REBUILDING
Chapter 4
Thanks again to my sister, a retired Sheriff's sergeant, for information on drug possession penalties and "cop culture".
Annie threw away the remnants of her lunch, marked her place in the book she was reading, and prepared to go back to work. She had eaten lunch in the cafeteria because she wanted to get as far away from the ER as she could, but it was too cold to eat outside. It had been a busy morning and she suspected it would not slow down during the afternoon. She walked back to the break room and put her book and her wallet in her locker, then walked into the ER.
"Annie! Glad you're back", said June, the shift supervisor. "EMTs brought in a John Doe, probably homeless. He's unconscious, looks like he was beaten pretty badly. The EMTs couldn't get an IV started in the field and I wasn't able to get one in. Dr. Silva is chomping at the bit to have one of his interns do a cut-down, but I talked him into letting you try first. He's in Trauma 3."
In a busy teaching hospital, residents and interns were always looking for reasons to do new procedures. And what could be better than an unconscious homeless man? No one to protest or care. While Annie knew the importance of experience for the doctors, she felt that sometimes they were a little too eager and sometimes unnecessary procedures were done. This was a perfect example. A "cut-down"—inserting a central venous catheter into a vein through a surgical incision in the chest or neck was a procedure usually only done when a patient would need intravenous fluids or medications over a long period of time. But if a short-term IV could not be inserted with a needle, the doctors would insert a central line. It was a popular procedure for the residents and interns. Annie and the other nurses tried to prevent unnecessary procedures when they could. If one nurse was unable to get an IV started, she or he would ask at least one other nurse to try before turning the eager interns loose. Annie was rather proud of the fact that she had a reputation for being able to successfully start IVs on the most difficult patients, including IV drug users who had worn out their veins.
As Annie entered Trauma 3 she said a silent prayer that she would be successful. The man was lying on the gurney, still unconscious. Dr. Silva was there, with a new intern. He was instructing the intern on how to set up for a cut-down, normally a nurse's duty but Dr. Silva wanted his interns to be familiar with where supplies were kept. Annie approached the gurney, looking at the man's arms to evaluate his veins, before looking at his face. When she did look at his face, she gasped out loud. His face was so badly beaten that it took a moment to register in Annie's brain that this was no John Doe. It was her brother-in-law, Frank Goren.
His face was almost unrecognizable. It was covered with cuts and bruises. There was a deep cut just above his left eye and the eye was swollen shut. His right eye was black and blue. His bottom lip was split and swollen. She saw at least three cuts on his face alone that would need sutures. The EMTs had applied a splint to his left arm because it was broken; it would need to be X-rayed to determine how badly. Because of the head injuries they had put a collar around his neck to keep his head stable in case his spine was injured. His shirt was open and Annie could see that his chest and stomach were one huge mass of bruises and cuts. The force that would cause that kind of bruising likely also broke some ribs, something else that would need to be X-rayed.
"What's wrong, Annie?" asked Dr. Silva. "Are you going to try to get an IV in or just let us work?"
Annie dragged her eyes away from Frank's injuries and looked at the two doctors waiting on her.
"I…I'm going to try the IV", she said. She mentally shook herself and tried to forget that this was her brother-in-law, tried to forget the phone call she was going to have to make to her husband, tried not to think about how upset he was going to be. Since his left arm was in a splint, she focused on his right arm. She could see where June had already tried a couple times to insert an IV. She felt along his arm and his hand, trying to feel for a good vein. She finally thought she felt one just above his wrist. She put her gloves on, cleaned the area, and inserted the needle. It took a moment of backing out slightly and moving it around before she felt the little "pop" of the needle sliding into the vein. She pulled the needle out, leaving the plastic catheter in the vein, and taped it in place. Since they needed to send blood to the lab for tests, she used a syringe to withdraw the blood and inject it into several tubes. Then she attached tubing from a bag of IV solution to the IV catheter.
Dr. Silva and his intern looked disappointed and the intern began putting away his supplies. Dr. Silva began giving orders for X-rays, CT scan, and lab work. There was a knock on the door and they looked up to see two detectives standing in the doorway. Annie knew Detectives Briscoe and Green. The hospital was within the 27th precinct where they worked and she had met them on numerous occasions. But she also knew them because they were the detectives who worked the case when Annie was attacked and stabbed last year. She smiled and waved them in.
