by LS Sygnet
"Exactly what I said. There might be fuzzy bits of the past few days where he can't recall what he did or where he went, even conversations could be lost."
"Will it be permanent?" Briscoe asked.
I got the distinct impression that they were asking less out of concern for Johnny and more out of outrage that he might not remember what happened tonight, and they'd be forced to accept my version of the truth. Wouldn't that just suck to high heaven?
A little bit of affront returned, particularly after the reassurances that Johnny would essentially survive his ordeal unscathed. The image of his contorted limbs and violent convulsing mingled with the last word I heard him say – Doc – that endearment I fought tooth and nail successfully with everybody but Johnny.
Tears rolled in a great saline flood. "It is all my fault. None of this would've happened if I hadn't –"
"Helen, Johnny knew you sneaked out of Downey. He knew you were doing it before you left," Crevan said. "He may not care what possesses you to do such stupid and reckless things, but we do. Not only because Johnny gets hurt, but because you could kill yourself one of these days. Is that what you really want?"
I sniffled and dashed at the moisture on my cheeks. "He knew? I mean, he followed me to Dunhaven?"
"Yeah," Briscoe muttered, "problem was, shit went down out there faster than we could make our way from Hennessey to Fielding and storm the damned place. And then we couldn't find the two of you."
"Enough, both of you," another voice joined the fray.
I turned and crumpled into Maya's outstretched arms. "They're right, Maya. This is all my fault. I don't know why I did what I did. I guess I thought he'd tell me no, slap the skids on the investigation for the night, and we're running out of time."
"There... it's all right, honey. Johnny's the toughest guy I know. He'll pull through this, wait and see."
"But he'll never forgive me, Maya. He... that bastard tortured him." I pulled away, let a little measure of the hatred boiling inside me show, which in my case, was never a good idea. "Take me to Downey. I want that prick in the box. I'll beat a confession out of him, or he'll die in the process."
Briscoe's finger stabbed the air in front of my nose. "Thing is, I know you ain't just ventin' your frustration, Eriksson. I've seen that look before, in every perp we arrested for murder."
I started pacing. They were right. I was no better than the scum we tried to arrest, to bring to some measure of justice. Rick died at my hand. I wasn't sure I could quell the urge to make sure Sykes did too. I froze mid turn and pinned Tony with a hard glare. "What did you say?"
"I've seen that look –"
"Not now," I hissed two words that sounded more like you moron in my head. "What did you say at Dunhaven when I was getting on the elevator? About Sykes, Tony, what did you say about Sykes?"
He threw his hands up in the air. "Hallelujah, somethin' is finally sinkin' into that thick skull of yours!"
I started to advance, but Crevan laid a hand on my chest. "Helen, you're really not helping here."
"Sykes ain't Sykes. In fact, there probably ain't no Sykes," Tony said. "That son of a gun hell bent on killin' y'all was Mitch Southerby, reincarnated in the flesh."
My pacing increased to a few degrees less than the speed of light. "Southerby was never murdered. He's been alive all this time. Why didn't I see it? Shit! They were so cock sure they wouldn't get caught that they didn't bother hiding what they did to Harry McNamara. It should've been obvious that Southerby used Lowe's ruse with the succinylcholine to escape." I smacked my forehead with one hand. "Stupid!"
"Might I be so crass to suggest that if you're getting any brilliant ideas about how to proceed, that you have the common decency to share them with us, Eriksson? We've had one too many brushes with death for the night to have you trottin' off playin' rogue detective again."
It was a step too far. "Maya, I need your cell phone."
"Helen, don't do anything rash," she said. "I know you're upset, but if you act without thinking this through, you're gonna face worse consequences when you calm down."
I held out my hand and waited.
"If you aid and abet –"
"Jesus Christ and General Jackson, Tony. Stop acting like Helen's the criminal here. She's obviously devastated by what happened to Johnny tonight. I realize that sensitivity is antithetical to your personality, but please make an effort." To me, she added, "Don't make me regret this, Helen."
