Proof (16 page)

Chapter 24

December 21

A C
HRISTMAS STORM
swooped in over the Rocky Mountains. Visibility was a few feet at best in the darkness. The only things discernable were sheets of blowing snow pelting Lilly’s windshield. She found it difficult to keep her car from fishtailing on the straight paths, let alone each turn. After she had parked, the frigid wind propelled her toward the ER entrance, and she leaned back into it to prevent herself from falling forward. Stomping the snow off her boots, she entered the hospital and slipped her coat off as she walked.

The department was quiet, although saying the
q
word out loud invoked community tyranny, as the volume of patients could quadruple in a matter of minutes. The halls were vacant, and most of the people were sitting at computers in the central work area, catching up on charts from patients they’d seen during the day. Lilly didn’t mind working the night shift. Generally, the pace slowed as the night progressed. Fewer administrative personnel lurked to try to snatch you for meetings, chart clarification, and billing concerns.

After placing her coat in a locker with her purse, she buttoned up her new lab coat that she’d bought several sizes larger, rolling up the sleeves to her wrists. She was hopeful it would disguise her pregnancy enough so that if most people wondered about her recent weight gain, they would assume it was from other vices. Lilly wasn’t sure she’d actually get away with it. Medical people were astute, and she found it hard not to exhibit the habits pregnant women subconsciously portrayed, like keeping a protective hand over her expanding belly.

Kadin called her daily, begging her to come in for an exam. Although it would have been her preference not to give up the sleeping pills and alcohol, there was a small maternal burden present to at least try to do her best to keep the baby healthy, and that was the only decision she’d made so far. She could see the questioning worry in both Dana and Kadin about what she was going to do in the end.

Maybe nine months of pregnancy was a blessing.

“Lilly, good to see you at work on time.” Dr. Anderson approached her with several charts in his hands.

“Are these patients you need to turn over?”

“No, finished up. Oddly, you’re starting fresh with new ones. There are a few that were just finished in triage. Minor complaints.”

Lilly heard a nurse pick up the EMS phone, taking report from an ambulance crew. She beckoned Lilly closer.

“What’s up?”

“They’re bringing in a pregnant patient. She seems physically stable. Do you want her to go upstairs?”

“How far along is she?”

“They don’t know, and I guess she’s not saying.”

“She’s incoherent?”

“No, refusing to give the information.”

Lilly brushed her hair from her eyes. “Well, unless we know for sure she’s over twenty weeks, she needs to come here. We’ll medically screen her. Who’s on call for OB?”

“Dr. Maguire.”

“Why don’t you see if he can come down with an ultrasound machine and clear up how many weeks pregnant she is? What’s their ETA?”

“They’re pulling in. I told them Trauma 2.”

Lilly made her way to the trauma bay. Just as she rounded the corner, she saw the crew coming in. One of the ER nurses trailed behind them.

“Hey, Lilly.” Eric smiled, one eyebrow raised in that you’re-going-to-love-this-patient sense.

“Having trouble staying on the roads?” Lilly watched as the crew placed the patient on the gurney, tilting the backboard to one side.

“We’re not, but I guess this young lady is. I think she’s in her twenties. Skidded into a tree, though I’m not sure how much of an accident it was.”

“Oh?”

“She was sliding off the road, but the direction of the tire treads didn’t initially send her in that direction. The officer on scene told me that he saw what seemed to be a lot of correcting in order to meet the tree intentionally.”

“Has she said she’s suicidal?”

“She really won’t say anything. She’s got some pretty deep lacerations on her hands and arms that look like they have glass embedded in them. She moves everything. Pupils are equal and reactive. I didn’t see any obvious fractures. She was able to extricate herself from the vehicle. We found her wandering away from the scene toward the woods. The person that called in the accident kept tabs on her until we arrived.”

“Was she dazed?”

“No, she seemed quite determined, like she didn’t want us to find her. The man following her said she kept telling him to go away.”

“What about ID?”

“Nothing in the car. No purse or vehicle registration. The police are close behind. They’re running the plates and the VIN number. If we’re lucky, the car will be registered to her or at least someone who knows her.” Eric’s partner approached, pushing the empty pram. “Let us know if you need anything else. We’re on all night.”

