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“We should keep the club closed for a few days.”
She nods in agreement. “I think I’m going to call it a night myself, but you can reach me anytime.”
“Can you give Bridge and Amy a ride back first?”
I straighten. “I can stay.”
“For what? So you can sleep upright in a chair? It’s late. You should get some rest.”
“I don’t know that I’d be able to fall asleep anywhere. Besides, what if you need help?”
“What am I going to need? There are nurses here.”
“And me,” Marshall says. “I’m staying.”
Darren sighs. “I’m not a fucking baby. I got shot in the arm, not the chest.”
“I’m not off the clock,” Marshall replies.
They seem to exchange a look of understanding. Darren turns his focus back to me. “Finish your noodles, and then you’re going with Cheryl.”
“I’m not that hungry, and I don’t want to keep her waiting,” I relent.
“Take my jacket.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Take it.”
I grab the jacket that he was putting over my shoulders when the shooting started. I had picked it up off the ground and brought it with me into the ambulance. After putting on the jacket, I realize there’s a bullet hole through the sleeve.
If Darren hadn’t knocked me to the ground…
A nurse walks in to do her periodic check-in of JD and Darren, so the rest of us minus Marshall take our leave.
I sit in the front passenger seat of Cheryl’s BMW.
“You think Sergeant Trawley’s right about it being a random drive-by or a case of mistaken identity?” I ask her.
“What else could it be?” Cheryl replies.
“The neighborhood doesn’t seem the drive-by kind, though I guess it’s a stereotype that drive-bys only happen in rougher neighborhoods.”
“Sergeant Trawley is good at what he does.”
“You’ve dealt with him before?”
“When the club first opened up, he wasn’t a sergeant yet, but we had to call the police when a fight broke out between two guests who were way too drunk. He handled it well and figured out who’d instigated the fight even though eyewitnesses told conflicting stories. I trust Sergeant Trawley.”
“What made him think it might be a case of mistaken identity?”
“He mentioned there’s been an uptick in activity around the Chinatown gangs.”
“I didn’t even know there were gangs in Chinatown still. It’s scary that they could be so off base.”
“I can’t believe JD is taking it so well,” Amy says from the backseat. “Like someone didn’t just try to kill him, even if it was accidental in that he wasn’t supposed to be the one shot.”
“Considering they were shot, they do seem to be taking it better than us, even,” I agree.
