by B Anders
“Any chance of me finding out who the hell her financial guardian is?” Colby ventured boldly hoping to get some information out of counsel while the going was good. But before the attorney could answer, their conversation was interrupted by an annoyed nasal voice shouting across the lobby from the reception counter.
“I only have five minutes! Both of you are late,” Colby turned around to meet a pair of angry black eyes belonging to a small neat woman with the beginning of a five o’clock shadow on her upper lip. Dressed in an oversize white lab coat, Dr. Leshkari was hurrying their way a good fifteen minutes behind schedule as usual.
Colby met Dr. Leshkari once or twice before when she and Faust drove up to talk to several of her patients on some of their other cases. The woman was a class ‘A’ bitch—the absolute top shelf of assholes. The only reason Colby could come up with why the Commonwealth hadn’t yanked her license yet given the complaints floating about how patients in “The Castle” were being treated was that most of the complainers were disgruntled former staff with rap sheets a mile long themselves.
“I’ve set up a room on Jessie’s unit for the three of you to speak. If it would do me any good, I’d tell you to leave without seeing her. Jessie is a very sick woman and these visits upset her fragile mental state. But I know I’d be better off telling those fish in the tank behind you to stop swimming so if you would follow me, I have patients to ...”
Without finishing her sentence the woman abruptly turned her back on Colby and Harrison. She then strode out of the room as quickly as she entered, leaving the detective and the lawyer to run after her down the corridor to the locked double doors leading to the secured wing of the hospital.
Pulling a worn lanyard out of her coat pocket, the doctor inserted a battered key into the side of the control box before entering a five digit code into the punch pad. Colby watched as the light flashed green and the doors clattered open despite the shrieking alarm.
“Wrong code? Or did someone forget to turn something off?” Harrison asked.
His voice sounded overly concerned as he stepped into the foyer. Colby could see the place was starting to give him the creeps. It was not a good start to the beginning of what should be a lengthy security procedure for entry into the secured wing.
On the other side of the heavy doors, Colby looked on as the doctor punched the security code and then inserted the key into an identical control box. The alarm stopped immediately. Without a word of explanation Dr. Leshkari resumed walking to the open elevator doors at the end of the hall. It appeared she was intent on ignoring Harrison’s question, leaving Colby to allay the attorney’s fears herself.
“This is one of the most secure mental health units in the state. It's the only private facility equipped to deal with violent patients who are mentally incompetent to stand trial. The entry and exit doors will sound an alarm when opened properly. It is to alert their security team to visually monitor persons entering or leaving the secured area.” Colby smirked before adding, "You should hear what the alarms sound like when there's a security breach.
Dr. Leshkari inserted the same key into the elevator’s control panel and punched in another code as Colby and Harrison stepped on next to her. As the elevator started slowly up, Colby noted that Harrison was mentally taking in the fact there was nothing in the compartment to indicate the number of floors they passed. There were only two buttons on the control panel; up or down. If something was to happen they would be suspended in a metal box somewhere in space between ground and the secure unit.
“Detective Willis is correct. There’s nothing to be concerned about Mr. O’Neil. If I had entered the wrong security code every door in the entire facility would have immediately gone into lock down and the Wellesley police chief would have to drag his ass up here and unlock each door manually.”
“Jesus,” Harrison muttered. “Hate to think what’ll happen here if there was a fire?”
The doctor looked at him and replied with a nasty laugh, “Secure unit patients are not a priority in a fire. There is no evacuation plan for these patients.”
“What the fuck?” Harrison blurted out. “You know, I’m not entirely sure that’s in my client’s best interest.”
The doctor gave him a small, tight smile, “Your client’s unsupervised survival is not in anybody’s best interest.”
The elevator jerked to a stop and the doctor repeated her ritual with the key and the punch pad. When the elevator doors slid open the doctor all but pushed Harrison and Colby off. Almost immediately the doors slid shut again and Colby could hear the elevator quietly humming as it slowly descended back down.
“Walk in a single file behind me straight down the centre of the corridor. Keep your hands by your sides. Make no physical contact with any patient or staff you encounter. Do not speak until we are in the locked room.”
Colby had seen the inside of many prisons over the years but none of them were as frightening as this facility. There were no windows and the concrete walls, ceilings and floors were all painted a stark blinding white. The lighting was painfully bright, giving no indication of time, but it was the silence that chilled Colby the most. The long corridor they walked past was lined with heavy, steel doors on either side. Numbers above each door indicated which were occupied. Yet, there was no other sound but their footsteps on the linoleum.
The last door at the end of the corridor had no number. The doctor inserted her key in the lock and a loud buzzing started up. The door opened automatically and the trio entered. As soon as the door closed, the buzzing stopped.
