Chapter Twenty-Four
Alan and Larry practically charged into the emergency room and stopped short when they saw David. Megan came in just behind them. Larry had explained to Alan where he thought that Charlie had gone and if it hadn't been for the fact that Charlie took his car Alan would have been out the door after his son without regard to Megan's command for them to stay where they were.
"Where are they? Is Don all right? Is Charlie all right?"
David put a calming hand on the elder Eppes' shoulder.
"Don is alive. He has been taken up to surgery. Charlie is in the treatment room giving blood because he matches Don's blood type and they don't have a stock of AB positive on hand."
"Oh my God, what happened to Don? Did this woman… what did she do to my son?"
David looked at Megan then at Larry before looking back to Alan.
"Perhaps we should sit down, sir?"
David told them about Don's injuries as gently as he could, but Alan still grew pale as he listened. He felt his mind reeling with the fact that now both of his sons had been scarred by this woman; scars that would take a very long time to heal. He looked over at Larry not knowing how he was going to get his boys through this experience. Larry could see the unspoken plea in the older man's eyes and took a hold of his hand.
"We will all get through this together. Both Charles and Don are strong young men. They will have us as well as each other."
A nurse came out to the waiting room and called for the Eppes family. Alan got immediately to his feet.
"I'm Alan Eppes. Both of my sons are back there."
"Mr. Eppes, I can take you back to see Charles. He is lying down after donating blood. Your other son has been taken up to the surgical suite. Once Charles is feeling a little better I can take you all up to the surgical lounge."
The four of them followed the nurse back through the ER to a small room near the back of the department. Charlie was lying on a stretcher with his arm crooked over his eyes and his other arm had an IV attached to a large bag of clear fluid.
"Charlie!" Alan said, as he walked quickly over to his youngest.
Charlie sat up immediately and swayed precariously as he did so. Alan reached out and caught him before he fell face first off the stretcher. The nurse who had escorted the others into the room guided Charlie back down to a lying position on the bed.
"You can't just get up like that Mr. Eppes. You are going to need a little while to gather your strength."
She turned to the others. "He donated nearly two pints of blood for his brother's surgery. That is more than the maximum 12 that is allowed for one drawing but without this blood…" She let her words trail off and turned back to Charlie.
"You are staying put right here until I tell you it's all right to get up. At the very least you are not to move until that is empty." she said, indicating the bag of fluid hanging over his head.
During the course of the next hour Charlie lay in the treatment room dosing on and off with Alan and Larry keeping him company. David and Megan left the room so that David could brief her on the events at the collage.
When he received the call from Megan about Charlie and possibly Don's location, David had altered his course and headed straight for Cal Sci pulling up next to Alan's running car. He reached in and took the keys from the ignition before entering the building in search of the Eppes brothers.
He headed immediately for the stairwell to the basement and when he got to the bottom and entered the long corridor he heard Charlie screaming for someone to back away and followed the voices at an almost dead run. When he entered the storeroom he saw Don lying on one of the plywood tables that all of the other victims had been found on with a blonde haired woman holding a scalpel over him ready to plunge the instrument into the agent's exposed chest. The manic gleam in Shelly Arbury's eyes and the fury in Charlie's, stunned him for a moment.
She was actually goading Charlie to shoot her. It was clear to David that this woman had stepped over the edge of sanity and was trying to take Charlie with her. In his career it was not that unusual to see a criminal have the mind set that they would not be taken alive and that certainly seemed to be the case here.
David spoke to Charlie trying to get him to lower the gun he was holding. At first David couldn't understand how Charlie, of all people, had gotten a hold of a gun but he had automatically scanned the scene and he saw Don's empty holster sitting on a box near the door. It was obvious that Charlie had seen the gun and was acting on impulse. He hadn't planned to come here and kill this woman.
When she started to sing "I left My Heart in San Francisco" David could see Charlie starting to loose it. Then Don turned his head so that he was looking directly at his brother. He said something to Charlie that cut through the rage and he started to lower his weapon.
Shelly saw this and became infuriated. She swung her hand upward and brought it down to stab Don. David had less than an instant to react. If he shot her in the head she might have still killed the agent strapped to the table anyway, so he did the only thing he could to prevent the knife from piercing Don's heart.
He shot the scalpel out of her hand while at the same time Charlie fired and hit her in the upper arm near the shoulder. The scalpel skittered away across the room and Shelly fell back screaming in fury and agony holding her injured hand. David moved quickly to subdue and cuff her then he called for help.
