Saving Medesha

by DK Land

  A bit confused, Harold asked, “Mabel, what happened out here?”

  “Nothing happened out here,” she replied. “I was in J.T.’s room down the hall trying to visit with him. I tried to joke around a little and he suddenly started crying and told Cindy to make me leave because he didn’t know who I was.”

  Harold placed his hand on her shoulder. “Mabel, it’s not just you that he doesn’t recognize, it’s…”

  “Oh, I know that, Harold,” she replied. “I’m just so upset with all the terrible things that have happened to that poor little boy. Cindy said that it’s like part of his brain is missing.” With a determined look, she continued, “Harold! Something has to be done to get to the bottom of this! We all have to work together to find out what’s causing this.”

  As he took Mabel by the arm and led her toward the door, he said over his shoulder, “Thanks, Cindy. We’ll probably be back this evening sometime.” He then looked down at Mabel. “You and I are on our way right now to get this investigation into full swing.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “We’re going over to Plentywood to see Judge Cullen,” he answered. “The first thing I’ve got to do is get a warrant to see those kid’s hospital files.”

  “But, won’t Gerard and Dan just let you see them without all this legal stuff?” she asked.

  “Legally, they can’t,” he said. “But, they’re the ones who encouraged me to get the warrant. They want this thing investigated as much as anyone.”

  As they drove away from the hospital, Mabel inquired, “Harold, what about your meeting with Shauni and Jefferson? Are you going to miss it?”

  He looked down at his watch. “I think I’ll have time to get over to see the judge and get back just in time for our meeting.” He reached for his cell phone and said, “I’d better give her a call and see if it’ll be okay if you come with me to this meeting. I don’t think I’ll have time to drop you off at the diner.”

  As they pulled out on to the highway, they passed six large motor homes driving into Medesha. “Oh, look Harold,” smiled Mabel. She waved as she said, “It’s those nice people from Iowa coming to town for the ‘Boat Parade’. I guess Tandy’s going to have her hands full trying to put gas in those big things, and washing those huge windshields.”

  * * *

  At the Sheriff’s Office, Irene was hanging up the telephone as she watched a half dozen large recreational vehicles with boats in tow. They were lined up down the street waiting to pull into Ollie’s Service Station. Irene said, “Say Larry. Isn’t that little girl over at the pumps Tandy Williams from Mabel’s Coffee Shop?”

  Deputy Larry Walsh was a short, sandy haired man in his early thirties. He had been a deputy for almost four years and he felt sure that he’d finally found his calling. He loved his job and he nearly idolized his boss, Sheriff Harold Wheaton.

  Like so many of the local teens that didn’t leave home to attend college, Larry had gone to work for Vander-Wear after he graduated from high school. He had hated the monotony of the job, but he had stuck with it until his wife, Cindy had been able to finish nursing school in St. Paul. Upon her graduation, Cindy was immediately employed at Medesha Memorial, and Harold had recruited Larry to become the town’s only full time deputy. The pay wasn’t great, and the hours were long. But, between Larry’s salary and Cindy’s income as head nurse, they had been able to purchase an older home just two blocks from the hospital.

  Larry rose from his chair, and walked over to the window. He smiled, “Yes, I believe that is Tandy over there. I wonder what she’s doing pumping gas.” He turned and looked at Irene with a grin on his face. “You don’t suppose that Mabel fired her, do you?”

  “That can’t be possible!” exclaimed Irene. “Why, Mabel and Tandy are just like mother and daughter. That would be just awful if Mabel fired her.”

  Larry loved teasing Irene. She would always get upset over the smallest incident and go around fussing about it for days. Larry held his hand up to calm her. “Irene!” he said. “It’s okay. Harold told me this morning that Lester quit working for Ollie, and because Tandy is going to work part time for Mabel again this summer, she agreed to help out Ollie until he can get a replacement for Lester. Don’t worry so much. Mabel and Tandy are still the best of friends.”

