and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) (8 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Parker brought his
truck to a stop at the curb of the apartment building at eleven thirty with the
intention of waiting out front for Martina to return, once she had Gloria
secured inside.  They had agreed to have a nightcap at Hannity’s before it
closed, then who knew what may happen.  At least, he remained hopeful.  It was
only a second or two after they had entered the building… that he heard a hair
raising scream.  It had come from inside.  That prompted him to scramble from
the truck and race for the door.  Gloria came screaming out just prior to his
arrival and seeing she was physically okay, he slipped through behind her. 
Instantly, thirty feet away, he saw Martina performing dodge ball maneuvers to
avoid thrusts from a huge man, welding a rather large knife.

Parker didn’t
hesitate.  And within the bat of an eye, reminiscent of his college football
days, he was all over the big man, with a force that drove him into a distant
wall.  There they briefly scuffled over the knife.  The bigger man, however,
prevailed and soon sent Parker reeling to the side.  This gave the attacker an
opening to make a break for the door, and he took it, with all the haste a man
of his hefty bulk could muster.  No longer seeing the knife, Marti had a
different notion and charged after him.  After all, Gloria was out there
somewhere.  And it was her he was clearly after when Marti first caught sight
of him, charging toward her from the shadows behind the stairs.

Martina caught up to
him just as he was pushing through the door and landed a forceful, double boot,
drop kick to his posterior.  This sent the man sprawling to the concrete
landing out front.  Regaining her legs, Martina stepped through the open door. 
Then, biding her time for the right moment, she eventually landed a pointed
boot squarely into the fat man’s groin, just as he got to his knees.  This brought
forth an ugly, loud groan, before leaving the man writhing in pain, pulling
himself into an agonizing ball… as best he could.

Looking around for
Gloria, Marti spotted her as she popped up from behind Parker’s blue truck. 
“Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Gloria
returned, coming around the Chevy.  “My God, Martina!  What was that about?”
she screeched.

“I don’t know, honey,
but do you think you could knock on the apartment manager’s door and have her
dial the police?”

“Sure,” Gloria said and
cautiously circled wide of the moaning man on her way to the door.  But no
sooner did she enter than she screamed again.

“Oh, my God! 
Parker…!”  In a flash, Marti was beside Gloria and before them was Parker
McLean, a bloody knife in one hand, clutching his stomach with the other, blood
oozing from between the fingers.  “Parker!”  In an instant she was by his
side.  “Oh, God, I’m so sorry!”  She put an arm around his back and a hand over
his, on the abdomen.  “Can you walk?”

“I think so,” Parker
responded with a grimace.

“Gloria, get the door!”
Martina said, marching along beside him.

“Don’t you think we
should call an ambulance?” Gloria asked, but did as she was told.

“There’s no time for
that.  We’ve got to get him to somewhere they can stop this bleeding.”  Outside,
in her concern for Parker, she didn’t even notice the fat man was no longer
there.  However, Gloria did.  She had checked on him before opening the door.

Marti half-carried
Parker across the street and shouted at Gloria again.  “Gloria, get the truck
door!”

“I don’t want blood in
my truck,” Parker protested weakly.

“Open the tailgate
then, Gloria!”  The order caused Gloria to reverse course and rush to the rear,
where she removed the chain hooks and dropped the tailgate down.

Martina helped Parker
in, then climbed up beside him where she could continue putting pressure on the
wound.  “Can you drive, Gloria?”

“Of course I can
drive.  I don’t know about that stick shift though.  I learned on an
automatic.”  Gloria climbed into the truck and soon had it started.  What
followed, though, was unmerciful.  First the truck lunged backward and
stopped.  Then, after a horrible grinding of every gear in the transmission,
the truck lunged forward again, but since it was in second gear, it stalled
out.

“She’s killing me,”
Parker groaned.

