KENNY Chapter 7 A second patrol car arrived and soon they were taking statements from the three older women. Ken and Donny were loaded into the ambulance. Drake had not recovered consciousness yet and the EMT had to put in an IV with a saline drip. Consuela was adamant that she was going in with Ken, so Marcia agreed to take her. Marta was trying to convince the officers that they had no reason to take her pistol. She had not fired it and it was a legal weapon for defense. She was on the phone with her law firm as the ambulance and Marcia’s Chrysler left. Ken rode in the ambulance sitting in the jump seat while the EMTs tried to revive Drake. After a few minutes they were successful and Donny woke up. He was more than a touch disoriented though and had no idea what had happened. Ken was in no hurry to bring the asshole up to date and kept his peace. When they got to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula Marcia and Consuela were reunited with Ken. They sat in the crowded waiting room and talked. They were constrained from letting the conversation get too intimate because of the police officer who was standing guard over Ken. Apparently when you have put your fourth man into the hospital you are considered dangerous. “So tell us Connie, what happened with this guy tonight?” Marcia asked, “What caused him to go ballistic?” “I don’t know what happened.” Consuela replied, “He has been at the same clubs I have the last 3 weeks, and I danced with him a couple of times. I tried not to do it too often because his hands get too frisky. He asked me out last week and I turned him down. I had enough trouble with his hands on the dance floor; I didn’t want to get into a car with him. “Tonight he wanted to dance again, and I told him that I would, but only if he kept his hands where they belong. He said okay, but as soon as we were dancing he grabbed my behind. I pushed him away and told him not to ask me to dance again. I said that I would not give him another chance. I put him out of my mind and went back to my table. A little later I began to wonder why no one was asking me to dance anymore. Usually when I was there it was normal for me to get several requests and hour, and now there were none.” “Wait a minute,” Ken said, “You have been going out to the clubs alone? I thought you were with some friends or something.” “No Ken, I don’t have any friends that would go out with me to a club. Mama went along the first couple of times, but she was not comfortable there, so I have left her at home with Stefan since then.” “That is just asking for trouble Connie, from now on I will go along with you, I intend to keep this from happening again.” “Thank you Ken, I accept. Back to tonight. I noticed that suddenly I was not being approached, when I saw Donny intercept a man heading my way. They talked for a moment, then the man moved away and went back to his seat. He was determined to ruin my evening. I got up to leave and decided that from now on I would not go to a club if Donny was there. I got into my car and drove home. He must have followed me, because when I slowed down to turn into the drive, he bumped into my car and started yelling things at me out the window. All I could think of to do was to honk the horn and hope that you would be able to help me.” Marcia spoke up then, “You did good girl, cause help you he did.” An attractive blonde nurse came in then to get Ken. It was time for an X-ray of his arm. “Hold up there Barb, I need to go along and keep and eye on this guy.” “If you have to Billy, but I thought that he was the good guy. He sure did a number on that other man; Doc says that he has a concussion and that the elbow is shattered. There is going to be a lot of reconstructive surgery needed on it.” “That’s what I mean Barb; the Sheriff said that he was a dangerous man and for me to keep him in my sight.” “Wait just a damn minute here Billy,” Marcia stood up and grabbed the officer’s arm. “You let the man who assaulted our friend run loose and keep a watch on the man who saved her?” “Just doin’ what I’m told to ma’am.” “That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I can guarantee that Ken is not going anywhere. All of his stuff is back at the lodge, and he has to ride back with me. If you aren’t going to do anything useful young man, sit down.” The nurse was laughing at the officer’s discomfort as she led Ken around the corner and down the hall to a treatment room. “Poor Billy, he is loyal to a fault, but not the sharpest tack in the box. Just step in here Mr. Jacobs and we’ll see how bad that arm is. Can you take your shirt off?” “No, I can’t lift my arm, so I’m afraid that you are going to have to cut the shirt off. Good thing it’s just a cheap T-shirt.” “I can do that,” Nurse Barb said as she reached into her pocket and extracted a pair of scissors. She pulled the shirt out of the waist band of Ken’s jeans on his left side and started cutting up and on into the sleeve. “Whooee, someone has been working out. My old boyfriend was into body building and he only got this kind of definition when he was preparing for a show. I’ll bet your girlfriend likes it a lot. Do you lift weights Mr. Jacobs?” Barb asked as she finished cutting the shirt and pulled it off to hang from the belt on the right side. “No to both miss. No weights and no girlfriend. All I do is swim and do exercises in the morning. Selena cooks up an excellent diet, and then there is hard work all day. I have a lot of flab to lose.” “Have you looked in a mirror lately? I don’t see any flab at all…” The door suddenly slammed open and hit the nurse in the back, knocking her to the floor. “There you are asshole!” Cried Donny Drake as he stepped into the room waving a scalpel, “I got a score to settle with you. You, nursie, just stay over there, I’ll get to you later. Right now I’m going to cut hero boy here till he cries like a little girl.” Ken grabbed the first thing to hand, a steel bedpan, and spun around with it at arms length. He struck Drake in the temple again, on the same side as before. This time Drake got more that a concussion as his already weakened skull crushed under the impact and the force drove him to the floor behind the door. Ken dropped the bedpan and held up his arm to look at the scalpel hanging out of it. “Damn, that hurts. I should have crippled the bastard the first time, then I wouldn’t have had to deal with him again. Could you help me with this nurse?” Barb scrambled to her feet and ran over to Ken. “Yes I can, and the man who saved my life can call me Barb, especially when he asks me out. Now hold still while I take this nasty little thing out of you.” As she was pulling the blade out of his arm, there was a loud crash and some screams from the area of the waiting room. “Just wrap a bandage around it, I need to see what is going on, and you need to call the police for