An Iron Fist, Two Harbors

by Dennis Herschbach

  “Jeff? . . . Yeah, we’re here. . . . Right. . . . No it was a good trip. . . . Deidre, of course. The boys and Megan. . . . No, we couldn’t get a hold of Dave. . . . He must be busy with something, because he hasn’t called back. . . . Okay. What room was that again? . . . Right. First hallway to the left. See you in a minute or two.” He disconnected and slipped the phone into his pocket.

  “Well?” Megan demanded.

  “Jeff ’s in the building, waiting for us. Maren is being held in an interrogation room on the sixth floor. He said we can take the elevator up.” They moved into the lobby. “It’s at the end of the hall.” Ben pointed to the left.

  The elevator was worn. Pieces of molding were missing from the frame as though someone had ripped them free, and the walls were scarred, abrasions that showed years of hard use. The cables rattled as it slowly ascended, and Deidre wondered when it had last been serviced. She absentmindedly looked for a certificate posted near the control panel. There was none, and she said a silent thank you when the elevator’s door opened to the sixth floor. Jeff was waiting for them.

  “Before you see Maren, we’d better talk.” He motioned toward a room to the right. It appeared to be someone’s office, and there weren’t enough chairs for everyone. Jeff remained standing, as did Ben and the boys. It was awkward, because there was one empty chair. “Why don’t you sit down,” Jeff suggested. He moved the chair in Ben’s direction, and Ben slowly lowered himself into it, not taking his eyes off Jeff ’s face.

  “I know you understand that Maren has been through a great deal of trauma, and I want to prepare you for what you’re going to see. So far we haven’t been able to piece together what happened to her, but whatever it was, she isn’t the same person she was the last time you saw her.”

  Deidre was aware of the boys anxiously shifting their weight from foot to foot. Megan’s face was buried in her hands, and Ben was looking searchingly at Jeff, waiting for what he would say next.

  “We haven’t got a final tox screen back on Maren’s blood, but the consensus is that she’s strung out on meth. These officers have been around the block, and they know what they see. I agree with them. One of the only drugs that would have made her deteriorate so quickly is meth, and it’s easily available on the street.”

  Ben came out of his stupor. “Is she physically okay, besides the effects of whatever she’s been into? Infections? Cuts? Bruises?”

  Jeff cleared his throat. “She’s badly malnourished. Her driver’s license shows her weight as one-hundred-twenty-two pounds. She was first taken to Hennepin County Medical Center to be examined before she was brought here. Now she weighs only ninety-one pounds. Other than being extremely unkempt and dirty, she has no lacerations or extreme bruising. She has gum disease, and a few of her teeth are very blackened.” Jeff looked around the room before deciding whether to continue. Everyone, including the boys, were staring at him.

  “She . . . she tested positive for two venereal diseases.” He saw the boys look puzzlingly at Deidre. “They are gonorrhea and chlamydia.” He hurried to add, “Now, those are only preliminary diagnoses, and the final cultures might come back negative.” Deidre knew the chances of that occurring were slim to none.

  “I wish I could be more positive, but I don’t want you to be shocked by what you are going to see in the other room. Maren has been cleaned up, but she still looks like a war refugee. In a way, I guess she’s been through a war.”

  Jeff moved toward the door. “Let’s go see Maren.”

  Chapter

  Forty-Three

  AN UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER met the group as they stepped into the hall. He quietly asked them to follow him, explaining as they walked that they would be stopping by a window that looked into the interrogation room where their daughter was being held.

  “Realize she isn’t under arrest. The officers who discovered her passed out in an alley found no drugs on her person.”

  Deidre interrupted. “Where exactly was Maren found?”

  “Two patrolmen were driving their beat, shining a spotlight up darkened alleys four blocks west of here,” the officer explained. “One of them thought he saw a leg protruding from behind a dumpster, and when they investigated, they found your daughter. They suspected she was overdosed and called an ambulance. It turned out she was heavily under the influence of something, but not near death.”

