Jasper, page 2
*
Nurse Amber raced to the ER, as the emergency call had gone out. The ambulance was just backing up, doors opening, and the hospital team already surrounding the gurney. Amber thought she recognized the face of the patient but couldn’t be sure, not with so many bodies in the way. A lot of discussions were going on around her at this military hospital, with expert efficiency evident, as everybody moved to do their jobs.
Murmurs swirled around Amber, as well as the two paramedics, who gave them a rundown on the patient’s condition and what had happened. Sniper rounds, two wounds for sure, possibly a third. One caused carotid bleeding. A second shot was abdominal. She winced because the head shot would be the worst and the biggest hurdle to get the patient over.
He was losing blood at a rapid rate, and they’d already called in to have a blood transfusion ready.
Amber knew all of this was good, but it would be a hell of a deal. She was called over and given a set of instructions, and she carried them out, watching the team move with the efficiency she would expect from them. When another emergency call came, she raced to join her team, where she quickly helped a pregnant woman, who had just been brought in, with complaints of contractions and vaginal bleeding. Amber winced at that one too, hoping it would be an easier fix than the other patient.
With the pregnant patient handed off to the nursing staff, Amber returned to see what the results were for the sniper shooting victim. She caught several doctors discussing it. One of the nurses stepped over to Amber and shared, “He’s been sent up to surgery. He’s stable. We’ve got transfusions happening, but that head wound is bad news.”
Amber winced and nodded. “Did you hear who it was?”
The nurse shrugged. “Something about Mason. He’s been here forever, and somebody apparently took him out on the base, right when he got off one of the flights.”
Amber stared at her in shock. “Oh, my God.” She looked around a little uneasily because, as soon as a sniper was found on base, things tended to shut down very quickly. “Have we been locked down?”
The nurse shook her head. “We haven’t received any orders to that effect, but a military investigation team is coming over to hear the details on the victim’s condition. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that.” She gave a mock shudder. “Some of the guys on that team will be opening a can of worms,” she stated, with an eye roll and a big knowing grimace.
Amber nodded and didn’t say anything. She was much more concerned about the patient and about a sniper being on base. As she waited for a call to shut down the entire hospital, she went through the frantic motions of dealing with triage in the ER for the next hour.
When she caught a moment of calm, she noted a tall, square-set male, standing off to the side, a frown on his face, his hands on his hips.
She eyed him cautiously, but, like so many of the other men on active duty here, he was fit, strong, and capable. However, this one was incredibly pissed. She walked over to him and asked, “May I help you?”
He glanced around before speaking. “A friend of mine, a family member, came in here a little bit ago, with sniper wounds.”
She nodded. “Mason. He’s in surgery.” Clear, soft-gray eyes, with a cutting edge, caught her attention.
“Condition?” he snapped.
“Stable, but critical,” she responded. “We expect an investigative team to be here very quickly. Are you part of that?”
He gave her a clipped nod. “If I can get on the damn team, I will be,” he muttered. “In the meantime, I’m family, and I would like very much to have updated information, as it becomes available.”
“If you contact the front desk, they’ll let you know.” She hesitated. “Does he have a wife, family?”
“He does, and I have his wife here.” He looked behind him. “She’s pregnant and sitting down in the other room.”
With that mention, Amber’s mind returned to the other pregnant woman, still in the ER, where OPs and GYNs were checking her out. “Hopefully Mason will make a full recovery,” she shared. “I can’t imagine anything worse.”
He gave an absent-minded nod, but his gaze still fully assessed the ER, and she wasn’t sure what was going on here. In a low voice, she asked, “Will we lock down?”
He frowned at her. “You haven’t already?”
She shook her head. “Not that we’ve heard.”
He groaned. “I’ll make a call.” That being said, he quickly disappeared.
Amber stepped into the nearby waiting room, seeing him on his phone and off to the side. A pregnant woman, who Amber thought she recognized, sat off to the side, her head in her hands. Amber walked over to her and sat down beside her. “Are you waiting for an update on Mason’s condition?”
The other woman brightened. “Yes, yes, please.” She turned to the man on the phone.
“I just spoke to him,” Amber noted, nodding. “The doctors will give you the official update, but I can tell you that Mason’s in surgery. A fair bit of damage occurred to his skull, but they’re hopeful they can piece it together. Now that the bleeding has stopped, the swelling is the next biggest concern,” she murmured.