"Lennie, Ed. What brings you here today?" she asked.
Lennie gestured towards Frank. "Your John Doe here. The unis called us because it looked to be a violent crime. So what do you have?"
Dr. Silva explained what they knew so far, but that they had quite a few tests to run.
"One more thing", Annie said when Dr. Silva finished. "He isn't a John Doe. I know who he is. His name is Frank Goren."
Lennie and Ed both looked at her in surprise. Although Annie's last name was Paine, they knew very well who her husband was.
Ed cleared his throat. "Any relation to your husband, Annie?"
"His brother."
"So…uh…any idea who might have done this to him?" asked Lennie.
"Well," Annie sighed, "I don't know any names. But a few weeks ago Frank called Bobby to ask him for money. He said he owed his bookie and couldn't pay him. Bobby told him he couldn't give him any more money. He was pretty upset, but we haven't heard from him since. Maybe the bookie sent someone to collect, or maybe he owed someone money for drugs. Frank is addicted to gambling and to drugs, so I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with one of those things."
Lennie and Ed exchanged a look and Lennie asked, "Does Goren know he's here?"
"No, I only found out just before you got here. I haven't had a chance to call him yet. I'll call him as soon as we get Frank ready to go up for his tests. I need to get him into a gown."
"OK, well…we should put his clothing in an evidence bag just in case we can get anything from them to help find who did this. Is it alright if I stay?" asked Ed.
Annie nodded and Ed got some evidence bags ready as Lennie stepped out of the room. Annie realized that she could not undress her own brother-in-law so she asked the intern, Dr. Allen, to help her. Dr. Silva told her to let him know when the tests were done and if Frank regained consciousness, then he left. Annie and the intern changed into clean gloves and pulled Frank's shirt off. She winced as she saw that the injuries covered his stomach and his back. She dropped his shirt into the evidence bag that Ed was holding, and put his arms through the hospital gown. They pulled Frank's shoes and socks off and they went into another bag. With the gown covering him, Annie rolled Frank towards her as Dr. Allen pulled his pants and underwear down. As he did, a plastic bag fell onto the gurney. Annie reached over and picked up a small sandwich bag. Inside the bag was a white powder. She held the bag up to show Ed.
"Damn," he swore softly.
"Yeah," Annie agreed.
All three of them stood looking at the baggie in Annie's hand for a moment. Then Ed cleared his throat, looked over at the door, then glanced at Dr. Allen.
"Has he ever been arrested for drugs before?" Ed asked.
"Not that I know of."
"Annie," Ed said softly. "His brother's a cop. If you want….this doesn't…this doesn't have to go beyond this room. That bag can just disappear."
Dr. Allen told her, "I haven't seen a thing."
Annie stood for a moment, undecided. She looked at the bag in her hand, and then turned to look down at Frank. She looked at his injuries and thought about the many times he had asked Bobby for money, the times he had shown up at their home or at Carmel Ridge under the influence of drugs, the promises to get into a program. She took a deep breath and turned back to Ed.
"Detective Green, I think you are going to want another evidence bag for this," she said firmly.
Ed nodded silently and held out a bag. He labeled the bags and went to join Lennie. Dr. Allen left and an orderly came to take Frank upstairs for X-rays and CT scan. Annie told her supervisor that she needed to call her husband and went to the break room. She called Bobby's cell phone, but it went to voice mail. She left a message for him to call her. She called his extension at One Police Plaza and got his voice mail again. She left another message. She called One Police Plaza again and asked for Captain Deakins in the Major Case Squad. He told her that Bobby and Alex were in court all day. She explained about Frank and he said that he would get word to Bobby.
The orderly brought Frank back to Trauma Three. He was beginning to regain consciousness. Annie spoke to him and explained where he was. He didn't remember anything from the entire day, which was not unusual with a head injury. Dr. Silva and Dr. Allen came back in. They put a cast on his left arm and sutured the three deepest cuts on his face. He had three fractured ribs. The CT scan showed a skull fracture. There was a small amount of bleeding, but Dr. Silva felt it would resolve. He wanted to admit Frank to the hospital overnight and repeat the CT scan in the morning to make sure the bleeding wasn't getting worse. Under Dr. Silva's supervision, Dr. Allen ordered pain medicine and Annie gave Frank some through his IV. While she waited for it to take effect, she went out to tell Detectives Briscoe and Green that they could come in and talk to him.
