Already Guilty by Tom Fowler

Author:Tom Fowler [Fowler, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Fowler Writes
Published: 2018-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I didn't remember losing consciousness, but I must have at some point. I went from lying in the alley to having two paramedics standing over me. One shined a light in my eyes while the other checked the pulse at my wrist. My sides and back burned with pain. My head ached but felt mostly OK, because my arms protected it from all but a glancing blow or two. They hurt a lot worse. As a paramedic pulled the light away from my face, I saw Gloria standing off to the side. Her hands covered her mouth, and even in the irregular light, I could tell her eyes were red and puffy.

"How do you feel?" the vitals-checking paramedic said.

"Like I was on the wrong end of a blanket party," I said.

He didn't answer. Maybe he didn't know what it meant. His partner, a burlier fellow, fetched a gurney from the ambulance. I noticed a few of my neighbors watching from within the confines of their yards. How many of them saw what happened? "We're going to take you to Mercy," the paramedic said as he lowered the gurney beside me. "I don't think you have a concussion, but you've obviously been battered. Better to get you checked out." I nodded.

"I want to ride with him," Gloria said. I hoped the pain on my face masked my surprise.

"You his wife?" the paramedic said.

"No."

"Then you can follow us. We'll be ready to leave in a few minutes."

Gloria put her hand on my face, stroked my cheek, and offered me a small smile. I did my best to return it. She went into my yard and then into the house.

With a good amount of difficulty, I rose to a crouch, stood enough to clear the gurney, and fell onto it. The paramedics got me situated and wheeled me into the back of the ambulance. Once I was there, the more slender of the two hooked up vitals monitors to my torso while his partner went around and got behind the wheel. Morton, the one in back with me, put an oxygen mask on me. Nominal relief of the pain in my body flowed in and out of my lungs.

A couple minutes later, the ambulance took off. I lifted my head and saw Gloria's Mercedes behind us.

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