“Right.” The pregnant woman, with a determined expression, gave Amber a half-hearted smile. “It’s so hard to wait. We want answers, and we want everything now. I’m Tesla, by the way.”
“I’m Amber,” she replied, offering her hand. She looked over at the man who she had talked to first. “And is he family?”
“Yes,” Tesla replied, with a nod. “He’s my cousin, and he’s been staying with us. He had driven me to the airport to pick up Mason.” Tesla gave a half-gulping sob. “So, I watched my husband get shot, watched him drop,” she shared, trying hard to get a grip. “I was still so far away,” she murmured. “I couldn’t get to him in time, and then, when I did get closer, he was completely surrounded.”
Amber nodded sympathetically. “And yet those who surrounded him obviously had some combat medical training or the like and did a good job of assisting Mason, until he could be brought in.”
Tesla nodded. “Yes,” she whispered softly. “I know Masters was there and Jasper. I don’t know who all else. At any other point in time I could probably tell you exactly who was there.” Tesla blinked several times, then let out a soft groan.
Amber asked sharply, “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
Tesla rubbed her baby bump and nodded. “I think so. It’s just been such a shock, and the baby hasn’t accepted it that well either.”
“Of course not. The baby knows that you’re in pain and upset. So, of course, it’ll react the same as you do. You might want to take it easy.”
“Right, but there is never any good reaction in a situation like this.”
“No, there isn’t,” Amber murmured, as she looked around. “I’m on duty, so I’ll leave for now, but, if you need anything, you let me know.”
“Thank you. What was your name again?”
“I’m Amber,” she repeated, introducing herself a second time. “I’m one of the ER nurses here.”
“I appreciate any information you can share.”
“No information yet. For now, all we know is that Mason took two direct hits, and he’s in surgery, where they’re taking out one of the bullets. He’s lost a tremendous amount of blood,” she added. “Beyond that, they will deal with whatever they find during surgery.”
“The second bullet?” Tesla asked hesitantly.
“Abdominal,” Amber confirmed. “So a gut shot as well.” She watched the color fade from Tesla’s face, and Amber winced. “I’m a firm believer in family being better off knowing the truth,” she shared, “but, if you want me to spare you the details, just let me know.”
“No,” Tesla replied. “I do not want the details sugarcoated, but obviously my condition is not the easiest. Plus, I must look after my baby as well. However, the truth I can deal with. Finding out lies and half-truths afterward would be much harder.”
“Agreed. Can I get you some water or something?”
Tesla stared at her. “Hardly ER protocol.”
“Don’t you worry about it,” Amber noted. “I want to ensure that you don’t become a patient.”
“Thank you,” Tesla replied gratefully, “and some water would be lovely.”
Chapter 2
‡
Amber quickly returned with water for Tesla and noted she had now been joined again by the other man. She struggled to remember his name, then it came to her. Jasper. Tesla had told Amber that he was family. As she handed the water to Tesla, she looked over at Jasper. “Anything?”
He nodded. “Yes, the base is on full lockdown now.”
“Shouldn’t that have been done already?” Amber asked.
“I think it probably was done, but the news may not have filtered out very quickly.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, thinking that had to be wrong. “Anyway, we haven’t had any disturbance here, so it’s not an issue.”
“It’s always an issue,” Jasper clarified. “What we don’t want is for whoever took out Mason to come here now for a second attempt.”
She stared at him for a moment, then winced. “Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“It’s always a possibility. Those shots were well placed from a sniper atop a building hundreds of yards away.”
“Oh, my God,” she muttered, as she stared off in the distance. “Someone from the military then.” Her voice was low.
His voice stayed equally low, as he studied her sharply and nodded. “One would expect so, with at least some good training.”
Amber’s eyes widened. “And yet whoever shot Mason was on base, surrounded by people, who also have had that training?”
“So, isn’t that a great place to hide a lost sheep?” Jasper suggested.
She pondered his meaning and then nodded slowly. “I guess if that’s what you wanted to do, that would make a whole lot more sense. You’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects.”
“Exactly, so do me a favor. If you see anybody hanging around, anybody you don’t like the look of, who isn’t needed in the area, or who seems potentially troublesome in any way …” He let it hang there for a moment, then added, “Let me know.”
