The female assassin dressed as a nurse smiled at the guard posted in front as she approached the closed hospital room door.
She had a fool proof plan to quietly kill the arrested mob boss Fredrick "The Shark" Parker. To inject an air bubble into his IV tube that would travel through Parker's body until it caused a fatal heart attack.
No fuss. No muss, and I'll be long gone before anyone's the wiser, she silently mused.
The assassin stopped in front of the closed door and let the guard on duty look at her "borrowed" hospital ID tag.
She didn't know that the officer was a weredog in his human form, who secretly sniffed her for the tell tale odor of any weapons.
But since all she had on her was the secreted syringe to create and inject the air bubble, she came up clean.
The guard stepped aside and the "nurse" smiled at him in thanks as she moved to enter Parker's private room, but just as she opened the door, she froze in mid-step and her blood ran cold as she heard a voice yell, "FREEZE! You're under arrest!"
MEANWHILE...
Lila Carpenter-Knight was sitting beside her husband at his desk.
Lance Knight, Editor-In-Chief of The Moon Lake Gazette as well as the driving force behind Knight Media, was going over the newspaper's annual budget projections with his accountant-wife.
The two of them had been pouring over the books for a while now when his wife said, "I need a break."
"You okay honey?" he asked, concerned for her well being, since she was only beginning the second trimester of carrying their first child.
"Yeah. Nausea. Morning sickness. It's been a blast so far."
"It'll get better," Lance said reassuringly, while taking her hand in his.
"I know honey," replied Lila, while giving him a peck on the cheek. "The physical stuff I'll get through. I'm a tough weretigress," she said. "But sometimes..."
"Sometimes what?" wondered Lance.
"Sometimes I wonder what kind of mother I'll be to our cub," she confessed.
"You too?"
"WHAT?" she exclaimed.
"No. No. I mean, I'm wondering what kind of a parent I'm going to be too," admitted Lance.
"Oh," said Lila, calming down a bit.
"After all, mine may have been a life of privilege, but it was certainly far from the ideal home life."
"Well, my life wasn't exactly a bed of roses either, but I've made it this far."
"My point," agreed Lance, while letting go of Lila's hand and putting an arm around his wife. "At least between us we have a good idea of what not to do."
"True," agreed Lila, while leaning lovingly against her husband.
They sat there in romantic solitude for a moment, enjoying the pleasure and comfort of each other's presence.
Then Lila asked, "So, my dashing werepanther. Should we get back to crunching numbers?"
"In a minute. I think this is more important," Lance said with a smile, before moving his chair closer to hers so he could put both arms lovingly around his wife.
BACK AT THE HOSPITAL...
"FREEZE! You're under arrest!"
How the hell did the cops find out? Who's the stoolie? wondered the assassin, even as her mind started going through possible escape strategies.
"Thought you could get away with it, huh?" the same voice asked, before the assassin heard the sound of handcuffs being applied to a prisoner.
But they WEREN'T on her!
Cautiously, she fully opened the door and saw three men.
One in a regular Sheriff's Department uniform and another dressed all in black flanked a third man in a white lab coat.
The deputy was arresting a doctor!
"Just what do you think you're doing! Release me at once! I'm a doctor!" demanded Doctor Marcus Huntington.
"Quack is more like it," replied the man dressed in black. "Promising patients miracle cures and delivering nothing but false hopes while taking their money and ruining their lives and dreams."
"You mean that guy's a phony?" asked Fredrick Parker from his hospital bed.
"As fake as a three dollar bill. What did he promise you?" asked the deputy.
"That I could walk again," answered Parker, "but we hadn't agreed on a price yet. Especially since the Feds confiscated all my assets."
"What?" exclaimed Huntington. "You said—"
"I'd make a deal with the devil himself to be able to walk again, let alone escape custody," replied Parker.
"You almost did," replied the man in the black suit, who the assassin mistook for a Federal agent. "This so-called doctor has a long history of false cures and dying patients in his wake," said Daisuke Tachibana, who was actually the head of security for Tachibana Enterprises as well as a loyal werefox out to protect the secrets of Moon Lake.
"I know what's going on!" angrily shouted Huntington. "You just don't want me to—"
But before he could say another word, Daisuke stuffed a handkerchief in his mouth.
"You have the right to remain silent," began the Deputy, reciting the Miranda.
The "nurse" stood there in the doorway, thinking that all she had to do was wait until these people left.
Then she could come in on the pretense of hospital business and start Parker on the road to meet his maker as planned.
However...
"Despite your sins, I'm sorry for your condition and apologize if this alleged doctor got your hopes up," Daisuke told Parker.
"I knew I must have been out of it when he..." began Parker, recalling Huntington shifting to his fursona in front of him and promising Parker that making him a were would regain the mobster the ability to walk, as well as many other benefits in the process.
"Well, it's all over now," the deputy told Parker.
"Come on you!" the deputy said to Huntington, as he started to lead the disgraced doctor out the door.
The disguised assassin stepped aside to let the procession out.
But as she started to go into the hospital room, the guard on duty stopped her.
"Sorry ma'am. I can't let you in," he told her. "I just got word. The prisoner's transport to Federal custody will be here in less than 20 minutes."
DAMN! she bitched silently.
"That's okay. I'll just continue my rounds elsewhere," she said politely, while walking away from her target.
SHIT! Now what the hell do I do? she wondered.
TO (HOPEFULLY) BE CONTINUED...