I was going to have to find out who it was that sold these drugs to Dr. Dunham. And, from his office manager, I was going to have to get some kind of a background as to why it was he thought that he needed to get them from the street.
I went ahead and made an appointment with his office manager to go and see her, and, if I thought that she was gonna be a viable witness, I would probably bring her in for a deposition. That would get her statement under oath, which was going to be valuable for me at trial.
I made an appointment to go and see her at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. “I’ll do anything to help you out. I don’t know what I can tell you, but I’ll do anything I can to give you whatever information you need,” she told me over the phone.
I went to my office, and looked at my notes to get prepared for my interview with Sally Wallace. After a few minutes, Harper appeared in my doorway. My door was open, but she knocked lightly on it.
“Do you mind if I come in and talk to you?” she asked in a timid voice.
I kinda did mind, because I was hot into looking at my notes and doing my research, but at the same time, I was not going to turn her away.
She looked a lot better than she did the previous day. She wasn’t wearing dark glasses, and her eyes looked focused and bright. She didn’t look tired. She wasn’t shaking like she was the previous day.
I nodded my head and gestured to the chair. “Have a seat. You know you’re always welcome to come and talk to me about anything. And I do mean anything.”
She nodded her head. “Thank you. I knew that you would be willing to talk to me.” She sat down, and then picked up my paperweight, and looked at it apprehensively. “I’m really sorry about the other night. I don’t know what got into me. It just seemed like everything was kind of falling around me at once. I mean, I found out about Michael being acquitted in his second trial on the same day that Axel told me that he was being deported and that we weren’t going to see each other ever again. I don’t know, I guess I just kinda lost it.”
I nodded my head. “Harper, I won’t lie to you. I’m worried about you. I know something about addiction and alcoholism. My mother has been an alcoholic my entire life. In fact, I think she’s been an alcoholic for her entire life. Well, not her entire life, but pretty far back. Growing up with her was not fun. Having her as a mother was a lot of the reason why I became the person I became when I was young, which was somebody who was out-of-control and committing crimes. You know that I went to prison, and you know that I went to prison for something I didn’t do. But there was plenty that I did do in my life. Things that I am not proud of. And a lot of that was because my mother was an alcoholic, she had a revolving door of men, and she just didn’t have time for me. She didn’t want to have me around, so she let me do whatever I wanted to. I was desperate for attention. All I wanted was for her to show that she cared about me, but she was too busy drinking and getting with men to even make me feel like I was a priority in her life.”
Harper’s eyes still didn’t meet mine, and her shame was palpable. “I know what you’re saying,” she said, “and you’re worried that because my two girls rely on me and only me that they’re going to become messed up, just like you were. And I worry about that, too.” She sat back in her chair, and looked out my window. “But I don’t really know what to do right now. I’m seeing my therapist again, and she’s helping me. And I’m back to not drinking, but it’s only been a couple of days. I went to several meetings yesterday, AA meetings, and I’ve been calling my sponsor like every hour. So, I’m working on my steps again, starting at step one. But I don’t really know what to do about my depression.”
I thought about Nate, and how he was possibly going to be helped by playing basketball. I didn’t think that Harper was going to be able to find the same type of distraction. I knew that she was taking antidepressants, as well as other meds, because she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder a few years back. I had to assume that she was still taking her meds. She was also seeing a therapist, so that was good.
“Harper, do you have any cases that you’re really focused on these days?” I asked her. “Do you have anything that’s occupying your mind? Anything challenging?”
She sighed. “I’ve been kinda dry these days. I mean, I have your usual robberies, burglaries, stealing cases, DUIs, cases that I’m working with the prosecutor to plead out. Frankly, I’m kinda bored with all of it. What I wouldn’t give for a good juicy murder case these days.”
Just what I needed to hear. “Now, I don’t know if this will help you in all that you’re dealing with, but if you need a distraction from what’s going on in your life, I would love for you to work on my mom’s case with me. At this point, she could use all the help she could get.”
Her face lit up when I said that. “I was hoping that you would invite me onto the case. To tell you the truth I was kind of angling for that, when I did all that research on Tracy Dunham before you were able to get to it. I know that you’re afraid that maybe I would drop the ball because I’m drinking again, but I think that giving me a purpose, such as saving Olivia from prison, would really help me. So I thank you for that.”
I had to smile. I didn’t even think about the fact that maybe she was wanting to be on the case, which was the reason why she was doing the research on the victim. “Well, you’re my second chair. We can work this case together, 50-50. And, even though I’m calling you my second chair, I think that we should be co-first chairs. We’ll split the duties on this one, if you don’t mind doing that.”
“I’d love that, Damien.”
I nodded my head. “Okay, then. Let’s divide and conquer this case. I need to find out a lot more information about Dr. Dunham. I have a feeling that once I find out more about him, everything is going to fall into place. What I know about him is all that I’ve read from his website. Basically, while he’s a pain management doctor, it seems like he relies upon alternatives to pain meds in treating his patients. Acupuncture, acupressure, meditation, things like that. But I also read that he was pioneering a new method of dealing with pain, and that he was to be seeking a patent for it. I read the reviews, and the patients seemed to really like him. A lot of his patients were on pain meds to begin with, got addicted to them, and still had pain, so they came to him.”
