Chapter 9
Two men went out into the hallway and (after a hurried conference where Jaime's requests were sorted through), three men returned to her bedside. They found her sitting up in her bed with her street clothes on.
''Did someone help you?'' Michael asked pointedly.
Jaime took a deep breath...and smiled. ''Nope. I'm fully...um...capable of putting my clothes on, all by myself. This is important, and I'm not gonna do it in a gown and robe.''
''Capable, yes,'' Michael agreed, ''but that doesn't mean you should be out of bed, on your feet and getting dressed - and everything that entails - with nobody to help you. You could've lost your balance, gotten dizzy or -''
''I'm fine. Oscar, I'm ready. And...I can see Steve when we're done?''
Mark stepped up to the bed. ''I have to leave for the first part of this conversation, just like I'd told you I might. But when you're completely done - and I don't want you to rush through and miss any details - we'll take you to Steve. Tell Oscar anything he wants to know and tell him all of it -''
''Don't coach her,'' Oscar requested, pulling up a chair. He looked at Jaime and was almost startled by the way she seemed to be staring directly into his eyes. Jaime smiled at Mark and the therapist took his leave. Michael remained watchfully seated near the foot of Jaime's bed.
Jaime answered every one of Oscar's initial questions with no hesitation other than a deep breath before she started to speak. She related how Mark had dropped her off at home and intended to leave but had been summoned inside by an urgent note from Jess (the nurse).
''Did you see the note? What did it say?'' Oscar queried.
''I never saw it.''
She told Oscar how she'd been sent to the nursery with Becca so she couldn't hear or see what went on in the kitchen. It had only been after the nurses' shift change, when Becca grew restless and hungry, that Jaime had peeked her head into the other room at exactly the wrong (or possibly the right) time.
''Mark had the radio...um...datacom in one hand and the phone in the other. I heard Steve's voice - and yours, Oscar - and then...I heard a shot.''
''What happened next?''
''I...I'm not sure...''
''Deep breath, Jaime,'' Michael said quietly.
Jaime did as instructed and then waited for Oscar's next question. He was starting to get on her nerves and she'd decided to herself that while she'd tell him the complete truth in response to his questions, she wasn't about to offer up anything - anything - on her own.
''You were given a sedative there at the house, correct?'' Oscar went on.
''Yes.''
''Who gave it to you?''
''Well, I didn't inject myself! Mark...he gave it to me, of course.''
''Had you asked for one? Why was it administered?'' Because the nurses had been employees at National, they were also OSI-affiliated and Oscar had spoken with both Jess and Nancy. What Nancy had related was especially alarming - and now Oscar wanted to hear about it from Jaime's own lips.
''Why? Because I...I guess I...fainted. They were helping me into bed and...''
''And? What did you say to them, Jaime - specifically to Mark?''
''Sounds like you already know the answer,'' Jaime said sullenly. ''And like you're already made up your mind.''
''What did you tell him?''
Jaime took several deep, steadying breaths and shot a pleading look at Michael. When he didn't intercede, she had no choice but to go on. ''I said...I...didn't want a needle.''
Oscar nodded. ''And what happened immediately after you told him that?''
''I got into bed. And...had the shot anyway,'' she concluded. (I'm so sorry, Mark! she said in her mind.)
'So you refused medication and even though you were of sound mind at the time and had every right to refuse, Mark Conrad injected you anyway?''
''Yes, but -''
''When your head was turned, so you wouldn't see what he was doing to you?'' Oscar probed.
''No! He...Mark told me that I needed to have it anyway! Stop twisting things around when you weren't even there!''
''So you deny that you were looking the other way?''
''Maybe my head was turned. I...I was...climbing into bed, getting comfortable! But...but I knew...that he was gonna do it...because he told me! He didn't...he's never done anything behind my back!''
''Let's stick to the subject at hand at this moment. Nothing else, please. What's the next thing you remember?''
While Oscar might not have rode in on Elmira's broom and he didn't have 'Kingsley Eyes', Jaime decided that at this moment - as Oscar himself had put it - she didn't like or trust him. Not at all. ''I was...Mark was...'' she was stumbling badly, so Jaime took another deep breath. ''Mark was helping me outside...into his car. He said...he told me...that Steve needed my help. Except...while we were driving down there, he wasn't talking to Steve. He...Mark...was talking to you.''
Jaime really couldn't relate most of what was said on the car ride to National because she'd been fading in and out from the strong sedative that'd been meant to keep her out for at least six hours. Mark had left her to doze in the passenger seat while (she assumed) he'd gotten out and spoken to the others. ''Michael was there,'' she remembered, looking at the young doctor who stood so quietly now at the foot of her bed. ''He checked on me and then...'' she looked directly at Oscar. ''Then you and Mark took me into the building...and Mark got me as far as...the stairwell. I walked a...for a little bit, but I didn't see Steve. I think I passed out...or fainted again. Then...I woke up on a bed - and Steve had...he had...''
''A gun?'' Oscar finished for her.
''No. He had...a bag.''
Now they were getting somewhere, Oscar thought. ''What did Steve say to you about the bag?''
Jaime thought hard, trying to fight her way through the fog she'd been in when she'd met with her husband in that burned-out building. ''He...Steve said he found them...that they might be evidence. And to take them to you...only to you.''
''What else did he say about the bag?''
''He said...if the penguins or police...were there...I should turn around and go back inside. But if you..if you were by yourself...to give you the bag. And to ask you to have it processed.'' Jaime thought even harder. ''He found one piece...by the lake...and the other was...it was in Jack's room.''
''He didn't ask you to tell me to look inside?'' Oscar probed.
''No! You...aren't you listening to me? I told you what he said! To send it off...for processing!''
''Did he give you other instructions - or did he possibly tell you what he'd been planning to do next?''
''Steve said...to not give the bag to anyone but you. And that I should ask Mark...to take me home.''
''But you didn't do that - why?''
Jaime looked at Oscar like he was either crazy or feeble-minded. ''Because that was when the bag...blew up!''
''And instead of going home, you ran back into the building -''
''NO! I...he...'' Jaime fought back angry tears. This felt like an interrogation and she'd done nothing wrong. Steve hadn't either...had he?
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