The Cost of Commitment - KJ2 (39 page)

“Good,” Jay said vehemently. “I hope they all rot in hell.”

Peter answered, “I have something worse in mind for them—like a stint in one of their own jails.”

“You always did have a wicked streak,” Kate said. Then she paused, a thought occurring to her. “So who’s in charge of DOCS?”

“The governor’s named Randy Garston the new commissioner.”

Kate tried to whistle, but the effort was thwarted by the pain in her cheek and jaw. “Wow,” she said. “That’s a good choice.”

“Yeah, I think so too. That’s why I recommended it.”

“I should have suspected as much,” Kate said.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door and the governor stuck his head around the corner. “Can I come in?”

“Of course, sir. Please come in.” Jay hopped off the bed.

Lynn Ames

“You didn’t need to move on my account, Jay. You looked comfortable there.”

“That’s okay, sir.”

“Kate. How are you feeling?”

“Much better now, sir.”

“I bet. Listen, I want you to know how sorry and appalled I am at what happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault, sir.”

“That may or may not be, but I bear the ultimate responsibility for what goes on under the auspices of my administration. Had I known about the situation, I would have taken action much sooner.”

“I know you would have, sir.”

“Are you getting good care in here?”

“Yes, sir. It’s not exactly a five-star hotel, but it’s better than my most recent accommodations.”

“I want you to know, Kate, that I have great admiration for you. I always did, but now—well, let’s just say I don’t know if I could’ve handled what you did quite as well. You have my deepest respect.”

“Thank you, sir. Coming from you, that means a lot.”

“If you need anything, anything at all, you just say the word.”

There was an awkward moment of silence before the governor said,

“I need to get back to Albany. I want you all to know that I will personally see to it that Redfield, Breathwaite, and their accomplices are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Kate said, “Thank you, sir. And thank you for sending in the best.”

She nodded slightly in Peter’s direction.

“I was lucky he was available.”

“Actually, Governor, I was the lucky one.”

Michael Vendetti ran his fingers through his hair nervously. “What are we going to do now? What the hell happened? Who authorized that?”

“Nobody, Michael, obviously,” Bob Hawthorne replied shortly.

“Calm down, you’re giving me hives. I would guess Mr. Breathwaite set that up on his own. I can’t imagine Bill being a willing party to such an ill-conceived and messy undertaking.”

“We’ve got to cover our tracks, fold the operation.”

“Michael, shut up. This unfortunate incident may have accomplished the goal for us. We may not have to do anything more.”

Vendetti stared at the chairman as if he’d grown four heads.

“Look,” Hawthorne lectured impatiently, “our boy Charlie went out to Attica, presented himself as a tough, no-nonsense governor, and got the hostage out in a daring rescue. We ran polling data immediately
The Cost of Commitment

afterward—his numbers were through the roof. Very presidential stuff, all agreed.” Hawthorne puffed his chest out like a peacock.

Vendetti’s color improved from a pasty white to a more normal shade of tan. “Then our work is done, right?”

“For the moment, I think it would behoove us to lay low. If the situation warrants again, we may have to step in.”

Vendetti’s groan was audible.

“But for now, we’ll consider ourselves adjourned.” Hawthorne rose and moved to the door. “I would have thought you would have had more stomach for this sort of thing, Michael. You disappoint me.” He walked out without waiting for a response.

Kate had fallen back to sleep, her injuries and ordeal getting the best of her. Jay sat at her lover’s bedside, writing her story on Native American healing rituals for
Time
on a pad of legal paper. When she had called the office to give Trish the update, the editor had tried to talk her out of writing the story.

“It can wait, Jay. It’s not like it’s breaking news. Why don’t you take
a little time, come back after the holidays rested, refreshed, and ready to
go.”

“I’ve just come off two weeks’ rest, as you might recall, and I don’t
want to let any more time pass before I put out a story. I have to get back
in the game. Besides, this is a great story and it deserves to be told.”

“And it will be. I’m just suggesting it doesn’t have to be told today.”

