New York looks as good as it ever has. Columbus Circle is surrounded by pink tulips. Every traffic island is loaded with daffodils. Park Avenue is covered with flowering trees. It's time for every kind of "spring" show imaginable: the Spring Garden Show, the Spring Builders Show, the Spring Computer & IT Show etc., etc., etc. For this Thursday to Sunday the Park Avenue Armory is the site for the Spring Antiques, Art & Decorator Home Show.
The vendors have been arriving morning, noon, and night from all over the US, Canada & Europe too. Katie is available to go on the opening day because another RN had a scheduling conflict and she traded Thursday for Saturday . Actually, Katie knows Tony Howard, RPH and some of the physicians want to go because several vendors specialize in medical collectibles. Doc Holiday's dental instruments might be on display. There will be lots of apothecary jars, mortar and pestles, documents, letters and old time pharmaceutical advertisements will be for sale, and great for decorating. It might be interesting and living in NYC makes it easy to go.
Danny telephones Don to say that Mac has called a meeting. He wants to wrap it up on the Wall Street bus overdose case. Don replies with "there's more good news. The NYC transit system isn't what it used to be. Last night, on my way home from work on the subway these three nursing students found that one of the unkempt commuters could not sit up on her own. When a fellow passenger disembarked, the disheveled woman fell over hitting her head on the hard plastic seat. One astute student, Julie thought she was not breathing. Virginia the oldest one, thought they should initiate CPR and although she does not follow thru on CPR, she thinks she touched the victim. How much? I don't know. I notified Sid to expect another unhappy traveler. Then Sid quotes some guy named Ed Dahlberg who said that 'when one realizes his/her life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels'. It's futile with him; sometimes he does know what he is talking about. It's about commuting on the subway."
Don tells Danny he is on his way but his allergies are acting up. He sounds nasal and he is coughing and sneezing. He has to stop at a CVS or somewhere to get an over the counter antihistamine for his runny, stuffy nose and itchy eyes. Don adds that the pollens are killing him. The dust is all over his car. Hawkes over hears this conversation and says he should really be on a nasally inhaled corticosteroid. Don replies that he does not want to take any steroids because he still wants to have normal children someday. "I don't want my kids to have a third ear in the middle of their foreheads or something; and, I don't want any big chemical toxins inside my body polluting things for my future. Hawks just shakes his head and says he'll explain it later.
As Katie enters the Park Ave Armory, it becomes very obvious that there is just so much to see here. Some people would take the whole weekend. The old art work is varied but of fine quality. The workmanship and detail on the wood furniture and cabinets is gorgeous. Civil war antiques seem to dominate. There is plenty of history in every item. The old toys and doll collections are plentiful; so is the china. On the other hand, why would some people save some of this stuff? Some of the vendors are very nice and some could be nicer. All are hoping for a very profitable showing to make their time worthwhile.
Meandering thru the crowd Katie stumbles on to one isle full of the antique dealers who specialize in medical paraphernalia. There are medical reference books, rescued gall bladder stones and other anomalies in jars, paper advertisements about galloping consumption and the red snapper, mugs of every size for every drug imaginable. Some items are true antiques and others are collectible junkque. One husband and wife vendor draws Katie's attention because Tony Howard, the pharmacist is there deep in negotiations. The husband, Eric Silversteen tells them that he has just acquired a collection from the descendant of a family who had a line of thirteen generations of pharmacists. They mostly worked in their own store outside Philadelphia but they also worked in hospitals. There were scales and compounding aids, calibrated flasks and glassware and small autoclaves, and a collection of old compendiums and charts illustrating metric and apothecary equivalents. They had every kind of pharmacy charm, key chain, scratch pad, eye wash glasses and pen made. There was a four foot glass lamp filled with colored pills, and old samples too. The graphic design depicted on the packaging was fun to look at and read. We have come a long way in efficacy and drug safety. Medicine itself is not as commercial as pharmacy because the old time pharmacies also provided whatever you needed to care for yourself including grooming aids (perfumes and cosmetics) and cooking aids (extracts and flavorings), vitamins and first aid as well as surgical dressings. The husband and wife dealers were a couple of characters too. He was a real know-it-all and a little condescending even to Tony who really knows his way around any pharmacy. The wife was not that friendly either. It just seemed like a chore for her. They were a little cranky with each other too.
