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“I thought I was going to have to text you about getting your mom a lawyer while we talked,” Peter said after the task force members left.
“I practically told her that when she first arrived,” Lucas said.
“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” I said. “And then my morning got off to a rough start before I came here.”
“They’ll go after murder charges on your mom and may try to claim it was a conspiracy she concocted with Melina Daniels,” Gabriel said.
“Good luck with that,” I commented. I took out my cellphone and texted Nyleena.
“Did you say your mom was going to go kill Brogdon yesterday?” Peter asked.
“I really don’t know. Probably, but if I did, it was said to Nadine, not Murphy or Holmes who just happened to be in earshot.”
“Holmes said he didn’t hear you say it,” Gabriel said.
“I think he wants on C Team.”
“Yeah, you said that last night too.”
“Now it feels like a conspiracy,” I told him.
“It shouldn’t,” Lucas replied. “We aren’t conspiring to do anything or cover anything up. Your mom obviously went there in anger. She did not take a gun; she took a camera. We all expected the worst, but that’s just part of our lives. Brogdon is at fault. He picked the wrong little old lady to mess with, not once but twice.”
“Yeah, I wondered why he didn’t run the other direction when your mom came in,” Fiona said. “I would have, and he already knew the two of you had taken out some of his men.”
“My guess, he thought it was all Aislinn last time,” Lucas said.
“Mine too,” I sighed. “Nothing like the Spanish Inquisition first thing in the morning to fuck up a day.”
“That is the third time this morning you have said fuck,” Xavier said.
“It’s the hormones. I feel things and I am feeling them deeply. I can’t shut them off. Not to mention, my mom isn’t here to threaten to wash my mouth out with soap for saying it.”
“Are you implying progesterone might cure psychopathy?” Lucas asked.
“No, but I totally understand how it drove Kenzie to postpartum psychosis. This sucks. I have no clue what to do with all these emotions. They aren’t my normal ones, which tend to be rather shallow. I don’t even have a word in my vocabulary to describe them. If I feel like this for 12 weeks, I will have a psychotic break.”
“Try to describe them,” Xavier said.
“Uh, melancholy maybe? Or ambivalence coupled with annoyance? Or all three of those, but at the same depth that I feel rage. It’s as if it is radiating from the core of my being.”
“You feel sad, indifferent, and annoyed and that’s different than normal how?” Lucas asked.
“No, none of those three are correct, that’s the problem. Last night, I cried about my mom being in the hospital and still needing surgery,” I said. “I barely cried at my own father’s funeral and I have never cried over mom needing surgery, especially not a low risk one like fixing a broken hand. While I cried, I wanted to dig up Brogdon and shoot him again, which just made me cry harder. Yet, despite the plethora of tears, I don’t actually feel sad. I know what my version of sad is and this isn’t it. This is something else and it feels like it’s at soul level, not a surface emotion. I never feel anything at a soul level; not happiness, not sadness, nothing. Rage occasionally comes close, but even then, it is still not quite this deep. Whatever this is, it is awful.”
“But not a cure,” Lucas repeated.
“Absolutely not. I may not know what this is exactly, but it is definitely not an improvement on my usual state of being.” Without warning I burst into tears. Everyone stared at me, shocked and possibly awed. I wiped at the damnable things with my hands and Gabriel handed me a box of Kleenex. I sniffled at it, then grabbed a bunch of them and shoved them in my pocket.
“Well, your bloodwork from last night should be in sometime this morning, maybe that will help us. I believe, like you, that it is related to the hormones, but we don’t know how your system is going to react to a process that for most women is fairly normal and routine, not just because you are a psychopath but because your body doesn’t create hormones like it should. Your estrogen levels are below average and now we are flooding you with estrogen and a slew of other hormones. It was bound to have some effect on you, we just have to monitor it to see if we can test for it,” Xavier said as the tears stopped flowing.
“Yes, yes, I know. I’m a guinea pig. It’s weird that you are testing my blood to understand why I have feelings,” I said. “I’m going to the hospital and then I’ll resume knocking down the doors on my list.”
“I’m pairing you solely with Holmes today. If he has no objections, take him to the hospital with you,” Gabriel said.
I nodded and grabbed Marshal Holmes. On the way to the car, I asked his permission to stop by the hospital and he eagerly agreed. I found his desire to please incredibly annoying and I considered tasering him to get him to stop. But he wasn’t Malachi and I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Even more surprising, he insisted on going up to my mother’s room with me. I frowned at this, but didn’t tell him to jump in a lake, which was my first thought on it. There was a security guard at the door. I introduced myself and Holmes, we both flashed badges and the security guard got on his walkie-talkie and then told us we could go in. Further down the hall was another man, but he was not in a uniform. I recognized him as being Mitch from Daniels’ Security. This made me frown harder.