They asked Frank if he knew who had attacked him and he said he didn't remember. They asked him several questions, but he just said that the last thing he remembered was eating dinner the night before. Annie noticed that neither of them mentioned the drugs. She had expected them arrest him, but instead they both closed their notebooks.
Lennie said, "Well, I think that's all we need for now. We…uh…we're going to wait around a bit and talk to your brother when he gets here."
"Why do you need to talk to my brother?" asked Frank.
"Just some details we need to go over with him", Lennie answered. Ed and Lennie both glanced at Annie.
"What's going on here?" Annie asked. "Why aren't you arresting him for possession? Why do you need to talk to Bobby?"
"Arrest me? I got the crap beat out of me. Why would they arrest me?" Frank asked incredulously.
"Because", Annie answered him, "when Dr. Allen and I were getting you out of your clothes and into that patient gown, a bag of drugs fell out of your underwear. I gave it to Detective Green here, and I am curious as to why he wants to talk to Bobby and why he hasn't arrested you."
"Arrest me?" Frank yelled, angry now. "You turn in your own brother-in-law and now you're mad that I haven't been arrested yet?" His voice rose in volume as a string of curse words poured out.
Ed Green stepped forward and told him firmly, "Hey man, you're going to calm down and shut your mouth. Both of you just calm down and we'll see what we can do to work this out."
Annie opened her mouth to argue, but Lennie cut her off. "Annie, there are things here that you don't understand because you aren't a cop. Just wait for us to talk to Goren."
Annie glared at them, then turned and strode angrily from the room. Both detectives followed her. She saw Bobby entering the waiting room and she went to get him. She led him back to where Frank was, explaining about his injuries. He greeted Ed and Lennie, then looked quizzically at Annie as she pointedly ignored them. She saw him wince as he entered the room and saw Frank's battered face. Frank immediately launched into a tirade about Annie.
"Your wife is trying to get me thrown in jail, Bobby! She found drugs on me while I was unconscious—drugs that I don't even remember having. They could have been planted on me for all anyone knows. But Annie here turns them over to the police and then demands that they arrest me."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa", Bobby said, holding his hands up. "Slow down. You found drugs on him?" he asked Annie.
She nodded. "Yes, and I gave them to Ed Green. Now he and Lennie want to talk to you."
Frank started to speak, but Bobby cut him off.
"Hold it, Frank. Just let me talk to the detectives and see what they have to say. We'll see what we can do about this."
Frank silently glared at Annie as she and Bobby left the room. She led Bobby, Ed, and Lennie to the break room.
Ed spoke first. "Look man, Lennie and I, we don't want to arrest your brother. Like I told……" he stopped and glanced at Annie, then started again. "There isn't that much cocaine, but it's enough for a felony charge. But it doesn't have to be. It can just disappear."
Annie's eyes widened. "And as I told you, Detective, that won't be necessary. Frank needs to face up to this."
Bobby looked at her in surprise. "You mean he already told you that this could disappear and you insisted that they arrest him? Annie, this is my brother. Look at the shape he's in! The last thing he needs is jail."
"I've seen him, Bobby. I've been here all afternoon helping to put him back together. But the reason he's in this shape is because of his addictions. He needs a serious wake-up call, and some time in jail just might do that."
Lennie put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "Annie, I know you want your brother-in-law to get some help. But you don't know what it's like for a cop, or a family member of a cop, in the system. These cases get more publicity and judges hand down tougher sentences. This is his first offense. Someone has already beaten him to a pulp. It's better if you handle it in the family."
"This isn't his first offense. It's the first time he's been caught. And 'the family' has been trying to 'handle' this for over twenty years. It's time for him for him to face some serious consequences."
"I'm not sending him to jail, Annie", Bobby told her firmly. "If word gets out that he's related to a cop, he's going to look like he does now for the entire time he's in there." He turned to Ed and Lennie and told them, "I appreciate your help."