Harper looked confused. “Okay, then. It seems like this guy would have access to a lot of pain meds, probably more than other doctors. So it’s still confusing to me as to why it was that he would turn to street drugs, when he would be able to get as many pain meds as he needs.”
“I didn’t think about it in that way, but you’re probably right. If he was seeing a lot of people who were trying to get off of pain meds, so they came to him, then it would follow that they probably would be turning their leftover meds into him. That makes a lot of sense. So, you’re right – he would have access to a lot of surrendered meds that he would be able to take that would help him with whatever issue he was trying to deal with. But, then again, I need to do a lot more research on the whole issue of heroin versus prescription drugs. I know that heroin provides different benefits to people than your average pain meds. And by benefits, I mean that term loosely, of course. I guess that that’s a good place to start – do what we can to get some kind of patient list from him. Although, I don’t think that we’ll be able to do that without resorting to Anna hacking his database. But I would like to get a handle on the kinds of people that he was treating.”
I liked bouncing ideas off of Harper. When she and I would brainstorm, we often came upon the right solution. I also liked the fact that she generally got along with my mom, who was definitely an acquired taste. She wasn’t somebody who was necessarily easy to love or get to know, but Harper always got along with her.
Harper didn’t come from the kind of weird background that I did. She had a mother and father who stayed married for many years, and she had a lot of brothers and sisters. She was close to one sister in particular, Albany. Her father came out
as gay recently, and he was married to a Russian man. Her father and his Russian husband seemed to be happy enough, and Harper was happy for him.
So, even though Harper did not have firsthand experience with dealing with someone like my mother, that didn’t really matter. She still accepted her for who she was and what she was. In fact, Harper even found my mother to be funny. A hoot, as she said.
“Okay, Harper. There are two lines of inquiry that I want to start with this,” I said. “Number one, I need to find out who was the dealer who gave him that heroin. Number two, I’d like to somehow or some way get information about the number of patients who were surrendering their drugs to him. Now I know that he’s supposed to follow a certain protocol when these patients give him the drugs, but I guess we need to talk to his assistant and find out if he was following that protocol. Third, I would like to get a listing of all the pharmaceutical reps who had visited him over the years. Especially the ones who have visited him recently. I’m curious as to what drugs he was being supplied with through these pharmaceutical reps, and how much. I know that the reps give drug samples to doctors all the time. Again, I’m going to have to see what the office protocols were for giving these samples out to patients. I need to find out how his office was run - if it was loosely run, or if he had a really good assistant who stayed on top of everything. And I wonder who was supervising him, if anybody. I mean, if it was known that he was having a problem with addiction, then I would imagine that he was being supervised by somebody. I also would like to know if he had been the subject of any complaints against him. I know that a lot of physicians have addictions that they’re able to cover up, but I would like to know about the system in place to try to catch them.”
“Where do you want me to begin?”Harper asked me. She was making notes as I was talking, a mile a minute, to her. I was brainstorming, just throwing ideas out at the top of my head, as fast as I could go. She was keeping up with me, and I could see the light in her eyes was once again beginning to come back. I felt a sense of relief when I saw that light in her eyes. The last couple of times I’d seen her, she looked so down and depressed. I was afraid that she was going to go back into depression, so I was happy that I could really keep her busy.
“Why don’t you go and talk to his office manager?” Harper asked. “I understand that he was in private practice, but that he had an office manager, and he also had another physician who was there in his suite. His office manager especially might be somebody who might be valuable to talk to. She would know what kind of patients were coming to see him, although she can’t supply any of the names, and she would also be able to tell you some information about whether or not he was being supervised by anybody. She might be forthcoming in telling you if there were any complaints against him from the AMA or from other patients. I think that if you talk to the office manager that we could probably get a handle on whether or not his addiction was affecting his practice. If he had many days he didn’t come into the office, and canceled all appointments, the office manager would know that. If he had complaints against him, she would know that, too. And I think, even more importantly, she would have a name of all the pharmaceutical reps who had visited him. I think that if we got a handle on how he interacted in his day-to-day practice, we might be able to glean clues about what was going on with him.”
“Thanks for giving me this assignment.” She looked at her hands. “I was wondering if you could come along with me to talk to these people.” She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. “God, this is so embarrassing. I’m just going to go ahead and come out and say it. I need support right now. I’m really happy that I’m going be able to sink my teeth into your mother’s case, but I don’t really want to be alone. So, for right now, it’s kind of a bad, crucial time. And I know that going to his office and doing the research on him are things that I can do alone, but….”
I knew what she was getting at. “Harper, do you have bottles of liquor stashed in your car, by any chance? Do you have a thermos of coffee that is spiked with alcohol? Is that what’s going on?” I knew the alcoholic’s game well, too well. My mother had liquor bottles stashed in her car at all times, and, as for taking a thermos full of alcohol, mixed in with a little bit of soft drink for color…that was mom’s MO. She used to take just such a thermos to work at Wal-Mart, stashing it in her locker and drinking it during her breaks, before she got caught and her job was threatened. After she was given a warning, she just went to her car during her breaks and boozed it up there.