  Irene sat down in her chair. “Oh, thank the Lord,” she said. “Those two girls are such wonderful people. I don’t think I could bear the thought of Mabel and Tandy not getting along.” Suddenly, she placed her elbows on her desk and buried her face in her hands. She looked up at Larry, and said, “Larry, sometimes I don’t know where my brain is at.”

  Somewhat startled by her statement, he asked, “What’s wrong now, Irene?”

  She replied, “I almost forgot to tell you. Oh, gosh! Sheriff Wheaton would get so upset with me if I forgot. Why do I do things like that?”

  “Irene!” interrupted Larry. “What in the world are you talking about?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she replied. “That was Sheriff Wheaton on the phone just now. He told me to tell you that he’s going to Plentywood, and after he gets back, he’s going out to the place where Willy Sadler drowned to do some more investigating. He said that you’re in charge and that you’ll probably be pretty busy for the whole weekend.”

  “Really?” said Larry. “Did he say why he was going to Plentywood?”

  “No, he didn’t,” replied Irene. “But, he said that Mabel was with him, so I don’t suppose that it has anything to do with county business. They’re probably going over there just to have lunch together or something.”

  Larry looked at his watch and thought, “You don’t drive thirty-five miles at three-thirty in the afternoon to have lunch.” He said to Irene, “Yeah. That’s probably what they’re doing. Well, if I’m in charge, I guess I’d better get myself busy. I’ll check in with you in an hour or so.” He waved to Irene as he closed the door behind him.

  Chapter 11

  It was just after five-thirty when Harold and Mabel pulled up to Jefferson Cordain’s front door. Harold said, “I’m sure glad that Shauni thought it would be a good idea for you to be a part of this meeting. We’re already a few minutes late.”

  “I just don’t understand what could be so important that you couldn’t meet them in your office,” said Mabel. “After all, she’s your own daughter, and Jefferson’s your future son-in-law. Nobody would think that something was amiss if you all were to meet behind closed doors.”

  “Well,” answered Harold. “I’m sure that we’ll find out shortly just what all this hush-hush is about.” He rang the doorbell and the door opened immediately.

  A smiling Jefferson Cordain answered the door. “Hi, Mabel,” he said as he shook her hand. “Come in, please?” He turned to Harold and held out his hand, “Welcome, Sheriff Wheaton. Thank you both for coming.”

  Mabel replied, “Thank you, Jefferson.”

  The front door entered into the main living room of the house. The room was quite large with huge wooden beams spanning the ceiling and a large rock fireplace dominating the wall directly across from the front door. The furnishings were contemporary, with long leather couches facing each other and a large section of walnut log lacquered to a high gloss finish and placed as a coffee table between the two couches. As Mabel walked in she exclaimed, “My, Jefferson! I’ve never seen your house before. It’s just beautiful!”

  Jefferson chuckled, “Well, I imagine it will be changing it’s appearance very soon. As you can see, it definitely needs the hand of a woman with an eye for design. Shauni has already expressed her opinion on nearly every room in the house, and believe me; she wasn’t quite as glowing with praise as you are.”

  Harold and Jefferson were still shaking hands when Jefferson said, “Come in, Sheriff Wheaton.” He pointed to one of the couches. “Please, sit down.”

  Harold swallowed hard as he said, “Jefferson, I think I owe you an apology.”

  Jefferson was surprised. “Why, Sh
eriff? I don’t understand!”

  Harold held his hand up and said, “No! I’ve been thinking about this, and I really do need to apologize to you. But, first of all, I want you to stop with that ‘Sheriff Wheaton’ stuff. My name is Harold and all my friends call me Harold. Now, I’ve never had a son-in-law before. But, I guess in this instance, it would probably be appropriate for you to call me ‘Dad’ also.”

  Jefferson cleared his throat. “Well, Sheriff… er, I mean, Harold. I really appreciate what you’re saying. Honest, I do. I would like to call you Harold. Uh.” He smiled sheepishly. “I think the ‘Dad’ thing might take a little getting used to.”

  Harold chuckled. “Yeah. It probably would for both of us. But, the thing I wanted to say, Jefferson, was that I think I have misunderstood you for a very long time, and for that I am truly sorry. Shauni and I had a very good conversation this morning, and she provided a great deal of insight into the kind of person you really are.”

