Lila pointed her gun toward Jess again.  “No, if anyone’s going to have his baby it’s going to be me.”

God, this chick was a nut case.  And the murder investigation from last month was suddenly crystal clear to Jess.  Carol Anne Woods was an ex-girlfriend of Ben’s and she’d been killed.  Jess and her brothers had found out that Carol Anne was in town to get someone to be a sperm donor.

“So, I’m guessing you killed Carol Anne so she couldn’t have his baby.”  Jess shook her head and laughed.  “Carol Anne wanted Ben’s brother Tony to be the sperm donor, so you killed her for nothing.  You’re not a very good detective, Sherlock.”

Jess knew she should shut up.  She knew you should never antagonize crazy, but she’d been running and hiding from crazy for days now and she wasn’t going to run or hide any more.

“In fact, Sherlock, I’d make a better detective and all I’ve ever played on TV cop shows is the dead person.”  She laughed again.

“Then life really does imitate art, because now you can play a dead person in real life,” Lila said as she took aim at Jess.  “Your mother gets to have my baby so I’m taking hers away.”

Yes, Jess knew that she shouldn’t antagonize crazy and antagonizing a crazy person who held a gun on her was crazy itself, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Yeah, right.  You had to use a golf club to kill Carol Anne.  You probably don’t even know how to use that gun.”

Someone yelled for Lila to drop her gun, but she pulled back the slide to chamber a round.  It was the last thing she did.  Her partner, Adam Hunter, fired twice and Lila fell to the ground just as the ambulance skidded to a stop.

“Over here,” Pauli said.  “Start an IV and get him loaded.”

Joey looked at Pauli.  “And the old man brought me here to protect her.”

Lila Crane lay on the ground blood pooling around her.  Jess looked around.  The stalker was gone.  She looked to Detective Hunter.  “Where’d he go?”

“Who?”  His concentration was completely on his fellow officer.

Pauli looked at Detective Hunter, as he grabbed Jess by the elbow.  “She needs stitches.  You can meet her at Shawnee Mission to get her statement.”  He pushed her into the ambulance behind Joey and followed her in.

“Don’t worry, Bro.  You’re going to be fine.  I’m pretty sure the asshole missed everything important, but I need to get you to the hospital to be sure.”

Jess pulled out her phone and called Lane.  If Pauli was right about the incident being all over Twitter, then she’d better call her mother before Lane heard it from someone else.

“Mom?  Can you meet me at Shawnee Mission?  I’m all right.  Joey was stabbed.  Pauli’s with him.  And Lila Crane is dead.”

“Jess, you aren’t making any sense.  What are you talking about?”

Jess took a deep breath.  “Just meet me at the ER, Mom.  I’ll explain everything there.  I’m okay, though, don’t worry.”

Chapter 19

wasn’t I just here

Lane walked through the maze of paparazzi, who weren’t allowed inside the hospital, and into the ER.  Wasn’t it just two days ago that she was here?

Detective Adam Hunter approached her.  “Mrs. Parker?”

She nodded, “Mrs. Bellini now.  I’m here to see my daughter Jessica Parker.”

“I’ll take you.”  He motioned for her to follow him down the hall.

“She said something about Joey being stabbed.  Can you tell me what happened?”  She was calm.  No matter what emergency the kids had over the years, she was always calm – at least until it was over.

“I understand your daughter had been bothered by a stalker in L.A. and that the stalker followed her here.  Apparently he was waiting for her and Mr. Bellini in the mall parking lot.  He attacked them, stabbing Mr. Bellini.”

He stopped outside a curtained area.  “Your daughter’s hand was cut, but she’s fine.  When my partner and I arrived at the scene, the assailant was on the ground and your daughter was standing over him.  Mr. Bellini was on the ground with his brother, the doctor attending to him.  I’m still going to need statements from everyone, but go in.”

Lane thanked him and pulled the curtain back.  Jess was sitting on the gurney holding her hand out, while the same doctor Lane had seen earlier in the week finished wrapping it.

“Hi, Mom.”

Lane smiled.  “Hi yourself.  Dr. Bohnam, I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“I imagine not.  I’ll leave you alone to talk,” the doctor replied.

Lane hugged her daughter and nodded toward Jess’s hand.  “That doesn’t look fine to me.”

“No big deal.  Just a couple of stitches.  Joey’s in surgery.”

“Adam Hunter told me some of it, but why don’t you start at the beginning.”

“Joey and I were at the mall.  I only grabbed a couple of things when I left L.A., and I needed clothes.  When we came out, Joey was carrying the bags; and as we approached the car, the stalker was standing there.  He called me Kit and started in by calling Kit, me, a slut.  Joey stepped in front of me and told him not to call me names.  That was when he stabbed Joey.  Well, that really pissed me off, so I pushed the blade out of his hand, kneed him in the balls and slammed his head into my knee.  I think I broke his nose.”

Lane laughed and shook her head.  That was her daughter, always jumping into the fray.  Thank God Ben had convinced her to enroll Jess in those self-defense classes years ago.

“Then Pauli showed up, and was taking care of Joey while I stood over the nut case.  That’s when Detectives Hunter and Crane showed up.”  Jess looked at her mother and gave a half smile.  “The slime ball said I married Joey and I lost it.  I said I didn’t get married, that you married Ben.”

Lane shook her head.  “Let me guess, Lila didn’t like that.”

“Not at all.  And I know it wasn’t my place, especially in front of the cameras, but I told her you’re having Ben’s baby.  Mom, she killed Carol Anne, and she was going to kill me.  Detective Hunter had to shoot her. The paparazzi were there.  It’s all on film, so I imagine the cat’s pretty much out of the bag.  It’ll be all over the news tonight.”

Lane looked at her watch.  “I need to try to reach Ben.”  As she pulled out her phone, it rang.  “Ben?”  He’d done it again, called her just as she was going to call him.

“Is Jess all right?  It’s all over the internet.”

“She’s fine, but Joey’s in surgery.  Apparently Paul showed up right after the stabbing.”  She looked at Jess.  “Where’s Paul?  Is he in surgery with Joey?”  Jess nodded.  “She says Paul’s in surgery with Joey.  We’ll go there and wait.  Is your mother on her way here?  You need to know that Jess announced my pregnancy to the media.”

Ben laughed.  “Yeah, I saw that.  Like I said it’s all over the internet.  I’m on my way to see the judge to ask for a recess until morning.  If I can’t get a recess, then Uncle Sal will take over here.  I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you.”

Ben knew he would have some fast talking to do when his mother got her hands on him.  He’d allowed everyone to be in danger and his wife of less than 24 hours was pregnant.  Mama wouldn’t have to wait to do the math.

The prosecution, Uncle Sal and Ben met the judge in chambers.  Ben explained that he planned to finish presenting his case tomorrow and to his relief, the judge agreed to recess until 9:00 in the morning.

It was less than an hour later when Ben walked into the surgery waiting area.  Both of his parents were there.  They were talking Italian in low tones.  Lane knew that Italians yelled when they were mad, maybe this was a good sign.  She still had no idea what they were talking about and once again made a vow to order Rosetta Stone as soon as she got home.

Pauli came into the waiting area and they all sat down.  “Joey’s fine.  The stab wound was to his groin.  It missed his femoral artery.  Jess stopped the bleeding right away.  He’ll have a scar, but it’s pretty small.  He’ll be awake pretty soon.”