Eleven Days: An Unexpected Love (53 page)

Everything
was
rerunning through
his
head.
How did they miss the shooter? He did t
his
for
a living, finding killers, terrorists, and bad people. He knew
he shouldn't let
her
go outside and i
f he could go back two hours
he would change everything.

As they drove up a team of doctors and nurses waited
at the emergency
room entrance. The doctors gave orders to
the nurses on what to do while
as
they
assessed
the gunshot wound.
Lana
pumped out as much blood as they
could
pump
in
her
small body
. All Mike wanted to do
was
to be at
her
side and never leave. For the first time in
his
professional life he didn't know what to do.

Mike following
her
as far as they
would
let him and now it's just the waiting game. Mike knew all too well how to wait.

*****

During all the commotion The U.S. Marshal Sniper, Colby Franklin and
his
spotter were locked in on the lighthouse waiting for any movement. They were trained to drop, set their sights and ready to
shoot and they dropped
with
in seconds after the shot. Nothing moved at the lighthouse. They never saw him leave and they had a clear view of the only door. The only explanation he exiting through a window on the far side, and he had a jet ski or some kind of small motor boat waiting. The reefs were high enough he could easily slip out on the other side and ride off to safety.

Chapter 33

9:26 a.m.

People in the waiting room avoided Mike and Joe as they walked around near the nurse's station. The patients
were frightened because they were covered in blood
, especially the c
hildren
.
Joe noticed the commotion they were causing, upsetting the patients and families. He tried to coax Mike to go to another part of the hospital, but he refused to leave. Finally, a kind nurse approached them and offered them an empty room to wait. They accepted
.

Mike asked
her
before
she
left. "Will they know where to find me and let me know what's going on
with
Lana
?"

"Yes sir they will, I'll make sure of it." The nurse already heard about 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 and he paced the room. He looked at the blood all
over
his
clothes and he needed
,
to change clothes. He didn't want to be reminded of what he just witnessed. Finally he said. "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.
"

"
That
's nice of you but I'm not leaving
her
side. Joe what will I do if anything happens to
her
?"
His
heart
broke in two
. He always wondered how women got upset and then sick to their stomachs. Now he knew why. He
felt
sick, but he needed to man up
, h
e deserved to be sick. He didn't protect
Lana
. "Joe do you think
she
's 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 before the trial. He wanted to go outside and
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
with
in five minutes. He
was
shot in the heart 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 take
her
life." Mike
was
heartbroken.

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.
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 light house and if I
would
have been doing my job
she
would
be okay."

Mike snapped at Joe. "It's not your fault, I'm the one
her
let
her
go outside, not you." Mike took a deep breath and calmed
his
voice. "Why don't you bring me a change of clothes and something to eat?" Mike didn't want to upset Joe any more. Mike
was
going to take one-hundred-percent of the blame. He knew he
would
not blame
his
team, nor should he snap at them.

"I can do
that
, anything in particular you want to eat?"

Mike could care less he didn't even want to change clothes. He just wanted to keep Joe busy. T
his
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
would
n't be bad 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 send someone and be careful,
that
bullet might have been for you."

*****

Raymond's phone rang and it's Sara. "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 little 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 could sure 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. Border'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 here. 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 fashion way and one
with
the new chemical. T
his
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
hasn't met
Lana
but
she
could tell the guys liked
her
. It's so sad
that
Mike finally met someone special and
she
might die.
That
would
be two deaths for Mike, poor guy.

*****

Raymond worked
with
the crime scene investigators to make sure everything
was
done correctly. He
was
taking
notes when he heard Ken holler
for him.

Ken walked around the front of the house where there
was
no police tape, looking for Raymond, excited. Finally he found him, but couldn't talk. He
was
out of breath from running.

Raymond
patiently waited
.

"Raymond, I've been looking for you and I have some information for you," said Ken
with
his
hands on
his
knees trying to catch
his
breath.

Raymond knew too well how excitable Ken
was and
hopefully he had some good news.
"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 around the house to enter 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 analyzes all
that
input I entered and it cross references t
his
data
with
all the other data entered from past cases from the past several years. Once everything
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 the time for babble.

Ken
was
so familiar
with
t
his
new software
that
he forgot to slow down to explain thoroughly. "The FBI tech department developed
a
special
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 months and
thousands of cases. Here's an analogy, it's like meteorologist 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. T
his
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 centralization. John Wayne Gacy liked young men, and Albert DeSalvo liked women close to home and he preferred strangling. Do you get what I'm saying?"