“There hasn’t been up until now,” she stated hesitantly. “I only came on shift four hours ago, so I’m not sure what time frame you’re looking at, but Mason was shot within the last, what? Sixty minutes?”
At that, Jasper nodded. “Exactly, but that doesn’t mean somebody wasn’t here beforehand, checking out the lay of the land, searching the hospital, wondering about an update on information, or looking at the layout, just in case a second attempt needs to be made.”
“I can’t imagine anybody with your training considering second attempts,” she suggested. “You would go all-in the first time.”
“All-in is the perfect situation in an op,” he confirmed with firmness and a hint of disdain. “That doesn’t mean a second man wasn’t hanging around to check on Mason’s condition when he arrived here.”
“Oh, now that’s a different story,” she admitted, thinking back. “I had a second ambulance come in with a pregnant woman not long afterward. … As in ERs everywhere, an awful lot of chaos was happening when Mason arrived,” she murmured. She frowned, thinking about who else might have been sitting in the emergency room.
“We did have a full ER waiting room,” she noted, with a wince. She hesitated, then gave him a miserable look. “I can’t start digging into it now, as I’m on shift. I’ll keep it in mind though. Yet you may want to take a look yourself, once you get clearance,” she stated. “Anybody here who’s looking for assistance will go through the triage nurse.”
“And yet, if they’re just sitting here, with supposed friends and family, we won’t know who is related and who isn’t, right?”
“Unfortunately that is quite true,” she replied, with a nod. “If somebody wanted to pretend to be with the family, they would just sit close by, and everybody else would assume that they were waiting for treatment or were somebody else’s family member.”
“Exactly,” he agreed, nodding, as the sinking feeling settled in. “So, the question is, … was anybody just sitting with random people but not looking for treatment?”
“You mean, just looking for information?” she confirmed, her voice low, as she looked around at the full waiting room off to the side. “If that were the case, they would still be here.”
“Maybe they are,” Jasper stated, with half a smile. “I’ve been surreptitiously taking photos while I’m here, so I’ve caught everyone here.”
She nodded. “Good. If I sense anything, I’ll let you know.” Just then the code alarm went off. “Got to go.” And she bolted back to her station, preparing for the next emergency patient coming in by ambulance.
*
Jasper watched as Amber took off, racing to the ambulance doors, now opening to bring in a gurney with another patient needing help. He looked back at Tesla to watch her sipping water, huddled up in her seat. “I would love to take you home where you could rest, while you are still waiting for information, instead of keeping you here.” She shot him a look, and he nodded. “That’s what I expected, but anything that’ll put you and the baby under further stress,” he noted, “isn’t a help.”
“I know that,” she agreed, as she considered his words. “On the other hand, if anything goes wrong with me or the baby, I’m already at the hospital.”
He stared at her. “Please tell me that you didn’t just say that.”
“Of course I said that. Apparently another pregnant woman is already in one of these ER rooms right now, dealing with her own troubles.”
“That’s not the easiest thing in the world,” he said.
“But forget about me. … Why are you staying?” she asked, looking at him sideways.
He gave her a nod. “For exactly the reason I just told her.” He pointed to ER Nurse Amber. “Plus, I’m not officially a part of the team yet. I also want information on Mason’s condition, and I also want to know if anybody else is here.”
She looked around. “You think somebody is here who may have had something to do with the attack?”
“Or is being paid to find out what condition Mason is in,” he replied, carefully wording his concern, as he looked around casually. “They won’t wait for the news to come out. They’ll want it firsthand.”
“If they’ve hired somebody, that’s hardly firsthand.”
“It may not be firsthand, but it’s probably as close as the shooter would dare to get. Although, if he were incredibly confident, which I’m sure he is, given the brazen attack on base, he may be here in person.”
At that, she straightened up and suggested, “We should be sitting out in the main waiting room then.”
“We’re just off to the side, where we can at least have conversations privately,” he pointed out, “and that’s what we need. Plus everybody in there has to walk right past us.”
She nodded. “I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s because you don’t do what I do,” he explained. “I need you to trust that I will do everything I can to get to the bottom of this.”
“I do trust you, Jasper,” she stated. “I just can’t imagine who would have done this.”
“I’m hearing that from everybody. With this Mason investigation, it won’t be easy. Everybody loves him. Everybody thinks he is a great guy.”
