Stephen White - Critical Conditions

Merritt leaned forward a little so that she could see the tall man standing in the corridor. She looked at him warily, as she might examine the newest kid who had arrived in class. With the index finger of her left hand she pushed the button that lowered the bed flat and slowly reclined from his view. As soon as the bed came to rest at horizontal, she rolled away from me as well, facing the window and the wall. I could see the small quivers of stifled cries rumbling through the long, lean muscles on her back.

“Merritt, we all want to help you any way we can.”

I thought I heard a sob. “I’m going to invite Mr. Maitlin in unless you tell me not to. He’s hoping you will talk to him about all this. He’ll need your assistance, Merritt, to make sense of everything.”

She didn’t protest. I stood and walked to the door and said, “Come on in, Cozy.”

Maitlin walked in and walked over to the bed. I said, “Merritt Strait, this is Cozier Maitlin.”

Cozy dropped to a squat beside the bed and lowered his voice to an octave level I had never heard from him before. “Hello, Merritt, I’m an attorney. It appears that you may be in some serious trouble with the police whether you have done anything or not. And I would like to help.”

Merritt replied with a sob.

“Alan, Dr. Gregory, warned me that you haven’t been saying much the last few days. But this is serious. I hope you’ll reconsider, at least with me.”

Cozy and I both watched her for signs that she was even hearing him. If Merritt was reconsidering anything, it wasn’t readily apparent to me.

“Okay. As ironic as this may sound, one of the things I was going to advise you is that it’s important that you not speak to anyone but your lawyer and your doctors. It’s very likely that the police will pay you a visit tonight. Unless you object, I will notify them now, right away, that you have chosen not to answer their questions. Fortunately, it appears that concurring with my advice about staying silent will be easy for you.

“The next thing I need to let you know is about the possibility that you will either be arrested or detained for questioning in the death of a man named Edward Robilio. He’s a doctor.”

He waited for her to react to the name of the deceased. She didn’t. The name either didn’t mean anything to her, or she already knew it.

“Should that occur, I hope that the police will provide me with the courtesy of some advance warning so that I can arrange for someone to accompany you through the process of being booked, but they are not required to do so.

“With your doctors’ consent, you may be removed temporarily from the hospital by the police. You must remember the entire time that you have the right to remain silent. And, as I’ve made clear, I would prefer that you exercise that right. Would you like me to tell you what to expect in the event that you are forced to go through this alone?”

Merritt was as still as a statue.

Her silence in response to questions provided the questioner an awful lot of latitude. Cozy told her what was likely to happen. He asked, “Is it all right with you if Dr. Gregory and I discuss your situation?”

She surprised me by nodding, then reached down with one long arm and tugged the scratchy hospital sheets and thin hospital blanket up past her waist.

I said, “Merritt, your mother will be here soon. As soon as she is done with the police, I imagine. She is very worried about you. Would you like me to stay until she arrives?” I knew I should give her a default option. “I’m going to take no response from you to mean yes, that you would like me to stay with you.”

Without facing us or otherwise moving, she shook her head in two long arcs.

I was being dismissed. Without considering the consequences, I reached out and touched her lightly on the biceps of her left arm. I said, “Good night, I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”

Cozy said, “Good night, Merritt. We’ll do everything we can for you.”

Back in the hall outside her room, I motioned for the nurse to come over. She did. I stood near Merritt’s door in a position where I could see every move the immobile adolescent might make.

The nurse said, “Yes?”

“Some things have happened that have left this situation much worse than it was an hour ago. Her suicidal risk is sky-high right now. I’m not trying to be insulting by saying this, but doing one-to-ones can be pretty dull duty sometimes. Please don’t take your job lightly tonight. That girl’s life may depend on it.”

The nurse swallowed. I was telling her that the plane she was flying had just gone from autopilot cruise control to engine-out emergency mode.

She said, “This isn’t the best environment for a suicidal kid. Maybe she shouldn’t be here, Doctor.”

“You’re absolutely right, she shouldn’t be here. But right now she is. My next task tonight is to arrange a quick transfer to a psych hospital. But I’m sure you know how these things go. It may take a while to pull that off, to get approvals and to find her a bed.”

The nurse said, “You’ll fill in the staff nurses so they can back me up?”

I said, “Of course.” She resumed her post.

Cozy said, “How do you read it?”

“I don’t.”

“What do you mean? I thought reading people was your thing.”

“Cozy, she’s been upset for days. She’s more upset now, that’s obvious. But about what? Her sister? The bloody clothes? The gun? The fact that her mother was snooping in her room? The fact that she may be arrested tonight for murder? Maybe about whatever it was that caused her to take all those pills in the first place. We still don’t even know what that is. Or maybe it’s the fact that her parents haven’t been here to hold her hand during much of this. If you can discern any of that from her silence, please tell me, ’cause I don’t know the answers to any of those questions.”

“I’m just a lawyer, Alan, but assuming the evidence lines up the way it appears it is going to line up, it seems to me that the timing would indicate that her suicide attempt was likely precipitated by her distress over whatever her involvement was in the shooting of Edward Robilio, don’t you agree?”

I couldn’t shake the succession of images I had of watching Merritt react when I told her about finding the clothes and the gun. “You weren’t in there with me at first, Cozy. Merritt seemed more upset about the gun than about the blood. And if I was reading her right, she seemed most upset that someone had been snooping in her room at all.”

He considered my words. “Sorry, all that seems trivial to me. I’m not convinced that was it. Maybe you just read it wrong. Lord knows I misread the twins all the time, and they usually don’t shut up, ever.”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions, either. Right now, though, I need to get her transferred to a locked unit someplace for her own safety.”

“To a psychiatric hospital?”

“Yes. A psychiatric hospital. What’s your best guess, will she be arrested tonight?”

“Are you asking about timing, or about the police department’s intent?”

“Timing, I guess.”

“Given what the authorities already have, I’d say she’ll be taken into custody, oh, tomorrow sometime. In the interim, if they have as much probable cause as I’m afraid they do, I would imagine that you’re going to see a female officer’s butt on a chair in this hallway within an hour. Just to keep an eye on things, you know?”

“I know.”

“What’s her family situation? Brenda’s husband is her stepfather? Is that what you said earlier? Where’s her real dad?”

“The family has only been in town a short while, maybe six months. Brenda’s husband, John Trent, is Merritt’s stepfather. He’s a psychologist, but I don’t know him. I’ve only talked with him over the phone so far. He’s spending almost all of his free time with Chaney, the other daughter, at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. Merritt’s biological father is currently on an oil rig in the Persian Gulf. I spoke with him briefly already. He’ll come see Merritt if she wants him to.”