Waking Rose: A Fairy Tale Retold (46 page)

Most of them were released on personal recognizance, promising that they would return for their trial, but Kateri, who, according to the hospital representative, was the instigator, was being held for $5000 bail.

“Like I said, I’m paying it for you,” Fish told her.

 “You don’t have to,” Kateri’s eyes flashed.

“Of course I don’t. But I’m going to,” he returned amiably.

He paid the ten percent payment, and by evening, Kateri was free. She accepted Fish’s invitation to go to his apartment for dinner. Almost as if by some prearranged signal, Donna, Paul, and Alex all showed up in the parking lot of the jail. Fish invited them to come along, and called the Chinese food place back to increase the order. Kateri hadn’t wanted to discuss anything while they were still in the jail, and it was only when they were settled in Fish’s apartment with their food that she began to talk.

“We’ve started a firestorm,” she said, her eyes glinting. “Donna, thanks for getting the media there. I heard they even interviewed another homeless guy who said that friends of his had died after going into the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.”

“So what happened after you got inside?” Donna asked.

Kateri blew out her breath. “Our group got into the hospital with the normal visitors, and most of us got up to the room where Milton was before the staff knew what was happening. We all had bike locks or handcuffs, and our idea was to fasten ourselves to the guy’s bedrail. I had one handcuff fastened to my wrist and the other cuff was open. But there wasn’t enough room on the bedrail, and it looked like that would detach, so I was running around getting everyone else fastened to the bed, when Dr. Prosser came in.”

“Did she see you?” Donna asked.

“Oh, she saw me,” Kateri said with a half-smile, “She was quite irate.”  Fish, picturing the big woman, could well imagine it. “She grabbed me by the neck and shook me, screaming in my face. I went limp, and pointed out that she was assaulting me, but she just kept shaking me.

“Then she saw my cuffs and seemed to get a bad idea. She got me on the ground and cuffed my hands together and then dragged me out of the room. I’d expected that, but then she pulled me into a side room, this narrow place with no windows. I was no fool—I was trying to yell for help, but she had me in there,” she shuddered, “before I could stop her. And—” she didn’t seem to want to go on.

“How did you get away from her?”

 “Now, this is the odd part,” Kateri paused, and her eyes narrowed and fixed on Alex and Paul. Fish glanced at them, but they both seemed to be particularly focused on eating their food. “Just then, two med techs in scrubs and masks burst into the room, one short and one tall. The tall one said, ‘Dr. Prosser, the police are here. Do you want us to take this protestor downstairs for you?’ Dr. Prosser kind of sneered and said, ‘I’m teaching her a lesson first.’ And then the short tech said in this really nasty voice, ‘Then let me help you out.’ And he came up to me, and Dr. Prosser stood aside, and then—” Kateri paused, and looked up. To Fish’s surprise, her eyes were sparking and her tone was pointed. “And then he decked Dr. Prosser a hard one right on the chin!”

“Oh my!” Alex said suddenly. “Shocking!”

Kateri had folded her arms and looked severe. “She was out like a light. And then—the tall one picked me up and said in what was obviously
intended
to be a nasty voice ‘We’ll just take her down to the police,’ and picked me up and hurried out of there as fast as he could go.’”

“Wow,” Paul said heartily. “Boy! Isn’t that swell?”

Kateri paused, and squinted at Alex. “And then in the hallway, the short one said, ‘No, you’ll drop her,’ or something like that—and insisted on carrying me down himself.”

Alex said, with a straight face, “I hope he didn’t pick up more than he could handle.”

“That’s for him to decide,” Kateri said, not moving a muscle.

The two of them locked gazes, until finally Alex broke out into a smile. “Then what happened?” he asked politely.

“They brought me downstairs and were met by a pair of policemen. At which point I insisted on being put down. And the two techs mysteriously melted away into the crowd,” Kateri said, raising her eyebrows.

Alex and Paul looked at each other, stifling grins.

“Good job,” Fish said under his breath to Alex.

“And so I got arrested right away, but they couldn’t get the rest of the people out of the bedroom for hours,” Kateri said, almost proudly. “My friend Sally who works for the local TV station got some great footage of it.”

“They really did,” Fish said. “I saw the interview on TV. You were good.”

“Thanks. I hope it helps.”  A shadow passed over her. “I hope someone will intervene in Milton’s case. Or I hope he wakes up of his own accord.”

“How did they make the hospital look?” Alex asked.

