Tony knelt beside him.
Frank opened his eyes. 'You hurt?' he asked weakly.
'No,' Tony said.
'Get him?'
'Yeah.'
'Dead?'
'Yeah.'
'Good.'
Frank looked terrible. His face was milk-white, greasy with sweat. The whites of his eyes had an unhealthy yellowish cast that had not been there before, and the right eye was badly bloodshot. There was a hint of blue in his lips. The right shoulder and sleeve of his suit coat were soaked with blood. His left hand was clamped over his stomach wound, but a lot of blood had leaked from under his pale fingers; his shirt and the upper part of his trousers were wet and sticky.
'How's the pain?' Tony asked.
'At first, it was real bad. Couldn't stop screaming. But it's starting to get better. Just kind of a dull burning and thumping now.'
Tony's attention had been focused so totally on Bobby Valdez that he hadn't heard Frank's screams.
'Would a tourniquet on your arm help at all?'
'No. The wound's too high. In the shoulder. There's no place to put a tourniquet.'
'Help's on the way,' Tony said. 'I phoned in.'
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance. It was too soon to be an ambulance or a black-and-white responding to his call. Someone must have phoned the police when the shooting started.
'That'll be a couple of uniforms,' Tony said. 'I'll go down and meet them. They'll have a pretty good first aid kit in the cruiser.'
'Don't leave me.'
'But if they've got a first aid kit--'
'I need more than first aid. Don't leave me,' Frank repeated pleadingly.
'Okay.'
'Please.'
'Okay, Frank.'
They were both shivering.
'I don't want to be alone,' Frank said.
'I'll stay right here.'
'I tried to sit up,' Frank said.
'You just lay there.'
'I couldn't sit up.'
'You're going to be okay.'
'Maybe I'm paralyzed.'
'Your body's taken a hell of a shock, that's all. You've lost some blood. Naturally, you're weak.'
The sirens moaned into silence outside of the apartment complex.
'The ambulance can't be far behind,' Tony said.
Frank closed his eyes, winced, groaned.
'You'll be okay, buddy.'
Frank opened his eyes. 'Come to the hospital with me.'
'I will.'
'Ride in the ambulance with me.'
'I don't know if they'll let me.'
'Make them.'
'All right. Sure.'
'I don't want to be alone.'
'Okay,' Tony said. 'I'll make them let me in the damned ambulance even if I have to pull a gun on them to do it.'
Frank smiled thinly, but then a flash of pain burned the smile off his face. 'Tony?'
'What is it, Frank?'