“And yet he did handle a lot of men and women, and he had to move lots of guys off his units because they just weren’t good enough.”
He gave her a sharp glance. “If you know that much, I’ll get you a piece of paper. I need names.”
She nodded. “It will give me something else to focus on, instead of what’s happening to him in surgery.”
Jasper walked over to the reception desk and asked the woman there for some paper and a pen, but he didn’t give her much choice or a chance to argue. Spying a small notepad off to the side, he snagged it. “This will work perfectly. Do you mind?”
She shook her head and watched, as he took a pen off the counter and returned to Tesla.
As he handed her the notepad and pen, she looked back at the woman and smiled her thanks. Then she faced Jasper and asked, “Did you terrorize her for this?”
“I don’t know why anybody would think I terrorize people,” he stated smoothly.
“Yeah, because that’s on your record.”
“When interrogating witnesses, that’s not terrorizing.”
“You’re not terrorizing me,” she admitted. “However, if I weren’t family, and Mason weren’t involved, how you would you treat me?”
“I would treat you with respect,” he declared. “I don’t understand why people always have the wrong impression of me.”
She giggled. “I don’t think it’s a wrong impression. I’m just not sure where that hard-ass attitude gets directed.”
“Never at you,” he declared, with a smile, “never at you.” She shifted uncomfortably. He watched as she slowly placed a hand on her back, pushed her back against the chair, and closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them again, she caught him staring at her, and she shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. I’m fine.”
“Sure you are. How about a cup of tea?” he asked, almost as an afterthought.
She smiled gratefully. “That would be lovely.” Then she looked around and sagged back. “I know it’s a very selfish thought, but I could use a cup.”
Already in the act of getting up to see about her tea, he sat back down and asked Tesla, “What about Sebastian?” he asked quietly.
She nodded. “He’s with my father,” she said, with a small smile, “enjoying some grandparent time.”
Jasper asked, “Have you told your father everything?”
She nodded. “I sent a text, so I am sure he’s on full alert too.”
“He would have been on full alert already,” Jasper murmured, “because, of all the things that everybody here knows, when somebody like Mason gets shot, it puts everyone on high alert. We don’t know whether assassination is the issue or something completely different.”
Nurse Amber raced to the ER, as the emergency call had gone out. The ambulance was just backing up, doors opening, and the hospital team already surrounding the gurney. Amber thought she recognized the face of the patient but couldn’t be sure, not with so many bodies in the way. A lot of discussions were going on around her at this military hospital, with expert efficiency evident, as everybody moved to do their jobs.
Murmurs swirled around Amber, as well as the two paramedics, who gave them a rundown on the patient’s condition and what had happened. Sniper rounds, two wounds for sure, possibly a third. One caused carotid bleeding. A second shot was abdominal. She winced because the head shot would be the worst and the biggest hurdle to get the patient over.
He was losing blood at a rapid rate, and they’d already called in to have a blood transfusion ready.
Amber knew all of this was good, but it would be a hell of a deal. She was called over and given a set of instructions, and she carried them out, watching the team move with the efficiency she would expect from them. When another emergency call came, she raced to join her team, where she quickly helped a pregnant woman, who had just been brought in, with complaints of contractions and vaginal bleeding. Amber winced at that one too, hoping it would be an easier fix than the other patient.
With the pregnant patient handed off to the nursing staff, Amber returned to see what the results were for the sniper shooting victim. She caught several doctors discussing it. One of the nurses stepped over to Amber and shared, “He’s been sent up to surgery. He’s stable. We’ve got transfusions happening, but that head wound is bad news.”
Amber winced and nodded. “Did you hear who it was?”
The nurse shrugged. “Something about Mason. He’s been here forever, and somebody apparently took him out on the base, right when he got off one of the flights.”
Amber stared at her in shock. “Oh, my God.” She looked around a little uneasily because, as soon as a sniper was found on base, things tended to shut down very quickly. “Have we been locked down?”
The nurse shook her head. “We haven’t received any orders to that effect, but a military investigation team is coming over to hear the details on the victim’s condition. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that.” She gave a mock shudder. “Some of the guys on that team will be opening a can of worms,” she stated, with an eye roll and a big knowing grimace.
Amber nodded and didn’t say anything. She was much more concerned about the patient and about a sniper being on base. As she waited for a call to shut down the entire hospital, she went through the frantic motions of dealing with triage in the ER for the next hour.