I dialed a number and turned my back to Tony and Crevan. "It's me," I said.
"Hey, how's Johnny?" Devlin asked. "Are you at the hospital with him now?"
"Yes. I need my car. I'm going to the morgue with Maya. There are some things we need to discuss in private, and I won't do it here. Not when I'm being treated like a suspect by my fellow detectives."
"Helen, we're tied up with this crime scene. We've got a dead body out here, remember?"
"Right." I turned to Maya and snapped my fingers. "Are you going out to Dunhaven to pick up the security guard that got shot?"
"I hadn't planned on it, but I can if you think I'm needed."
"Maya will bring me. You, Ned and I need to discuss what our next move is, Dev. I'll fill you in on what Southerby had to say before the cavalry arrived when I get there."
"Can't you tell Crevan and Tony? They said they were headed over to the hospital."
"I'd rather eat broken glass than deal with either one of them. Either Shelly pulls them off this case, or I'm done, Dev. I'll call the bureau and get them out here to wrap this up and arrest Datello and cut Downey out of it all together."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Crevan said. He reached around me and swiped at the phone. I caught his hand and twisted his thumb backward.
"I'm done screwing around with these people, Devlin. They've gone ten steps too far. Either Darkwater does this my way, or I swear on my father's life, I'll cut all of you out of it so fast you won't know what hit you."
He chuckled softly. "Easy, girl. We can talk to Lou about it. Don't do anything drastic. Head on over here with Maya and we'll talk, all right?"
"Thank you." I cut the call and shoved Maya's phone back into her hand. "Ready?"
"Helen, aren't you going to stick around until Johnny wakes up?"
"She cares more about nailin' Danny than she does Johnny," Briscoe sneered. "Ain't it obvious? We're all in the way of doin' what she really came out here to do."
"Lay off, Tony," Crevan said. To me, his tone softened. "I'm sorry you felt like we were attacking you, Helen. As irritated as I am that you did this tonight, I don't see how the outcome would've been any different if Johnny had walked into that place with you. We want this case closed as much as you do, as much as Johnny does. Do you want me to call you when he wakes up?"
A fresh river of tears flowed. "Thank you, Crevan. I'd like that very much."
"And if he don't wanna see you ever again?"
I glared at Tony. "You're making a list you really don't want to be on, Briscoe."
"I'll tell him you were here," Crevan said.
"Tell him that I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'll make it up to him. I'll hand him Datello's head on a platter if I have to."
Chapter 36
Maya drove slower than a ninety-year-old grandmother on the way out to Dunhaven. Call me paranoid, but I'm pretty sure she was hoping I'd cool down before Briscoe and I were dueling at twenty paces come dawn. I understood his anger and frustration. I even understood his loyalty to Johnny.
Hell, I loved the guy, and nobody has ever been more critical of me than I am. What chapped my ass was the fact that Briscoe wouldn't let it go, no matter how much regret I expressed. Maybe he heard Southerby's half of the conversation before the cavalry charge to save the day, to rescue Darkwater's favorite son.
It was Devlin Mackenzie, the newcomer half outcast who had rescued me after all. I didn't recall Tony giving a damn if I was dead or alive.
"You're very quiet, Helen."
"I'm worried."
"If they think he'll be fine, I'm sure he will be. You know how doctors are. We prepare people for the worst case scenario. Then when the news is better, we're less likely to get sued."
"Thanks for taking me out to Dunhaven. If we ever get there."
"I can take a hint." Maya increased her speed by a mere five miles per hour. "Are you ready to talk to me about what really happened out there tonight?"
"No."
"Helen, look what happened to you the last time you internalized a traumatic event. Do you really want to go down that path again?"
"It wasn't my trauma this time."
"So it doesn't matter because you weren't afraid for your life tonight?"
"I thought they were gonna kill him," I whispered. "When I realized it was Johnny, I begged that evil bastard to kill me instead."
"Oh, honey."
