Read Online Dead on Arrival by Lori Avocato - Free Book Online Page B

outside.
    I knew Buzz just couldn’t wait to turn on the lights and sirens.
    â€œBack for you, Nightingale.” Which meant Jagger was up in front with Buzz.
    Jagger looked pissed.
    I smiled to myself as we quickly took our places, and Buzz drove out of the driveway.
    And damn but I didn’t even shift in my seat.

Eight
    The ride went along smoothly, considering Virginia vacillated between crying, wiping her nails, chanting, and stripper maneuvers. Occasionally she’d say the Our Father prayer, which I might add, she did damn well for a Jewish girl—except for the “who aren’t in Heaven” part instead of “art in Heaven.” I had to wonder what that said about her beliefs.
    Dano seemed to ignore her while he wrote on his daily run sheet but did occasionally stick the nasal canula back in her nose so she got her oxygen.
    I leaned back to rest and contemplate my job.
    Suddenly she bolted up in her seat.
    â€œGet down, Virginia, before you get hurt,” Dano ordered. “What the hell are you doing anyway?
    She leaned toward him, “I’m waiting for the Immaculate Conception.”
    I bit back a smile and said a quick prayer for some type of mental health recovery for the girl. How the heck did a Jewish girl even know about that?
    â€œFine. Good. Lay back down,” Dano said, barely looking up from his clipboard.
    She laid down. “I’m a virgin, you know.”
    Dano and I looked at each other. “Of course you are,” he said, in what I thought a very professional tone.
    He’d almost convinced me.
    Virginia remained still.
    Amazingly enough, riding in the back of an ambulance wasn’t anywhere near as motion sickness-inducing with Buzz Lightyear driving. I looked at ER Dano. “How sad about Payne.” Not sure where that came from other than the fact that I needed to pump him for fraud info, and being stuck back here with self-proclaimed Virgin Virginia seemed like an opportune time since she wasn’t in critical condition or requiring us to be working on her en route.
    â€œSad. Yeah, but not surprising.”
    Bingo. Had to be a bingo with that statement. “Not surprising?”
    Dano never looked up. “Come on, Pauline, I’m sure an intelligent woman like yourself has figured out that Payne Sterling was a weirdo and not well liked. Not only was Payne nuts, he was hated.”
    â€œBy?”
    As Dano started to open his mouth and before I could even move, Virgin Virginia was standing up on the stretcher.
    â€œOh!” I shouted.
    â€œGet down!” ordered Dano who looked as if he was trying to get up, the clipboard still at his chest—and in seconds, Virginia on top of said clipboard—and said
Dano
.
    The way she straddled him said she was not a virgin.
    Dano tried to struggle free, but Virginia had long shocking pink nails, which she dug into the back of his neck.
    â€œAye!” he shouted. “A little help here, Nightingale!”
    I started to get up to help. Suddenly a sharp pain centered in my abdomen, sending me sailing back toward the wall, down the side of the bench, and in the corner of the ambulance only to realize Virginia’s leg was aimed out straight at me. The drug-crazed vixen had kicked me!
    Now the pain came from the back of my head, and stars danced around both Dano and the proclaimed virgin.
    He kept trying to get her off, but she was like Velcro and kept sticking to him, all the while her nightie bunched up around her thighs from what I could see with my blurry vision. Nausea sped up my throat from the smack on my head, and I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
    â€œYou all right, Pauline?” Dano shouted, as he tried to lift Virginia’s arms from the death grip on his neck.
    â€œMentally ill people are very strong,” was all I could manage.
    Dano turned toward the window in the front of the ambulance. He couldn’t reach it but leaned over far enough to kick it