When she caught a moment of calm, she noted a tall, square-set male, standing off to the side, a frown on his face, his hands on his hips.
She eyed him cautiously, but, like so many of the other men on active duty here, he was fit, strong, and capable. However, this one was incredibly pissed. She walked over to him and asked, “May I help you?”
He glanced around before speaking. “A friend of mine, a family member, came in here a little bit ago, with sniper wounds.”
She nodded. “Mason. He’s in surgery.” Clear, soft-gray eyes, with a cutting edge, caught her attention.
“Condition?” he snapped.
“Stable, but critical,” she responded. “We expect an investigative team to be here very quickly. Are you part of that?”
He gave her a clipped nod. “If I can get on the damn team, I will be,” he muttered. “In the meantime, I’m family, and I would like very much to have updated information, as it becomes available.”
“If you contact the front desk, they’ll let you know.” She hesitated. “Does he have a wife, family?”
“He does, and I have his wife here.” He looked behind him. “She’s pregnant and sitting down in the other room.”
With that mention, Amber’s mind returned to the other pregnant woman, still in the ER, where OPs and GYNs were checking her out. “Hopefully Mason will make a full recovery,” she shared. “I can’t imagine anything worse.”
He gave an absent-minded nod, but his gaze still fully assessed the ER, and she wasn’t sure what was going on here. In a low voice, she asked, “Will we lock down?”
He frowned at her. “You haven’t already?”
She shook her head. “Not that we’ve heard.”
He groaned. “I’ll make a call.” That being said, he quickly disappeared.
Amber stepped into the nearby waiting room, seeing him on his phone and off to the side. A pregnant woman, who Amber thought she recognized, sat off to the side, her head in her hands. Amber walked over to her and sat down beside her. “Are you waiting for an update on Mason’s condition?”
The other woman brightened. “Yes, yes, please.” She turned to the man on the phone.
“I just spoke to him,” Amber noted, nodding. “The doctors will give you the official update, but I can tell you that Mason’s in surgery. A fair bit of damage occurred to his skull, but they’re hopeful they can piece it together. Now that the bleeding has stopped, the swelling is the next biggest concern,” she murmured.
“Right.” The pregnant woman, with a determined expression, gave Amber a half-hearted smile. “It’s so hard to wait. We want answers, and we want everything now. I’m Tesla, by the way.”
“I’m Amber,” she replied, offering her hand. She looked over at the man who she had talked to first. “And is he family?”
“Yes,” Tesla replied, with a nod. “He’s my cousin, and he’s been staying with us. He had driven me to the airport to pick up Mason.” Tesla gave a half-gulping sob. “So, I watched my husband get shot, watched him drop,” she shared, trying hard to get a grip. “I was still so far away,” she murmured. “I couldn’t get to him in time, and then, when I did get closer, he was completely surrounded.”
Amber nodded sympathetically. “And yet those who surrounded him obviously had some combat medical training or the like and did a good job of assisting Mason, until he could be brought in.”
Tesla nodded. “Yes,” she whispered softly. “I know Masters was there and Jasper. I don’t know who all else. At any other point in time I could probably tell you exactly who was there.” Tesla blinked several times, then let out a soft groan.
Amber asked sharply, “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
Tesla rubbed her baby bump and nodded. “I think so. It’s just been such a shock, and the baby hasn’t accepted it that well either.”
“Of course not. The baby knows that you’re in pain and upset. So, of course, it’ll react the same as you do. You might want to take it easy.”
“Right, but there is never any good reaction in a situation like this.”
“No, there isn’t,” Amber murmured, as she looked around. “I’m on duty, so I’ll leave for now, but, if you need anything, you let me know.”
“Thank you. What was your name again?”
“I’m Amber,” she repeated, introducing herself a second time. “I’m one of the ER nurses here.”
“I appreciate any information you can share.”
“No information yet. For now, all we know is that Mason took two direct hits, and he’s in surgery, where they’re taking out one of the bullets. He’s lost a tremendous amount of blood,” she added. “Beyond that, they will deal with whatever they find during surgery.”
“The second bullet?” Tesla asked hesitantly.
“Abdominal,” Amber confirmed. “So a gut shot as well.” She watched the color fade from Tesla’s face, and Amber winced. “I’m a firm believer in family being better off knowing the truth,” she shared, “but, if you want me to spare you the details, just let me know.”