  “What makes you so sure it’s her?” Megan confronted the officer. Ben was taken aback by her pessimism, and had difficulty not saying so, but he managed to hold his tongue. He realized the entire family was under tremendous pressure.

  “She was clutching her purse, and the paramedics allowed her to keep hold of it on the way to the hospital. Once there, the ER personnel took over, and were able to take the purse from her and search it. They made a tentative ID from its contents. Well, here we are,” he announced, but he stood in front of the viewing window, blocking the family’s view. “Maren was given some pretty potent drugs at the hospital to help her through withdrawal. She will have a difficult time relating to you, may not even recognize you,” he warned them. “Are you ready?” Each gave a slight nod, and the officer stepped out of the way.

  “Oh, Maren!” The words escaped Deidre’s mouth, a combination of an exclamation and a moan. She turned to Ben and buried her face in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and Deidre felt hot tears dropping from his eyes onto her head. She felt his arms tighten around her, felt his chest convulsing.

  The boys stood rooted in place until Megan knelt down beside them and pulled them to her. The family remained transfixed like that until Jeff, in his quiet, calming way said, “Let’s go inside where we can be closer to Maren. She needs you right now.”

  Two other people were in the room with Maren, a female officer and a man who introduced himself as a representative of social services. The officer tapped the broken girl on her shoulder and said, “Maren, your family is here to see you.”

  The wasted girl sitting at the table raised her head and looked at them, but there was no sign of recognition in her eyes. The social worker said he’d wait outside so they could speak after their visit, and he and the officer left them alone with their daughter.

  Deidre was in disbelief. If the girl hadn’t had Maren’s purse with her ID in it, she would never have recognized her as her daughter. This . . . stranger . . . was not the person she knew and loved. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyes were ringed with black circles, creating a face that resembled that of a raccoon. What shocked Ben the most were the lesions that covered her face, welts that verged on being festering, open sores. Her hair was a tangled mess, even though the hospital staff had tried their best to comb out the rat’s nests. Deidre noticed that Maren’s lips were dry and cracked, and for an instant, when she opened her mouth, Deidre saw that her gums were red and bleeding. Not only did Deidre think she saw massive decay along her daughter’s gum line, but her breath was so putrid Deidre almost gagged. The girl laid her head on the table as if it was too much effort to hold it up.

  “Maren, it’s Dad. Maren, look at me.” The girl struggled to lift her head, and it seemed to him her eyes somewhat focused.

  “Daddy,” she croaked through parched vocal cords. “Daddy, take me home.”

  Ben, ignoring the deplorable condition of her, engulfed her in his grasp and rocked her back and forth. “Oh, Maren, Maren,” he kept repeating over and over.

  Megan and the boys stood back from the table. She had a hand on each of their shoulders, and they moved closer to her, not knowing how they should react. Deidre placed her hand on Maren’s back and recoiled when she felt how emaciated her daughter had become. No wonder it was so difficult to recognize this person, who had once been so full of life. Now she could feel every vertebra, her shoulder blades, every articulation of her shoulder bones.

  The girl seemed to revive a little in their presence, and Ben and Deidre tried to communicate with her.

  “We’re here to take you home, honey,” Deidr
e said reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you. It’s going to be okay.”

  The blemished face contorted. “Okay?” It was more of a question than an assertion.

  To be at her level, Ben knelt beside her, and thought he detected a sign of recognition. “We love you, dear one. We’re going to step out in the hall for just a minute, but we’re here. Remember that. We’re here for you.”

  He knew they were being observed, and he motioned at the two-way mirror that they wanted to come out. The door opened and the woman officer entered the room while the social worker remained in the hallway.

  “What do we do now?” Ben asked the social worker.

  “Your daughter is out of danger as far as seizing, but she needs someone with her constantly for the next few days,” he said gently. “Preliminarily, we’re quite sure she has been using meth quite heavily, and that almost always causes severe depression, which causes a risk for suicide. I have the prescription that was given to her by the ER doctor, something to ease her discomfort until the drugs are mostly out of her system. However, the meds will not reduce her risk of suicide, so don’t allow her to be alone for any length of time. Follow the directions on the bottle, one tablet under her tongue in the morning, one before bedtime. I’d suggest that you begin making arrangements to get her into a rehab program as soon as possible. She’ll definitely need inpatient treatment. Here’s a list of places that can help you.”