some reinforcements.” Barb slapped a big band aid on the bleeding cut as Ken stepped toward the door. He was almost there when a man holding a pistol stepped into it. “Hey bro, you about done in here? Hey…!” Ken didn’t even pause; he ran at the man and brought his right arm up. He shoved his forearm under the man’s chin and pushed as hard as he could. There was a loud crash as the man stumbled backwards. Ken kept his arm pressing against the man’s throat until they smacked into the wall on the far side of the hallway. Ken held him against the wall, till he noticed that the gunman was still. He backed up and the man collapsed to the floor. Ken looked around and there was no one else in the hall. He turned back to Barb, “Are you all right.” “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks again. I heard the gun go off, but I couldn’t tell where he shot. Something funny there.” Barb came over to the men and picked up the automatic. She popped the magazine out, looked at it and laughed. “I’ll be damned, this thing is filled with blanks.” “Well, you keep it, and after you call for help use it to hit him with if he tries to get up. I need to see what is happening in the waiting room.” Ken looked around to see if the was anything more useful than a gun filled with blanks or a bedpan and spied the IV stand on the corner of the bed. The top looked somewhat like a spear head with the hooks for IV bags, and it was made out of steel. The push of one button freed it from the corner of the bed and Ken had a decent weapon. Trotting down the hall Ken got to the corner and stopped. He peered around and saw a man with a long barreled revolver standing in front of the sliding doors watching the far side of the room where two men were going from person to person taking wallets and purses. Officer Billy was lying on the floor with a pool of blood spreading away from him. Ken decided that he needed that revolver; it was obviously not loaded with blanks. He stepped back, hefted his impromptu spear testing the balance, and then he took two steps, stopped and threw the spear as hard as he could at the gunman. The wobbly flight of the IV stand ended just below the heart on the left side of the gunman and he crumpled like a rag doll. Ken had taken off running as soon as he threw the spear, so when the man fell Ken was right there taking the gun out of his hand. The other two men looked over to see what the commotion was. What they saw was Ken, his torn shirt hanging from his waist exposing a well muscled chest, wearing worn denims and brown work boots rising up from their friend with the gun in his hand pointing it at them. “You two need to move away from these folks and go stand in the corner. I’m getting tired and pissed, and shooting you is looking more and more attractive the longer you wait; NOW MOVE!” The men held their hands up and slowly moved over to the corner. The whole time their attention was on the man on the floor, curled up trying to catch his breath. “Marcia, Connie, are you two all right?” “Ken, they shot the policeman and one of them took his gun and went down the hall. He may still be down there.” “That’s okay Connie, I already took care of him and Donny. That prick won’t bother you again. Do you mean that that gun the other guy had belonged to Officer Billy?” Ken absorbed the idea that the police officer guarding the hospital had his gun loaded with blanks. “Yes, it was his. What do you mean you took care of him?” “Barb is watching him in the hallway. Marcia, please take this gun and keep control here while I go get the other guy. Barb can come and help Billy then.” Ken handed Marcia the pistol, “Now promise me that you won’t shoot them unless they do something stupid, okay Marcia?” “You take all the fun out of it Ken.” Ken stepped back to the man he thrown the spear at and dragged him over to join his friends. He then headed back down the hall to where Barb was standing over the last thug. “Were you able to get anyone on the way here Barb?” “Yes Ken, the police are on the way. I told the people in the main hospital to wait until the police got here before they tried to come in.” “Good show Barb, you are smart as well as beautiful. Officer Billy has been shot and could use some help. Go ahead and see what you can do for him and I’ll bring this fool over to join the others.” Barb took off down the hall to see to the policeman. Ken pulled the still dazed man to his feet, and just then a black head poked around the door at the other end of the hall. “What’s going on in there? Is it safe now?” Ken looked over at the speaker, “Yes it is safe now, but a police officer has been shot. Are you a doctor?” “Yes I am, but what happened to Dr. Khan, he was working back here?” “I don’t know; but you might have someone look for him.” He came on into the hall and a couple of other men followed him. Ken pushed the last thug down the hall and left him with his friends. The black doctor was already working on Billy and Barb was helping him. “Would one of you please get a gurney, we need to get this man to an operating room.” One of the men in the waiting room took off to find a gurney and the other man who had accompanied the doctor from the other part of the hospital came around the corner. “Doctor Gross, I found Sadat, he and nurse Billings were in exam room 1, Sadat Khan is unconscious and he has an injection site on his neck. There was an empty syringe beside him, but I have no idea what or how much was injected. Nurse Billings had been hit in the head, but she will be okay. There is also a dead man in exam room 3; head trauma. Looks like someone hit him with a baseball bat.” “Thank you Joseph. Here, help us get this man on the gurney. You there without a shirt, give us a hand.” Ken leaned down and grabbed Billy’s pants leg. He lifted when the others did, and the officer was set upon the gurney with ease. The black doctor and another man sped off with the injured officer. “Why didn’t you use both arms?” The last man who lifted asked. Ken rotated to show the huge bruise across the top of his left arm. “What the hell happened to you?” “I got hit with a tire iron earlier tonight, that’s why I am here in the first place.” “Whew, that’s gotta hurt. Who hit you?” “That would be the dead guy in room 3” Ken said. “And it was a steel bedpan, not a bat.” The man just shook his head, then took off after the others. Barb looked over and said, “Okay Mr. Jacobs, let’s get that arm taken care of. While we are doing that you can tell me where we are going on our first date.” Marcia still had her attention on the crooks in the corner, but she saw the fire light off behind Connie’s eyes at the words from the blonde nurse. Consuela wasted no time following the two on their way out of the waiting room. “We’ll try to find an empty room Ken…” Barb was cut off then as with sirens wailing the police finally arrived.