The nurses already had her connected to the monitor, and the patient’s vital signs looked reassuring. Radiology had completed their films, shielding the patient’s abdomen to the best of their ability. Lilly saw the nurses take off their lead aprons. After grabbing a warm washcloth, she approached the bed. A pair of green eyes peered through a tangle of red curls. Grass, blood, and dirt made her pale skin look darker than it actually was.

“Hey there,” Lilly spoke, her words just above a whisper. “I’m Dr. Reeves.” Lilly began to brush the dirt away with light strokes of the cloth. “What’s your name?” The patient stared at her initially, almost fearful, but now averted her gaze. “Are you uncomfortable on this board?”

There was a slight nod in the affirmative.

“If you can answer my questions, I can get you off. Okay?”

Another nod.

“Name?”

“Annalisa.”

“Annalisa, are you pregnant?”

A pause, the tip of her tongue smoothing over cracked lips. “Yes.”

“How far along are you?”

“Twenty-eight weeks.”

“We’re going to have an OB physician come down and check you out. Are you feeling your baby move?”

Clearing her throat, Annalisa whispered, “Yes.”

“Were you trying to hurt yourself?”

Again, she looked away. Sometimes avoidance was the only way to answer. Lilly stepped back, giving her some physical space, and reviewed the films of her spine.

“I’m going to examine you. If everything looks good, I’ll get you off this board.” Lilly stepped through the trauma exam quickly. Not seeing any neurologic deficits and noting that the spinal films were negative for fracture, she removed the C-collar from her neck and helped her to roll off the board. Lilly pulled several blankets from the warmer and placed them over her shivering patient.

“There’s a problem with the baby,” Annalisa said to Lilly’s back. She turned to see her patient’s eyes moist with tears.

“What sort of problem?”

“I don’t want it.”

“We can talk about options if you don’t want to keep the baby.”

The patient whipped her head from side to side, tear droplets flinging from her face. “No, the baby is evil! I don’t want to carry it anymore.”

Lilly approached the bed, placing her hands on the young woman’s shoulders. “Annalisa, it’s just a baby …”

“You don’t understand!”

“I’m trying to, but I need you to calm down.”

Dr. Maguire entered the room.

“Dr. Reeves.” He pulled an ultrasound machine to the bedside.

“Thanks for coming,” Lilly stood and straightened her lab coat. “This is Annalisa. We need the baby checked. She thinks she’s seven or eight months.”

“Who’s your regular doctor?” He pushed the layers of blankets to one side and unbuttoned the patient’s shirt. She slapped his hands away.

“Annalisa, it’s okay. We just need to check the baby.”

“I don’t want him touching me.”

“Here, I’ll do it,” Lilly offered. “We just need the bottom part up a bit.”

Annalisa allowed Lilly to expose her belly.

“This will be cold.” Maguire left trails of clear jelly over her abdomen. He placed the transducer down and static swooshing overcame the beeping from her monitor. Lilly saw the images appear on the screen.

“Fetal HR 160. That’s good.”

“Do you want to see your baby?” Lilly asked. Annalisa was not looking at the screen. Her eyes were turned away, tears continued to flow down her face. Lilly grabbed some tissues and dabbed at Annalisa’s cheeks. “What’s wrong? The baby is healthy.”

“I think she’s just shy of twenty weeks,” Dr. Maguire stated.

A look came across Annalisa’s eyes that spoke of resigned hatred.

“He’s lying!”

She was off the bed, making quick swipes at her stomach to remove the conducting gel, then shoved the machine away. Maguire backed up several steps. Annalisa stood there, breathing hard, her lips pressed so the color drained.

Lilly put herself directly in front of the patient. From the corner of her eye, she saw one nurse leave the room for security. Drake began to approach from the side, closing the gap. Annalisa grabbed a scalpel from the laceration tray that had been opened at her bedside and pulled off the protective cover, slicing several of her fingers. Tiny red droplets fell onto the white tile floor. Drake stopped his forward progression as she slashed the object at him.

“Annalisa,” Lilly waved in her direction. “Look at me. Tell me what’s going on.”

“I know the baby’s not twenty weeks.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know the exact day I conceived.”

“It’s not unusual to be off. We’ll look again.”

“I’m not off!”

“Annalisa, I meant the machine. We’ll look with the machine again.”

“He is not coming near me.” She pointed the sharp at Drake.

“All right. He’s not moving. See, he’s still.” The nurse had reentered the room with a security guard and additional ER doctor, Kurt Stephans. At least he could keep his cool. They hung toward the wall.