Finally, Gloria got it
into a lower gear and roared away from the curb.  And just as she did, a police
car came down the street, siren blaring, and pulled to the curb right where
they had been.  No doubt, with all the commotion someone in the building had
called them.  Meanwhile, Gloria cut a U-turn in the middle of the block and
gunned it in the opposite direction.  Seeing what was going on in the back, the
police car did likewise and came in behind them. 

In their blinding
headlights Martina did her best to signal an injured person was aboard.  Then
she screamed to Gloria, “Don’t stop!”

Gloria managed to find
second gear and shortly thereafter, third.  After that, there was no stopping
her until they reached County General, eight blocks away.  Once into the
well-lighted emergency entrance, she leaned on the horn until coming to a
jerking stop in a near proximity of the door.  The police car pull up behind
them, two officers exited it and approached cautiously, shining flashlights
where they weren’t really needed.

“What happened back
there?” one of them asked just as a gurney rolled out of the emergency room
door, pushed by two attendants.

“This man was
stabbed!”  Martina remained where she was, applying pressure on the wound.

“By whom?”

“I don’t know, by
whom…  A gigantic fat man.”

“Excuse me!”  The
attendants rolled the gurney up and positioned themselves to slide Parker, who
was barely conscious, from the truck.  “Did I hear you say this man was
stabbed?”

“He was,” Marti said. 
“The blade was about five inches in length.  I just hope it didn’t puncture his
spleen.”

“Are you a nurse,
ma’am?” one of the attendants asked.

“I am,” she said.

“Then you’d better come
with us.”

“Okay,” Marti stepped
down from the truck, keeping the pressure on as the two loaded the body onto
the gurney.  “You’re going to be okay, Parker,” she said, looking into his pale
face, knowing shock was consuming him.

“Thanks, Doc.  I needed
that,” he said in a near whisper, and tried to muster a smile that failed miserably.

Once they had gone, the
two officers focused their attention on Gloria, who stayed with the truck. 
“What happened to you?” one of them asked.

“Nothing happened to
me.”

“I can see you have a
pair of shiners there.”

“Oh, that,” Gloria
reached up and found she no longer had her sunglasses on, then remembered she
had removed them in the truck to see better.  “Some boxes fell on me at work,
Friday.”

“So that’s totally
unrelated to what happened tonight,” the taller, but older, of the two asked.

“Totally.”

“So, what did happen?”

Short staffed in the ER
at this hour, they were happy to have Martina’s help initially.  Once the blood
was typed, she even hooked up the transfusion, as others took vitals and
prepped Parker for surgery. 

Through all of this, Martina
never stopped talking.  She made sure Parker knew everything that was being
done to save his life, but not in such a way that he would know death was even
a possibility.  “Did you feel that?  Stay with me Parker!  Now’s not a time to
be napping.”

“I’m here, Doc,” she
was happy to hear him say.  “You know you’re going to owe me big time when this
is all over.”

“Oh, I know.  Big
time!”  Marti checked the monitor and saw blood pressure was improving, along
with the pulse rate.

“We have a surgeon on
the way, Miss Spalding,” an attendant ducked into the room to say.  “We’ll need
to move him to OR in a few minutes.  If you’re going to be in there you’ll need
to scrub up beforehand.”

“Great news!  Did you
hear that Parker?” she said cheerfully.  “I can be in the room with you.”

“Make sure they don’t
cut off anything important, Doc.”

“Rest assured of that,”
Marti smiled down at him.  “I have a vested interest, you know.”

“Now yer talkin’!”

Marti took one more
look at the monitors.  Seeing all was progressing nicely, she said, “Give me a
minute Parker….  I promise I’ll be back in one minute, okay?”

“You got it, Doc.”

With that, she
scrambled from the room and headed outside.  She was relieved to see Gloria
still talking to the police officers.  “Don’t you leave her alone!” she said,
approaching.  “Her life is in danger.”

“Would you mind
explaining that, Miss… Spalding?” the older officer looked at his notes. 
Gloria had given up her name.

