People in the waiting room avoided Mike and Joe as they walked in circles. The patients were frightened because they were covered in blood. Joe noticed the commotion they were causing. He tried to coax Mike to leave, to wait in another part of the hospital, but he refused.
Finally, a kind nurse approached them and offered them an empty room to wait. They accepted.
"Will they know where to find me and let me know what's going on with Lana?" Mike asked.
"Yes sir they will, I'll make sure of it." The nurse had already heard 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, so he paced the room. He looked at the blood all over his clothes, and didn't want to be reminded of what he just witnessed. "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."
"I'm not leaving her side. Joe what will I do if anything happens to her?" His heart broke in two. He always wondered why women got upset and then sick to their stomachs—now he knew.
He felt sick, but he needed to man up, he deserved to be sick. He didn't protect her. "Joe, do you think she's going to be 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. He wanted to go outside, so 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 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 have killed her."
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 he was protecting. 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 lighthouse. If I had been doing my job, she would be okay."
Mike snapped at him. "It's not your fault; I'm the one who let her go outside, not you." Mike took a deep breath to calm his voice. Snapping at Joe was wrong. "Why don't you bring me a change of clothes and something to eat?" He was going to take one-hundred-percent of the blame.
"I can do that, anything in particular you want?"
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 grim 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 and be careful, that bullet might have been for you."
*****
Raymond's phone rang. "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 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 sure could 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. Borders'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. 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-fashioned 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 hadn't met Lana, but she could tell the guys liked her. It was so sad that Mike finally met someone who captured his heart, and now she might die. That would be two deaths for Mike—
poor guy.
*****
Raymond stayed at the beach house diligently working with the crime scene investigators.
He wanted to make sure everything was done correctly. He was taking notes when he heard Ken hollering for him.
Ken ran around the front of the house where there was no police tape, looking for Raymond.
"Raymond, I've been looking for you and I have some information," said Ken with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.
"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 through 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 analyzed all that input I entered, and it cross-referenced this data with all the other data entered from cases from the past several years.
Once all the information 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 time for geek-babble.
Ken was so familiar with this new software that he forgot to slow down to explain
thoroughly. "The FBI tech department developed a new and unique 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 thousands of cases. It's like meteorologists 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 centralized. Also, John Wayne Gacy liked to rape and kill young men. Albert DeSalvo liked to rape and kill older women close to home, and he preferred strangling the old women. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Absolutely, so what did your program say about this case?"
He pointed 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 took a few hours to run, and it gave me this information. Now I'll have to enter the gunshot, and then it will update the information.
Hopefully once it updates, the computer will give me a name. But I thought it was important to give you this information now."
"How accurate is this?"
"I have only used it for five other cases, but so far it's one hundred percent on target. Since 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 was 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… any 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. It will take 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."
"I understand, and I will."