I nodded.
“Good, have this cleaned up and find the shooter.” He placed the gun back into its holster before leaving.
“Oh my God!” A female nurse screamed, rushing up the stairs, her eyes glued to the bloody body now at the platform under the stairs. She reached for a pulse before her eyes met mine…
“You have horrible timing,” I told her, pulling out my gun. Before she realized the danger, it was too late and I fired, her body falling beside his. “So fucking messy.”
Already the body count was at two.
This city was going to be dripping with blood and tears by the time he was done.
I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and they answered on the first ring. “I’m going to need a cleanup…and fast.”
MINA
1:05 PM
“If you know anything else, please call us.” The officer handed me his card and I wondered how in the hell they could help, but took it anyway.
“Sir.” Another one of them—like rats they all crowded around us—poked his head in the small conference room the hospital had allowed them to use. “Mr. Callahan has arrived.”
“Don’t speak with him.” I rose from the chair, placing the card in my pocket.
“Mrs. Callahan, I understand your hesitation—”
“You understand nothing. If it was your wife, if you were the last person to find out your wife was shot, would you really be in the right frame of mind to speak to anyone? If you would like to question my brother-in-law about anything, we will have our lawyers present. We wouldn’t want the Chicago PD to accidently charge him with murder and throw him in jail…again.”
They glanced at each other as if they had forgotten, but the Callahans forgot nothing and forgave even less.
The officer at the door stood back, allowing me to exit. I made it three more steps before having to pause and stare down at my feet…I had lost a heel. I hadn’t even realized until now. Everything had happened so quickly and kept replaying in my mind like a horror movie.
12:17 PM
BANG.
It was wet and warm. Her blood stung when it splatted across my face. Everything in the world seemed to slow, yet my throat burned as I screeched.
“MELODY!” I screamed as she fell back toward the car. Murphy quickly grabbed on to her as I reached for her. “MELODY!”
“Get her in, now! Johnston, the eagle is down! Ronny, cover us!” Murphy yelled as I held her hand. Her blood rolled down her olive skinned arm, down onto my hands.
My eyes followed the blood back up her arm to the splotch in the center of her chest…so much blood. I felt her squeeze my hand. For the first time since I had met her, since I had come into this family, I saw her cry. Her face was pressed up against Murphy’s chest, the other men covering her while we ran into the hospital. Her brown eyes were focused on me and filled with tears, just coming down her face. The most haunting was the smile on her face.
“GSW to the chest!” someone, a doctor I thought, yelled when they put her on a gurney.
“We got a lot of blood here!” Another one jumped on top of her, placing her hand on her chest. “Call the OR!”
“Ma’am! Ma’am!”
Jumping, I turned to the nurse beside me. “Do you know her blood type?”
“Huh?”
“Her blood type!”
“AB negative. She’s AB negative.”
Nodding, she went off and I stared down at the trail of blood she left in her wake.