Sure enough while touring the rest of the Armory displays, Katie does run into more hospital people she knows as well as an old friend of hers from Sacred Heart Academy High School in Hempsted. They have a nice long chat and agree to get together sometime soon. Nice. It was a great day off but it's back to work on Friday seven to seven.
In addition to the Spring Antiques, Art and Decorator Home Show being an important trade show for NYC, there will be a benefit for several animal charities on Friday night. The city was supposed to get a grant from Homeland Security which will allow four new police dogs to be added. Four dogs are over eight years of age now. They are overdue for retirement. These dogs get over six hundred hours of training and become FEMA certified. (The award status is still up in the air for NYC.) The police dogs will do a demonstration before the close of the show. The police dogs and the police horse units don't seek donations because they are actually NYPD owned. Some small support is sought after for various events their handlers might bring them to where there would be a competition or other event to demonstrate their skills. Fundraisers of this kind are often run by the handler's animal loving spouses. They are usually at schools and involve cake sales or face painting for support. Only a small amount of money is the objective. The presence of police dog and horse units do indirectly support other animal protection charities without a doubt and can be symbiotic. The police kennels and horse barn have recently undergone some renovations. This improvement coincides with the renovations made at central booking. Half of central booking's new rooms will still be closed until the following Monday. For the talented N.Y. socialites who like to manage fundraisers, this is a perfectly exploitable opportunity that could benefit several animal rescue groups. It just needs a little publicity. Bernadette Casper (wife of a deputy police chief) & her sister, Claudia Klein (wife of a police unit captain) read in the Daily News about a nurse at Queen of Mercy being attacked by a boa constrictor a couple of weeks ago. There was something about a detective pulling the thing off of her. Anyway, there was also some crazy storey that Jimmy Choo started bidding on the flaming orange boa to join his shoe collection. The whole thing was pre-posterous. As long as Little Elmo's head was spared that day, it did not seem necessary to send him to the guillotine later either. Hector was willing to surrender him to the Bronx Zoo (& maybe later to another Zoo); and Katie Carlito was satisfied with this sentence as well.
Until Mia (of Bronx Zoo Reptile fame), who knew snakes could Twitter ? Mia came to Little Elmo's rescue when it was thought that Little Elmo could turn up as sling backs or platforms in Jimmy Choos' factory so Mia's account on Twitter is still active. Next thing you know, Little Elmo has a Twitter account too. Together Mia and Little Elmo could get the word out; and they do just that so various animal charities will benefit. That the Police Dogs will perform at the Antiques, Art & Decorator Home Show is an added bonus. So there was a little pressure on the general Police Force to co- operate with the fund raising aspects of this year's Antiques, Art & Decorator Home Show especially when Tina Diaz, radio broadcaster and sister to Bernadette and Claudia announced that some "arrests" will be made on the Friday night or second night of the Antiques, Art & Decorator Home Show. To get out of "jail" aka as the new central booking section of NYPD the "volunteer criminals" will have to phone their friends to raise money for their bail. The Mayor, former governor and former mayors are going along with all this, surprisingly. But then, there is no big wedding taking place this year like they had in London. The Olympics won't be coming to NYC anytime soon either. New York is a world class city and will not be out done by an austerity budgeted place like London. So a number of celebrity-types have volunteered to be "arrested". It's all very comical and silly. It just seems like everyone needs a break from earlier bleak economic news and a very long, dreary winter.
Police executives Casper and Klein are long time, old time friends of Mac Taylor's. They only want a little support from CSI. Mac Taylor wants to give it. After all, these two old friends have backed him up on several past incidents and on some political issues; and a police dog took a bullet for him once. Mac broadcasts an e-mail to his department to request "volunteers". Truthfully, those making the arrests should be real off duty police officers only because of some of the safety situations that could arise. Even the volunteer criminals can get upset, agitated due to the stress of being arrested and frisked (especially if anyone had been drinking). The "volunteer criminals" must be over twenty-one, not inebriated or drugged, not active criminals in any way; and ideally be "monied" or be able to solicit some. That does not leave a lot of people the CSIs know.
