Once inside, Mr. and Mrs. Briggs sit together on the couch and begin sipping the tea their housekeeper put out. Sonny and I stand across from them on other sides of the room. " I should say I'm still not quite sure why you're here." Mrs. Briggs says a bit confused.
"It's called a welfare check. We do it from time to time, mostly with seniors." I tell them.
Walter smiles back "I'm guessing that would be me, huh?" He winks.
Mrs. Briggs responds "oh, dear, did my husband's daughters call you?"
"They did express some concern." Sonny answers honestly "they said they weren't allowed to see Mr. Briggs?"
"This is one of those difficult family situations. Stepmother, stepdaughters. I'm sure it happens all the time." She tries to explain.
"I'm sure it does but actually, Mrs. Briggs, would you mind if we-" Amanda stands up and stands between Sonny and I "if we spoke separately? It's just standard procedure."
"As a matter of fact, I do mind. Walter and I don't keep secrets from each other, do we, Walter?" She says as she holds his hand and scoots closer to him on the couch, making this a bit more difficult then we hoped.
He answers her "not really, no. I humor her." He winks again at us.
"So what exactly did you want to talk about?" She asks us.
"It's pretty personal." Sonny tells them.
Amanda adds on "pertaining to your sex life."
Charmaine asks, shocked "and that's a police matter?"
Walter pipes in "79 and stiff as a varnished eel."
"A varnished eel." Sonny repeats his words and looks at me then Amanda with a weird grin on his face.
"My third wife took up with a bartender because I got distracted by my book on the pope
"My third wife took up with a bartender because I got distracted by my book on the pope." Mr. Briggs continues "now, you spend six months in the Vatican, and you'll see what happens to your testicles." He specifically looks at Sonny.
"Roman Follies, It was a wonderful book, sir. I read it in college." He answers, not able to control his complete fan boy moment, knowing exactly what he was referencing.
"Thank you." He responds.
Charmaine adds on "all of his books are wonderful."
"Okay, so Mr. Briggs, you're happy to keep your wife satisfied?" I ask him.
He answers immediately "well, of course I am. I mean, just look at her." He glances at his wife. "Moreover, I'm obliged. It's a man's duty to nature." She begins to blush. "A million years of evolution, you know." He continues on "oh, these feminists, they can preach and screech all they want, but until the day that a man suckles an infant and a woman goes out and hunts, and-" He starts to hesitate continuing and his eyes start to glaze a bit.
"A woman goes out and hunts, and.." Sonny repeats, wanting to hear the rest of what he has to say.
"I'm sorry. What?" Walter asks, blinking a bit.
"I'm sorry." His wife moves to stand up "my husband's very tired, but as you can see, we are fine." She says to usher us out so she can address her husband.
We call Benson as we exit and she tells us to meet her at Barba's office to go over everything with him. As we arrive, we meet in the hallway waiting for him to exit his briefing and fill him in on this case. Some time passes but when he comes out, Olivia starts explaining everything we got to him. "You're kidding me. His daughters are complaining, but he isn't?" Barba asks in a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, he says he's doing his manly duty by keeping his woman satisfied." Sonny responds.
"So he's consenting to the sexual activity?" He reiterates his question.
Amanda answers "him and his varnished eel." Getting a weird glance from Barba.
"Okay, but is he capable of consent?" He asks more questions "I mean, what's he like?"
Amanda's phone rings and she moves aside to take it. "I don't know." Sonny answers "he winked at Grey a whole bunch. He quoted from an essay about manly men that he wrote in "Playboy" in 1972, and then just like that," he snaps to show emphasis "he goes off into ga-ga land. It was sad. The guy was a titan."
Amanda steps in "listen, that was the housekeeper. Mr. Briggs just went to the hospital. Apparent heart attack."
"The daughter said that he had a heart condition." I say out loud, reminding Barba of that important fact in case he missed it on the walk in.
"If the wife knew and was secretly feeding him those pills-" Benson looks to him.
Sonny adds "yeah, that's assault three. Recklessly causing physical injury to another person, maybe even attempted murder. Am I right, counselor?" He asks Barba.
"Seldom." Barba answers back then looks back to Benson "unless the daughters can give you proof that the wife knew about the heart condition and was exacerbating it, you've got nothing."
"Carisi, Grey with me. Rollins, meet up with Nick and go talk to the sister." Benson directs and we all step out of Barba's office.
We get to the hospital within the hour and show our badges to get through the door. Once inside, Benson addresses the Dr. "Dr. Tedroe?"
"Are you here because of the incident?" The Dr. stops walking down the hall and asks us.
"Yes, we're wondering if Mr. Briggs' heart attack could have been caused by his E.D. medication?" I ask, hoping for a good answer.
She doesn't give us one we like "I don't know. I never got the chance to take a complete medical history."
"Why not?" Sonny asks, him and I making brief eye contact.
"I thought that's why you're here." She responds. "His wife arrived 20 minutes ago with a private ambulance and removed him from the hospital against medical advice." At this point we are already walking down the hall to where he was set up. "She pulled him off the EKG monitor and was in such a hurry, she took our IV pump with her." We get to his room and see the scene. "The nurses didn't try to stop her because Mr. Briggs needed it to maintain."
"Can he maintain outside the hospital?" Benson asks.
Dr. Tedroe gives us her best advice "maybe, maybe not. His wife has put his life in jeopardy."
"And you just let her take him?" Sonny asks with a bit too much anger in his tone.
"His wife said she was transferring him to another hospital." The doctor defends herself, not being able to do much else under her circumstances.
Just then, the two daughters get to the door and state "we got the court order" when they notice the empty bed behind us they ask "where's our dad?"
"He's not here." Sonny answers, not really thinking of his choice of words.
"You mean he's... gone?" The blonde asks.
"No, no, no, no. No, he was... more like taken." I say, trying to better explain what happened.
"Alright. Grey, start calling around to other hospitals in Manhattan." She directs me and I leave the room instantly to start making calls.
After calling every hospital in Manhattan the three of us get back in the car and drive to find Barba. Sonny and Benson talked with Mr. Briggs daughters to try to find any information they could have about where Charmaine would take him but they were not of much help.
We make it outside the courthouse and find Barba buying coffee's. He passes one to each of us and we start walking along with him "we have checked every hospital in Manhattan. There is no sign of Briggs." Benson says once we get to him.
"It's not kidnapping. She's his wife." Barba simply tries to explain to us. "She has the right to take him out of the hospital."
"Even against medical advice?" I ask, then going into further detail "ripping hospital equipment out of the wall?"
"Want me to file a larceny charge on the IV pump?" He sarcastically responds.
"His daughter's got a court order to visit him. Charmaine's in violation." Sonny tries another reason to get Charmaine.
Barba answers "has she denied them access?"
"They don't know where he is." Sonny answers.
"So no." Barba says like it's obvious.
"She's endangering her husband's life. The— the doctors made that clear." I call out, not happy with what he's saying.
Sonny adds on"yeah, plus the rape and assault charges are still under investigation."
"Barely" he scoffs back "one of them's a stretch, the other one's a chasm."
Sonny raises his voice again, clearly not happy either "this is a sick old man getting dragged across the city."
"Well, we're not social workers." Barba comments.
"But we are cops, and we can keep investigating." Benson clarifies.
"Knock yourselves out." He says back.
I respond back with a "we will."
