Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(32)

Tom fidgeted his bloodied fingers. “I’m…I’m fine,” he said still looking down, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the blood off his hands with a tissue. His skin was pale.

“I’m glad you were there, Tom. What happened?” I looked to the officers and read Micelli off the tall officer’s badge. The shorter officer’s badge read Kent. “I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but Miss Red is a close friend and I was just talking to her in the locker room.” I shook my head. “I thought I heard someone come in, but I’d assumed it was her. I should have checked it out before I left her in there alone.”

“I understand. We’ll need to ask you a few questions too when we’re through with Tom,” Officer Micelli said, puffing out his chest in a subconscious move to establish dominance. “But we do have some more questions for Tom here.” He looked back to Tom. “If you could go on, please.”

Tom looked up at both officers, his eyes showing he’d not yet recovered from the shock. Officer Micelli encouraged him with a nod.

“I was telling the officers here that I was sitting there, listening to the ballgame when I saw someone on camera three—that’s the one right outside the women’s locker room—out of the corner of my eye. I assumed it was Miss Red, but then I realized it was a man coming out. Seemed odd, you know?” He laughed nervously. “I mean, why would a man be coming out of there, right? A couple of other employees had been in earlier today to use the gym, but then it was only you and Vance since then. No one else came in, well, except Miss Red. So, I got up to check it out. When I got to the women’s locker room, I could hear Miss Red moaning. I busted through the door and found her on her back by the steam room. Her head was gushing blood, and I grabbed some towels. It was awful. I’ve never seen that much blood before. I wouldn’t leave her and I stayed with her in the ambulance.” Tom was rhythmically rubbing his hands, one enclosing the other, back and forth, back and forth, desperately trying to remove the dried blood.

“It’s okay, Tom.” I rubbed his shoulder and looked to the officers. “Would you mind if Tom went to the restroom and washed his hands?” They vacillated to one another a second before giving an approving nod. Tom stood, but before he walked away, I asked, “Have they said how she’s doing yet?”

Tom shook his head. “Well, back at the building they said someone split the back of her head wide open, and I can vouch for that. It was like something out of a horror movie.” His voice quivered as he fought to maintain his composure. He used the tissue in his hand to wipe the tiny droplets of sweat that had collected and slowly dripped from his receding hairline. “They said something about head wounds bleeding a lot, and it looked worse than it probably was.”

I patted Tom’s arm and looked over to Vance. “Can you walk back with him? And,” I said, to the officers, “I’d like to go check on Miss Red, if that’s okay? I’ll only be a second.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Officer Micelli said.

“Sounds good.” Vance nodded.

The nurse at the desk directed me to Miss Red’s room, and I slowly pulled the curtain back. “Miss Red?” I peeked through a small slit, and she turned her head slowly toward me. “Hey, how you doin’?”

Miss Red was lying on the bed, covered with layers of plain white blankets with a line of something clear dripping into her arm. There was a towel on the top of her head covering the wound. “Hey, baby,” she said with a tired laugh. “What are you doing here? Jay is already on his way. They didn’t have to call you too.”

“As soon as Vance and I heard, we came running. Are you all right?” I sat in one of the chairs next to her bed and held her hand.

“You see what that boy did to my head. Lawd, my stylist is gonna have words for me if they mess up my hair with them staples they say they’re planning on putting in.”

I winced. “Does it hurt?”

“I’m a tough lady. It stings a bit, but my daddy did worse to me growin’ up. Whoever did this best go run an’ hide though. Jay was all fired up when he heard. Knockin’ an old lady upside the head, lawd have mercy, what this world comin’ to?”

I rubbed her arm. “What happened?”

“Like I already told them police out there, after you left, I went back to wipin’ down the showers. Thought I saw something move outta the corner of my eye over by the steam room. Thought my eyes were playing tricks on me—don’t see as good as I used to.” She squinted. “I was hoping it wasn’t a mouse. I can do bugs, but I hate them rodents.” She shook off her creeps. “I went over to the door and when I pulled it open this young man, all in black, done hopped out and grabbed my shoulders. I knocked him good in the face with the bottle I was holding and I started a hollerin’ and tried runnin’ away. Then he hit me somethin’ awful on top my head. All I saw was stars then everything went black. Next thing I know I came to hearin’ this noise, but then I realized it was me moanin’. Then Tom was there at my side and before I knew it, they was wheelin’ me into this place.”

“Did you recognize the person at all?”

“No, baby, I got cataracts real bad and the lights weren’t on. He had light skin, but he had one of them hoodies on so I couldn’t see much. That’s about it.”