“I appreciate the flexibility, Trish, really I do.”

“But, stubborn thing that you are, you’re going to write it anyway.”

“Yep.”

Trish sighed in exasperation. “How did I know that? All right, kiddo.

The choice is yours. But if you’re planning to write it for next week’s
edition, I’ll need it by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Thanks, Trish, you’re the best.”

“Um, Jay?”

“Yes?”

Trish hemmed and hawed uncharacteristically. “I’ve put Alex on the
Attica story. I wanted you to know that we’d be running something on
it.”

“Oh. I—I guess I got so involved that I never thought about it from a
story angle.” The idea of her lover’s harrowing experience being the
fodder for a magazine story made her stomach turn. On the other hand, if
she looked at it objectively, if the incident had happened to anyone else,
she would have expected it to get ink. “What do you need from me?”

Lynn Ames

“Nothing. I’ve instructed Alex to leave you out of it and to treat it like
any other story. I promise you he won’t come looking for any insider
information.”

Jay had to smile at the protective tone in her voice. “Alex is very
good. I’m sure he’ll write a great story. I will give you one thing, though,
that nobody else seems to have picked up on yet.”

“Oh?”

“The commissioner of DOCS and the former spokesman have been
arrested. They’re to be arraigned this morning on charges of plotting to
have Kate murdered.” Sharing that bit of news brought Jay a measure of
grim satisfaction.

“You’re kidding?”

“Absolutely serious.”

“Oh, kiddo. I’m so sorry about this whole horrible mess.”

“Yeah, me too. I’m just glad it’s over now.”

“When are you going back to Albany?”

“They’re planning to airlift Kate later today if her vital signs remain
normal.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s beaten, literally and emotionally, and exhausted. I think she’s
still in a little bit of shock. She’s been having nightmares the last few
times she’s dozed off, although she won’t talk about it.”

“Give her time, Jay. Time heals all wounds.”

“I hope so, Trish. I guess we’ll find out.”

“Sleeping sitting up these days?”

“Barbara!” Jay jumped out of her chair and ran to her friend, enveloping her in an emotional hug. “Thank you for coming. I’m so glad you’re here.” She clung to her as if to a lifeline.

Barbara pulled back slightly to have a good look at Jay. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, sweetie. I’ve already been in touch with the doctors here. They’ve been doing a great job. Kate’s strong and in wonderful physical shape. She’ll recover from her injuries quicker than you think.”

“I know,” Jay sniffled, “but I hate to see her in such pain. I’m afraid to touch her because I don’t want to hurt her.”

“She’s not that fragile, Jay. She needs your touch—it will ground her and remind her she’s loved and wanted.”

“I woke her once, a little while ago when she was obviously having a nightmare. She flinched and shied away from me.”

Barbara nodded sagely. “Honey, she’s been through a lot in the past few days. It’s going to take her some time to readjust. That wasn’t about you—she was still back wherever her nightmare had taken her.”

“I don’t want to make it harder for her.”

The Cost of Commitment

“Jay, your presence and your love are the most important ingredients in her healing process. She needs you now, more than ever.”

“I was—I was afraid I’d lost her in there, Barbara. I can’t imagine my life without her by my side.”

“The great thing is, you don’t have to.”

“It’s like every minute with her has become so precious, such a gift.”

“Don’t tell me that—tell her.” Barbara indicated the form in the bed.

“Tell me what?” Kate asked groggily.

“Tell you to get your lazy ass out of bed, you slacker,” Barbara rejoined lightly.

“Yeah? Come over here and say that.”

“What do you think I am, stupid? I remember exactly how long those arms are. And, with a cast for a club, I’m not getting anywhere near you.”

“I always said you were a smart woman.”

Barbara looked at Kate with a practiced eye. “You look like hell.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“Don’t I know it. Okay, sugar, fun time’s over. Now let’s get down to business.”

The doctor proceeded to evaluate Kate thoroughly, making notes on a portable dictation machine she had pulled out of a briefcase. When she had finished, she gave her friend an affectionate hug. “I don’t know how to break this to you, but you’re going to outlive us all.”

