Hold On

Chapter 25

Gordon Katsumoto sighed, deeply frustrated. Two hours had passed and he was still nowhere near finding out the whereabouts of Thomas and Juliet. Back at the warehouse when the EMTs checked on Harold Jones' injuries, they insisted at once that he should be taken to the hospital and treated by a doctor. Gordon saw the man's wound and in his opinion it wasn't anything grave, he himself had worse but he knew that even as a criminal, Jones had his rights and if the police didn't respect them, there would be some serious consequences.

So very unwillingly he had to let EMTs take him with them and here he was – sitting in the hospital's waiting room on a highly uncomfortable plastic chair, trying to be patient although it seemed almost impossible at that moment. He was so angry at the fact that his friends were out there, counting on his help and all he could do was to sit and wait. It was extremely frustrating.

Since Gordon didn't have much to do, he started to observe the people that were present in the room. There was an old couple – a woman and a man, sitting opposite him, both probably in their 70s. They weren't saying anything but their hands were joined the whole time since he had come here. The woman's eyes were closed and her lips were moving, probably in silent prayer.

Then there was a young blonde woman who was focused on the world outside the window and not paying attention to what was happening in this place. One close look at her face and Gordon knew that she had been crying recently. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she sniffled from time to time. He wondered who she was so worried about. Was it her husband or her child? Anyway, it must have been someone she deeply cared about.

He didn't want to pry so he shifted his gaze away from her. There were other people too and all of them seemed the same – they were worried about their loved ones. Well, Gordon's situation was completely different, the man he was waiting for and who was in the surgery, wasn't a member of his family. On the contrary, there was a high probability that this man was behind kidnapping his friends, maybe even hurting them.

Gordon felt how anger was rising in him, filling his body, making his common sense go away. At some point he realized with horror that he didn't care for this criminal's life, all he cared about was the information he could get out of the man about the place where Magnum and Higgins were being held. And that scared him a lot. He shook his head. He shouldn't act like this, he was a police officer, law enforcement after all. On the other hand, however, those were his friends, they were like a family to him and he felt he needed to do whatever it takes to bring them back. He sighed deeply, it was so hard and complicated but life was this way, no one said it would be easy. Twenty minutes later a doctor came to him, saying that the injury turned out to be just a scratch, the bullet grazed Jones' leg and they had to put a few stitches but apart from that, the man was okay and didn't require further hospitalization.

"Good." Gordon said and thanked the doctor for his help.

He smiled inwardly, now things were finally working out and all he had to do was to make Harold Jones talk which would probably be easier said than done but he had to try. Katsumoto moved in the direction of the room where the prisoner was and stopped there.

"Hey, guys. We're taking him with us." He spoke to the two police officers, standing outside the room, making sure the man wouldn't try to escape.

"Okay." They replied and went inside. "Come on. Let's go." They addressed Jones and escorted him out.

When he was passing by Gordon, he sent him a mocking smile. Yes, Gordon had a feeling it wouldn't be as easy as it seemed. He let Jones and the officers go first, then he followed them to the car.

All the way to the HPD, Katsumoto was driving behind them, looking carefully around in case someone wanted to try to bust the prisoner out. Since obviously the escape was planned and Jones had some people helping him, it could be possible that there was somebody else out there who would be used as a back-up in case something went wrong.