Chapter Twenty-Eight
Charlie and Alan paced nervously while Don was gone. They didn't know what operating room he had been taken to and this hospital had three different surgical lounges so they decided to wait in his room. The doctor had said that he would not be putting Don under general anesthesia so he would not need to spend time in recovery waking up and would be brought right back to this room.
After a time Alan sat down realizing that all of this pacing was only serving to agitate his already frayed nerves. He kept going over the delirious conversation between his boys right before Don was taken up to surgery. He knew that Don was not in his right mind when he made Charlie to promise not to fall into his numbers if he died. Alan's concern was the fact that this frame of mind that Don had while he is being operated on for the second time in as many days was one of preparing to die.
Nearly an hour had past since Don had been taken up to surgery when Megan came into the room.
"Have you had any word yet on Don?"
Charlie was pulled from his thoughts when she spoke and was startled to see her standing there just inside the door. He had not heard her come in and it took him a moment to process what she had just asked. Alan answered before Charlie had a chance to say anything.
"He's still up in surgery, but how did you know?"
Megan looked at the door then back at Mr. Eppes with raised eyebrows. "We do have an agent watching you who is to call in anything out of the ordinary. So can you fill me in on what happened?"
Charlie had found his voice and indicated that Megan should take a seat.
"Don spiked a high fever. The wound became infected and they are trying to surgically clean the incision. They need to stop this infection before it affects the rest of his body. If he becomes septic he could…"
Alan had had enough of this death talk from both of his sons wasn't going to hear anymore of it.
"Charlie, your brother is not going to die! This infection was discovered early and the doctors are taking care of it now. Your brother needs us to be positive, so I don't want to hear anymore talk of dieing."
Charlie knew that his father was right and he leaned his head back against the wall. He felt the slightly tingling sensation that marked the onset of an anxiety attack but he focused his thoughts to stamp it out before it could take hold. David had told him that he could 'think' his way out of these attacks and he had been right. He simply needed to concentrate hard enough and maintain even breathing to keep it under control. Charlie was so focused on what he was doing that he was only peripherally aware that Megan and his father had continued talking.
"Have you found this accomplice yet?"
"Not yet. We have an all state wide alert out on her. Every FBI division and State police agency has her picture. Border control in Mexico and Canada know to look for her. There has been no activity with her credit cards, not even gas purchases. She must be paying in cash. Every airline in the major cities between Virginia and here have her picture and name but if she has decided to travel under an alias then they will need to rely on physically identifying her."
"So all she really needs to do is wear a disguise and she can move around the country undetected?"
"Essentially that could be accurate, but we have provided several different looks for her that she could easily adopt. Becky Cantor has no prior record. She is only in the system because she had to be fingerprinted to take the job at Quantico. We believe that she is running scared right now and when someone does that they make mistakes. We'll find her, sir, I promise you that."
Megan waited with the Eppes men for almost forty minutes before a nurse in scrubs came into the room.
"We are bringing Mr. Eppes back down from surgery. It will take us a few minutes to get him settled so I am going to have to ask all of you to go down to the lounge for a while. Someone will come and get you when it is all right for you to return."
Charlie sat up immediately and asked, "How is he doing? Is his fever gone? Were they able to deal with the infection? Is he awake?"
Charlie's questions were tumbling out of his mouth quicker than the nurse could even hear them let alone respond. She smiled at the young man and put her hand on his arm to quiet his litany of questions.
"Dr. Hammell will explain everything to you when we have Mr. Eppes settled."
Her voice was not unkind but it held a note of finality. They all moved to the door as she began to strip the bed that Don had occupied to put clean sheets on it.
Once in the lounge Charlie had taken to pacing again at such a frantic rate that it was making Megan a little dizzy. She wondered how he could have so much energy when he had gotten only a few hours of sleep over the last couple of days.
Luckily it was only about twenty minutes before Dr. Hammell came down to the lounge to talk with his patient's family. Alan and Charlie both shot up immediately when they saw Dr. Hammell approach and Agent Pentelli stood quietly and headed back to his post outside Don's door. Dr. Hammell sat down in front of the men and indicated that they should both take seats.
"Don is still sleeping from the strong sedatives used. His fever has come down a little but not nearly as much as I would like. There was a fair amount of necrotic tissue deep in the wound. That has all been removed but that doesn't magically make the infection disappear. I have applied a VAC closure system to help with the continuation of clearing the infection and closing this wound effectively."
Charlie was frowning at the Doctor. He had a rather extensive vocabulary but the doctor was using some terms that he was unfamiliar with.
"Can you explain this VAC system to us?"
"Certainly; it is important that you understand what it is because the equipment that your brother has been hooked up to might throw you at first glance. The Vacuum Assisted Closure system or VAC is based on the principle of using negative pressure. There is quite literally a machine that applies negative pressure or suction just like a vacuum to the wound. Foam has been placed over and in the wound and a tube inserted into the foam runs from the wound to a collection canister. The entire thing had been secured with non-porous tape and the suction on the wound is constant. Negative pressure diminishes the local amount of germs in the wound and increases the rate of formation of the granulation tissue. In post sternotomy disunions: the sternal bone is exposed and generally infected. Now in your brother's case the sternal bone had not been split open but the scapula or knife that was used to create the wound was used to carve a grove down the length of the bone. The purpose of doing this would be to create a guide for the sternal saw. This grove is where the infection rooted itself but it began in the tissues directly incised by the dirty instrument."
Charlie sat back in his chair looking a little queasy. Alan understood what the doctor had explained but some of the clinical terms skated over his comprehension although he understood their meaning by context. Charlie's discomfort stemmed from the fact that he had seen this violation of his brother's body and knew exactly what the doctor had been talking about because he could clearly visualize it. He would not get any sleep this night and he knew it.