Colby was startled to see Jessie sitting in the sparsely furnished room. Her mousy brown hair was stringy and damp. It hung over her face like a wet, dirty curtain obscuring her eyes. She was dressed in bright orange scrubs with no shoes. Her bare feet secured to the base of the chair with leather restraints. Colby noticed that her feet were bruised and scratched. There were leather restraints on her wrists as well, shackling her thin arms to the torso harness that held her upright in to the chair.
Two burly security guards stood on either side. Colby noted they were armed with mace and night sticks.
"Isn’t this overkill for a routine client attorney visit?" Colby asked turning to Harrison who was becoming visibly upset at the state of his client.
“Her feet are covered with bruises and what the shit happened to her arms?” Harrison asked angrily as he pointed to the deep, fresh furrows up and down Jessie’s forearms.
Dr. Leshkari shrugged indifferently, “An unfortunate incident. It was shower day. She always puts up a fight. She broke the aide’s arm the last time.”
His face fast becoming an unappealing shade of red, Harrison turned to the doctor, “Dr. Leshkari, do I need to remind you that Ms. Walsh is not a prisoner. She is a patient here in this facility and she has patient rights to refuse treatment. You people are supposed to take care of her. What the fuck kind of a piss hole are you running here?”
The doctor stiffened at Harrison’s comment but before she could open her mouth to rebuke the attorney, Colby spoke up.
“I agree with the lawyer here. The guys at Walpole aren’t treated this rough. Jesus, there’s something seriously wrong going on here for so many people to be afraid of a woman barely 5 foot 4 and all of 110 pounds.”
Colby was surprised that she could feel anything but anger for Jessie. She had steeled herself to come face to face with a snarling creature hell bent on destruction, not some broken, battered toy. In her mind, she had reconstructed the woman she once knew into a monster after Marty’s murder.
“You are mistaken Detective Willis, the guys at Walpole are commonplace psychopaths. My charges are violently disturbed killers with no sense of remorse. Ms. Walsh is an extremely disturbed young woman, and you would take care to remember that.”
Dr. Leshkari turned and spoke directly to Jessie.
“Tell them, Jessie, what you think about your father being disembowelled alive and left to die.”
�
�Good,” the voice that answered on cue was thin and robotic.
Colby felt a wave of fury rip through her gut, despite her deepening sense of unease. There was something stage managed about the exchange. The words spoken were crude and inflammatory. It seemed to Colby like a calculated effort to enrage or disgust the observer. But, why would the doctor want to disrupt the interview? Why would the doctor even care about the interview?
“And the suffering he endured, the hours of misery. What do you think about that, Jessie?”
“He deserved it.”
“Fuckin’ bitch!” Colby hissed softly under her breath, unable to contain her growing anger despite her reservations.
Dr. Leshkari sneered at Colby, “What were you saying about being too rough on her?”
“Jessie,” Harrison ventured as he stepped a little closer to his client only stopping when one of the guards extended his hand to block the attorney from coming any further.
“Jessie, I’m your lawyer now, I’m taking over from Ms. Swartz. My name is Harrison O’Neil. And I want you to know you don’t have to stay here if these people are hurting you.”
Jessie lifted her head to look at the man for the first time. Colby flinched at the sight of gaunt cheeks and pasty skin. Jessie Walsh had been an intelligent, vivacious woman in the weeks before she was committed to the Castle, but the vacant eyes staring back at Colby belonged to something less than human.
Harrison noticed the black eye which appeared to be fresh and Colby could see his obvious agitation.
Before he could ask about the injury, the doctor interjected, “You are out of line, Mr. O’Neil. There is a court order for Jessie to be confined for treatment.”
“There is,” O’Neil acknowledged. “But, there is nothing in that order saying she has to stay here. The arrangement for Jessie to stay at the Abhordale Clinic was made with her financial guardian and approved by Ms. Swartz, her then legal guardian. Doctor, I’m Jessie’s legal guardian now and I do not approve of this arrangement!”
“What?” The doctor was stunned.
“She is supposed to receive treatment. The only treatment she receives here is dished out with a fist. I won’t allow this situation to continue. I am not blind. I will not ignore the obvious and choose not to look and not to question.” Harrison looked at Colby and pleaded, “Detective, please take her into custody. Bring her back to Boston with you.”
Colby shook her head, unable to mount a verbal refusal but at the same time unable to do what was asked of her. Harrison must know that Jessie was confined to the Abhordale Clinic because she was found mentally incompetent to be charged or even testify in the murder of her father, Detective Marty Walsh.
Harrison must also have been briefed that although the District Attorney’s office ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge Jessie with conspiring to commit murder, Colby was reluctant to let go of her suspicions. Jessie was in the house while Marty was sliced open like a melon, yet escaped without a scratch. That Colby was dead certain Jessie knew and conspired with the killer.