“I was raped.”

The words were so small, encapsulated, spoken at the end of a dark tunnel that Lilly almost wondered if she had said them to herself.

“What?” Lilly asked.

“That’s how I know the date. It’s his baby.”

Lilly’s mouth dried, her words stuck in her throat. All of them were silent. Lilly wasn’t sure she could speak the words out loud, but she didn’t know how to diffuse the situation, either. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“I know how you feel.”

“You can’t!”

“I do,” Lilly added quickly. “I’m dealing with the same thing.” Lilly slowly unbuttoned her lab coat and turned to the side, smoothing her hands on her protruding belly, exposing her secret to save this frail girl’s life. If she didn’t diffuse the situation, things were going to escalate, and likely not in Annalisa’s favor. The room coalesced in disbelief. “It’s not something I would lie to you about.”

“It doesn’t matter. I know what I need to do.”

The motion was so quick that even as the arterial spray from Annalisa’s neck hit her and Drake, Lilly wasn’t quite sure what happened until she saw the red fluid flowing down Annalisa’s chest and the scalpel drop to the floor. The patient still stood, swooning, her hand at her throat, her eyes filled with regret.

“Kurt!”

He rushed passed Lilly, nearly toppling her over as he slammed her shoulder. He caught Annalisa before she fell, scooped her up and laid her on the bed, grabbing a stack of gauze pads from the opened tray and began to apply pressure. Bubbles frothed from her throat as horrible gasps shuddered from her mouth.

“She cut through half her trachea. Someone get me an airway tray!”

The security guard hit the code blue button. Several additional nurses fled in.

Lilly turned to Maguire. His back was toward her. “Drake, you have to take the baby!”

“It’s not viable!” he shouted back. Lilly stared at the scene before her. Something was not clicking. Something she shouldn’t be missing. The monitor alarmed. Lilly noted the deadly heart rhythm on the screen.

“What harm will it do?” Kurt asked him as one of the ER techs stepped up on a stool to start chest compressions.

“Dr. Reeves, are you bleeding?”

Lilly looked down and saw the crimson streak across her chest. Glancing to her left, she saw Drake wiping his eyes. She grabbed his arm and hurried him toward the sink.

“Is it in your eyes? Drake!”

He seemed stunned, resisting her.

“Her blood could be infected. We have to wash your eyes.”

Lilly shoved him hard against the metal edge. Popping the protective covers off the eye wash station, she shoved his head forward into the stream. He bucked, attempting to pull up. She bore down on his neck with her elbow and used her free hand to scoop water. As she reached into the sink to gather more, a contact lens fell from his eye.

A green-colored contact.

The other dropped into the sink.

He raised his head.

One blue eye. One brown eye.

Lilly’s heart seized within her chest as she reached forward to grab his shirt, her hand clenched to the point where her fingernails drew blood from her palm even with the fabric serving as a barrier.

She yanked his scrub top down.

The tattoo. Three heads. A snake breathing fire.

“Looks like I have another baby on the way,” he whispered, reaching down and placing his hand over her stomach. Lilly took one step back and punched him in the jaw. He fell against the sink, then slumped to the floor.

A security guard tackled Lilly from the side, sending them both into a light crimson pool of blood and water. Lilly scrambled out of his arms as he tried to contain her, stood, sliding in the water as she pointed an accusatory finger at Drake.

“Call the police and detain Dr. Maguire. He’s the man who raped me!”

Chapter 25

N
ATHAN STOOD OUTSIDE
of the interview rooms, looking at Drake Maguire through one window and Lilly Reeves in the next. She was huddled into her lab coat. Blood stained the front of her garment, and she stared straight ahead, unseeing. His whole case had just ignited, and he wasn’t in a good mood about it. The late-night phone call summoning him to the office was the last thing he’d expected.

What is the world coming to?

This is where Nathan was.
The Twilight Zone
. A doctor accused of sexual assault on a fellow physician. An OB as a serial rapist.

It wasn’t a situation he could comprehend.

Doctors, as well as peacekeepers, held an elevated place in society. They were trusted to make decisions that might irreversibly alter the course of another’s life. A doctor could cure someone, yet in the next breath, that same physician could prioritize one critical patient over another, and someone could die.