  Jefferson was embarrassed. “Oh, Shauni’s just a little biased, don’t you think?”

  Harold answered, “Well, I suppose she is biased. But, she has good reason. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for any misunderstandings we may have had in the past, and I truly want to welcome you as part of our little family.”

  Mabel sat on the couch glowing with pride as she watched the two men.

  Jefferson said, “Thank you, Harold. You don’t know how much those words mean to me.”

  “And to me too!” Shauni said as she entered the room with a tray full of sandwiches and coffee cups. “Hi, everybody! Thanks so much for coming.” She placed the tray on the coffee table and walked over to Harold. She hugged him and whispered in his ear, “Thank you so much, Daddy.”

  Harold just smiled and kissed her cheek. “Well, what’s all this?” he inquired. “You didn’t have to fix anything, Honey.”

  Shauni grinned. “Well, Daddy. I know that you have some pretty long days and sometimes you don’t get much of a chance to get a bite to eat.” She looked over at Mabel. “I also know that this dear lady has been with you for every minute of this day and I thought she might want a little to eat. Beside, it’s just some ham sandwiches.” As she sat down, she said, “It’s not a gourmet meal or anything, ya know.”

  As they sat eating their sandwiches, Shauni was the first to broach the subject. “Daddy, the reason we wanted to have this meeting in such secrecy is that Jeffer and I have both been accidental witnesses to some strange events at the hospital that we felt you should know about. If what we’ve overheard amounts to nothing, then we wouldn’t want to get the person involved in any trouble and we wouldn’t want to start rumors flying by having somebody accidentally overhearing our conversation.”

  Harold replied, “Well, I guess that would be the prudent way to handle it. What are the events that you witnessed at the hospital?”

  Just then, the telephone in the kitchen rang. Shauni stood and said, “I’m sorry. I’ll go answer that and then we’ll continue the conversation.”

  When she returned, her face was ashen. Jefferson could see immediately that something was not right. “What’s wrong, Shauni?” he asked.

  “It’s J.T.,” she replied.

  Mabel put her hands to her mouth. “Oh, no!” she said. “Did he die?”

  “No!” said Shauni. “Not yet.”

  “Not yet?” asked Harold. “Shauni! What happened?”

  Shauni walked over to the couch and sat down. She was stunned as she spoke. “That was Cindy on the phone. She said that J.T. just had a terrible seizure and slipped back into a coma.” She looked over at Jefferson. “She said that Dr. Roberts requested that she call you to see if you’d be willing to return with one of your EEG machines.”

  Intensely concerned, Jefferson replied, “Well, of course I can. But, why would he want one of my machines?”

  “I guess they’re not convinced yet that the machines we have at the hospital are completely reliable,” replied Shauni. “She said that they have J.T. hooked up to one of the hospital’s machines right now, but he’d like to hook him up to one of yours also. You know, to double check that both machines are giving the same readouts.”

  Jefferson stood up and said, “I’d better get hopping. I’ll go down to my lab and bring one up right away.”

  Harold interrupted, “Ah, Shauni… Jefferson… I know this is an extreme emergency. But, would I be creating too much of a delay if I asked you to complete what you had started to tell us before Cindy called?”

  Shauni became momentarily confused as she looked from Jefferson to Harold. She turned back to Jefferson and said, “How about if I tell them what we overheard while you go get the EEG machine? That way, Daddy and Mabel will know, and then maybe we can all discuss it in further detail sometime later.”

  As Jefferson walked over to the basement door, he replied, “Sure, Honey. That would probably be the best thing to do. Then, if Harold and Mabel would like to follow us to the hospital, maybe they would be able to make some observations of their own.”

  “Okay,” said Shauni, as she turned to her father. “You both know Judy Gladden, right?”

  Mabel and Harold nodded. “She’s the oldest nurse at the hospital,” replied Mabel. Suddenly, she realized, “Oh, my! It’s terrible when the years go by so fast. Here, I’m saying that she’s the oldest nurse at the hospital and she’s about the same age as your father and I are.”

