Gertie

Chapter 35

Abe sat in his office two hours later watching the footage of John and Marlena's shooting outside the fish market. Roman was missing, they knew that much. No one had seen him since his argument with Bo two days earlier. The camera angle was perfect; however the lighting, and the fog was not helping at all. Abe had watched the footage, over and over again, and the shape he saw, didn't seem tall enough to be Roman.

    Officer Clarke opens the door hurriedly, saying, "I've got it! The guys down in evidence cleaned it up as best they could, and they think it was a woman. Bauman says to pause the footage at about halfway, because that's the clearest look at the face on the whole video."

    Abe and Clarke watched the footage again, and right around the halfway mark, Abe switched it to slow motion. As soon as a face appeared he paused the video. His jaw dropped, and he said in a whisper, "Oh, my G-d...it can't be..."

    "Commander Carver that—that looks like..."

    Abe looked at Officer Clarke, "We need to have someone locate Isabella Black, and bring her in for questioning. Now."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    Caroline sat next to Marlena in her hospital room as she slept on the bed. She had come out of recovery three hours earlier, and had been dozing off and on since then. John had been in surgery for hours, and they had periodically gotten updates from the surgical nurse assisting Mike Horton. The bullet had entered through his back, and nicked an artery, exiting out the front of his chest, where they think it entered Marlena. Had it been a direct shot through the heart, John would have died.

    The nurses and Caroline had cleaned Marlena up as best they could. She would be allowed to shower and change her clothes the next day. The dress she had been wearing was taken for evidence.

    Caroline looked up from her book when she heard a soft knock at the door. When Mike Horton peeked in with a slight smile, Caroline almost wept with joy. Reaching over, she gently roused Marlena, saying, "Mike is here..."

    Glancing up at Mike, Marlena could tell from his small smile that John was tentatively safe. "It's finished?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

    "It is. He's critical. I'm not going to lie to you, and we almost lost him twice on the operating table, but he's a fighter, Marlena. The bullet nicked an artery, and he lost a lot of blood. We had to give him four blood transfusions just to get his blood pressure back up. The artery has been repaired, and he's being moved to the ICU as we speak," Mike told her.

    Marlena tried to sit up, forgetting she was injured, and promptly fell back. Caroline stood up, "Marlena, the baby!"

    "I'm fine. I'm fine," she said softly. "I just forgot I was hurt too. That's all. Mike? When can I see him?"

    Mike knew Marlena would drive him crazy until he allowed her to see John, "Right now...since you're on staff here...I can let you see him, but Marlena, you need to know, he's in a medically induced coma right now. We can't know how his brain is affected until he wakes...I know you gave him continuous CPR, but there's still a chance—"

    "—that's fine. I can—I can handle that. I know it's necessary right now. All that matters is that he's alive," she said emphatically. Turning to Caroline, Marlena said excitedly, "He's alive. He stayed!" Wrapping her arms around her midriff, she whispered more to herself, "He stayed for us. I know he did...because he promised."

    Mike smiled, exhaustion lining his face, "Let me get you a wheelchair. I'm giving you ten minutes, and then back to bed."

    "Thank you, Mike! Thank you," Marlena said softly.