They both nodded at him and all three men moved to walk out of the room.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Annie moved in front of the door and looked at them incredulously. She had heard of "the thin blue line" and "the blue wall", but had never expected to have to face it herself. "You can't be serious! What you are talking about is destroying evidence. And may I remind you that there are two witnesses? Dr. Allen and I both saw those drugs."
"Evidence disappears all the time", Lennie told her with a shrug. "Without the drugs, there is no case."
"Annie…." Bobby started towards her and she put up a hand and he stopped. She was feeling particularly small, at 5'5", standing in that room with three six foot plus men towering over her. But she put her hands on her hips and refused to move.
"You cannot do this, Bobby,"
Bobby looked at Ed and Lennie. Ed told him, "It's your call, man." Lennie nodded in agreement.
"Annie, he's my brother", Bobby said softly.
"And your brother needs help, not a cover-up. If I have to….I…I will go to the DA, to Captain Deakins, and to their superior."
Ed and Lennie stood silently and waited for Bobby's answer. He paced the room in frustration, rubbing his hand through his hair and across the back of his neck. Suddenly his fist crashed down on the table and he yelled, "Goddammit!" Annie jumped at the sound, but stood where she was, hands still on her hips.
Bobby turned to her angrily. "Alright! Have it your way!" He turned to Ed and Lennie. "Go ahead and arrest him for possession." He turned back to Annie and told her. "I'm going to pay off his bookie."
"Pay off his bookie? Instead of arresting his bookie, you mean? That's just great, Bobby. How much does he owe?"
"Two thousand dollars."
"Two thousand dollars?! Are you crazy? We are not going…." Bobby interrupted her.
"Isn't it enough he's going to jail?!" Bobby was yelling. "I'm not going to sit back and watch him get beaten like this again. I am going to pay off his bookie." This time he put his hand up to silence her as she opened her mouth to protest. He continued in a low, furious voice. "I am not asking for your permission, Annie, or for your opinion. I'm telling you what I am going to do."
An angry retort rose up in her, but she kept silent. She realized they were both angry enough to say things that they would be unable to take back. There was silence in the room for a moment. She could feel Ed's and Lennie's discomfort at being caught in the middle of their fight. Finally she stepped away from the door without saying anything. Bobby stalked out without looking at her, followed by Ed and Lennie. They went to Trauma Three, Annie following silently behind the three men.
Lennie said, "Frank Goren, you are under arrest for felony possession of a controlled substance…." He began reading Frank his rights as Ed snapped a handcuff to Frank's right wrist and snapped the other one to the railing of the gurney. Frank shot a panicked look at Bobby.
"Bobby, what's going on? I thought you were going to take care of this!"
With his anger tightly controlled, but evident by the slight quiver in his voice, Bobby told him, "I'll tell you what's going on, Frank. You are being arrested for drug possession. And this is what you are going to do about it: You are going to plead guilty and take whatever deal the DA offers, and pray that it involves rehab and not prison. And as soon as you are booked and I pay your bail, you are going to take me to your bookie so that I can pay him off and make sure his goons don't come after you again."
Frank exploded. "Prison?! You've got to be kidding me! This is how you 'take care of this'?!" He pointed at Annie as he continued yelling. "What the hell did you tell him? How'd you get him to agree to this? This must be the happiest day of your life, seeing me go to jail. Unless the happiest day was the day you talked him into sticking our mother in a looney bin. Having us both locked up must be a dream come true for you, you fu…."
He was cut off as Bobby grabbed his gown in both fists and shoved him back against the gurney. Frank cried out as Bobby's knuckles came into contact with his already bruised chest. Bobby's voice was low as he brought his face within inches of Frank's now frightened face.
"You will never speak to my wife like that again. Do you understand? Do you?" he repeated as he gave Frank another shake.
Frank nodded his head wordlessly. Annie slipped out of the room as Dr. Silva and Dr. Allen entered. She left them to work out the details of Frank's arrest and medical care. Her shift would be over soon, and she had spent most of the afternoon dealing with only one patient—her brother-in-law. She went to see where she was needed.
She was coming out of a patient room as Ed and Lennie were leaving. She went over and shook their hands.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess."
