Eleven Days: An Unexpected Love

by Lora Lindy

  Joe ripping at her coat, then he tried to lift her sweater.

  She was unknowingly squirming because of the pain and this made the blood flow more volatility, and more slippery. Mike and Joe tried to keep her still while they worked.

  “Lighthouse,” she said turning her head from side to side, whispering lighthouse a second time.

  Mike didn’t know why, he took a quick glance toward the lighthouse. She kept coughing and sputtering blood. Mike went into a panic because he knew this didn’t look good for her. Blood came out of her mouth, in waves of coughing.

  Through the blood and tears she looked at Mike and she saw fear, he looked pale. He never looked like this. What was wrong with her baby? Cohesiveness left her body, and she’s oblivious to everyone and everything.

  He knew she wouldn’t make it, she couldn’t breathe without difficulty. As the clothes came off, Mike saw the gaping hole. Blood spurt out like a water fountain. Tears ran down his cheek, and her blood spurt out covering him from head to toe. Joe helped and he did everything Mike told him to do. His face turned as white as a sheet. Mike knew she would die from loss of blood so he did the only thing he knew to do.

  He stuck his finger in the hole where the bullet went in, right through the kidney. He knew it would help stop the blood loss.

  The pain was more than she could bear—she lapsed into unconsciousness!

  “Thank God she passed out, I can’t stand her to be in such pain,” Mike said while still trying to stop the flow of blood. “Joe put pressure on her back. Stop her from bleeding out, hurry.”

  Joe gagged and he put pressure on it the best he could and he yelled for an ambulance this time, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Someone get a fucking ambulance over here.” Blood caused her to gag and sputter. Joe helped tilt her up so she wouldn’t drown. They couldn’t figure out where the blood in the mouth was coming from because the hole looked like a clean shot. It was too low for the lung to be hit.

  Raymond ran up and saw the horrifying scene and he knew she probably wouldn’t make it. Her face showed that. At first glance, there was blood and kidney splattered all over the wall and windows. He could hear her gurgling and said. “Mike the bullet probably shattered and a piece went into her lung. Let’s apply pressure and let’s lift her up so the blood will go down instead of going into her airway.” Raymond slowly and gently lifted her up and got under her to elevate her and that seemed to help.

  “Thank you Raymond, I just can’t lose her, how could this happen?” Mike was frantic.

  For the first time in fifteen years Raymond saw Mike lose his composure. Mike completely lost it. Raymond didn’t have time to deal with Mike or Joe, his main focus right now was to save her life.

  In the distance he could hear the ambulance and police coming. Mike knew if they didn’t hurry she would die. Oh God, he didn’t want to think about that.

  Her breathing was shallow and her skin color turned ashen. Mike knew death’s look and her look had him worried. He looked at Raymond and asked. “What else can we do?”

  “Nothing, just keep doing what we are doing now.”

  The agents showed the medic’s to the porch and they followed them to the back of the house. The agents grabbed everything they would need to save her life especially the gurney. Time would be wasted by the medics going back and forth.

  The medic took over for Mike. “Let go sir, we have everything under control,” said one of the medics. Mike glanced at him and he was an older man, and maybe being older meant he had more experience. Mike had to trust him.

  The second Mike pulled his finger out of the gunshot wound blood spurt everywhere. “Help her! Can’t you see she’s bleeding to death,” yelled Mike to the medics.

  Raymond pulled him to the side and said. “Let them do their job Mike. They’re trained for this.”

  One of the medic’s asked. “Does anyone happen to know her blood type?”

  Mike and Raymond answered simultaneously. “A+”

  Since Mike was not in the right mental state, Raymond stepped into high gear and took over the investigation. The police were dispatched to the lighthouse immediately and Raymond had to follow up in hopes of catching someone. He walked over to Mike. “Why don’t you and Joe go with Lana to the hospital and I’ll take over here.”

  “I will,” Mike said standing as close to the Lana as he could. He wanted to make sure they didn’t neglect her. When he noticed they were rough with her to stop the bleeding, his heart sank. He was always so gentle with her. His heart rose to his throat. If this happened under different circumstances, he would deck anyone who was rough with her.

  Joe left for the beach heaving his guts up when Raymond walked up and put his hand on his back. “Hey bud, why don’t you go with Mike to the hospital to help, we need two to go and I figured you wanted to go.”

  “Raymond, she saved my life. How do I live with that? I’m supposed to protect her and instead she saved my life. I have never seen anything so awful. My God, her kidney was hanging out by a piece of skin!” He heaved again.

  Raymond tried to console him, but he didn’t have time for this. “She just reacted when she saw the shooter. That’s just the way she is and you know that. But right now she needs you to be strong. Mike needs you to be strong. Get ready to go because they are will load her on the gurney in a few seconds.”

  Joe shook his head yes, and he walked over to gurney where Mike stood with a few agents, waiting. They picked her and carried her to the ambulance because of the rough terrain. They ran. Within a few seconds, the lights and sirens were blaring and they were on their way to the hospital. Mike sat in the back of the ambulance near the door. The medic worked frantically to save her life.