“No,” Tesla replied. “I do not want the details sugarcoated, but obviously my condition is not the easiest. Plus, I must look after my baby as well. However, the truth I can deal with. Finding out lies and half-truths afterward would be much harder.”
“Agreed. Can I get you some water or something?”
Tesla stared at her. “Hardly ER protocol.”
“Don’t you worry about it,” Amber noted. “I want to ensure that you don’t become a patient.”
“Thank you,” Tesla replied gratefully, “and some water would be lovely.”
Chapter 2
‡
Amber quickly returned with water for Tesla and noted she had now been joined again by the other man. She struggled to remember his name, then it came to her. Jasper. Tesla had told Amber that he was family. As she handed the water to Tesla, she looked over at Jasper. “Anything?”
He nodded. “Yes, the base is on full lockdown now.”
“Shouldn’t that have been done already?” Amber asked.
“I think it probably was done, but the news may not have filtered out very quickly.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, thinking that had to be wrong. “Anyway, we haven’t had any disturbance here, so it’s not an issue.”
“It’s always an issue,” Jasper clarified. “What we don’t want is for whoever took out Mason to come here now for a second attempt.”
She stared at him for a moment, then winced. “Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“It’s always a possibility. Those shots were well placed from a sniper atop a building hundreds of yards away.”
“Oh, my God,” she muttered, as she stared off in the distance. “Someone from the military then.” Her voice was low.
His voice stayed equally low, as he studied her sharply and nodded. “One would expect so, with at least some good training.”
Amber’s eyes widened. “And yet whoever shot Mason was on base, surrounded by people, who also have had that training?”
“So, isn’t that a great place to hide a lost sheep?” Jasper suggested.
She pondered his meaning and then nodded slowly. “I guess if that’s what you wanted to do, that would make a whole lot more sense. You’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects.”
“Exactly, so do me a favor. If you see anybody hanging around, anybody you don’t like the look of, who isn’t needed in the area, or who seems potentially troublesome in any way …” He let it hang there for a moment, then added, “Let me know.”
“There hasn’t been up until now,” she stated hesitantly. “I only came on shift four hours ago, so I’m not sure what time frame you’re looking at, but Mason was shot within the last, what? Sixty minutes?”
At that, Jasper nodded. “Exactly, but that doesn’t mean somebody wasn’t here beforehand, checking out the lay of the land, searching the hospital, wondering about an update on information, or looking at the layout, just in case a second attempt needs to be made.”
“I can’t imagine anybody with your training considering second attempts,” she suggested. “You would go all-in the first time.”
“All-in is the perfect situation in an op,” he confirmed with firmness and a hint of disdain. “That doesn’t mean a second man wasn’t hanging around to check on Mason’s condition when he arrived here.”
“Oh, now that’s a different story,” she admitted, thinking back. “I had a second ambulance come in with a pregnant woman not long afterward. … As in ERs everywhere, an awful lot of chaos was happening when Mason arrived,” she murmured. She frowned, thinking about who else might have been sitting in the emergency room.
“We did have a full ER waiting room,” she noted, with a wince. She hesitated, then gave him a miserable look. “I can’t start digging into it now, as I’m on shift. I’ll keep it in mind though. Yet you may want to take a look yourself, once you get clearance,” she stated. “Anybody here who’s looking for assistance will go through the triage nurse.”
“And yet, if they’re just sitting here, with supposed friends and family, we won’t know who is related and who isn’t, right?”
“Unfortunately that is quite true,” she replied, with a nod. “If somebody wanted to pretend to be with the family, they would just sit close by, and everybody else would assume that they were waiting for treatment or were somebody else’s family member.”
“Exactly,” he agreed, nodding, as the sinking feeling settled in. “So, the question is, … was anybody just sitting with random people but not looking for treatment?”
“You mean, just looking for information?” she confirmed, her voice low, as she looked around at the full waiting room off to the side. “If that were the case, they would still be here.”
“Maybe they are,” Jasper stated, with half a smile. “I’ve been surreptitiously taking photos while I’m here, so I’ve caught everyone here.”
She nodded. “Good. If I sense anything, I’ll let you know.” Just then the code alarm went off. “Got to go.” And she bolted back to her station, preparing for the next emergency patient coming in by ambulance.