The doctor led them into Don's room. Alan saw a large bandage covering the center of his son's chest. It had been secured with copious amounts of clear tape and there was a flexible rubber tube coming from the center of this bandage and snaking down his torso before dropping off the side of the bed. The tubing went through a small white and blue machine with a digital display on front stating the current negative pressure being applied and into a medium sized plastic canister set on the floor at the side of the bed.
The first thing that Charlie noticed was the wrist restraints tying his brother's arms to the side of the bed.
"These are coming off!" he said with force.
Charlie turned to face the doctor with anger in his eyes. Dr. Hammell remained calm and explained why restraints had been applied.
"Your brother needs to be restrained until the fever passes. If he awakens in a delusional state and tries to pull at the tubing connected to his chest he could seriously damage the healing wound."
Charlie stepped over to the bed and started to untie the restraints and spoke without turning to look at the doctor. "I am not going anywhere. I will stay with him and make sure he doesn't pull out any of these tubes or wires."
Alan was surprised by Charlie's suddenly forceful behavior. "Charlie, perhaps the doctor…"
"NO!" Charlie turned and faced his father with a look of intense conviction that the words in Alan's throat died away.
"Dad, he was tied down and tortured. He is feverish and if he wakes up and finds himself tied down again with this machine hooked up to his chest how do you think he will react? I will sit here and hold his hand all night if I have to, but he will not be tied down."
Dr. Hammell could see how determined Charlie was in his point of view but he felt he had to try and explain why the restraints were necessary.
"I understand your reservations about the use of restraints given the nature of how your brother was injured but you must understand that when Don wakes up from the effects of the sedative he will be confused and disoriented. He is a strong man and the restraints are for his protection."
Charlie had removed the restraint from Don's right wrist and moved around to the other side of the bed and began to untie his left wrist. The doctor tried a different approach.
"Mr. Eppes… Charlie, Don is in for a rough night. It is clear from looking at you that you are exhausted. What happens when you fall asleep and he wakes up? To your point, given what he has been through he will most likely panic when he realizes that he is hooked up to this apparatus."
Charlie took the restraints that had been tying Don down and walked up to Dr. Hammell.
"Don will probably panic but I have recently acquired a certain level of expertise when dealing with panic and he trusts me. I will not fall asleep because my brother needs me." He handed the restraints to the doctor and said, "I will take care of him, Doctor."
Neither Alan nor Megan even attempted to try and change Charlie's mind about this. If Charlie was going to stay the night then so was Alan so he pulled up the recliner and told Charlie to wake him in three hours so that he could take a turn resting. Megan excused herself after telling Alan that she would return in the morning. She was not prepared to take Don's family away from him at this point in his recovery and decided to explain the safe house rules in the morning.
Shelly Arbury was roused by the guard at ten o'clock in the evening and told that her lawyer had arrived to speak with her. She rolled over and smiled to herself. She had begun to wonder if Becky had not followed the instructions in the letter she had given her. She got out of bed and reached for a sheet of paper that was covered in small handwriting. It was neat and legible but quite small so that the entire side of the page was covered. She folded it in three and carried it with her as she followed the guard to the interview room.
When Shelly entered the visiting booths she saw a neatly dressed middle-aged man sitting on the other side of one of the glass partitioned booths. He wore a pressed Armani suit with a black and red silk tie. The suit alone was probably worth more money than all of her aunt and uncle's life savings and she found herself to be very impressed with what she saw.
'With this guy and the Eppes boys' dead this trial will be a walk in the park.'
Shelly took a seat and waited for the guard to step back through the door to pick up the phone that would allow them to speak to each other. The Lawyer spoke first.
"My name is Marco Benadero. I have been asked to represent you by one of my preferred clients, a Mr. Anthony Sborgia. I am assuming that you are a friend of Mr. Sborgia."
"We have never actually met but I worked closely with his cousin Bruno. I called in a favor so that I could get decent legal representation. Before we discuss anything further I need to meet with either Mr. Sborgia or a close representative. Would you be able to arrange that for me?"
"I have a late meeting with Mr. Sborgia this evening after I finish here so I can inquire about your request. I have read your file and can see that there is a fairly strong circumstantial case against you. The circumstantial items can be addressed, but the issue lies with the three eye witness accounts. One of them could be viewed as suspect and I could possibly get that thrown out but as to the other two…"
"This will not be a problem Mr. Benadero. I would like you to concentrate on the circumstantial elements of this case. I have prepared a statement detailing my account of the events that have transpired and have left it with the guard. They should give that to you after we conclude our meeting."
Mr. Benadero looked at her appraisingly. This woman was very confident considering that the DA will most assuredly seek the death penalty for the crimes she committed… 'that she is accused of committing' he mentally corrected himself. She had cold blue eyes that held no shred of fear. She sat tall in her seat and held herself with a fierce sense of dignity. Her entire countenance seemed to scream a challenge.
Anthony Sborgia would like this woman, but similar to his preferred client, she made him feel slightly unsettled. He would never let that feeling show because he knew all to well what happens when a predator smells fear. This woman, like Sborgia, was most definitely a predator. He may find working with this kind of woman distasteful but his two thousand dollar non refundable retainer had been paid and this was not a case that he could easily say no to, especially with Tony Sborgia insisting that he take it.
They spoke briefly about the case and her whereabouts during the out of state murders before Mr. Benadero took his leave. The page that Shelly had written was waiting for him at the sign-in desk sealed in a possessions envelope. He collected that and walked out to his BMW sitting in the parking lot. The ride to Sborgia's mansion would only take a half hour and he used that time to mentally compose himself and prepare to report what his impressions of this woman were to his client.
