chapter 203

word count: 1206

“detective.” the commish said sternly in passing,, as he gave winnie a quick wink,, and bustled himself quickly out the door..

“what the??” was all that buzz could come up with before winnie scampered back to her room and closed the door..

“well wadda ya know!!” trudy exclaimed as a wide knowing smile rushed over her,, “looks like the old girl still got some spunk in her!!!”

with that trudy turned to the still agape algie as he sat, his small frame seemingly swallowed up by buzz extra-large recliner.. “so you just gonna sit there and let this happen old man?? not even gonna fight for the woman you love?? i’ll tell ya,, if that was me and my buzz here,, fists would be a flyin’!!”

algie,, quickly surmising that getting into a verbal altercation with the ever virulent mrs. trudy hunt right now would only lead to disaster,, took this as his cue to exit,, and did so,, pushing himself up with a visual degree of difficulty and out of buzz’s heavily padded chair,, as he headed to the kitchen without so much as a retort..

“leave the poor guy alone,, trud,, “ buzz admonished her.. “he’s already suffered the devastating blow of losing possession of the diana diamond today,, and i think this little scenario just added insult to injury.. give the guy a break..”

“well,, that doesn’t make him any less a pussy in my humble opinion..” trudy interjected,, as she strode over to buzz’s recliner and perched herself precariously on the arm, patting the back of it in invitation for buzz to come take his place by her side..

“speaking of pussies, and i know how bad this is gonna sound, but..“ trudy stated matter of factly as buzz slumped down into the recliner beside her and she slipped effortlessly onto his lap.. “i wonder how my elly is doin’?? it’s been forever since i talked to him.. kinda miss the brat, you know??”

***

meanwhile, back at the precinct, detectives bowers and bettancourt put a wrap on the necessary paperwork surrounding their involvement in the securing of the diana diamond as evidence.. this was imperative,, as so many open homicide cases hinged on circumstances surrounding the possession of the diamond..

the two clueless mormans that had been taken into custody at the time the diamond was secured as evidence,, was the most recent,, but that was being handled by the robbery division, so until they finished up on that, there was no need for hank and gil to intercede..

then there was prisillas all too early demise,, the chintown massacre,, the shooting death of private eye steve shingle in the pizza shop turned whore house,, the shoot-out in the parking lot at the of the recovery room that had ended up with police informant, frank the skank, dead,, and the following mysterious disappearances of quite a number of key mafioso players, the most important of which was the notorious female gangster known only as boa.. and let’s not forget,,  gil himself being drugged and kidnapped by what could only have been the mob.. 

the list just seemed to go on and on..

hoping to put some distance between their huge caseload and the earlier events of the day, namely, buzz’s full blown loss of control when they took the mob doc into custody in the wooded area just behind the hospital, they opted to slip out of the precinct,, and head over to the hospital to check up on stephanie, now that the hospital had resumed business as usual.. 

as they entered the precinct parking lot,, they were both dismayed to see the commish striding right toward them.. however,, as he passed them,, it was apparent he was looking right through them,, it was like they weren’t even there.

“whew!!” a relived gil sighed aloud as soon as they knew the commish was safely out of earshot..

“yeah,” hank answered gil’s sigh, “but what the hell is up with that??”

“i dunno. but i’m gonna get the hell outta dodge before he figures it out!! i got a second date with tori tonight,, and i really don’t wanna get stuck here doing the whole desk jockey thing all night instead!!” gil called out over the hood of the car as both he and hank slipped into the crown vic and slammed the doors closed safely around them..

once they had made it out of the precinct parking lot and were headed toward the hospital,, both gil and hank slipped out their respective cell phones and gave their lady loves a call..

as hank was waiting to get put through the hospital switchboard to let stephanie know he was on his way,, gil huddled in low over his phone,, as if doing so would make his conversation with tori somehow more private..

“hey there!!” tori said provocatively into her cell, as she mouthed the words, “it’s gil” to stephanie who gave her the double thumbs up and a huge smile of satisfaction,, before tori too, sought some degree of privacy and walked to the other side of the privacy curtain in stephanie’s hospital room.

no sooner had tori disappeared around the curtain,, and stephanie settled in to ‘overhear’ whatever she could of the conversation, her room phone rang,, and although somewhat distraught that she would no longer be privy to tori’s conversation first hand, answered..

“hank!! sweetie!!” stephanie greeted him genuinely happy to hear the sound of his voice, after trying to piece together the events of his day as best as she could from what tori had just been filling her in on bits and pieces as they came in over the hospital grapevine..

“i’m fine,, i’m fine!!” she assured him before cutting him off mid-sentence to inform him, in low tones, that gil was on the phone with tori, and from her vantage point she had outdone herself as a yenta..

“oh you are??” she responded somewhat shakily as hank went on to inform her both he and gil were in route to the hospital as they spoke..

“oh no honey!!!” stephanie exclaimed assuredly as hank questioned her indecisive tone when he had informed her he was on his way to see her.. “i’m dying to see you!! it’s just that,, well,, tori's here and she still doesn’t want to let on what she does for a living to gil.. she wants him to fall in love with her as a person,, and not as a paycheck,, ya know??”

with that tori,, came back around the curtain,, having evidently just received the news of gil and hanks arrival on the hospital campus,,  and mouthed to stephanie “i’m outta here!!” before she slipped out of her friends room and into the bowels of the hospital to make sure her as of yet undisclosed source of employment remained under wraps..

as gil accompanied hank into the hospital,, he flagrantly reinforced his desire for a replay of last night's tumble,, and made obvious grunting and gasping sounds into his phone before he cut off the call in adherence to hospital policy..

“well, well, well,,” hank met gil with a huge knowing smile as he stealthily slid his phone back in his jacket pocket.. “sounds like the gil machine is locked and loaded!!”

gil responded with a brotherly like punch on hanks bicep..

“you better believe it , baby!!!”