“If it isn’t my wayward daughter,” my mother cackled as I came into the room. She was trying to eat Cream of Wheat with her non-dominant hand. I took the spoon from her.
“Why would you consider me wayward?” I asked.
“It just sounded good darling. How are you?”
“Wow, you’re very stoned,” I said.
“Morphine is great!” My mom responded and cackled again. I had never heard my mom cackle.
“Why isn’t one of the nurses feeding you?” I asked. “Why isn’t there a police officer at the door? Where did the security guard come from?”
“So many questions,” Mom said softly and quietly. “You may ask just one.” Then she pointed to the little stand next to her bed. There was something that appeared to be an alarm clock there, but hospitals didn’t provide alarm clocks.
“Okay, where’d you get the clock?” I asked.
“Nadine and Alex. It was to replace the camera I was wearing when I came in last night. I survived last night, which surprises me.”
“Mom?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Brogdon had friends in many places and there was a creepy man with a twitch in my room at 4:30 a.m. He said he was a cop, but he wouldn’t show me ID. He and the nurse had words about him being in here. Security had to throw him out. He said he’d be back with a warrant, but I don’t believe for a moment he was a real cop.”
“Brown suit?” I asked.
“Yes, how did you know?” Mom asked. “Oh, I forgot you know everything. Who is your friend?”
“Marshal Eli Holmes,” I said, introducing him. “Marshal Holmes, meet my very prim and proper mother, who can’t handle an Advil, let alone morphine. And that was the head of the Spanish Inquisition, his name is Captain Phillip Jones,” I told her. “He really is a cop, although I have some serious questions about his competence. What did he want?”
“He tried to convince me I was part of a conspiracy to kill Yuri Brogdon. He wanted me to tell him my co-conspirators.”
“That asshole!” I spat.
“Aislinn Cain, you will not use language like that, you were raised to be a lady!” My mother hissed at me.
“Did you tell him it was a conspiracy?” I asked her.
“Yes, I did. I admitted the entire thing. Where is my breakfast?”
“It is here Mom, do you want more? You are mostly just wearing it, not eating it. Who did you tell him you were conspiring with?”
“The only person I have ever conspired with,” Mom said. “I hate this food. Can you get me a sandwich? I could eat a sandwich.”
“It would be inadmissible given her condition,” Holmes said.
“That is true, but I have only ever conspired with one person, and while he would have been fine with seeing Brogdon dead, he won’t tell on me,” Mom replied.
“Oh boy.” I rolled my eyes. “Did he even acknowledge that Donnelly is dead?”
“No, he acted like he’d never heard of Donnelly before. Such a disgraceful twerp.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know who Donnelly is, either, and I feel like I should,” Holmes said.
“My husband, Donnelly Clachan, Aislinn’s father. Best man to ever walk the Earth. Well, for a psychopath he was anyway.”
“I feel I missed something,” Holmes said.
“You didn’t, Donnelly was murdered 16 years ago,” I said.
“I even told him Donnelly and I used a Ouija board to plot Brogdon’s death,” Mom continued. “Then Alex and Nadine came with gifts. Alex has the video of our conversation. Nadine called the hospital to see if I had protection late last night. I asked after you and she said you had come home crying and gone to bed and that she was worried about you, so she wanted to make sure I had protection given that I had killed a mob boss yesterday. I told her I didn’t, and she told me to set up the camera I’d worn to Brogdon’s and Alex would monitor it all night. After Captain Twitchy left this morning, I called Nadine, who had already been called by Alex, and she arranged some protection for me.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I spat. “Sorry, Mom.”
“Why such outbursts? It’s like you’ve developed Tourette’s,” Mom said.
“I was told you would have protection from the task force. I am angry that they failed to do that one simple thing.”
“No reason to be. I am capable of protecting myself, even in a hospital. A nice young man named Mitch came in and set up three more cameras this morning in this room and gave me this.” My mom flashed something that looked like a key fob. I knew it was a panic button. Not only would it trigger alarms at Daniels’ Security, but it would produce a deafening warbling noise.
“Good,” I said, feeling a headache forming. “I will get you a sandwich. I’m going to leave Marshal Holmes with you. If he attacks you, hit the button and I’ll taser him when I get back.”
I stopped at the nurse’s station. The nurses were frowning at me.
“I have a favor to ask. My mother is not capable of asking for help or accepting it gracefully. She’s just not built that way. Is it possible to get her a breakfast sandwich somewhere?”
“Perhaps she shouldn’t have thrown the first one or the first bowl of oatmeal,” one nurse said to me.
“Turn down the pain meds,” I said. “At home if she takes two Advil, she goes to sleep and wakes up feeling hungover.”
“The lower pain meds weren’t treating her pain,” the nurse told me. “Due to nerve damage and the high pain levels, we are giving her morphine and Gabapentin.”