“I’ll be more than
happy to answer all your questions, officer.  But for the next hour or two I’m
going to be very busy inside.”  She then pulled Gloria in for a hug.  “You
holding up okay?”

“I’ll be fine.  How’s
Parker?”

“He’s holding his own,
for now.  I’ll tell him you asked.”

“Good.  Thanks.”

Then, before going back
inside, Martina remembered her purse and passed by Parker’s truck to retrieve
it.  She had left it on the seat earlier, when she’d gone with Gloria inside
the apartment building, expecting to return.  That all seemed so long ago, now.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Exiting the operating
room over an hour later in cap and gown, Marti went searching for Gloria and
spotted her in the waiting room down the hall.  Rushing up, she reported
gleefully, “He’s going to be okay!”  With that, the tears began to flow.  Now
that it was over, she could finally let go, and she pulled Gloria in for a
lingering hug while she cried silently, her body retching violently.  Coming to
the realization it was now okay to do so, Gloria began unburdening herself of
some anxieties, as well.  And before long the two of them were bawling like
babies.

After a few minutes of
this, a tall, brown suited man, with a grey mustache and darker brown fedora on
his head came up beside them.  “Ahem!” he sounded, to gain their attention. 

“Oh, Martina…”  Gloria
pulled back, swiping away tears.  “This is Lieutenant Dunbar.  He’s been with
me since the other two left, a while ago.”

Not finding any words,
Marti simply took the hand offered, then wiped her eyes on the sleeves of the
loose fitting gown.

“I understand you’ve
had quite the night, Martina?”  He made it sound like a question, and then
didn’t allow her the opportunity to answer.  “We have officers on the scene. 
So far they have located the knife.  No sign of the perpetrator, however. 
We’re canvasing the area now.  Do you have anything to add to what Gloria here
has already told the officers?”

“I wasn’t present when
she was questioned.”  Martina looked at Dunbar blankly.

“Well, let me put it
this way.  Were you ever in a position to see something that perhaps Gloria
didn’t?”

“She couldn’t have been
in a position to see the attacker’s fat ass when I put a boot in his groin. 
Other than that, I can’t imagine what it could have been.”  Of course there was
plenty Gloria didn’t see, but Martina was in no mood to get into all that now.

“Were those the boots
you used?” the detective asked with a smile, while eyeing the pointed buckskin
boots showing beneath the blue OR gown.  “That must have hurt!”

“I’m sure it did,”
Martina confirmed.  “Will that be all?  I really should be getting back in
there.  Parker will be coming out from under the anesthetic before long.  At
first, he’ll be confused.  Someone needs to be there.”

“Can’t another nurse
handle it?” Dunbar protested.

“It’s always best a
familiar face is there, Lieutenant.”

“Okay, well, I have the
contact information for both of you,” he said, reluctantly.  “You can count on
me being in touch.”  He folded his note pad and put it and the pencil in his
pocket.  “Later,” he then said and walked away.

“Shall I wait here?”
Gloria said, nervously toying with her fingers.

“Oh, honey, I know this
has been difficult for you,” Martina said, coming in for another hug.  “No. I
want you to come with me.”  She took her hand.  “Parker will be glad to see you
when he comes around.”

“I don’t know why.” 
Gloria dropped her eyes to the floor.  “It was because of me he was near
killed.  That man was sent by Raym.”

“It’s not your fault,
and you don’t even know that for sure,” Marti said.  But even she thought so…
indirectly.  There was no doubt in her mind Raym Koffee was behind the attack.

When Martina, with
Gloria in tow, left the hospital at six in the morning, Parker was resting peacefully. 
They drove Parker’s truck, Martina under the wheel, to a do it yourself car
wash where they did a thorough job of washing his lost blood from the box. 
From there they went to the diner near their apartment building to grab some
breakfast.

