Paulie rested quietly on a gurney, surrounded by a blue curtain in the chaotic emergency room.  His eyes stared out beyond the ceiling as a nurse pulled a white sheet over his head.  His lungs had filled with blood.  After briefly interviewing several of the hospital staff, Detective Choi strode briskly down the tiled hallway and out to the patrol car that had met him there.  Moira was in the back seat of that car, in plastic handcuffs again.  "Choi sat down in the front seat of the car.  "So let me hear your story again.  You know this guy how?"  Moira spoke in a soft voice with no emotion, "I told you.  I don't.  He was like that when I found him down at the beach."  "Right" Choi said, trying to provoke her into some kind of emotional outburst.  "And what were you doing down there?  You're a hooker or something?"  Moira Replied passively, staring out the car window, "No, I'm homeless. Sometimes I sleep down there."  "And who beat you up like that?" Choi pressed.  "I didn't catch their names.  It's gets rough out there sometimes."  she said quietly, still seemingly in her passive trance.  Choi was getting frustrated.  He knew something went down, maybe a drug buy gone bad, but he had nothing specific.  He decided to let her sit in a cell for a couple of days... see if anything turned up.  
    About an hour before sunrise, Bud realized he had fallen asleep in his chair again.  He hated doing that.  His back would probably be hurting all day now.  As he began to lift himself up to slog upstairs, he nearly had a heart attack.  There was a shadowy figure sitting on the sofa four feet away from him.  Bud froze, paralyzed with fear.  After an agonizing moment of sheer panic, the silhouette sprang silently to its feet, and aimed a weapon at Bud's head.  He could feel the circle of a shotgun barrel pressing into his forehead.  A warm wet liquid pooled in Bud's lap before soaking down into the chair cushion.  Sammy was tempted, but he couldn't pull the trigger.  He had other plans.

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