the medicines and see what we are dealing with. She may be fine, or she could be in a vegetative state. We don't know how much damage the hemorrhage has done. Prayers help. Go home, get some sleep, she is not receiving visitors until tomorrow evening at the earliest."
After some quick thanks, he was gone. Collecting their belongings the family went home for the rest of the night.
*
Doctor Kennard sat looking at Tomorrow's hand. He was hoping to get some hint of how her life was going to be. Dropping his reading glasses down from the top of his head, he ran his finger over her lifeline. His inspection divulged a slight break early in her lifeline, but the rest was strong and deep. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching he kissed her palm, turned her hand over, and held it against his cheek.
Praying was not something he did a lot, but today he felt it might help. Bowing his head, he pressed her knuckles against his forehead and prayed for her to come back to her loved ones. Adding on to the prayer that he really wanted to get to know her. He had an hour before he was due in the Emergency Room, his plan for now was to spend it with her.
He was from St Louis. He went to college up there and did his residency at a local hospital. Moving to Angleton was a Godsend. He has a contract with this hospital for five years. They will pay off his student loans and give him thirty thousand a year to live on if he works the emergency room for them. He is stuck in an apartment but in three more years, he is out of here free and clear of student loan debt. He has only dated one girl here; she wasn't impressed with his deal. Being a doctor was great, but his pay was not. He let her go quickly. She was not smart enough to think about the future, he was not interested in this short-sighted woman either.
He didn't know what this Billy guy had going for him, but he was a fool. Looking up to her face, she had been a beautiful woman. She actually looked to be the best looking of her sisters and in his eyes, they are all gorgeous. "That Today is quite the character her husband must have his hands full with her." He only saw yesterday for a few moments; they all looked very much like their mother. Peggy was a tall, graceful, beautiful, and decent woman. An important thing for raising girls.
The fact Tomorrow was concerned about embarrassing her mother as she explained the situation with Billy was heart wrenching seeing her now. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "if you had sat in my lap. I would have made love to you all night long," he told her. As he stood to leave, he would swear she had a slight smile on her face that quickly faded. Smiling back at her, he knew deep in his soul, she would be fine. He hoped she would be important to his future. He went to the nurse's station and pulled her chart. He went over it with a fine-tooth comb looking for a hint she would wake up soon.
"She is doing well sweetie, don't worry. She is one tough girl," the night nurse told him.
"I know I have seen her in action. I just feel horrible she had that brain hemorrhage. I should have caught it."
"Doc you're not God; I have seen the scans, and it was iffy at best. I know you had a scan scheduled as soon as they could get to it, to check on that spot. Give yourself a break," she told him.
"I'm finding that hard. I'll be back often," he said, squeezing her shoulder before he left. He has enough time to change, grab a cup of coffee, and wait for the first patient. There were a number of patients in the hospital, but none of them he admitted, just Tomorrow. Tomorrow Jones, he likes that name. Tomorrow Kennard also sounds good to him, he was thinking as he pulled on his scrubs.
There are three other full time ER Doctors he has seniority, so he picked the day shift. He also had most weekends off. He is on call at all times as are the others. If something bad happens, like a bad wreck on the interstate he can be there in about five minutes. Doctor Lopez walked in the doctor's lounge. He graduated from Baylor. Everyone around here is impressed with his credentials. Lopez's are no better than his, they just know the school around here better. Once this was over, he had some difficult decisions to make. Number one, where will he move too.
"How was the night?" he asked Doctor Lopez.
"Good, mainly fender benders with people looking for a reason to sue. You know the drill. Oh, and Liz McCracken looking for painkillers, she claimed she had a kidney stone. X-rays proved different. She did her regular 'but I'm in pain.' We sent her home in a cab," he said, tossing his scrub top on the floor. As David pulled his on. "So, anything out there."
"Some illegal kid with a sore throat. Curtain B. I can tell you now, it is just allergies. His nose is running like a sieve."
"Wonderful, take a Claritin and don't come back." He was hoping for something complicated, so he could think about something other than Tomorrow.
Officer Strickland sat looking at Tomorrow's beautiful face. She looked peaceful like she was just sleeping. He didn't know what he expected a person in a coma to look like, but he didn't expect beautiful. He ran his knuckle along her cheek, stopping at the edge of her lips. They were chapped and dry. A nurse walked in, and he quickly pulled his hand away.
She checked her IV. "OH, you poor thing your lips are chapped. Let me bring you a wet swab," she said and patted him on his back. Turning red from being seen touching her he nodded in agreement. She came back with a thing that looked like a damp fuzzy lollipop.
"Here you can dab it on her lips," she told him, handing the strange looking fuzzy lollipop to him. Gentry worked it around making sure his hands didn't touch the swab as he slipped it out of the plastic wrapper. He didn't want any strange germ that he might have made her sicker. Dabbing the swab on her lips, he felt he was invading her privacy. After the third dab she moved her lip. He smiled, happy that she showed a sign that she was still in there, and that she was just waiting to come back.
"Tomorrow everyone is waiting for you," he said and dabbed her lips some more. Checking his watch, his lunchtime was over, he ran his finger over her eyebrow, smiled and then left.
Passing the whole Jones crew in the hall. He tried not to be noticed, he felt like he had done something wrong. He wasn't family. He told the nurse he was there on official business. He was sure he could be fired for that lie, but he had to see her. Last time he saw her, she was all feisty and now she was down again.
"Officer Strickland how have you been," Peggy asked.
He didn't slip by. "Oh, I've been busy working on the case for Tomorrow. We have a good case against LeMoine," Strickland assured them.
"Good, so he can't get out of this?" Today asked, she had been so afraid he would walk since Tomorrow was so bad off.
He nodded his head and walked on. He couldn't tell them anymore.