Being it was early
Sunday morning, the place was pretty much empty.  Martina glanced around at
those few present, then selected a booth in a far back corner.  She didn’t want
anyone seated behind her. Also, she wanted to see everyone who approached, or
even entered the diner, from where she sat.  She then slipped a hand into her
purse to be sure the small pistol was readily accessible.

“One of the officers
asked for Parker’s next of kin,” Gloria mentioned as they sat and slid under
the table.

“Oh my God!  What did
you say?”  Marti was shocked she hadn’t thought to ask if he wanted someone
notified.

“I said they would have
to ask you.  I hardly knew him.”  Gloria looked around as if uncomfortable
about something.  “I didn’t tell you or the cops this, but I think I saw Raym
sitting in a car across the street when I was hiding behind Parker’s truck,
during the fracas.”

“Oh, honey, are you
sure?”  Marti reached across the table and gathered Gloria’s hands in hers.

“Well, it was dark. 
But if you lived with a person as long as I did Raym, you have a sixth sense
when it’s them you see, even when it’s only a partial silhouette.”

“Did you recognize the
car?”

“No.  Never saw it
before.  But I think it was a Ford, what little I know about automobiles.  Dark
blue or black.  It had one of those wheel things on the back end.”

“Then it must have been
a Lincoln Continental,” Marti said with confidence.  After all, her father
owned an auto repair business where she worked off hours and summers during
high school.  She had to know makes and models to order the necessary parts
needed.  “That’s something you should have told the police.”

“How could I do that
without getting into the other thing?” Gloria said.  “Surely they would ask
what had provoked my ex to do such a thing.  Then I’d have to tell them about
the beating and what brought that about.”

“So!  What have you got
to lose?  We know now he wants you dead.  He can’t hold that as a threat over
you anymore; to keep you from going to the police.”

“Oh God, Martina, what
am I going to do?”  Gloria started to cry and buried her face in her hands.

“Can I take your
order?” a young waitress suddenly appeared at the table.  Then, seeing Gloria,
she said, “Should I give you a minute?”

Martina simply threw up
a hand to the waitress as a signal to wait.  “We’ll get through it together. 
And we’ll start by leveling with that detective, Dunbar.  Okay?  We have no
reason to hide anything now.  We’ll get that sonofabitch if it’s the last thing
we do!”

With that, Gloria
nodded and slid the hands away from her wet cheeks.  She then picked up the
menu Martina slid to her and tried to focus.  Even though she had little in the
way of an appetite, she rested a finger on bacon and eggs and dropped the menu
for Martina to see.

Turing back to the
waitress, Marti said.  “We’ll have two of the number four, with black coffee
and orange juice.”

Forty minutes later,
Martina eased Parker’s truck into a space next to her car, in the lot at the
rear of the apartment building, and locked it securely.  She didn’t plan on
driving it again until Parker was ready for discharge.  A few minutes later,
she and Gloria reluctantly entered through the front door hoping the blood
mess, Parker McLean’s blood, had been cleaned up in their absence.  To their
surprise, however, right where most of the mess had been, on a freshly scrubbed
gray marble floor, stood Lieutenant Dunbar.

“Ladies,” he touched
the brim of his brown fedora.  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to
come with me.”

While Gloria froze and
glared at Martina… Marti responded.  “Is it that urgent, Lieutenant? 
Presently, we’re going on twenty-four hours without a wink of sleep.”

“I think you’ll be
amused,” he said mysteriously, stepped around the two of them, and pushed open
the door.  This left them little choice but to comply with his wishes.

Gloria wondered if by
chance they were under arrest.  How could that be, though?  They hadn’t done
anything wrong.  But if by some freak chance they were going to jail, she
wondered now if she should ask to be allowed to go to her apartment for a quick
shower…or at least a change of clothes and fresh deodorant.  No telling how
long they would need to be there… and she already felt a bit stale.  The
thought, however, escaped her when she saw a patrol car now sitting at the
curb, a uniformed officer stationed at the open rear door.