Nurse Kathleen Maria Carlito and Detective Don Flack have only seen each other in passing. Frankly, Katie is a little miffed. She is uncertain about whether or not Don just thinks about her being part of his job. It could be that he feels some sort of obligation toward her because he "saved" her (from the snake); so it's now part of his job to keep her alive. OR, maybe " he's just really not that much into her". He seems a little older, more seasoned, in some ways than she is. Certainly, he has more New York street smarts; and maybe more sophistication or experience. She feels more like the new high school wallflower freshman while he might be the senior quarterback lettered in many things. Maybe this is just some kind of transference, some unconscious identification where they should actually resist seeing each other. Each one is rotating shifts; and opposite shifts at that. Don did bring her coffee once but then someone arrested (ie. cardiac) in the ER ; and Katie had to go. Next time he stopped by, he ended up leaving to arrest (police) someone for some minor thing but by that time her shift was over and it was 11:30 pm. She had gone home. It has gotten to the point where he has to see her about an upcoming "arrest" he HAS to make this Friday night.
He tries to catch up with her at the ER but missed her on Monday. He can only leave her a message on her cell phone but found out she will be working Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday seven to seven. While he is able to catch up with her on Wednesday, she is distracted with patients and numerous interruptions. She comments that it sounds like he is underwater (probably due to his nasal stuffiness). However, she does agree to see him Friday when she gets off (about 7:15pm); and seems to understand she is volunteering for some crazy charity event for his CSI unit where she will make phone calls to solicit money. Some of Flack's co-workers and some police department higher-ups will be there…and it's all for charity…as Don has explained it.
Friday was really a very routine day in the ER. One thing that was interesting was that Mrs. Silversteen from the Spring Antiques, Art and Decorator's Home Show presented with vague complaints of dizziness. She seemed to think her allergies were acting up on top of the sinusitis history she also has.
Something told the ER doctor to investigate further by running a two lead rhythm strip just for his own satisfaction. At first he thought, she had some QT prolongation; or were the crazy up and down spikes just static interference ? It seemed short lived and corrected itself without any intervention. Anyway, she returned to normal sinus rhythm. She admitted to having taken some pseudoephedrine to relieve some nasal stuffiness and was otherwise offering a reliable history which included past sinus infections. They kept her for observation for just under an hour and then she said she felt fine.
Friday night, however turned out to be really much, much more than what Katie heard Don say. In fact, the time is exactly 7:15 pm and, she is just out of the locker room when she hears Detective Flack yell at her to halt because she is under arrest. And he sounds like he means it. There is another uniformed police officer with him. Oh ! MY GOD ! They have arrested Rebecca, RD(registered dietician) from the kitchen who is being lead out of the hospital in handcuffs. Paula and Kim, the xray techs from Radiology are also in handcuffs. A transient wave of panic washes over Katie. They look serious. Flack looks serious and he is coming directly toward her. She's in some kind of a frozen state, "like a deer in the headlights". But Katie notices that as these women are being lead out the ER (back)doors, the rest of the staff is doubled over in laughter. So they are not being picked up on drug charges or anything like that. Then it hits her that this is what Don was talking about. What a relief.