"Don't," I rasped. "Briscoe was right about one thing. It doesn't matter how you look at this, the outcome would've been different if I hadn't been so sure that serving the warrant alone was a brilliant way of efficiently managing our time and resources. I figured Johnny would make sure nothing happened to Riley Storm, and I could buzz out to Dunhaven and have a look at the pharmacy records to see if that's where Lowe was getting his succinylcholine."
"So that's what the warrant was for?"
I nodded and winced when the laceration tugged open by the displacement of blood caked hair.
"You should've let the doctor take a look at that cut."
"It's fine. A bag of ice and a couple of aspirin and I'll be good as new."
"What really happened at the hospital, Helen?"
I filled her in with the Cliffs Notes version. "I have no idea how long I was unconscious, but if Johnny followed me out there, it couldn't have been very long."
"He should've waited until backup arrived, Helen. You didn't make him charge in there alone, you know."
"At least he had the common sense to call for it."
"But if he waited, Southerby's guys wouldn't have got the jump on him. He wouldn't have been tortured. He knew what area of the hospital the warrant was for after he realized what you were doing. This wasn't entirely your fault."
I sniffled and swiped at the burning creases of my nose. "He couldn't wait. Not knowing that Mike the sadist locked me in the basement. I know him, Maya. He was out of his mind worried that I was already dead, and that's why he ignored his training and tried to save me."
"I won't dispute that. If your positions were reversed, would you have done anything differently?"
"No," I muttered.
"Tony is angry. He'll get over it."
The way my day was going, the least of my concerns were Tony Briscoe's feelings about anything.
"Tell me more about this succinylcholine link to Dunhaven."
"It was something Riley Storm said to me when I interviewed him earlier tonight. He shut up in a hurry when I asked him where Mitch Southerby was buried – makes sense now, since the guy didn't die like we thought he did. I'm sure Storm figured he called my bluff. He told me if I wanted answers, I'd have to go dig for them at Dunhaven. At first I thought he was suggesting that I try to drag the truth out of Lowe, but he was more cryptic than that. I know Lowe warned him that I wanted to talk to him. That dig business sort of nagged at me."
"So you did what? There had to be compelling evidence or Zack wouldn't have been able to get the search warrant."
I nodded. "I did a little research into Dunhaven on Crevan's computer at division. It jumped out at me. Part of the basement was converted to a hospital pharmacy in the 1950s. The website talked about the continued use of ECT in severe cases. It clicked in my head, you know? Conscious sedation. Lowe's mother spent more time at Dunhaven because of mental illness than she did raising him. He would've known about her treatment. Storm already admitted to me that he helped Lowe get the succinylcholine. I figured if I could link the drugs at Dunhaven to Lowe or Storm, it might give me the leverage I needed to get one of them to admit that Datello was behind all of this with Harry McNamara, Lowe's advancement at central, and David Ireland's murder."
"Do you still have the warrant?"
I shook my head. "It was in my purse, and I gave it to Mike when I arrived. He kept it."
"But it's still on file with the court," Maya said, "and you legally served it. We might be able to get your leverage after all. I'll go through the pharmacy when we get there. At the very least, I should be able to collect vials of the succinylcholine they've got and compare the lot numbers to what you and Johnny found in Lowe's trailer."
"I doubt any of these guys will talk, Maya. They're more afraid of Datello than they are prison. Southerby came right out and admitted that Datello has been pulling the strings all along. It's his word against mine, and I'm afraid my history in this city, the lies I've told, would be a defense attorney's dream come true when it comes to impeaching my testimony."
"Surely not. The police are allowed to use deception –"
"With suspects," I said. "Not with each other."
Maya pulled into the parking lot at Dunhaven and flashed her badge for entry. It wasn't necessary. We were recognized on sight. In the basement, Maya made her way to the pharmacy while I looked for Devlin and Ned.
Billy Withers was about to remove Mike's body from the treatment room. He glanced at me with a wounded expression.