“It’s the Gabapentin,” I immediately said. “It’s supposed to be in her chart that Gabapentin makes her hostile and violent. I told the admissions nurse. She had shingles some years ago and was hospitalized. Standard treatment for shingles is Gabapentin. Within just a few hours, she threatened to smother her roommate for breathing too loudly. The poor woman had pneumonia.”
“I told you it was something medical, normally Mrs. Clachan is a very sweet woman,” Mitch said. The nurse I was talking to pulled out a phone and my mother’s chart at the same time. She scribbled on the chart and then texted on the phone.
“We’ll get the Gabapentin stopped and see if that helps. But I have to have the doctor’s permission.”
“Why? She shouldn’t have been on it in the first place,” I said.
“Protocol,” the nurse replied. Mitch came to stand next to me.
“I’m here at your mother’s beck and call. There’s backup in the parking lot. If you want her to get a breakfast sandwich, we will make that happen,” Mitch told me.
“Thanks, I need to sort out why there isn’t a police officer at her door, get the video of Jones, and go find a serial killer,” I told him. “It may take a while once they remove the Gabapentin for her to return to normal. Don’t let her sneak any forks or knives off her trays.” I went back to Mom’s room.
“Mom, you’re on Gabapentin. We’re going to get you off it. Mitch and the guy working with him are going to get you a breakfast sandwich; he just needs to know where from and what you want,” I told her, talking softly and slowly.
“I’m not suffering from a head injury, you don’t need to talk to me like I’m stupid!” my mom snapped at me.
“Fine, tell Mitch what you want, and he’ll get it for you. I’m taking Marshal Holmes to look for a serial killer. I’ll be back later.” I turned on my heel and left the room with Holmes right behind me.
“Don’t let them switch out Gabapentin for Lyrica; she reacts nearly the same to it.” I told the nurse before I left. “Oh, and once she’s off it, she will probably sleep a lot.”
“Good,” the nurse replied. I agreed. I gave the keys to the Lincoln Navigator to Holmes. “You drive, I have to figure out whose massive fuckup this is.”
I dialed Peter West first and then hung up before he answered and replaced it with a text telling him to never mind. Then I dug out the card for the task force guy I’d met that morning and I called him.
“This is Marshal Cain. Captain Jones tried to interrogate my mother at the hospital at 4:30 this morning. Hospital security had to throw him out. Why isn’t there at least a patrolman guarding her? The hospital had to put a security guard at her door to keep the damn cops out. God forbid someone looking to avenge Yuri Brogdon show up.” He was quiet for so long I thought he’d hung up on me.
“According to the sheet Jones turned in, there is a roster for guarding your mother. There is nothing in his notes saying he tried to talk to her.”
“It was caught on video by Alex Zeitzev, the private investigator that often works with Daniels’ Security. She had my mom set up the camera she’d worn to Brogdon’s in her room because she called and found my mother was completely unprotected last night.”
“I see. I’d like that video.”
“Sure. I’d also like another meeting with you, because either Captain Jones is completely incompetent, or he’s being paid by the Ukrainians to screw this up.”
“That is a serious allegation, Marshal Cain.”
“Agreed, but they are the only conclusions I can come to given his conduct and insistence that my mother conspired to kill a mob boss. Oh, and that’s what their conversation was about this morning. She thinks he tried to hypnotize her and then suggested she was part of a conspiracy.”
“That’s another serious allegation.”
“Yes, it is. Considering the discourteous attitude with which I was met this morning, I’m having trouble finding faith in your task force.”
“We will be at the SCTU in a few hours.” The man said.
“I will have Peter West meet with you. The SCTU has a serial killer to catch,” I told him and hung up. Then I called Gabriel. As soon as I told Gabriel everything, he hung up on me. I swore at the phone. I was still swearing at the phone when Gabriel called me back.
“US Marshals have been deployed to the hospital. No one from the task force is to get in to see your mother for any reason. The KC Marshals director as well as Peter West and Harry Burns will meet with the task force leader at our office. Have Alex and Nadine send everything they have to Director Burns.” Then he hung up on me again. I texted Nadine and Alex. I was still typing when the GPS told us our destination was on the right.
“I’ll circle the block in case one of them should immediately respond. You might want to keep a member of Daniels’ Security at the hospital to handle your mom’s needs beyond protection,” Holmes said to me. I nodded and looked at my silent phone. “Hospital food is abominable,” he said as he turned the corner after having passed our destination. He hit the button on the GPS when it told us to turn around.
“Good thinking,” I said as my phone dinged with a text message. It was Nadine. The stuff was being sent. She was leaving Mitch at the hospital in the waiting room even after the marshals arrived, because Mitch knew my mom and my mom knew him. I thanked her and felt a tear fall. I swore at it as it dripped from my cheek.
“Don’t worry about it, moms in hospitals are stressful. Do you need another minute?”
“No, I’m fine. Let’s get this one done and over with,” I said.