“Good to know.”

“How’d you like to go home?”

“Home, home?”

Barbara smiled. “No, Albany Med home. We’ve got some work to do to make you beautiful again.”

“Ah, a reclamation project. Sounds like fun.”

“Tell me that afterward.”

Jay, who had been standing quietly in a corner, asked, “What has to happen?”

“They’ll have to operate to repair that wrist, and we’ll have to see about the cheekbone, too. There’s not much we can do about the ribs, as long as they’re not displaced. The x-rays don’t indicate that they are, but we’ll do further tests to be sure.”

“Sounds like more fun than one woman should be allowed to have.”

Kate tried to smile, but the action was just too painful.

“Uh-huh.”

“Why don’t you guys wait here, and I’ll see about checking you out into my care.”

“Have I said thank you yet today, Dr. Jones?”

“I don’t believe you have.”

Lynn Ames

“Where are my manners? Thank you, Barbara, for hauling your butt out here to personally oversee my care.”

“I’m just in it for the publicity, babe. I’m going to be able to write a book about you and your exploits someday, and how I was the one who got to piece you back together and send you back into battle each time.”

“I should have known there was an ulterior motive in there somewhere.”

When Barbara got outside the room, she put her arm against the wall for support. Even for an experienced doctor like she was, the sight of someone she cared about so banged up was hard to take. It was obvious that Kate had been in a fight for her life, and Barbara was worried that there were scars, both physical and psychological, that would take a very long time to heal.

“You okay?” Peter came up behind her, placing an arm around her sympathetically.

Barbara straightened up automatically, years of training kicking in.

“Fine.”

“It’s hard to see her like that, isn’t it? When I laid her down on that roof, it was all I could do not to scream out loud. She looked so fragile, so helpless. I just wanted to kill somebody.”

“I can understand that.”

“Is she going to be all right?”

Barbara sighed heavily. “I think we can fix her physically. Her wrist may always cause her trouble in bad weather, and her ribs will ache on occasion. Her cheekbone can be repaired without any noticeable scarring, and the effects of the concussion will go away in time.”

“There’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere. I can hear it in your voice.”

“The psychological impact will be harder to gauge. Someone who’s been through something as traumatic as what Kate experienced usually suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. From what Jay has described and what little I can read in her expressions, I can already see some issues developing.”

“How can we help her?”

“Be supportive, understanding, and don’t ignore what happened. She needs to honor what she went through—she’ll need to talk about it.”

“I can do that.”

“You know our Kate. She’ll put up a tough front, especially in front of Jay, because she won’t want us to worry. It’s our job not to let her get away with that, but it’s a fine line. She’s going to need a sense of normalcy, a sense of purpose; yet none of us can ignore, or wish away, the feelings that are going to keep cropping up at odd times for her.”

“What do you suggest?”

The Cost of Commitment

“Well, for one thing I’d recommend a good therapist who is well versed with these types of issues.”

“Do you think we can get her to go for that?”

“I think if it were positioned as standard DOCS operating procedure in any hostage situation she’d have no choice. I also think making it seem like it’s less about her personal frame of mind and more about the situation she was in would allow her to frame it in her head in a way she could live with.”

“Actually, counseling is SOP in a hostage situation.”

“All the better.”

“When do you recommend we break that to her?”

“I don’t think we should. She needs to be able to come to us as an escape valve. I would have the governor, or whoever the new commissioner is going to be, do it. She’s less likely to give them trouble about it or see it as helpful meddling.”

“Done.”

“Now let’s see what we can do about getting her out of here and fixing her body.”

The arraignment was a quiet affair. The defendants, dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, were led into the courtroom in arm and leg shackles by a phalanx of sheriff’s deputies. The restraints necessitated them shuffling their feet as they walked. Neither one of them looked at the other. Two reporters in the back of the room recorded the proceedings: Alex Dingle from
Time
and Wendy Ashton of the Associated Press.