I moved to where he crouched over the body and laid my hand on his shoulder. "I never believed it for a second, Billy. And I never let Riley Storm think I believed it either."
"Promise me you'll get them, Dr. Eriksson. Promise me that you'll get them all for what they've done."
"You have my word. I'll never give up."
Devlin moved to my side and gave the gash on my head the once over. "You didn't let them look at that, did you?"
"Does it really look that bad?"
"If you could see the back of your head all the way down to the middle of your ruined sweater, you'd understand why we're concerned. How's Orion?"
"Sedated," I said. "The doctor thinks he'll be fine, thank God."
Ned was a little less friendly, and I supposed it could be a generational thing he and Briscoe shared. Either that or my new enemy had called to issue dire warnings about how I'd gone pit bull – off the chain, out of the yard, down the street – at the hospital.
"What happened out here, Helen?"
I related everything I knew, from the trip down the stairs to the bash over my head, to waking without a clue where I was or what was happening.
Ned jerked his head at the open door, one of many along the wall of the treatment room. "It's based on a medieval thing," he said. "Back in the dark ages, they used to lock folks up in those tiny little boxes, dropped them down into them from above, if memory serves. If they weren't crazy when they went in, they sure as heck were when they came out."
A bit of trivia tickled the periphery of my consciousness. "An oubliette," I said. "It's French and literally means forgotten place."
Dev shook his head. "What kind of sick sadistic –"
"They've been used at some point," I said. "I felt scratches in the wood made by fingernails. This hospital is a nightmare. I can't for the life of me figure out how Mitch Southerby ended up running the place. Has he been here since his alleged death?"
"I doubt it," Ned said. "There would've been too much risk that he'd be recognized by cops or some citizen with a good memory. The guy's face was all over the news after his arrest and alleged death."
"The disk is real," I said. "It's what he wanted from me tonight. It's what he tried to torture out of Johnny."
"But we're not any closer to finding out why he's back in town, or why Datello is worried about evidence against him after all these years."
I tried to will the throbbing pain from my head by rubbing my temples. "I think I'm gonna be ill."
Devlin cupped my elbow and led me out of the treatment room. "You should be in the hospital, Helen. You've probably got a concussion.
We took a gun off Carl Merchant. It had blood and hair on the butt of it. I suspect he clocked you pretty hard."
"Knocked me out, that's for sure."
"Let me take you back to the hospital."
"No," I said with finality. "I have to keep working the case. We have to find the answers. We have to find some kind of evidence that links all of this to Datello. The confession Southerby made to me while he outlined how I would die won't hold up in court. I was the only one who heard it. At least the only one who would testify that he said it. I'm sure Painless Carl won't have a damn thing to say even if we offered him immunity."
Ned joined us again. "I need to know why you came here, Helen. What did you think you would find?"
I explained the drug link that would incriminate Lowe and Storm as partners in the death of McNamara. "I know it's pretty thin, but I figured if the pharmacy kept records of prescriptions –"
"In a way it makes sense," Ned said. "In a rather desperate way. We need to get back to Downey and read these guys their rights. I know Southerby already invoked his right to counsel, but Carl hasn't. Maybe he'll tell us something."
"I'm gonna retrace my steps back to that stairwell," I said. "Unless one of you recovered my cell phone already."
"I'll go with her," Devlin said.
My hackles rose. "Because I'm not capable of doing it without being watched?"
"No, because you got beat over the head, and I don't want a giant rat finding you passed out and finishing what Southerby started."
My eyes darted around the damp basement dungeon, and I took an involuntary step toward Mackenzie.
Ned laughed softly. "She chases down armed assassins without backup, but the idea of rodents makes her behave. You're somethin' else, Helen."
An hour later, Devlin and I found my iPhone and determined that its case was more waterproof than I would've ever imagined. I wiped the mud off the screen and stuffed it into the handbag Ned found on the floor in the treatment room.
"Sure wish you'd go to the hospital, Helen. Johnny could wake up any time," Ned said.