Meanwhile the police and an ambulance arrived at the scene of the shooting. Gussie, it seems, got by okay. The bullets missed vital organs and made only slight wounds to her head and leg. When asked if she would be all right, she said “Yes.” She gave his description to the police, but only remembered “a white man in a yellow jacket.” It could’ve been anybody. No physical evidence existed. He got away.
Gussie was taken to a hospital but then released and taken to a hospital for blacks in town. She had surgery and decided not to pursue the incident because she remembered so little. She would return home in five days.
Meanwhile, Claude set up living arrangements in Malaysia, and had agreed to buy a medical practice and attend school there. He would still drive a BMW and live in a spacious and luxurious house. He would be comfortably established in Malaysia, where he would explain all to the government officials there.
When he arrived the Malaysian government said it was all right. they understood that this could happen to anyone, and they all went back to the regular living routine.
Meanwhile, Gussie returned home and recuperated. She got $280,000 from her employer in long-term disability payments as a lump sum and would receive $1,000,000 over the course of four years.
Claude figured he must have needed her so badly that he temporarily lost control. He should have been trying to find someone to love all those years. As the rap group Oaktown’s 357 once said, “Juicy got him crazy. Got him cold going mad.” Claude knew he would be looking for female companionship sooner or later. Prostitutes, maybe…