Harper hung her head. “Yes. That’s what’s going on. I’m just afraid that I’ll go to his office, Dr. Dunham’s office, and sit in my car in the parking lot and drink.” She had tears in her eyes. “It’s bad, Damien. I don’t think that I’ve been through a crisis like this for a long time. I mean, I fell off the wagon a few years back, but there was nothing really bugging me at that time. This time, I’m scared. I’m really frightened that I’m not going to be able to find my way back. So, I’m reaching out to you. I’m telling you that I need a little hand up. I know that you would like for me to just take one piece of the investigation, and you take another piece, but I would like for us to just do all of it together.”
It was then that I realized that the main reason why Harper was so excited to be working on this case was because she needed to be side-by-side with me. She was going to need me to supervise her, so to speak. She couldn’t come right on out and say that she needed supervision, but I could read the subtext. She didn’t want to be alone.
“Okay. We’ll go over to his office together and talk to his office manager together. That’s where I would like to begin this investigative process.”
She looked embarrassed. “It’s hard for me to ask for help. It’s always been difficult for me to admit that I have a problem. For most of my life, I’ve always tried to put a face to the world that there was nothing wrong with me. That I had it all together. That I was strong enough that I didn’t really need any help. It’s taken a lot of therapy, a lot of talking, for me to realize that my strength can’t always come from within. Sometimes I have to look outside myself and hope that other people can give me strength. At least, during times like this, when I feel very weak.”
I put my hand on her hand. “Harper, you don’t really have to explain things to me. Sometimes everybody needs a person to be there for them, to reinforce them. To give them strength, like you say. We don’t always have that internal fortitude to stay on track with our lives. That’s true for everybody, even me. I mean, just look at me – I was in prison for something I didn’t do. I relied upon other people to bring me out of that situation. Namely, the Innocence Project. And then I relied on my public defender who tried my second trial for that robbery and murder. Without them, I would still be in prison. And, I’ll never forget the fact that you represented me on my own murder charge. You did such an awesome job figuring out what had really happened to my father. You took control of that investigation, and that trial, and that was a time when I needed you. Now, you need me, and I’ll be there for you no matter what.”
She took a deep breath, and hung her head. “Thank you.”
That was all she said. But nothing else needed to be said. Those two words, and the way that she said them, spoke volumes.
Chapter 9
Before I went to see the office manager of Dr. Dunham, I wanted to talk to my mom. She was back at her house, playing Bunco with her friends, and complaining about her ankle monitor. Her sink was still regularly stopped up, she still ran her car tires until they went bald, and she still didn’t have a dishwasher. It was October, and she had her Christmas lights up, as she did year-round. Her trailer was in its usual state of disrepair – rain coming in through the roof, mold starting on the walls, and she was constantly having to spray some kind of insecticide or another to take care of the spiders and other bugs that constantly were invading her home. Whenever I went over there, mousetraps were everywhere.
I never wanted her to live like t
his, but that was exactly what she wanted for herself. I always tried to do what I could to make repairs around her house, and I always wanted to at least buy her a brand-new trailer. A double wide, preferably. But she always got mad whenever I would even bring the subject up. She was always determined that I wasn’t going to help her, because she always felt that any assistance from me would have too many strings attached. I didn’t approve of the way that she lived, and she knew it. She therefore wouldn’t accept my help, because she knew that if she did, I was going to try to change the way that she did things.
I didn’t really want to change her. I just wanted her to get off the sauce, stop picking up strange men in bars, and clean up her act. Take some responsibility for her negligent actions, such as her habitual drunk driving and failure to pay tickets on time, and start taking better care of her car and home.
Eh, I guess I really did want to change her, but only for the better.
But she always insisted that she was happy, and I guessed that she was.
Harper and I went to her trailer that afternoon. I called her to tell her what time I was coming, and told her that Harper was coming with me. She was excited about seeing Harper. Me, not so much.
“Good, I’m glad she’s coming with you. I’ve always wondered when the two of you were going to get together and start doing it. I know she’s got that boyfriend and all, but I think you could take him. I met him, and he’s a handsome cop and all, but I think you can shove him aside and start making it with her.”
For some odd reason, I felt embarrassed by what my mom was saying to me. I didn’t bother to correct her and tell her that Harper was no longer seeing Axel, because that would just add fuel to the fire. That would’ve meant that mom would be on my case more than ever to try to get the two of us into bed. And, at the moment, that was the last thing on my mind. Not that I didn’t find Harper attractive. On the contrary, she was objectively attractive. I didn’t know anybody who would be able to find Harper physically unattractive or unappealing. She was beautiful, with her thick hair, green eyes, lean frame, and beautiful skin. And she had a certain combination of grit, determination, and vulnerability that was almost intoxicating.
Until Proven Guilty Page 7