These decisions played out every day in law enforcement, as well. A cop could send someone to prison, or give a guy a second chance to walk the narrow path. In the next second, a decision can be made to use deadly force in order to save a life or the future of another’s. It was the expectation that law enforcers and life protectors were above reproach. They were the moral fiber that held the culture together in one, albeit dysfunctional, cohesive system.

Drake Maguire had cut a hole into that fabric. He crossed a line that he should not have breached. Not only did he hurt countless women, but he also betrayed the public trust.

These things were difficult to heal from.

“You’re sure she’s all right?” Nathan asked Brett, who stood next to him, raking his fingernails through several days of stubble.

“Physically or otherwise?”

Nathan couldn’t still his mind. His approach to both Lilly and Drake was going to be tricky.

A rape case was always tricky. Especially when you had feelings for the victim.

He massaged his forehead with the palm of his hand, attempting to determine which interview tactic to use. “Both.”

“She says it’s not her blood. Evidently she was caught in the cross spray after the patient slit her own throat. So, physically, I guess okay.”

“What do we know about the baby? Is it his?” Nathan motioned toward Drake’s room.

“She’s not said anything. We only have the accounts from the rest of the ER staff. None of them knew before today about this pregnancy.”

“She’s been hiding it from everyone? Do you think Daughtry knows?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Nathan glanced between the two individuals. Tradition and logic, as opposed to legal necessity, dictated that he talk to the victim first. It was the assumption that victims would be the honest ones with nothing to hide. Nathan exited the monitoring station, turned the corner, and opened the door to Lilly’s room.

It was a typical government interrogation setup. The size of the room was determined by the recording devices it was equipped with. A larger table and bigger room would’ve meant more cameras and microphones. Instead, the small room had just one little, wooden veneer table sitting in the center. Along each edge, the laminate had been chipped by hand-cuffed suspects and bored cops using pens like schoolboys stuck in detention. Nathan smoothed his new shirt close to his chest so the pocked edge of the table wouldn’t snag the fabric. The chairs in these rooms were the worst in the building, castoffs from people in search of a better one. The carpet was cheap and frayed.

This is detention for me.

Lilly pulled the edges of her lab coat tighter.

The air in the room was thick with his apprehension at not opening with the right words.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He moved his hand across the table to reach for her. She edged back. “Do you think the baby is Dr. Maguire’s?”

She looked down; her foot kicked the leg of the table. His stomach twisted, nausea setting his gut on fire. The flames tunneled his vision.

“Lilly!” His voiced boomed in the small room. She stilled like prey in a hunter’s sight. His heart sank with regret, his voice cracked. “He’s filing an assault charge against you. It was witnessed by nearly the entire ER staff. Right now, all we have on him is your accusation—and unproven at that.”

“Isn’t my word enough? My identification?” she asked, finally looking up at him, eyes clear with determination.

“We’re going to probably need a little more. Do you know him?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He works at the hospital.”

“Do you know him outside the hospital?”

“I honestly don’t know much about him other than he’s one of Kadin’s associates.”

“In his medical practice?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask Kadin.”

“So you’re denying any type of relationship with him.”

“Unequivocally.”

“Tell me about the baby.”

“It’s his.”

“Kadin’s?”

If her glare could generate physical force, Nathan would have toppled over. Dropping his accusatory tone, he softened his voice. “How long have you known?”

“Not long, Nathan. I wasn’t hiding it from you or anyone. It’s only been a week or two.”

“Good. I mean … Lilly, what do you think?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure you’ve seen I’ve not been managing well. I was drinking, overusing sleeping pills. I still feel like I’m barely making it day to day. To think about this child and what I may have done to it scares me.”

“Have you had the baby checked? How far along are you?”

“I haven’t had the baby checked. The conception date seems obvious, but I haven’t figured out my due date. I’m not ready yet.” She pulled her hair from her eyes. “What are you going to do about Drake?”

“We’ll bring in the rest of the victims and see if they can ID him as well. Get a DNA specimen of course, but it will take some time before we get those results.”

“Are you letting him go?”

“I don’t know. If enough of the victims say he’s the guy, we’ll have enough to get an arrest warrant signed. But in order to get a conviction, we’re probably going to need DNA from this baby to establish paternity.”

“I don’t think you’re going to need it.”

“Why?”

“The patient we were all caring for. I think he raped her, too.”

“What makes you say that?’”