  Harold added, “I don’t know her very well. She always seems a little shy. She came to town several years ago to work in the clinic at the factory.”

  “Well,” continued Shauni. “Jefferson was the first to overhear her talking on the phone. It was when he was working so hard in the Pathology Lab at the hospital. He walked out into the corridor to stretch a bit and try to relax his eyes a little, when he heard Judy talking to someone on the telephone in the Nurse’s Lounge. It was very short. All he heard her say was, ‘This is me. It’s beginning to happen now. Just like you said it would’. Then she hung up.”

  “Holy cow!” exclaimed Harold. “What was the sequence of events that were taking place at that time?”

  Shauni answered, “That’s when the first of the kids were beginning to lapse into a comatose state.”

  “Oh my!” said Mabel softly.

  “Then, later that evening,” said Shauni. “I overheard her on a phone in the corridor. She hung up when she noticed me coming, but I don’t think she thought I heard anything.”

  “What did she say?” asked Mabel.

  Shauni replied, “She said, ‘If you’re going to do it, you’d better do it really soon’.” She looked at Harold as she said, “I didn’t really think much about it until I had talked to Jeffer, and he told me what he’d heard earlier.”

  Harold repeated as he wrote in his notebook, “If you’re going to do it. Hmm. What was happening with the kids at that time?”

  Shauni shook her head. “I can’t really be sure, Daddy. Everything was in such an uproar during those hours that it all begins to get jumbled up. Do you know what I mean?” She paused in thought for a moment before she continued. “Now, I couldn’t swear to this, but I think that… it wasn’t too long after I heard Judy on the phone that we started registering the first flatlines on the EEG machines.”

  Harold raised his eyebrows. “Oh, really?” he said. “Was that the last time you heard her on the phone?”

  “No,” replied Shauni. “There was one more time. Remember when both of you were in the reception area with me at the hospital and little Jacob came wandering out in his pajamas, looking for his mom and dad?”

  “Sure,” replied Mabel. “Who could ever forget that episode? Especially after you’d told us that he had just been pronounced brain dead.”

  “Well,” said Shauni. “It wasn’t too long after that.” She smiled slightly. “It was before the pillow fights started. In fact, both of you were still in the hospital, when I walked into the Lounge, and there she was, talking on the phone. All I heard her
say was, ‘Yes’, and then she paused and said, ‘No, they appear to be perfectly normal.’ Then she saw me and hung up immediately.”

  Harold asked, “Why didn’t you come to me then?”

  “Daddy!” Shauni replied. “You know how hectic things were at that time. I didn’t really give it another thought until Jeffer and I were alone and began comparing notes on the events of those last thirty-six hours or so.”

  Harold agreed. “No, I’m sure you were all so busy and confused that none of you could have been absolutely sure of just what day it was.”

  At that point, the basement door opened and Jefferson appeared holding a large metal box. He asked, “Well, Shauni, did you have time to tell them about all three incidences?”

  She nodded her head. “Yes, I told them everything we know.”

  “Did you tell them about the phone line thing?” asked Jefferson.

  “Oh! No! That’s right!” she answered. She turned back to Harold. “I forgot. Jefferson felt that it was quite important that we point out that we have no way of knowing if Judy was talking on an inside, or an outside line.”

  As Harold stood up, he commented, “Yes! That is very important.” He and Mabel began to walk toward the front door with Shauni and Jefferson, when he added. “As we all know, these bits of conversation that both of you overheard could have been completely innocent. She may have been talking to a friend about planting her spring flowers, or something like that. But, with all that was taking place, and the particular things you heard her say, it really does sound more incriminating than that.”

  “I know, Daddy,” said Shauni. “I’ve never felt any discomfort while working with Judy. She pretty much sticks to herself, but she seems to be a good nurse.”

  Harold replied, “I know that the two of you have to hurry to get to the hospital. I think Mabel and I will stop at my office first, before we come over. That way, we won’t be arriving at the same time, and besides, I need to check in with Larry and Irene to get the latest news about what’s been going on while I’ve been gone.”