  The doctors wanted to know her status. The medic answered. “Her blood pressure is 70/50 and dropping and she has lost several pints of blood. We are unable to stop the bleeding and we are prepping her for surgery.”

  The doctor on the other end of the radio asked. “Give me information on the entrance and exit of the bullet.”

  “The entrance is about one-half inch in diameter and the exit took most of her left kidney. The exit hole is about four inches in diameter.” The tech took a deep breath and added. “This is the biggest gunshot hole I’ve ever seen and the caliber has to be at least a fifty. She’s lucky.”

  A fifty caliber, my God how did she even survive that? Mike knew that size of a caliber could blow up a watermelon and how her small body survived was a miracle. The distance slow the bullet and that might have saved her life. Mike got sick just thinking about Lana going through so much pain. It was so difficult to sit there and have no control over the situation.

  “We are calling in the surgeon and preparing an operating room. Try to keep her stable,” said the doctor on the other end of the radio.

  “Our ETA is a one minute.” The medics didn’t think she would make it.

  Mike could tell that’s how they felt. The expression on their faces told him. He hated them for giving up on her.

  The loss of the kidney and blood was so much, and from past experience they thought it was only a ten percent chance of survival maybe less.

  Mike sat in the back watching them work on her. Mike couldn’t watch when they plugged the hole. They wrapped something around her waist, and it looked like an ace bandage with tubes sticking out of her side. When they finished plugging that hole, they stuck a needle in her lungs to pull out blood. That helped her breath a little better. It didn’t look good, and he felt helpless.

  Everything was rerunning through his head. How did they miss the shooter? He did this for a living, finding killers, terrorists, and bad people. He knew he shouldn’t let her go outside and if he could go back two hours he would change everything.

  As they drove up a team of doctors and nurses waited at the emergency room entrance. The doctors gave orders to the nurses on what to do while as they assessed the gunshot wound. Lana pumped out as much blood as they could pump in her small body. All
Mike wanted to do was to be at her side and never leave. For the first time in his professional life he didn’t know what to do.

  Mike following her as far as they would let him and now it’s just the waiting game. Mike knew all too well how to wait.

  *****

  During all the commotion The U.S. Marshal Sniper, Colby Franklin and his spotter were locked in on the lighthouse waiting for any movement. They were trained to drop, set their sights and ready to shoot and they dropped within seconds after the shot. Nothing moved at the lighthouse. They never saw him leave and they had a clear view of the only door. The only explanation he exiting through a window on the far side, and he had a jet ski or some kind of small motor boat waiting. The reefs were high enough he could easily slip out on the other side and ride off to safety.

  Chapter 33

  9:26 a.m.

  People in the waiting room avoided Mike and Joe as they walked around near the nurse’s station. The patients were frightened because they were covered in blood, especially the children. Joe noticed the commotion they were causing, upsetting the patients and families. He tried to coax Mike to go to another part of the hospital, but he refused to leave. Finally, a kind nurse approached them and offered them an empty room to wait. They accepted.

  Mike asked her before she left. “Will they know where to find me and let me know what’s going on with Lana?”

  “Yes sir they will, I’ll make sure of it.” The nurse already heard about what happened, and her heart went out to them.

  “Thank you,” Mike said as he sat down on the vinyl chair.

  Joe couldn’t sit still and he paced the room. He looked at the blood all over his clothes and he needed, to change clothes. He didn’t want to be reminded of what he just witnessed. Finally he said. “Mike I’m going home to shower and change and I’ll bring you a change of clothes if you want. I would be glad to stay if you would like to go home first.”

  “That’s nice of you but I’m not leaving her side. Joe what will I do if anything happens to her?” His heart broke in two. He always wondered how women got upset and then sick to their stomachs. Now he knew why. He felt sick, but he needed to man up, he deserved to be sick. He didn’t protect Lana. “Joe do you think she’s okay?”

  “No news is good news. She’s been in surgery for over an hour so I hope that’s a good sign.”

  “She wanted to go outside and I knew better. How many times have we protected people and made sure they didn’t go outside for any reason.” Mike remembered in LA several years ago, they had a witness in protective custody before the trial. He wanted to go outside and the team checked out the surroundings. They posted several deputies outside, and against his better judgment he let him go out on the balcony. Pretty much like Lana, he was shot within five minutes. He was shot in the heart and died immediately. These are the only two incidents Mike had a gut feeling not to let them go out and both times proved to be a mistake on his part.

  “We slipped up by not checking the lighthouse,” said Joe feeling guilty.

  “That mistake may take her life.” Mike was heartbroken.

  Deep down Joe was sick too, he felt guilty having his back to the lighthouse. He was trained to hit the ground, or take cover. If he had been watching he might have saved her life. He was trained to fall on the person. Lana didn’t have any training and she pushed him out of the way rather than fall on him. “Mike, I should have been watching the light house and if I would have been doing my job she would be okay.”

  Mike snapped at Joe. “It’s not your fault, I’m the one her let her go outside, not you.” Mike took a deep breath and calmed his voice. “Why don’t you bring me a change of clothes and something to eat?” Mike didn’t want to upset Joe any more. Mike was going to take one-hundred-percent of the blame. He knew he would not blame his team, nor should he snap at them.

