After supper at the Outback Steak House we explored the house at 941 Fishery Drive that we were going to spend the next couple of nights at. Marcy had verified that all the utilities were on including the high speed internet. The realtor had sent someone to completely clean the house, including changing all the linens on the beds. We had stopped at a grocery store and picked up all the necessities, bottled water, instant coffee in case there was no coffee maker, and fruit drinks. I picked up a case of wine coolers and a case of beer in case we wanted to just sit back and relax.

We were just getting ready to set up for the nightly conference call when all four phones rang at the same time. I knew immediately that there was some kind of emergency at the gym. After the Bitch attack by the north girl gang we had set up a one button emergency below the 911 call button. When pushed it called all the phones programmed in its directory, that was all six of us plus Jason, Dad, both Mom’s. I answered the phone in the speaker mode to hear screaming and sirens. The good thing about the desk phone setup was the phone went to speaker phone mode that meant we were hearing more than we would have than if it were coming through the receiver.

I asked Jenny to pull up the cameras from the gym. Mercy and Lorrie were already doing the same thing.

I was listening as intently as I could, trying to pick apart the conversations coming over the phone. “I think he is dead, she killed him” was plain and clear.

“Wendy are you going to be ok?” was another I recognized as Kim’s voice.

“Abby, clear we will take over now.” A male voice said.

“No pulse and I could not get any air into him. You’re going to have to do a trachea. There is two more in the class room I do not know how bad they are.” Abby’s voice.

“Dispatch, Medic 100, we need another unit at this address. Code red.” It was obviously an EMT voice.

“Medic100, Dispatch. “{Medic 101, one minute out, Medic 200 two and a half minutes out. Ambulance 1 and 10 personal should be coming through the door. Sherriff Deputy’s Q50 and Q55 state police trooper 40 are in route and close.}”

Dispatch medic 100, “put the bird in the air.” They were calling for the chopper.

“Dad is pulling into the gym parking lot now,” Jenny said.

Marcy, Lorrie and Jenny all three had the gym cameras on their laptops. I was standing behind them looking over their shoulder. Marcy had the lobby camera. Kim was holding an ice pack to Wendy’s jaw. They were sitting in the corner chairs next the entrance door to the tanning booths. There was a man lying on the floor by the class room door his head was covered in blood. There were several EMT working on him. One was doing chest compressions on him. Another was trying to get a trachea tube in. Another was setting up the paddles to give him a shock. Another looked like he was preparing to do surgery.

Lorrie had the class room camera. Janice Cain was sitting up front with two EMT working on her. She had been in the fight too it looked like. They were checking out both her arms and her face.

Ching Lee was also in there off to the side. Vicky and Sly were with her. They had both her hands in ice packs and one on the side of her face.

Jenny was winding the lobby camera back in fast motion trying to find the start of whatever the hell had happened.

“I got it. Here is where it started,” Jenny said.

“Record it as you play it, they will most likely take the master,” I said.

Jenny was narrating as the video played. “There is Janice Cain coming in and talking with Kim at the cash window. There is the man coming in, he is beating Janice. He must be her husband or boyfriend. He is really trying to hurt her bad. There comes Wendy trying to stop him from hitting her by grabbing his arm trying to pull him away from her. There is Ching Lee coming through the class room door. She pushed Janice into the class room. Damn he hit Wendy so hard she bounced off the wall and she is on the floor. Ching got him good with a fist to the throat. He didn’t even feel it. He must be high on drugs or something.”

“Another fist to the throat and a kick to the testicles, that got his attention. A swing at Ching and a miss, another swing, oh crap that one connected and put her against the wall but she bounced off the wall fighting. That was a good kick to the ribs she gave him, it stunned him. Another fist to the throat and that one hurt him. He is down on his knees and still trying to get a hold of Ching Lee. That kick under the jaw got him good. Did you see his head snap back? He is out on the floor. Look how red the side of Ching Lees face is where he connected. How did she take that hit and keep fighting?

“There is Abby checking him out. She is doing chest compressions on the guy. There is Kim putting ice on the side of Wendy’s face. There is the first EMT in,” Jenny said. There is Dad moving Wendy and Ching Lee into the class room away from everything.”

“Do we need to find the pilots and fly back tonight?” Lorrie asked.

“By the time we get there everything will be over and cleaned up. If we need to go back Dad will call us. He has wanted to be more help to us for a while but I did not want it to be this way,” Jenny said.

An hour later Jason called to fill us in on all the developments. Ralph Sanford Janice Cain’s boyfriend and frequent abuser was dead on arrival at Annapolis General Hospital. Preliminary results of his injuries pending a full autopsy were, a crushed larynx blocking his wind pipe, broken neck most likely from the last kick that Ching Lee administered and he was going down and a broken rib.

Wendy was severely bruised on her right face. No broken bones or damage to her teeth. She was very lucky.

The left side of Ching Lee’s face was badly bruised; her back was also bruised from the impact with the chairs and the wall from the hit. Both of her hands were bruised and a couple of the smaller bones in the back of her right hand were broken from the fight.

Janice Cain had several serious injuries. Her ribs were bruised as was her face on both sides and her arms between the elbow and the shoulder. Her left shoulder was very sore although x-ray’s showed no broken bones but possible rotator cuff damage. The hospital was going to do an MRI before releasing her. She would have that arm in a sling for a few days. Lisa, [Jenny’s Mom] and Sly were staying at the hospital to bring her back to the shore after the hospital released her.

Lorrie suggested that if Janice did not have any relatives she could stay with for a few days that we put her up in a motel room or in one of the lower guest rooms. She did not think Janice needed to be around his things or needed to deal with his relatives or friends until she had time to get herself together. Sly had offered to stay and take care of her if she wanted.

We had been watching the security camera feeds. Jason has been Wendy’s, Kim’s, Ching Lees and the gyms legal representative during the interviews with the Sherriff’s department and the state police investigation. Vicky had to download the fight video onto a disc for both departments.

Jason, Ching Lee, Wendy and Janice were to meet with the county prosecutor at 3 pm tomorrow to go over everything again as a group. Jason was going to be the gyms attorney. Because the assault happened inside the gym he would represent Janice unless she wanted her own attorney.

Maryland had a citizens aid law that Jason was sure would apply to Ching Lees actions in defending Janice and Wendy from personal harm. The only catch would be if the prosecutor felt that Ching Lee went beyond necessary means to defend herself or that she had continued to hit him after he was out of it. The video showed that as soon as he hit the floor she backed away.

We called and talked to Wendy, Vicky and Ching Lee. I heaped praise on both of them for coming to Janice’s aid. I talked to Ching Lee last and for more than an hour. I knew from experience that Ching Lee was going to have a long night. She would relive the fight every time she dropped off to sleep trying to find a way for a different ending. The knowledge that she had killed someone would never let that peace come. In the end she would have to come to terms that there was no other way out. She did what had to be done for her own safety.

I called Vicky back to have a private conversation and asked her to spend the night very close to Ching Lee explaining that Ching Lee would most liken need comforting through out the night.

Edit by Alfmeister