Megan had already called for an ambulance to be sent to Cal Sci and David called for a separate rig for Shelly. Charlie had dropped Don's gun and touched his brother's face. He pleaded with him to hold on, that help was coming then he began trying to get the duct tape off of him.
David looked around and saw the scalpel and picked it up to begin cutting the tape off of the unconscious man. It was difficult to cut through the tape because the blade of the instrument was not as sharp as it should have been. David had to suppress the urge to wretch at the thought of this woman using a dull blade to cut Don's chest open.
Megan sent two other agents to Cal Sci to assist David and they arrived shortly before the first ambulance. Shelly sat there screaming about liars and traitors. The men hauled her to her feet and she spit at Don lying there on the table as David and Charlie were removing the last of the duct tape and screamed, "Die you bastard!"
David told them to get her out of there and to wait for the second ambulance to attend to her wounds. Charlie had tears rolling down his face as he tried to rouse Don. The first ambulance had arrived and as the EMT's entered the room they stopped at the sight of the agent lying unconscious on the makeshift operating table with his chest splayed apart with a Dubost Thoracic Retractor.
After a moment they recovered from their shock at this sight and set to work immediately on Don. They removed the retractor which caused enough pain to make Don moan but he didn't wake up.
One of the EMT's used a pen light to check Don's pupils which were equal and reactive but it was clear that the man was in shock from blood loss and trauma. One of the EMTs hooked up a heart monitor while the other one put a large bandage over the wound on Don's chest.
Don's heart rate could be heard on the small monitor near his feet with a soft beeping but was growing slower. It became erratic and then stopped. He had gone into cardiac arrest and Charlie stood back horrified by what was happening. They pulled out a defibrillator and shocked him to try and get his heart going again.
Don's torso pulled up slightly from the board before crashing back down. There was no effect and Charlie started shaking. They shocked him a second time and his body raised even further off the board. Charlie couldn't stand by any longer and approached the head of the table taking one of his brother's hands in his own. Charlie told Don that he had promised him that he wouldn't give up. His words came out through sobs as he pleaded with his brother to come back.
Suddenly Don's heart monitor started beeping again. He began to wake up and cracked his eyes open. Charlie stood over him holding his hand telling him to hang on, that he was there and that he wouldn't leave him. Charlie looked up at the EMT nearest him and locked eyes with the man when he told him that he would not leave his brother.
Don fell back into unconsciousness again but with a steady heart rhythm. They moved him from the table onto a stretcher just as the crime scene investigators arrived. Charlie rode with Don in the ambulance to the hospital while David followed just behind leaving Agent Martin Gibbons in charge of the scene.
A second ambulance had arrived for Shelly Arbury. She was to be treated for the gun shot wounds before being processed.
Alan left the treatment room to get a cup of coffee and walked up behind the agents as they spoke. He was not trying to eves drop on their discussion but he couldn't help but over hear that this woman was being treated for minor gun shot wounds and broke into their conversation.
"You mean that woman is here; in this hospital?"
David and Megan spun around startled by the man's presence. Alan looked back toward the emergency department as though he were going to go looking for her. Megan quickly and walked over to Mr. Eppes making sure that she stood between him and the emergency department.
"She was taken to a different hospital Mr. Eppes. She has two agents with her and they will stay with her until she is released. She will be escorted to our detention area for questioning and then processed."
Alan started pacing with a dark look on his face. "I can understand the anger; the rage that Charlie has been feeling. I have never fundamentally agreed with the death penalty…
…until now."
Once Charlie had finished up the IV and was feeling a little steadier, the group was escorted up to the surgical lounge to wait for Don's doctor. Colby arrived shortly after they had all taken seats to update Megan on the case.
He had found Don's vehicle parked and locked in the lot next to his apartment building. Shelly's cousin, Rebecca Cantor, had not been found yet. Her apartment looked tossed as if she packed in a hurry. Once she was apprehended she would be taken into custody and charged with accessory to murder and attempted murder.
Don had been in surgery for over three hours when the doctor came out into the lounge. Alan and Charlie got up and walked quickly over to the doctor. Charlie was still quite pale and a little wobbly from his blood donation and the doctor asked them to take a seat eyeing the young man with concern.