  Ben took the paper that was offered to him. As he glanced at it, he noticed that at the top of the list was Hazelden, a world-famous rehab facility located near the Twin Cities.

  “Are we free to take her out of here, or does she have to remain in a cell?” Deidre wanted to know.

  The social worker shook his head. “No, she’s free to leave under your supervision. I’d recommend that you take her to a hotel for the night. Let her spend time in a warm shower. Put her to bed early. Right now, she needs sleep more than anything else. She should be more alert by tomorrow, and then you can take her home. But I can’t emphasize strongly enough, she’ll need intensive therapy to beat this monster that has hold of her.”

  He wished them all well and said he had to get back to his office before his day ended. Deidre and Ben looked to Jeff, who had stayed on the sidelines the whole time. “Can you help us?” Ben asked. “We’re so frazzled, we don’t really know where to turn.” Jeff had never seen his friends so uncertain in all the time he had known them. He made arrangements for them to check into a hotel near I-35. That way they’d be on their way out of the city when they left the next morning. He volunteered to lead them to the hotel, but Ben told him their GPS would get them to the address. Amid their many thanks, Jeff left for Two Harbors, and Ben and Deidre made arrangements to take their daughter with them. Luckily, their SUV was a six-passenger vehicle.

  By late afternoon, they had signed all the formal papers releasing Maren to their custody, and the six members of the VanGotten family crowded into the car to make the short trip to the hotel.

  The boys stared at Maren in disbelief, neither of them uttering a word. They were seated in the backseat, and the one time Deidre looked back at them, she saw they were holding their noses and breathing through their mouths. The stench of Maren’s breath was nauseating.

  Megan tried to take her sister’s hand, but Maren quickly drew hers away, as if she had an aversion to being touched. The short journey was made in silence. Once at the hotel, Ben checked them into two rooms connected by a shared door.

  “Maren, why don’t you take a warm shower?” Deidre suggested. “Maybe it will refresh you, and you’ll sleep better tonight. Megan, I think it would be best if you helped her. She’s so unsteady I’m afraid she’ll take a fall. Do you mind?”

  Maren mumbled some unintelligible words, and Megan nodded to her mother.

  “Come on, Maren, I’ll help you into the bathroom. Can we get you out of your clothes and into the shower? Or would you rather take a bath?”

  It appeared that Maren was beginning to be aware of her situation. She nodded, which Megan took to mean she wanted a bath rather than a shower. In minutes, Deidre heard the tub being filled and Megan offering words of encouragement. There were a few minutes of silence, except for the muted sounds of clothing hitting the floor, followed by the gentle splashing of water as Maren submerged herself in the steamy tub. Deidre heard the bathroom door open, and Megan appeared in the doorway between the two rooms.

  The family looked up, startled by the look on Megan’s face. Deidre sprang from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “Megan, what’s wrong?” she wanted to know.

  Tears of shock spilled from Megan’s eyes. “She’s not Maren.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Deidre blurted out, while Ben asked at the same time, “How do you know?”

  Megan regained her composure. “I’ve seen her naked.”

  “Of course she looks different,” Ben argued. “She’s nothing but skin and bones. Give her some time to gain some weight back and she’ll be her old self.”

  Megan gave him a cold stare. “I’ve seen her naked, I’m telling you!”

  “We understand that, but your dad is right. Her body’s bound to look different from what we remember. Is she safe in the tub by herself?” Deidre began to move to the other room to check on her, but Megan was blocking the doorway.

  “She’s okay. I left the door open and I can hear her from here. Look, Maren and I were identical twins. I knew from the time I saw her she wasn’t my sister. In fact, I knew she wasn’t even before we got here. Maren is gone. I sense it. I believe it. I know it.”