Lennie put a fatherly arm around her shoulders and told her, "I've got news for you, Annie. No one caved back there because of your threats. You can talk to the DA or to Lieutenant Van Buren all you want. If Goren wanted us to make that coke disappear, it would have disappeared. He had some other reason for going along with you. You and your husband will work this out. I've gotta believe there are a couple of good marriages out there", he laughed.
Ed told her that because Frank needed to have another CT scan in the morning, he would be staying in the hospital with a couple of uniformed officers to guard him. Once he was released from the hospital he would be taken to the precinct and booked.
"We told Frank to call us if he remembers anything about the people who did this to him that he would like to share", Ed told her.
"Why don't you just follow my husband when he goes to pay Frank's bookie two thousand dollars of our hard-earned cash", she replied in a sulky voice.
Both men laughed and Lennie gave her shoulder another squeeze. After they left, Annie went to give report to the next shift. When she was done, she looked for Bobby. She was told that Frank had been admitted to a room upstairs and that his brother was with him. She went up to his room and found two uniformed officers standing outside the room. She recognized Officers Johna Jones and Harlana Simmons. They were regulars in the ER, bringing in suspects who got hurt resisting arrest or interviewing victims of various crimes. She greeted them and they told her that Bobby was in the room with Frank. Annie asked if one of them would tell him that she was there. She knew Frank didn't want to see her and she didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier.
Bobby came out and walked down the hallway with her. He said nothing and waited for her to speak. But she didn't know what to say.
"Bobby, I…."she faltered and then fell silent.
Finally Bobby spoke. "I'm going to stay here with Frank tonight. If they release him tomorrow, I'll go with him to be booked and post bail, and then take him back to his place. He's probably going to need someone to stay with him for a few days because of his head injury."
"You're going to stay with him?"
"Yeah, at least for a few days."
"OK." Annie was trying not to think that he wanted time away from her because he was so angry. "Well…..I should go home then. Do you want me to bring you anything? Dinner? A change of clothes?"
"No thanks. I'll be fine. I'll call the kids later and tell them good night."
"OK", she said again. She looked up at him and tried again. "I…um….we need to talk."
"I know, but not now. We'll talk at home." Bobby leaned over and kissed her quickly on the cheek. She watched as he turned and walked away.
"Now that man knows how to walk away", said a voice beside her. She turned to see Abby Ryan, one of the few nurses who had been at the hospital longer than Annie. At 5'2" and with her red hair, Abby was known as a no-nonsense nurse who took no lip from patients or doctors. She was also known as one of the best nurses around and the residents and interns all tried to have their patients assigned to her. And she had an irreverent, and somewhat bawdy, sense of humor.
Annie smiled at her and said, "That is my husband you're talking about, you know."
"Oh I know, you lucky, lucky girl!"
Annie laughed and asked, "Are you Frank's nurse tonight?"
"Yes I am. And with that hunky brother of his staying all night, I think I am just going to have to be checking in on Mr. Goren a lot tonight."
Annie laughed again.
"I think I'm afraid to leave my husband here all night."
"Oh I promise, I won't touch; I'll just look." Abby's tone turned serious. "You know, the rumor mill around this place works overtime."
"And what does the rumor mill have to say?"
"Well, it seems a certain ER nurse was locked in the ER break room for quite a while today with three tall, handsome police detectives. There was a lot of yelling going on. Got people curious. Then they all come out of the break room, go into a room with a patient, where more yelling was heard."
Annie sighed. "I don't seem to be very popular with the Goren boys today."
"You know, if it had been any other nurse taking care of Frank in there, that bag of drugs would have just disappeared. What were you thinking, honey?"
"I was thinking that maybe if Frank goes to jail for a while, he'll get serious about his life and stop wasting it on drugs and gambling. Obviously, I'm in the minority."
Abby gave her a hug. "You gotta do what you think is right, no matter how mad tall, dark, and handsome in there gets. It'll all blow over. Now run along home to your babies and let me get on with admiring your husband."
Annie laughed and hugged her back. She did as Abby suggested and went home to her babies. She explained to the kids that Uncle Frank was hurt but he would be OK and that Daddy was spending the night at the hospital with him. Bobby called and talked to the kids. With Annie, his conversation was brief and neutral. She fell into a restless sleep. Although she was often in bed alone, since Bobby liked to stay up late reading, somehow the bed seemed emptier than it ever had.
End Chapter 4