 “They tried hard to cover themselves by making the protestors and the homeless people look like nut cases,” Donna said, speaking up. “What else could they do? ‘I don’t think this man with a history of mental illness is a proper authority on how we treat our patients,’ the spokesperson was saying. I did notice that Dr. Prosser wasn’t available for comment,” she added.

Fish was woken up late at night by a call on his special cell phone, which had a distinctive beeper. Awake at once, he checked the number and answered.

“Alright, Ben, I have something for you.”

“I’m ready, Hunter,” Fish said, grabbing his notebook.

“The funnel for this market comes through Canada. There’s a middleman here who services mostly wealthy clients overseas who don’t trust their native organ banks. He has contacts with several hospitals and clinics on this side of the border. The organization is pretty tight. And fairly hard to break into.”

“I see,” Fish said, writing this all down.

“But this is where I might be able to help you out. I told you I was undercover. We’re closing in on a hospital in the city that’s been a significant source for certain controlled substances. One of the doctors there got in over his head and came to the DEA, who put me on the case. Now, I’m doing this doctor a lot of favors, and he’d probably be willing to do one for me. He knows this middleman in Canada, and he could put in a request for you. They’re very suspicious over there, and they won’t deal with anyone they don’t trust. However, this doctor of mine is above suspicion, in that regard, at least for now. Actually, this might be helpful to me to see where we are. If he puts in a request and they turn him down, I’ll know his cover isn’t good anymore.”

“I see,” Fish said. “And I could get to the doctors on my end by...?”

 “If the request goes through, your organ client will be put in touch with the middleman. You can make up some excuse to get to the actual hospital you’re aiming to incriminate. Say you don’t trust the facilities, want to make sure it’s really being done right—the organ will be properly oxygenated, and so on. Then send a courier down—rigged—to check out the site and pass off the first payment.”

“Sounds good. If you can set that up for me, I’d be grateful.”

“You’d better be. But like I said, this helps me out too.” The agent chuckled. “Otherwise, I’m not sure I could spare the time.”

 A few days later, the request came through, and Fish was on the phone constantly, setting things up, coolly adopting a persona he had used before.

He played tough and suspicious on the phone, demanding to deal with a doctor, not some orderly who mopped up the surgery room. He maneuvered his queries to focus in on Robert Graves Memorial Hospital, and was told it was possible, but not certain, that there was a doctor there who would get the needed organ. “I don’t want to go myself,” Fish said in his criminal persona. “But I’ll send someone I can trust.”

Which, of course, would be himself.

He tried to pick the right moment, but he quickly realized that there was not going to be one.  In the end, he simply walked into her office the first time he found her alone.  “Dr. Anschlung, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave my position with you,” he said.

Dr. Anschlung looked at him in shock, her eyes wide.  “Ben. You can’t be serious.”

“Unfortunately, I am serious,” he said, and swallowed.  He knew how lucky he had been to have this job, to have the scholarship and the opportunities.  Possibly, he wouldn’t have the chance to work with a scholar of her caliber again. But he knew that the risks involved for him at this point were too high. He had to be ready at any time to move, and the less commitments he had, the better.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “But my personal situation—it’s become too volatile. I feel that things will only get harder from this point on.”

“Of course—I understand. Are you sure you can’t finish the semester?” she said wonderingly. “It’s only a few more weeks. I am sure we could work something out—bring you down to part-time—I could hire an assistant—”

“I wish I could,” Fish said, and he meant it. “I know how difficult this is going to be for you. But if I wait, things will probably only get worse. I don’t want to promise to ease out of the job if it turns out I can’t.”

“But this is so very unexpected, and so very unlike you. Are you in trouble? Is there anything I can do?”

“No, I’m not in trouble, not now,” he said. “And I very much have appreciated the chance to work with you and to—”

She put her head to one side. “Does this have anything to do with Mercy College? I understand from Dr. Brock that you were involved in one of the protests there.”

He reddened, but shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. It’s something personal.”

“I just would hate to see you get pulled into all sorts of counter-productive activities like that ludicrous episode,” she said, and shook her head. “You have such potential, Ben. I have admired you before for not making waves, for being able to work with those you disagree with instead of antagonizing them. Please don’t let me see you become like those Catholics from Mercy College, causing fights instead of working for peace. Promise me that.”

Inside he flinched.  “Well, Dr. Anschlung, I’ll definitely be working for peace.”
But it might involve some fights
, he finished silently.

“Donna, do you know anything about makeup?” he asked abruptly that Friday night after they had come back from visiting Rose. He and Donna had never exactly had a real conversation, not since she had confessed her lie to him. Trusting Kateri’s judgment, he had accepted her as part of the group, but had rarely spoken to her.