Stephen White - Critical Conditions

“Are they close? Father and daughter?”

“Brenda says the relationship is fine, friendly. Said he’s more like an uncle to her. Merritt, as you know, isn’t saying.”

“Is he successful at what he does?”

“Presumably, but I don’t know. He’s an oil-rig worker. Why?”

“Defending Merritt is going to get expensive fast, that’s why. I’m hoping someone who loves this kid has some resources to pay me.”

At that moment I was thinking it was no accident that managed care arrived first on the doorstep of the medical profession, and not the legal one.

“Do you mind taking a cab back to your car, Cozy? I have some calls to make before I leave here tonight. I need to find an adolescent female bed somewhere for Merritt. And I have to fill out the paperwork to place her on a seventy-two-hour hold.”

“No. I don’t mind. I’ll get a ride.” He paused. “You don’t have her on a hold already?”

“No. So far the admission has been voluntary. Her docs have stretched out the medical side of her hospital stay hoping she would start talking. She hasn’t. But that means she hasn’t complained about being here much, either.”

He raised his eyebrows at my explanation. I was assuming that now that Merritt was his client, he wasn’t sure he wanted her silence to be viewed as tacit agreement to anything. “Will finding a bed for her be difficult?”

“You never know. There aren’t that many acute adolescent beds available anymore. I’m going to have to run a gauntlet with her insurance company over approvals, too. But that won’t be until the morning.”

“If our suppositions are correct, the state will be paying for this admission, I’m afraid. Insurance approvals will be unnecessary.”

“I hope you’re wrong about that, Cozy. But you’re probably right. The truth is that I don’t want to see her at Fort Logan. I want her in a private hospital, so I’m going to try to get her a psychiatric bed before she’s taken into custody. If we can get that established, maybe the court will be more reluctant to order her moved.”

“If she goes to Fort Logan, would you be allowed to continue as her doctor?”

“Probably only as a consultant. Someone on staff would take the case.”

“An employee of the state?”

“Yes, an employee of the state. That person could be excellent, could be less than excellent.”

“That’s not good. I like your alternative better. But, as I said before, I don’t think you have more than eighteen hours or so to pull it off. Good luck.”

Before he left the hospital, Cozier Maitlin displayed his considerable charm and distributed his business cards to anyone willing to stick out a hand for one at the nursing station. I watched the craftiness from a distance. Although I couldn’t hear him, I figured he was busy weaving a legal safety net for Merritt, counting that the good will of the nurses and aides would cause them to call him if they noticed anything unusual happening with the police. From experience, I knew that Cozy didn’t miss much where his clients were concerned.

I sat down and wrote an obtuse chart note about the heightened suicide risk and filled out the paperwork for placing Merritt on a seventy-two-hour hold-and-treat. The hold allowed me to hospitalize Merritt against her will for three days because I judged her to be gravely impaired or a significant danger to herself or others. In most instances, after those seventy-two hours expired, I would need to consider other options. In this case, in fewer than twenty-four hours, I feared that the Boulder Police Department would be holding Merritt against her will for reasons much more sinister than mine.

As soon as I finished the paperwork I started calling around looking for available adolescent female psychiatric beds.

Sam Purdy was sitting on the hood of my Land Cruiser when I finally made my way down to the hospital parking lot.

He didn’t seem to expend a single calorie of energy as he eyed my long approach across the mostly empty lot. I said, “Hey, Sam.”

“I was hoping you would come down pretty soon. I was about to page you. How is she?”

“Hard to say, she’s still not talking. These latest developments don’t help the situation, I’m afraid. She seems even more entrenched than before.”

“Is Brenda up there with her?”

“Not yet. Wait, look, there she is now.” Across the parking lot, Brenda Strait was walking deliberately, with long strides, toward the hospital entrance, her hands in the pockets of a long gabardine trench coat. Her head was down.

“I didn’t want to run into her in Merritt’s room; that’s why I’m down here. It would be too goofy for the kid, I think, given the water that’s already passed under the bridge in this nutty family.”

“Yeah, I understand. Maybe it’s best for now. Merritt actually seemed incredulous when I told her that her mom had called you for help.”

“The kid is sharp. Maitlin’s on the case, right? That’s okay with her?”

“Who knows what’s okay with her? But he’s definitely on the case. He’s working already, putting things in place. He’s good, Sam.”

“I know he is. That’s why we called him.”

“Merritt’s going to be arrested, Sam? That’s for sure?”

He stared at me, not even comfortable with the words I was speaking. His voice suddenly rusty, he said, “Let’s get in the car.”

I unlocked the doors and we climbed in.

“Merritt’s…up shit creek. The gun in her bathroom is registered to Dead Ed. It’s missing two rounds. Everybody is assuming the blood on her clothes is Dead Ed’s blood. You can’t know this,” he paused to be certain I understood, “but we collected, oh, I don’t know, about a dozen good latents from Ed’s house that we haven’t been able to match to anyone. If any of those belong to Merritt, well, I don’t have to paint you a picture.”

“When will it all be clear?”

“The forensic team will get some of it packaged overnight. The prints and advanced blood work will take longer. Since Merritt doesn’t drive yet, I don’t think they will have any file print comparisons for her. While they dot all the i’s, someone will watch her hospital room. Is there a cop there yet?”

“No, not yet. Will there be?”

“Soon, I think. She’s in a relatively secure place. She’s not a flight risk. But she’s a kid, and that’s always a wild card. We can keep an eye on her as long as she’s in the hospital, so there’s no real hurry. The profile on this will be stratospheric, given the fallout from the JonBenet case, given who Dead Ed was, given that Brenda’s a celebrity, and given that Chaney is so sick and so damn cute. Everyone in the department is going to make damn sure the process looks perfectly deliberate and thoughtful. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the DA signs off on the evidence sometime tomorrow, with some fanfare. Then, if I’m reading things right, Merritt will be booked.”

“God, Sam, I’m sorry for what everyone is going through. There’s enough tragedy here for ten families for an entire lifetime.”

“And it’s only starting. The worst news could be yet to come for both of these kids. And now I have to go home and tell Sherry.”

I glanced over. He was opening and closing his right fist. “You want to tell me about that part? About what happened with Sherry and Brenda?”

“No, not now. Some other time.”

I didn’t press. “Who’s investigating this-Merritt’s situation? In the department?”

“The Dead Ed team. It’s part of that case. Maybe it’s the whole Dead Ed case.”

“Whew,” I said. “That means Malloy?” Scott Malloy was the detective who, the previous autumn, had arrested my wife for attempted murder and directed a search of my house. I had a lot of feelings about him, not all of them enthusiastic.