Don Flack loves a little drama and is still playing his part. However, he could see she needs a little reassurance. In a loud voice, Don asks her "did you forget about the benefit because I am here to make the arrest. And if the ER staff wants you to work your next shift, they will make generous donations to the cause because that is the only way Katie Carlito is getting out of jail this time." He says all of this with a very straight face. But then he firmly grasps her arm and shoulder, restraining her, spreading her feet, and positioning her to be searched. It took her a few minutes to pull it together but she finally got into the game. As he is slowly patting her down, she coyly whines "Oh Detective Flack your hands are freezing and I can feel them right thru the scrubs." He does not respond. "And Detective Flack are you trying to get promoted to airport security?" She is not usually comfortable with being the center of attention but all eyes are on the two of them now. He replies with "Oh, you're gonna' get smart with me now, are you ?" He is going a little more than above and beyond the call to duty. He wants to search her pockets before she gets in the squad car. He asks if she has any sharps. She tells him that she has a pen and her scissors in her right hip pocket, and her cell phone is in the left hip pocket. She offers to take them out. He says "no, he will get them". But she realizes that not only is the cotton fabric on scrubbs thin, the pockets are too small for him to insert his hands and be able to get his hands out easily. She says, "gee, Detective Flack, your hands are too damn big for my pockets, how are you gonna' get them out?" He replies. "See now, there you go again, smart-mouthing me with some flip commentary. I will reach in with my two fingers to retrieve these objects, and neither one of us will get hurt". (Katie wonders why there is such a lull in ER activity? It's got to be that we are on the dull side of the moon or something. This is a different kind of excitement, a diversion that more people are getting involved with when they should just be heading home. Katie will never live this down. Where are the gun shot victums when you need them?)He finds one of those cellophane wrapped hard cough drops in her pocket which he holds up for everyone to see. He scolds her for having candy in her pocket by questioning "Didn't anyone ever tell you that this is not good for you?" She answers him with " Detective Flack, it's for you. It's to help your cough and it's loaded with sugar to make you sweeter." Flack toys with her some more with "Ms. Carlito, you are forgetting who you are talking to. On the day we met, right here, late in the afternoon, I thought I saw your best characteristics, but now…well, now, I don't know…all this mouthing off, displaying a real bad attitude, not totally cooperating. And now you're laughing at me. (She is; and so is everyone who is watching.) Have you got a problem with authority?" She almost looses her balance and steps forward to catch herself. At that time, he could hear some metal clanging together inside her clothing and asks to see what it is. She shows him the dog tags around her neck. He asks if they are her boyfriend's or husband's (maybe, she's not available?)" "No, no" she replies. " These are mine. I got out of the Air Force about four months ago. (Don did not know anything about her military service.)I just wore them because I was giving blood . See, it's my name and blood type stamped on them." He reads that she is B positive and exclaims that he is B positive too. She says "… well, that means if you needed blood I could donate it to you." He seems surprised." Do you mean that you would give me blood, your blood if I needed it ?" "Yeah" she replies quite certainly.( This is a 'given' for most medical staff who have worked in transplant units or where organ donation is a possibility.) "Sure, I'd give you bone marrow too if you needed it; but probably not a kidney." Still, he is impressed with her generosity and adds, "…maybe you're not all bad!" "Detective Flack, I give blood several times a year, not for any reason in particular. I just donated today. I would definitely give it to you if you needed it" offers Katie. Flack is completely satisfied with what he has just learned and announces that they should be on their way out to Central Booking but she has to go in handcuffs. She proclaims her innocence. He comments "that's what they all say". Victor and Hector, the ward clerks are commissioned to collect bail money from the rest of the staff; and aggressively solicit on their new assistant head nurse's behalf. As he walks her out to the car, Katie warns Don that she is probably not worth that much since she is somewhat " new" in town and doesn't really know anyone yet. He rebuffs her with "Oh, you know more people than you think you know; and don't worry about it, my unit has you covered. You are not getting out of this. We are just looking for a little something out of you. We actually have some donors already lined up. As she gets into the back of the squad car, Flack puts his hand on her head just like they do on TV when people really get arrested.
In about three minutes, they arrive at the newly renovated Central Booking. Katie could see the old entrance where a few of the regular offenders are being admitted. It's spooky and in a strange reality, a very fine line. For tonight or at least this weekend, only plasterboard separates them.