“I don’t think she recognized him, but she was fearful of him.”

“Maybe she just had a fear of men in general. That’s common after rape.”

Lilly leaned forward, “The patient said she was twenty-eight weeks pregnant. When he did the ultrasound, he said she was only twenty weeks.”

“What difference does that make?”

“Every woman knows when she is due,” Lilly pressed.

“When are you due?” Nathan folded his hands.

Lilly punched her fists into the table. “What is wrong with you! This is you trying to help me?”

“I’m sorry. I’m playing devil’s advocate. Not all your observations are absolute.”

“Twenty weeks is considered a nonviable fetus. The cutoff for viability is generally twenty-four weeks. At that gestational age, we would try to take the baby if the mother was in distress. Maybe even a few weeks shy of that we would try. But there’s no way anyone would grab a baby at twenty weeks if the mother was dying.”

Nathan waited as Lilly drew breath, collecting her thoughts. She placed the palms of her hands together and pointed her fingers at him.

“He underestimated the age so we wouldn’t grab the baby. He didn’t want it to live. It’s his MO to kill his offspring. Can’t we remember Torrence being run off the road?”

“Lilly, there are several problems with this. First, you assume he knew she was going to kill herself in the ER and he was setting up a reason to let the baby die as well. He may be a criminal, but I doubt he’s a psychic.”

“I think he recognized her and was going to use the advantage of the hospitalization to take her out anyway. Having it documented in her chart that she had a nonviable fetus, no one would have attempted a C-section.”

“I think it’s a stretch, Lilly. Secondly, the patient’s accusation of rape is essentially an unreported event.”

“She reported it to me.”

“But not to the police. And her reporting it to you is not going to hold credence with any judge. You’re claiming this man raped you; you want him in jail; you’ll say anything to get him there. It creates an obvious conflict of interest—a victim in a profession with a duty to report. Besides, what she said to you is hearsay, and she obviously won’t be around to testify. These are two major problems that a defense attorney will have a field day with.”

“I wouldn’t lie.”

“I’m not saying you’re lying, but a judge will need more.”

“I’m telling you Nathan, he raped that woman. That is his baby.”

Nathan slumped in his chair. “Brett’s already made a few phone calls to the patient’s family.”

“And?”

“The problem is she not only didn’t report it to the police, she never confessed this crime to anyone else; not her parents, not her sister, not even her husband. The family was fairly stunned to hear of her suicide. They think the baby is her husband’s child. He’s not claiming otherwise.”

“Nathan! It is Drake’s—”

“Lilly, we can’t go down this path.”

She buried her face in her hands. “He touched me.”

He reached out to her and laid his hand on her shoulder, relieved she didn’t push him away. “I know, Lilly.”

She looked up and grabbed his arm. “No, today. He rested his filthy fingers on my stomach and commented about how he had another child on the way.”

Nathan’s heart hammered with adrenaline-laced fear that his next words would cause any trust she had in him to disappear. “Do you think anyone else can verify that statement?”

Lilly’s face was resigned, almost hopeless and she pulled her hand back.

He could see her bold facade start to fracture and her lower eyelids began to fill. “We’re going to have to use the other women. It shouldn’t be hard. After all, we do have a sample of his DNA from several victims.”

“Something tells me that’s not going to be enough.”

“We’ll have to wait and see. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to charge you for hitting him. Luckily, it’s a misdemeanor assault, and I can give you this summons rather than booking you into jail. You have to sign it as a promise to appear in court. If you don’t, you’ll be placed in lockup. So sign this and make sure you show up.”

Nathan slid the summons toward her. The look of betrayal in her blue eyes sunk his soul with despair. Lilly pulled it with her index finger and scanned it. He handed her a pen, and she took it and signed, sliding them both back to Nathan. He tore off the defendant’s copy. She took it, folded it without looking, and placed it in the splotched red pocket of her lab coat.

“Just so I can clarify, I’m getting a ticket, and he’s going to walk.”

“At least you didn’t break his jaw. Then it would be a felony and you’d be spending the night with us.”

“Can I go now?” Lilly asked, standing from the other side of the table.

Nathan’s throat dried as he watched her readjust her shirt over her expanding belly. There were so many things he wanted to say, but any expression of them would come across as weak. He stood as well. “Lilly, what can I do to help you?”

“You can make sure Drake Maguire gets the electric chair.” She pushed past him and left.