They took her to the hospital, lights flashing, and I made my way back to the Pavilion.
Ava had been taken to the hospital, and the stunned crowd still lingered.
Several media outlets had captured the attack. I handed out cards and asked them to text me download links to footage once they had it all processed. I didn’t think there would be anything identifiable in the videos, but it was worth a shot.
I talked to Paris for a bit, then we escorted the girls into the limousine and headed to the hospital to check on Ava and talk to her boyfriend. Jack told the limousine driver to take Cinnamon and Ginger wherever they wanted to go, which was to the after-party. He'd come back and pick us up after we were done at the hospital.
We stepped inside the bustling emergency room. It was packed with the walking wounded. Sickly fluorescent lights paintedthe denizens in the pale glow. A flatscreen on the wall was tuned to a 24-hour news channel. There were guys with broken bones, sniffling and sneezing kids, and old folks on oxygen.
The serious cases got treated first. They paid attention to you if you came in with a gunshot wound, chest pain, or suffered an acid attack.
I flashed my badge to the receptionist at the desk and asked about Ava Lang. "I need to talk to her and her boyfriend as soon as possible. It’s part of an ongoing investigation."
9
"Had Ava received any threats in the recent weeks or months?" I asked.
JD and I interviewed Ava’s boyfriend in the hallway just outside her room in the ER. His assistant hovered nearby. She was a cute brunette in a gray fitted pantsuit that hugged her svelte figure. Vanessa didn’t have the supermodel looks of Ava, but she was a cute girl. Easy on the eyes.
Nurses scurried up and down the hallways. Moans and groans of patients filtered out of the rooms. Doctors in white lab coats darted in and out of treatment rooms. Techs wheeled patients off for X-rays and CAT scans.
Sebastian was traumatized. He ran his fingers through his hair with frazzled eyes and thought about it for a moment. "It's hard to know what to take seriously and what to dismiss. I mean, people say all kinds of things on the Internet. You just have to tune it out." A grim frown tugged hisface. “I hate to say it, but this could have been directed at me.”
I gave him a curious look. "Why do you say that?”
After a hesitation, he admitted, "Well, my ex-fiancé isn't exactly thrilled about my relationship with Ava. She's called and left nasty messages, posted terrible things on social media.”
"Did she make any threats?”
Sebastian shrugged. "What constitutes a threat?I hope you guys rot in hell! You two shallow narcissists deserve each other. I hope you both get hit by a bus.”
“She sounds pleasant,” Jack muttered.
Sebastian groaned and made a face.
"Those statements are vague,” I said. “Anything actionable?”
"Well, she never said she was going to throw acid in Ava’s face, but I wouldn't put it past her. Rachel could have hired someone to do it. How hard would that be?”
"Not hard at all.”
"Does she really think something like that would get me back?” Then he muttered. "She always was a bit crazy.”
"Anybody else you can think of that might have animosity toward Ava? Competitors? Rivals? Ex-boyfriends?”
Sebastian thought for a moment, then glanced back into Ava’s room. He escorted us a few steps down the hallway. He didn't want Ava to hear.
Her injuries weren’t life-threatening at the moment, but Ava was in bad shape. The acid had burned the superficial layers. Her angry red skin was mottled and blistered. Now covered with a light ointment, her skin resembled the texture of pizza. Swelling had already settled in, and her features were puffy, her eyes narrow slits.
It was heartbreaking.
Ava’s face had once graced billboards and the sides of buses.
The staff had irrigated her skin and eyes, trying to bring them back to a normal pH range. An ophthalmologist had been consulted. She also suffered inhalation damage to her lungs. She was scheduled for surgical debridement.
In a hushed voice, Sebastian said, "This is going to destroy her career. I don't know the extent of the damage, but the doctor said it wasn't good. He's not sure, but he thinks it was sulfuric acid. She'll be lucky if she can see after this.”
JD and I winced.