"My name is Doctor Hammell. Your son has been taken to recovery. He will be there for at least an hour. Once he comes out of the anesthesia we will remove the intubation tube and move him to a private room. He will sleep for a while partly because of the anesthesia but mostly due to the trauma that his body has been put through. The incision in his chest was not a clean cut. There was some tearing and I suspect that the instrument used was somewhat dull. We thoroughly irrigated the wound but I am very concerned about infection. The circumstances of his injuries and the un-sterile conditions have left him susceptible to a major infection. He is on intravenous antibiotics but he will need to be monitored closely so that if a sepsis occurs we can treat it quickly."
"Will he be all right? When he was… before he came here, his heart stopped."
Alan looked over at Charlie shocked by this news. He had not been told that and a twinge of real anger colored his words. "What are you talking about Charlie? Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Doctor Hammell wanted to steer the conversation back to his patient and said, "Mr. Eppes. Your son lost a lot of blood and that coupled with the physical trauma caused his heart to momentarily stop. The emergency response personnel were able to bring his heart back to a normal rhythm very quickly. I do not anticipate any further issues in that regard. I am sure that you will want to stay with him until he wakes up. When he does please have the nursing staff come and get me right away. For right now, you can continue to wait here. It shouldn't be much longer than an hour."
Once Don had been moved to a room Alan and Charlie took up their silent vigil. Megan, David and Colby had all left but promised to check in the next day. Charlie had been silent since they had spoken to Doctor Hammell and Alan felt the tension. He decided that it was time to talk to his youngest about this.
"Charlie, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. I wasn't expecting to hear that your brother's heart had stopped. Charlie, that frightened me and…"
"Dad, stop. I'm not upset with you and I'm not trying to shut you out, it's just that I've been thinking about things…
…about what happened down in that storeroom."
Charlie looked up at his father and held his gaze for a moment before speaking.
"When I walked into that room, I had every intention of killing that woman, Dad. I saw Don's gun sitting on a box near the door and I picked it up and pointed it right at her head."
Charlie got up out of the chair he had been sitting in next to his brother's bed and walked over to the window looking out at the dark night. The stars had come out and it looked peaceful out in the world. This gave him an odd sensation because his emotions were anything but peaceful.
"I have never felt the desire to kill anything… anyone before. I'm not sure how to reconcile those feelings."
"You saved your brother's life, Charlie. What ever happened this afternoon, the fact remains that Donnie is alive because of you. If she had died, no one would blame you, I wouldn't blame you, but she didn't die. Charlie, you didn't kill anyone."
Charlie turned and looked at his father not sure he could explain what he was feeling.
"I know that. When I fired that gun I was acting on pure instinct. There was no thought involved. She was about to kill Don and I aimed and fired. I didn't kill her but that doesn't negate the fact that I wanted to; that I intended to when I walked into that storeroom."
Alan got up and walked over to Charlie and held his shoulders not allowing him to turn away.
"Let me ask you a question, Charlie and I want you to tell me the truth. When you fired Don's gun, were you trying to kill that woman?"
Charlie looked stricken at what felt like an accusation. He knew that wasn't what his father was trying to do, but he couldn't help suddenly feeling like a child being reprimanded for doing something very wrong.
"I… no, I was trying to stop her." Charlie looked over at his brother lying in the hospital bed and when he continued Alan could hear him trying hard to keep the quiver out of his voice. "She was going to kill him. I didn't think; I just wanted to stop her from stabbing him. I aimed at her arm so she would drop the knife."
"Don't you see, Charlie? You have answered your own question. After what this woman did to you, to your brother, to all of those other men; you had every right to feel rage toward her, to want to have her dead. "
Charlie tried to pull away from his father, but Alan held him in place. "Charlie, when it came right down to it; you followed your heart. You said yourself that you acted on pure instinct, that there was no thought involved. That proves beyond any doubt that you do not have it in you to kill another human being. Do you really need to reconcile your feelings? Your rage made you want this woman dead, but your heart…
…Charlie, your soul wouldn't let you cross that line. When you were put to the test you acted the only way that your true nature would allow."
Alan pulled Charlie into a strong embrace and held on. He knew his son was questioning his own morality and he hoped that he had made him see that his moral integrity remained untainted by the evil he had been exposed to.
Charlie didn't fight the embrace. He needed the contact and support. What his father had said made sense and it did lighten the heaviness that had descended on him. After a few moments he pulled away and nodded to his father before taking a seat next to his brother again.