  “I can do that, anything in particular you want to eat?”

  Mike could care less he didn’t even want to change clothes. He just wanted to keep Joe busy. This was her blood on him and he wanted to remember. “Whatever sounds good to you is fine for me.”

  Joe left with tears in his eyes. He hoped and prayed when he returned there wouldn’t be bad news. Mike was all alone. He got out his phone and called Raymond. “I wanted to let you know I’m going home to shower and get Mike a change of clothes and food. You might want to send an agent here just in case Lana passes. I don’t want Mike to be alone.”

  “I will send someone and be careful, that bullet might have been for you.”

  *****

  Raymond’s phone rang and it’s Sara. “Hi Sara, what do you have?”

  “First of all, I’m sorry to hear about Lana, I know Mike is devastated. Everyone here is talking about the shooting and working like little beavers, doing anything to help. Ken called me a few times to look up some information. So he’s working hard at your end. But I do have some good news.”

  “What’s your good news? I could sure use some.” He stopped walking for a few minutes. He plugged one ear with his finger so he could hear.

  “The DNA came back or at least partially and we’re going to try to run it through the database. Fortunately it was the DNA from around Ms. Border’s mouth. I’m running it as we speak. The bleach hurt the sample, so it will take awhile.”

  “Sara that’s the best news I have heard all day. I’ll let everyone know here. How did you get it so fast?”

  “FBI has a new chemical that speeds up the process and since I had enough sample I had them overnight the chemical to me and bingo. I’m running one the old fashion way and one with the new chemical. This is a good way to test the new technique.” She knew not to tell them the specific details of her job. It was much faster to use layman terms.

  “You’re the best.”

  “Please Raymond keep me updated on all that’s happening there.”

  “I will and let me know the second you hear.”

  “I promise, and I won’t leave here until I do. Tell Mike my prayers are with him and Lana.” She hasn’t met Lana but she could tell the guys liked her. It’s so sad that Mike finally met someone special and she might die. That would be two deaths for Mike, poor guy.

  *****

  Raymond worked with the crime scene investigators to make sure everything was done correctly. He was taking notes when he heard Ken holler for him.

  Ken walked around the front of the house where there was no police tape, looking for Raymond, excited. Finally he found him, but couldn’t talk. He was out of breath from running.

  Raymond patiently waited.

  “Raymond, I’ve been looking for you and I have some information for you,” said Ken with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.

  Raymond knew too well how excitable Ken was and hopefully he had some good news. “What did you find?”

  “Come in and let me show you,” he said while waiving his hands gesturing for Raymond to hurry up and follow him. They both walked quickly around the house to enter the front door. Ken was so excited he could hardly continue. “I put everything from the cork board into the computer. As you know I’ve been entering data all night. Well, the computer analyzes all that input I entered and it cross references this data with all the other data entered from past cases from the past several years. Once everything was entered into our software, it came up with an answer.”

  “What are you talking about software and answers?” Raymond had no idea what the hell he was talking about and he didn’t have the time for babble.

  Ken was so familiar with this new software that he forgot to slow down to explain thoroughly. “The FBI tech department developed a special software called MAD - mental assessment developer. All the known cases from past serial killers, regular killers, and hit men from all over the world were entered in the computer by agents and tech personnel. We have entered data for months and thousands of cases. Here’s an analogy, it’s like meteorologist predicting hurricanes. They use past hurricanes with all the lows
, high, temperature of water, and time of the year. The computer will predict where future hurricanes will go by using all the past data that was entered into the computer. This program does the same thing except it analyzes who the killer is and his MO, type of victim, a psychological profile, and a geographical makeup. For example it would analyze Ted Bundy was a stranger killer that is not geographically centralization. John Wayne Gacy liked young men, and Albert DeSalvo liked women close to home and he preferred strangling. Do you get what I’m saying?”

  “Absolutely, so what did your program say about this case?”

  He point to the computer and Raymond saw the words.

  “Raymond, Lana doesn’t have a stalker. Someone has hired a hit man to kill her. I started running the results this morning before Lana was shot. It takes a few hours to run, so I’ve still have to enter the gunshot. But I thought it was important to give you this information now. When I rerun it after entering the shooting, it will take a couple of hours to run. With any luck it will give us a name.”

  “How accurate is this?”

  “I have only used it for five other cases, but so far it’s one hundred percent. It’s still in the infancy stage I can only say it’s ninety percent.”

  “Oh shit, we aren’t even looking in the right direction. We thought he is just a sick perverted man stalking her. I never dreamed someone paid a hit man.” He reached over and kissed Ken on the forehead. He picked up his phone and called Sara. “Sara I need you to run everything you can find on Lana and her family and every friend she has ever known and see if you can find anything illegal or jealousy or trouble with the law which includes drugs. Check phone records for anything unusual. Also find out if she has a will and who’s in that will.”

  “You got it and it will take a several hours but I will work hard on it. Do you want this to take top priority?”

  “Yes, and I want you to work on this personally. Since this is a delicate situation, I would like for you to call me and not Mike.”