*
Jasper watched as Amber took off, racing to the ambulance doors, now opening to bring in a gurney with another patient needing help. He looked back at Tesla to watch her sipping water, huddled up in her seat. “I would love to take you home where you could rest, while you are still waiting for information, instead of keeping you here.” She shot him a look, and he nodded. “That’s what I expected, but anything that’ll put you and the baby under further stress,” he noted, “isn’t a help.”
“I know that,” she agreed, as she considered his words. “On the other hand, if anything goes wrong with me or the baby, I’m already at the hospital.”
He stared at her. “Please tell me that you didn’t just say that.”
“Of course I said that. Apparently another pregnant woman is already in one of these ER rooms right now, dealing with her own troubles.”
“That’s not the easiest thing in the world,” he said.
“But forget about me. … Why are you staying?” she asked, looking at him sideways.
He gave her a nod. “For exactly the reason I just told her.” He pointed to ER Nurse Amber. “Plus, I’m not officially a part of the team yet. I also want information on Mason’s condition, and I also want to know if anybody else is here.”
She looked around. “You think somebody is here who may have had something to do with the attack?”
“Or is being paid to find out what condition Mason is in,” he replied, carefully wording his concern, as he looked around casually. “They won’t wait for the news to come out. They’ll want it firsthand.”
“If they’ve hired somebody, that’s hardly firsthand.”
“It may not be firsthand, but it’s probably as close as the shooter would dare to get. Although, if he were incredibly confident, which I’m sure he is, given the brazen attack on base, he may be here in person.”
At that, she straightened up and suggested, “We should be sitting out in the main waiting room then.”
“We’re just off to the side, where we can at least have conversations privately,” he pointed out, “and that’s what we need. Plus everybody in there has to walk right past us.”
She nodded. “I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s because you don’t do what I do,” he explained. “I need you to trust that I will do everything I can to get to the bottom of this.”
“I do trust you, Jasper,” she stated. “I just can’t imagine who would have done this.”
“I’m hearing that from everybody. With this Mason investigation, it won’t be easy. Everybody loves him. Everybody thinks he is a great guy.”
“And yet he did handle a lot of men and women, and he had to move lots of guys off his units because they just weren’t good enough.”
He gave her a sharp glance. “If you know that much, I’ll get you a piece of paper. I need names.”
She nodded. “It will give me something else to focus on, instead of what’s happening to him in surgery.”
Jasper walked over to the reception desk and asked the woman there for some paper and a pen, but he didn’t give her much choice or a chance to argue. Spying a small notepad off to the side, he snagged it. “This will work perfectly. Do you mind?”
She shook her head and watched, as he took a pen off the counter and returned to Tesla.
As he handed her the notepad and pen, she looked back at the woman and smiled her thanks. Then she faced Jasper and asked, “Did you terrorize her for this?”
“I don’t know why anybody would think I terrorize people,” he stated smoothly.
“Yeah, because that’s on your record.”
“When interrogating witnesses, that’s not terrorizing.”
“You’re not terrorizing me,” she admitted. “However, if I weren’t family, and Mason weren’t involved, how you would you treat me?”
“I would treat you with respect,” he declared. “I don’t understand why people always have the wrong impression of me.”
She giggled. “I don’t think it’s a wrong impression. I’m just not sure where that hard-ass attitude gets directed.”
“Never at you,” he declared, with a smile, “never at you.” She shifted uncomfortably. He watched as she slowly placed a hand on her back, pushed her back against the chair, and closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them again, she caught him staring at her, and she shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. I’m fine.”
“Sure you are. How about a cup of tea?” he asked, almost as an afterthought.
She smiled gratefully. “That would be lovely.” Then she looked around and sagged back. “I know it’s a very selfish thought, but I could use a cup.”
Already in the act of getting up to see about her tea, he sat back down and asked Tesla, “What about Sebastian?” he asked quietly.
She nodded. “He’s with my father,” she said, with a small smile, “enjoying some grandparent time.”
Jasper asked, “Have you told your father everything?”
She nodded. “I sent a text, so I am sure he’s on full alert too.”
“He would have been on full alert already,” Jasper murmured, “because, of all the things that everybody here knows, when somebody like Mason gets shot, it puts everyone on high alert. We don’t know whether assassination is the issue or something completely different.”
