Jimmy had driven his own car when he left the county police headquarters. Inside the car, there were no emergency medical supplies, and he was wearing plain clothes without the assortment of gear on a duty belt.
Fortunately, he had a good habit of carrying a gun, always carrying an underarm holster and his own revolver, along with some bullets stuffed in his pants pocket.
The LRPD officers who rushed to the scene did not reflexively shoot at Jimmy but instead confirmed his identity after seeing his badge raised, ran to his side, and quickly applied a tourniquet for emergency treatment.
Leaving the LRPD officers to handle the scene, Jimmy handed his gun and underarm holster to the LRPD and left the scene in an ambulance to go to the hospital. His car, riddled with several bullet holes, required documentation by the LRPD at the scene before being towed away.
The tourniquet was quite effective, as it was on the lower left leg, a relatively good position for securing. If it had been another location that was hard to secure, Jimmy would have had to wait for an ambulance to apply hemostatic powder.
Having stopped the bleeding in time, he did not lose too much blood. After receiving a round of emergency bleeding control in the ambulance and having the bullet in his lower left leg removed and the wound stitched up at the hospital, Jimmy was out of danger.
News of Jimmy's injury spread once again among the county police and LRPD, marking it the second time this year. The last time had resulted in a fractured arm, and this time a gunshot wound to the leg, indeed a series of unfortunate events.
Jimmy could already imagine the number of jokes his colleagues would prepare about him when he returned to work, a rare moment of humor.
Jimmy stayed obediently in the hospital for two days, bored to death, and after repeatedly promising he was okay, he was discharged and went home.
The preliminary investigation by LRPD already had results, and as Jimmy had suspected, both guns were stolen, a young Hispanic man was caught with Jimmy's backup M686-1 revolver by its serial number, and another assailant used a Beretta 92F with a silencer, unregistered and illegal.
Meanwhile, Massi, still detained at the police station and not yet transferred to the detention center, was re-interrogated by LRPD after they confirmed the revolver's serial number.
When informed about the ambush case, Massi eventually admitted that he had supplied the firearms to the gunmen, both of whom were relatives and friends of a person who had died last time in Jacksonville.
Their initial plan had been to directly enter Jimmy's home with weapons to carry out a revenge killing. As Jimmy was not home, their plan shifted to theft.
They had monitored the movements of personnel at the county police headquarters. Having found no opportunity to strike as Jimmy was under house arrest, they were stalled.
This time, because Massi was caught by LRPD, Jimmy thought he was safe, so he left the county police office for LRPD to wait for news. That's when the remaining two men ambushed Jimmy right outside LRPD. To ensure the ambush was effective, they didn't wait for Jimmy to get far from the police station but struck at the first intersection.
Of course, this also explained why their shooting was poor, since typically, gang members use guns more as deterrents; they can shoot, will shoot, dare to shoot, but they don't often train at shooting ranges, so their accuracy is poor, which allowed Jimmy to survive the assault.
All these events stemmed from the incident in Jacksonville where Jimmy had killed four people, ultimately, Jimmy had brought this upon himself.
LRPD was still verifying the connection and activities of Massi and the two gunmen at the scene. They hadn't yet wrapped up the case to submit to the district attorney, but Jimmy already knew roughly what had happened, and since the gunmen were dead, the most important thing for him now was to rest at home.
Since Jimmy lived alone, he was currently relying entirely on takeout for meals, naturally lacking anything tasty. Fortunately, the danger had passed, and he was now safe; it didn't really matter much, but with more takeout and less exercise, he was quickly gaining weight.
Once his leg was slightly better and he could walk, Jimmy was considering whether to take this opportunity to go on vacation. As long as he didn't go to New York, he should be safe in principle.
One of the reasons Jimmy wanted to get out was that the day after he was shot, James, the Police Chief, had unexpectedly called and told Jimmy to recover well, granting him three weeks of leave.
Although James hadn't explained the reason, Jimmy guessed it was still somewhat related to Jacksonville, taking this opportunity to legitimately let him leave for a while to placate all parties involved.
Jimmy was now likely a focal point of attention from various parties; for someone labeled as a violent individual, no one wanted to offend or deal with him.
Jimmy was aware of this, and since the vacation wasn't long, he estimated he would have just over a week to go out once his left leg healed.
Calculating the timing, just after surviving that major incident, Jimmy wasn't planning to join the commotion in New York—oh, right, there was also that plane incident in Washington, D.C.
Jimmy considered his current affairs and ultimately decided to visit Texas to clear up the matter regarding the two paintings he had received a while ago. Knowing some actionable intelligence, regardless of who painted them, was always beneficial.
Jimmy prepared his clothes; he didn't plan to fly this time, as carrying a gun was inconvenient, even though he had the cases and permits, the hassle of going through procedures and filling out forms was truly annoying.
Jimmy's car had been sent to a cooperative repair shop, several bullet holes were a trivial matter for these repair shops that often dealt with police cars, and they returned it to Jimmy just a few days later.
Not only were the holes patched, but the car was also repainted; a nearly decade-old second-hand beater, looking brand new. Of course, it wasn't cheap, and Jimmy had a soft spot for this car. Even though he wasn't short on funds now, he was reluctant to just throw it away and replace it with a new one.
This time, Jimmy didn't carry the underarm holster but used a belt holster instead, with a speed loader and six rounds attached to the belt. For him, having 18 rounds on hand was sufficient, the rest of the ammunition was kept in an ammo box in the glove compartment as backup.
It was now September, and Jimmy dressed in a shirt and jeans, donned a genuine cowboy hat given to him by Torsten, collected the paintings from the police station, and left Little Rock for Hamilton, Texas.
The journey was uneventful, and for Jimmy, driving had almost become second nature. He took two breaks along the way, covering the several hundred kilometers by that afternoon and arriving in Hamilton.
Jimmy didn't go to see Roland directly but, like his previous visit, rested overnight in Hamilton, deciding to go the next day after a day's drive, which left him quite tired.