Page 47 of Tom's Chance
“Why did you go see Mrs. Bickers. It has nothing to do with this case, but I’m curious.”
Tom told her what he thought about telling her that her babies were safe, and it would give her the initiative to fight to live. He shrugged, then sighed. “Then she passed away. Lorissa and I haven’t been on an official date yet, but I’ve been hanging out with her a lot lately. I enjoy her company, and we have a lot of things in common.”
“Thank you for being honest with me, Tom. I will now tell you that Melissa Gallagher was driving one of the vehicles that hit Ms. Gibson. Leslie Warren was driving the other one. From the cameras, we believe Melissa hit her from behind. Not once, but possibly three times. Again, we’ll have to have a better view, but it looks like Melissa hit her once, and the truck Ms. Gibson was driving barely moved. Then Gallagher stopped, waited for Ms. Gibson to get further away, and actually spun her tires to hit her again, that spun the truck out, and all of a sudden, another vehicle, driven by Leslie Warren slammed into the driver’s door of Ms. Gibson’s truck at the same time Gallagher hit her the third time. The truck spun, but then bounced up onto Gallagher’s car, and Warren’s car slipped beneath the truck. All three women were pinned. I was told by the firementhat all three were checked for a pulse, and they extracted Ms. Gibson first, because she had a pulse and was breathing.”
“Damn.” Duane shook his head as he pictured what had happened.
“Yeah, both Gallagher and Warren were pronounced at the scene. We’ll do a full tox screen at the autopsy. I know I won’t be charging Ms. Gibson with anything, but maybe her insurance company would like a copy of the report to prove she was hit by two drunk drivers.”
“Why didn’t RJ cut them off sooner?”
“She did, but we found several bottles of liquor in each of their purses. They gave it to themselves. With the cameras Jake has in that place, I’m sure we’ll see them doing it.”
They paused when the door opened, and Duane jumped to his feet and held out his arms as Laurie hurried as fast as she could into his arms. After she hugged him, she looked at Tom.
“Lorissa is awake and asking for you.”
Tom looked at Sparrow with a raised brow. “Can I go?”
“Yes. I’ll go in and talk with her when you’re done.” She watched him go and stood off to the side to give the family some privacy.
CHAPTER 18
Tom tooka deep breath before he entered the room, so when he walked in, he was calm. He hadn’t realized he held his breath until he saw that she wasn’t hooked up to any machines. He let it out in a rush, then winced when he saw the gigantic bruise on the side of her head.
“Hey,” he whispered, because her eyes were closed, and when she opened them, he winced again when he saw the pain in them. “I am so fucking sorry.”
“For what? You didn’t do anything.”
“I might not have physically done anything, but it’s because of me that you’re sitting in this hospital bed now.”
“How do you figure that?” Lorissa tried to frown, but shivered at the pain.
Tom told her what he had just learned andrefused to even blink as he watched her expression. It took almost three whole minutes before she turned to look at him. “I don’t blame you. I blame them. If someone becomes unhinged because someone wouldn’t date them, then they need therapy. People like that shouldn’t be allow free in the world.”
Tom laid his head gently beside her and breathed her in. “Thank you, but I still feel guilty. If I hadn’t kissed you in front of Melissa, she never would have targeted you.”
“I don’t blame you. She was mentally unstable. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”
“Okay, so what are your injuries?”
“Moderate concussion, I don’t know if I had stitches above my brow or not. I’m too afraid to reach up and feel for any.”
“I don’t see any.”
“Okay, then no stitches, and my left thigh is killing me.” She flopped the blankets back and with her bare leg, he saw the entire thigh encased in gauze. The nurse walked in then and nodded to them. “Sixty-eight stitches in your thigh. I don’t know what happened, and I won’t even speculate. All I know is that you were classified as an MVA, and other than the bruise on your face, and your moderate concussion, that’s the only other injury you have.”
“No broken bones?”
“No, you do have a puncture wound in that thigh.”
Lorissa nodded, and sighed as she flopped backon the pillows. “How much longer do I have to stay here?”
“Do you have someone to keep an eye on you at home? Someone that will make sure you don’t fall into a deep sleep in the next twenty-four hours?”
“Yes,” both Tom and Lorissa said together.
“Then I’ll tell the doctor when he comes to do the rounds. If you play your cards right, you may be able to go home in the next few hours. I say that because the doctor doesn’t start his rounds until nine.”