Still, Colby was stunned by the change in Jessie’s physical appearance. The cuts and bruises were unsettling. Although, smacking perps around was not an alien concept for Colby. Those same heavy handed techniques by doctors and nurses bordering well into abuse was brand new territory for her. Beating the mentally ill crossed the imaginary line of decency Colby played with in her head.
“As an officer of the court, I’m asking you to take my client into protective custody,” Harrison was shaking with anger.
“Please, don’t make her stay here alone with these people while I try to round up a Sheriff this late in the day.”
“No. Not her,” Jessie mumbled suddenly. “Don’t let her take me.”
Colby paused. Jessie’s resistance was beginning to excite her; it spoke to a part of her she buried long deep within herself. The thought of being in control of the other woman appealed to Colby and in a snap made the disagreeable task before her acceptable.
“Okay, Harrison. I’ll take her but shackled. No sissy assed liberal whining from you on this. She’s a prisoner, my prisoner.”
“No,” Jessie pleaded again, this time sounding more urgent.
“Fine,” Harrison agreed the relief clear on his face.
“Jessie, you’re going with the detective. She’s taking you back to Boston. I’ll find you a better facility, I promise, somewhere safe where you can get help. You’ll only be in the downtown lock up for a day or so.”
“No,” Jessie whined. “Not her.”
Harrison pushed by the guard to kneel in front of Jessie.
“Listen to me Jessie, I know you understand me. My job is to make sure you stay safe. I thought the doctor here was doing right by you. She sent all these reports saying how comfortable you were and how well you were doing. I shouldn’t have believed them without coming to see you first. That was my fault and I’m sorry. But I’m not going to make another mistake and leave you here with them.”
“You are making a mistake. You cannot coddle someone like her,” the doctor snarled.
“Your predecessor Swartz understood that. She was a smart woman.”
Jessie whimpered softly at the name, causing Colby to mentally cringe. In the back of her mind, Colby recognized the pain behind that sound. She heard it before from her time on the beat. It was the sound sexual assault victims made when they were asked to pick out their attacker from a police line-up.
“Harrison, fuck it. Let’s just take her as is,” Colby recommended as a sick feeling lodged itself deep in her belly.
It was the same sick feeling she got whenever things were careening out of control. A throwback to the time she was a rookie and stood by helplessly at the first unprovoked police beating she ever witnessed. Colby knew she needed to get out of the building and fast. No sense in giving the good doctor a chance to fill another open bed.
“Jessie is my patient and I can’t allow that,” Dr. Leshkari blurted out firmly.
Colby turned on the woman with a cold smile.
“My car seats four, Doctor. You want me to take you into custody too? Throw you into the lockup with a big, fat dyke called Bubba who’s going to fist fuck you another hole?”
The doctor stepped back and put her hands up palm forward indicating that she would not interfere.
“Didn’t think so."
Harrison stood and stepped closer to Jessie. She cringed as much as her restraints would allow. He glanced over at Colby, his distress evident. His jaw clenched tight and a bright blue vein throbbing heavily in his forehead. Colby worried the attorney would need a hospital bed before this day’s business was done.
“Okay, which one of you tough guys is going to unlock the harness from the chair so I can take my prisoner into custody? Or do both of you want to take a ride down to the city hog tied in the back of my trunk? You two pretty boys are going to be real popular with the guys in the holding cell downtown.”
The taller of the two struggled briefly before pulling his keys free. As he unlocked the padlock at the base of the chair and roughly tugged the leather tether out of the harness rings, Harrison and Colby simultaneously took hold of Jessie by the upper arms. Colby cocked her head in surprise, despite his overgrown Boy Scout act Harrison apparently had some kind of police training. Noticing the expression on Colby’s face, the man blushed.
“Old habits die hard. Six years military police with an honourable discharge. I was in the Marines, saw action in Kuwait. Got myself a purple heart.”
Colby gave him a genuine smile. “Nice to know you used to be a good guy once upon a time.”
Harrison gently put a hand on Jessie’s back to help her stand as he answered,
“Detective, I’m still the good guy.”
“No. Please don’t let her take me,” Jessie begged Harrison as she sagged against him.
“Jessie, don’t make me drag you,” Harrison replied in a no nonsense voice as he slowly righted her.
“Now,
I want you to try to walk and don’t stop until I tell you to sit. Once we get you comfortable in the car, Detective Willis will drive you back to Boston. I'm going to wait here for my associates to show up with a court order to release all your records to me.”
Colby asked, "You starting a lawsuit already?"
"Absofuckinlutely," Harrison replied with a wide smile and a firm nod of his head.
***
Jessie’s silence was beginning to unnerve Colby. She had not spoken a word since Harrison buckled her into the front passenger seat of the Charger like a helpless child.