  “But, Megan, look at her face and think of what Maren would look like of she was thirty pounds lighter than when we last saw her. The eyes, the hair color, her height, her purse and driver’s license, it all adds up.”

  Megan emphasized again. “Mom, we’re twins. I’ve seen her naked.”

  Finally, Deidre was beginning to catch what Megan was saying. “What are you telling us?”

  Megan looked at her father and her brothers, hesitated a moment, and then blurted out, “Her nipples are darker than mine, darker than Maren’s.” Megan blushed. “And her hair, you know, down there, is dark brown. Mine . . . I mean, Maren’s was blonde. That’s how I know.” She buried her head in her hands not only to hide her tears, but also to cover her embarrassment.

  Chapter

  Forty-Four

  DEIDRE PLOPPED DOWN onto a chair, and Ben moved to her side. Both of them were near shock and could only stare at Megan. The boys sat on one of the beds, confused at what this turn of events meant.

  “What are we supposed to do now?” Megan asked almost rhetorically.

  It took Deidre nearly a minute to respond. “Tonight we have to take care of this girl. Tomorrow we take her back to the police station. She’s someone’s daughter, someone who is as lost as we are, I’m sure.”

  Ben added, “And there are questions we need to have answered. How did she get Maren’s purse? How did she know her PIN, and why didn’t the police do a fingerprint check to spare us this roller-coaster ride?” He shook his head.

  “I’ll come help you, Megan,” Deidre told her daughter. “That girl needs us for tonight, and we’re going to be there for her.” The two women retreated to the bathroom where the stranger in their midst was bathing. Ben heard them gently talking to her and listened as they struggled to get her to her feet and out of the tub.

  Megan volunteered to stay in the same room with her, and in a few minutes they had her securely in bed. The girl’s head hardly hit the pillow and she was wheezing in her sleep. Every so often one of her muscles would twitch involuntarily, causing an arm or a leg to thrash under the covers. Megan told her parents to go in the other room and try to get some rest.

  “That isn’t Maren?” Steve asked when his parents shut the door between the rooms.

  “No, I’m afraid not.” Ben’s voice was filled with dejection, and he sat down next to his son.
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  “Then where’s Maren?” Jack asked, his chin trembling as he fought back tears.

  Deidre sat down with them. “I’m afraid we don’t know the answer to that.” She hugged Jack to her chest and began to convulse with wracking sobs. The four of them wept together.

  After a bit, Deidre and Ben tucked the boys into bed, knowing sleep would not come easily for them.

  “Mom and I are going downstairs for a little while,” Ben said. “I’ll leave my cell phone with you, and Mom will have hers.” He showed the boys how to bring up his favorites list and click on the first entry, Deidre. “Call if you need anything, even if it’s only that you need us by you. Otherwise, we’ll be down the hall near the lobby. Okay, guys?”

  Each of the twins nodded and pulled the covers up around their ears. Ben made sure a dimly lit light was left on, and he and Deidre quietly exited the room.

  “Where are we going?” Deidre wanted to know

  *****

  BEN LED THE WAY to the front desk of the motel, and the front desk manager asked if he could help them.

  “Do you have a conference room my wife and I can use? We need a place where we can talk privately.”

  The manager looked at them askance, and Ben could see the question in his eyes, What’s going on here? But he said, “Yes, down the hall and to the right. But I’d need to unlock it for you.”

  Ben looked at the man for a moment, waiting for him to move. He didn’t, and Deidre, who had her hand on Ben’s arm, felt his muscles bunch. “Would you do that for us, please?” Deidre asked, trying not to bark out an order.

  “I suppose so, but there’s usually a seventy-five-dollar charge for the use of that room.”

  Ben lost control. “Look, you half-assed, self-important twerp, we’ve had a rough day. Get down the hall and open the room, and we’re not going to pay for it, either. All we want to do is have a quiet place to talk. We aren’t going to wear out your damn chairs, for God’s sake. If it’ll make you feel any better, we’ll sit in the dark.”