Burn Zone - A Psion Case File

Chapter Three

Justice made a decision. He started walking over to the woman, leaving Austin alone with the newbie cop. It was a somewhat long walk. Ingram Memorial's front lawn was pretty big. Soon, however, he came to a stop directly behind the doctor and waited for her to notice him.

She didn't.

He waited awkwardly as a few more minutes went past but she barely registered his presence.

"I'm Detective Justice Monroe. If you could please come with me, I'd like to ask you some questions," he told her.

The woman stopped what she was doing and turned around to look at him. Her dark eyes were narrowed aggressively and her body language read that she had no intention of going with him and that he needed to leave her alone.

"I don't really have time right now," she said with a voice full of annoyance. And pain. "I have patients to attend to here."

"Your team is taking care of the situation, Dr...?" he asked, waiting for her to supply her name.

"Ramirez. Caroline Ramirez," she replied, exasperated. She handed a nurse a roll of gauze and pointed to the patient in need of it.

"This is important. It could help us catch the person who set the building on fire," Justice explained, calmly waiting.

She looked at him for a long minute, her expression still one of complete annoyance. Then she let out a bitter sigh.

"Fine. But I can't be gone for long. They need me," she explained.

Justice gave her a nod and a small smile.

"Let's head this way," he said before he started walking off. "That way we won't be in anyone's way."

Caroline allowed herself to be led away from her patients as she followed Justice. They didn't stop walking until he arrived at the back an ambulance. It was one of three that had arrived only a minute or so ago.

"Sit," he commanded. He gave an authoritative point to the back of the ambulance and the waiting paramedics and EMTs.

"But..." she complained as she looked back toward her own patients.

"Sit!" he commanded again, this time in a voice ringing with authority.

She promptly sat down in the back of the ambulance and let the medics take a look at the cooked flesh of her left arm. She gasped in pain several times before they were done with her.

"These burns are pretty bad. Second-degree mostly but you have some third-degree as well. I suppose I don't have to tell you to get to the hospital," the EMT said as he eyed the white coat she wore. He grabbed a roll of gauze and what looked like a topical antibiotic. He slathered the ointment all over her burned arm, ignoring her cringes and gasps of pain. Then he rolled a thick layer of gauze over the whole thing and looked up at her when he was finished. "If you don't get it properly treated, it'll get infected. Then there's a good chance you'll lose the arm."

"I know, I know," she responded.

Bruce rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the gurneys out of the back. In that time, another ambulance had arrived. Justice watched them unload their gurney as well, and then all four sets of medics rushed out to the survivors, trying to assess which patients were the most critical.

Justice turned his attention back to Dr. Ramirez.

"Did you see anything?" he asked her. He completely ignored her evident ire at being tricked.

She didn't answer right away. Instead, she tried folding her arms around her belly but ended up hissing in pain instead. She abandoned that position and finally settled on leaving them straight down at her sides.