Chapter 8
At the hospital, both Caroline and Jason got bandaged up. Jason’s left shoulder was dislocated, both arms endured pretty nasty burns. Luckily the doctor said the burn was mostly superficial, so no severe tissue damage is done.
Caroline, however, got quite a lot of mild burns, shallow cuts and some small bruises from being close to the fireball explosions. Her fingers and knuckles were slightly bloodied and swollen due to her striking the man who can conjure fireballs.
The lady guest was shot in her shoulder and lost quite a lot of blood so she was put into the ICU after the doctors finished the initial operation.
“How is she? Is she OK?” right after being patched up, Caroline and Jason found the ICU room of the lady guest and asked the doctors and police officers in front of it.
“Excuse me, who are you?” one of the two police officers asked with his hand on his weapon.
“Don’t worry, they are alright.” a familiar voice came from behind, Caroline and Jason turned around and saw that it was Thomas, one of the brother-sister detective duo that came to the inn earlier.
“Detective Chaver. ” the two police officers seemed relaxed, “Sorry, you know … it’s because of what happened...”
“No worries. ” Thomas nodded at the officers and signaled Caroline and Jason to talk on the side in private.
“So how’s the girl? What has she gotten into?” asked Caroline as soon as they found a spot that was relatively private.
“The girl’s name is Emilia Corin, formerly Emilia Steel and now is a member of the Corin family. Good news is that she’s gonna make it. Lost a lot of blood but lucky that she was brought in in time.” Thomas smiled and shook his head, “All thanks to you! And you know, they had some security cameras in that community, and like I told you before, sick moves! Really should consider that consultant thing.”
“Thanks! But do you know that those criminals have a fire bender among them?” Jason asked, but kinda carelessly loud and attracted some strange looks from the nurse walking by.
“Shhh, be discreet.” Thomas leaned closer and lowered his voice: “You might heard from some feds on that, it’s not like it is some huge secret. But yeah, there are people with … super powers in this world. And it seems some members from the Corin family are indeed, you know, gifted.”
“What? That’s new. Why haven’t we heard about any of this earlier?” Caroline was not fully convinced.
“They have been in our lives for a short while now. But that is extremely rare so it’s kinda natural that it got mixed up with all the other weird stuff.” Thomas shook his head: “You guys are lucky, three gunmen and one perp with super power? A whole squad would have trouble with that.”
“Wow, OK, that’s a ton of unwanted information.” Jason let out a long exhale.
“Hey, get used to it. It’s only a matter of time this becomes more public. And while that’s sinking in, why don’t you just go home and take a break. We will have officers on guard here.” Thomas lightly patted Caroline’s arm, then walked away to catch up with other officers.
“OK, you calling Boss? I’ve got the feeling that he knows more than he’s letting on.” as he walked by Caroline’s side towards the exit of the hospital, Jason asked.
“Yeah, but he’s not picking up. Probably on his nightly Taichi session again.” Caroline annoyedly put her phone back into her pocket.
“Hey, Ms. Baker and Mr. Lin? ” just right this moment, Aimee from the sister-brother duo ran up to them, “Sorry, but we have some questions regarding what happened. Can you help us? Your help will be greatly appreciated.”
“Ummm… yeah sure, whatever we can share to help.” Caroline took a look at Jason, seeing he did not object so she nodded and sat down on a chair in the hospital’s lounge.
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Neither Caroline nor Jason expected it would take this long to answer some questions. At first it was some questions about how they got there and what happened, then the focus of the questions shifted to who the perps were, then the focus shifted to what the house in the community was for and who it belonged to. Their interview continued as most of the police officers at the hospital and even a lot of the hospital staff left.
Through the conversation, Caroline and Jason also got to know that the lady guest, Emilia Corin, married into the Corin family a few years ago and for some reason started working with the SJPD and some of the federal agencies in order to bring down the family. The Corin family, while investment moguls on the outside, was apparently dealing with drugs, money laundering and even weapons smuggling and dealing in the dark.
It was still unclear why the Corin family members were targeting Emilia, the police and the feds were under the impression that her cover was blown, but from the recollection told by Caroline and Jason, it seemed like it was not the case. Instead it might be because of something she stole.
No matter what the reason was, it definitely made Caroline and Jason both more glad and worried that they helped Emilia. As it turned out Caroline was right, the scared lady guest who went into their inn the other day, was indeed affiliated with a gang, and a pretty dangerous gang as well. Exactly as Jianmen said, trouble.
“Thanks for your help. We may need you to come down to the station to give us a detailed statement later, so please don’t leave town. And please let us know if you need police protection.” as they wrapped up the interview, Aimee was quite trankful, “And again, thank you so much for the help.”
“No problem, you know where to find us.” smiling to show that the gratitude was mutual, Caroline and Jason stood up and were ready to head back.
“Bang! Bang! Bang” three loud gunshots were fired somewhere inside of the hospital, then screams and panic followed.
“It’s the ICU!” Aimee drew out her gun and her radio, “Thomas is in there! Shit! Call 911 and stay here!”