This chapter is the last go-round for Lloyd and his acquaintances.
Once again any resemblance to biker gangs, websites, restaurants, hospitals, or anything on Earth is strictly coincidental. Fiction here with a capital F.
*****
I fill out the paperwork on Vicky as I await word on her condition. Not really sure how much I care at this point, but I was brought up right. I made sure she was getting help regardless of how much I have been hurt over the weekend.
As far as family history on her, I have no clue. She was abandoned as a baby in front of the local hospital. The Sheriff at the time took her to an older couple in our town who took care of foster children for the state. Vicky was declared a ward of the state. When she was 2 the couple adopted her and gave her their last name. They did their best with her, she was pretty wild in high school but finally got it together, and graduated nursing school at Mizzou.
Mr. and Mrs. Stallings were very proud of Vicky that day. I was there for her graduation as we had been dating for a couple months. Vicky's adopted parents died about 15 years ago. Mrs. Stallings had a stroke and was found on her front porch swing, gone. Mr. Stallings died in his sleep one day after his wife's funeral. That happens a lot in small towns, one partner dies and the other follows soon after.
It is almost midnight as I take the paperwork to the counter and ask the clerk if they have any word on my wife's condition. The nurse who just came into the desk area lets me know that she is now stable, and her condition is not serious. She also tells me that the doctor will be out to speak with me soon, as they are now moving her to a private room.
Just after 12 a.m. the doctor, a small Asian gentleman, asks me to follow him to his office. I step inside and sitting in a chair to one side is a Green county deputy. He tells me first that the deputy is there due to the unusual circumstances involved with my wife and her condition. The deputy tells me that I am not under arrest, but he does have a few questions. I decide to get it all out of the way and tell him that if he would like I will give him a rundown of the past weekend.
It takes me a while to tell him the weekend story; he takes notes as I speak. When I am done I inform him that I have filed a preliminary missing persons report regarding my wife, with Deputy Mark Lane, back in my home county. With that news his eyebrows raise and he asks me to sit tight as he leaves the room.
The doctor then tells me that he believes that Vicky will be fine, they pumped her stomach and that she had suffered alcohol poisoning. He also noted that her vocal cords were damaged and that speaking will be difficult for her.
Then he drops some bombs on me, telling me that the deputy was brought in for several other injuries that she indicated occurred with her consent. The doctor told me that he and the deputy found that hard to believe and wanted the story from me to at least confirm what they saw. Her indication of consent was the only reason I was not in cuffs now it seems.
Before doctor goes on to tell me more of her condition, he lets me know that what he is about to reveal may be shocking, and to prepare myself.
She has a fresh tattoo of the letters MRC circled, on her right buttock.
Both her nipples are pierced with large gauge stainless steel rings. They were welded shut on the previously open ends. The piercings are fresh and there has been some slight tearing of the wounds, as if they were pulled hard. The right nipple is possibly infected, and is being treated with topical antibiotic.