Almost immediately after Flack and Katie enter, he removes the handcuffs. He lets her know that he will sign her in and has to check some messages , etc. with Mac. He will touch base with her thru-out the night. About one hundred people are already here. Mayor Bloomberg and Rudy Guiliani are supposed to appear tonight. Bernadette and Claudia are working the room wedging themselves into photographs every chance they get. Katie is ushered to a spectacular buffet table and offered a soft drink; then informed that more instructions are coming. The lights are very bright. Tina Diaz is cheerfully MC-ing this event. She is most cordial to the "criminals" informing them about how the evening phone schedule is planned, telling funny stories about her sisters, and offering suggestions on how to persuade donors to give more. There is live music playing; and it changes from a banjo trio to violin trio to guitar trio. Mario, the host and organizer of the Antiques, Art and Decorator's Home Show is wallowing in all the Hub-bub of this social occasion…but he is a doll, just the sweetest man who loves decorating, animals and other people who love decorating and animals. He is making the rounds and makes his way to Katie. She expresses some concern that she hopes she can raise what is expected of her. He is offering to spend the night in jail with her, half hoping that she never meets that goal but… Flack and Mac suddenly appear. Introductions are made. Everyone is charmed.
Everyone is charmed or so it seems. Mac and Flack have something else on their minds. Don lets Katie know that "something" has just happened which he will probably have to get involved with but only for a short time. He will be in and out while she is working the phones. Mac gets her started with their list of donors. The names and phone numbers she has are all indirectly related to Mac's CSI team. Everyone gives at least $50.00. Before she knows it she has collected almost $950. She telephones Victor to see if he was able to weasel some bucks out of the two husband and wife plastic surgeons who acquire a lot of business at the ER. He got $300 from each couple, $500 from the staff and $200 from each of the two hospital lawyers plus some small amounts from employees in the cafeteria, the janitors, even clergy and volunteers.(Victor will take money from anyone. He should be "arrested" next year but might not meet the qualifications for a charity. He would meet some other qualifications for being arrested.) While Katie was working the phones she notices Mac and Flack chatting with Adam who has just arrived. Adam seems to be checking something out at one of the phone/computer stations. It seems the wires might be crossed with telephone wires that are inside the older part of Central Booking. Anyhow one of the transmissions was confusing to someone who seemed to get a strange message.
Mac Taylor was desperate for volunteers not related to NYPD. Katie's presence was appreciated for her ER experience as well since one celebrity reported chest pain and a history of angina. Fortunately, this was relieved with one sublingual nitroglycerin and a quiet restful place in a back room. This celebrity-patient refused to go to the ER but Katie took it upon herself to check on her frequently; and then she returned to her home. Another "criminal" seemed to succumb to an asthma attack probably triggered by stirring up all the dust in the wrappings and shipping containers). He seemed to have a working albuterol inhaler which he used for exercise induced bronchospasms routinely once a week. The paramedics took him to an ER. Actually, the new Central Booking is getting a good work out.
Apparently what happened with the phone system that Adam is working on was that one of the "volunteer criminals" overheard thru the wires that someone was trying to bump off a spouse or hire someone to "take care of a problem with eyrthromycin". It just did not make sense. The connection was poor and it seemed that the "volunteer criminal" was on mute and could not be heard by the other parties when questioned. Adam has been on the phone with Danny, Jo, and Don thru out the night. No resolution has been drawn. It is now about 9:30 pm. Mac calls Sheldon Hawkes and Sidney Hammerback, the Coroner to come down to rub elbows with the police hierarchy at least for the last hour. Mac wants everyone to know his department was here for support.
The smell of new fresh coffee fills the room and is the signal that this very successful charity affair is coming to a close. The caterers put out the last spread of cheeses, nuts, fruit and desserts for the evening. Katie spots her high school friend, Erin at the table. They have a chance to resume their earlier conversation. Erin said that her father is here somewhere and that he wanted to say hello to Katie. The girls were always joking about how the Sacred Heart nuns always thought he looked like Tom Selleck and Katie's father looked like John Wayne. Erin invites Katie to dinner on Sunday.
Just when the crowd was dispersing, there appears to be a small commotion in one corner of the room. Mrs. Silversteen has collapsed on the floor. Katie runs over to her. She is cyanotic and not responding. Sheldon and Sidney take over. The paramedics arrive but it's too late.