Hampered in His Plans Ch. 04

"You win all the way around." said Paulina, smiling her beautiful smile. "Oh!..." She looked down at her distended belly. "Your baby just kicked." I had to smile at that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Back at the Station, Paulina and I were greeted with news.

"Sir," said Tanya Perlman, "we got the warrant and executed it. We found a long scalpel among Jimmy Lawson's old Army belongings. He said it was souvenir from the war, but we confiscated it. The Medical Examiner is now studying it to see if it matches the wounds on Mr. Naples. It was cleaned, though, so I'm not holding out hope for DNA."

"Did you arrest Lawson?" I asked.

"Sort of." said Martin Nash, who was standing next to Tanya. "We told him he needed to come to the Station. He asked if he was being arrested and we said not yet, but he was coming to the Station. He's in Interrogation-A, and has called his lawyer."

"Was his wife and baby at home when you got there?" I asked.

"Yes sir." Tanya said solemnly. "I let him hug and kiss them goodbye before bringing him in. It was... one of those moments that make this job less easy."

"Good, you did the right thing." I said. "Okay, you videotaped finding the scalpel?"

"Yes sir." said Nash.

"Good." I said. "When his lawyer gets here, start asking him questions."

"Sir," said Tanya, "if the M.E. comes back with a match to the scalpel, we have him cold, don't we?"

"Well, I suppose the scalpel could've been planted by Mr. Logan." I said. "But men have been put to death for less than what you'll have if it's a match..."

Part 21 - The Evil That Men Do

At 8:30pm, Friday the 15th, I got the call from Laura that the organ donor had just died. The liver would be at University Hospital in two hours. They were beginning to prep Amy. She and Father Romano prayed together, he said a mass for her and she took the Sacraments. Then it was time to say goodbye to Teresa.

"I'll see you when you get out of surgery." Teresa said. "You just be strong and keep fighting, okay?"

"Teresa," Amy said, reaching for her hand, "thank you. Thank you for everything. I just want to say... I love you."

"Aw, I love you too." Teresa said, tears in her eyes.

"You'll take care of Buddy?" Amy said.

"The Iron Crowbar will. He loves dogs, and he loves Buddy as much as you do." Teresa said. "Buddy will be fine." Amy smiled weakly, then began falling asleep as tiredness and the sedatives began working...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Dr. Morgan," said Dr. Searles, "I really appreciate you volunteering to assist in this operation. It's going to be a long, tough one."

"Yes it is." said Dr. Morgan. "But it's the least I can do for that little girl. And I love dogs, too, so this is for both of them." Dr. Searles nodded, and he and Dr. Morgan began discussing and mapping out what they would do. The bottles of O-Negative blood, were ready; they'd been sent from hospitals all over the State as well as the Red Cross after seeing the Bettina special on Amy. Hundreds of persons had given blood, even if only the O-Negative ones could help Amy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay, that's it." said the doctor at City Hospital, who'd just removed the liver from the dead donor. "Get this to University Hospital, stat."

"Yes, Doctor." said the nurse, who was preserving the liver in a solution, and that inside an ice-filled chest. As the Doctor began extracting other organs, the nurse took this one down the hall and stairs to the pick-up point.

A van with a label denoting his company as an organ transfer company was parked at the back entrance. The young man, tall and slender with curly black hair under his cap, signed for the organ, gave the nurse a copy of the paperwork, then put the chest in his van and pulled out.

"Okay," said the nurse to an orderly, "let's go get the next one." Just as she turned to go in, a van with identical markings to the previous one pulled up in a rush. A man popped out.

"I'm here for the liver for University Hospital." he said. "For that orphan girl."

"Whaa?!?!" exclaimed the Nurse. "But... that guy just picked it up seconds ago."

"Wha?" said the driver. He and the shocked Nurse and orderly looked down the drive where the other van had just gone.

"Oh my God!" gasped the Nurse. "Call the Police! QUICKLY!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

9:15pm. As we waited in Laura's office inside the Hospital, there was a soft knock on the door. To our utter shock, the door opened to reveal FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone. Lt. Tanya Perlman was behind him. Muscone's face was as white as a sheet. Tanya had tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Don." gasped Muscone. "The FBI got a call half an hour ago. The liver for Amy was stolen from City Hospital..." He could not continue.

"Oh my God!" Laura wailed. I was standing there, in total shock.

"What... what happened?" I finally asked as Laura rushed out to find Dr. Searles.

"Guy in a regulation van pulled up, took the liver." said Jack. "Seconds after he left, another van pulled up. He was the real courier."

"Oh, geez." I whispered. And then it hit my mind like a punch in the face. "Perp was a young man, black curly hair?"

"How the hell did you know that?" gasped Jack. "This ain't no '400-years-ago' thing, either! How did you know?"

"Did my Data Guyz tell your guys about that money that went in and out of Vauxhall?" I asked.

"Oh." said Jack, realizing where I was going with this. "Shit. Yes, they did. We'd only started to look at that. Do you think this guy was the one?"

"Yeah." I said. "And feel free to burn my ass at the stake for this one. I should've realized this, I should've put out the word, I should've gone there myself to escort that liver..."

"SHUT UP, DON!" shouted Tanya. "This is not your fault!!"

Tanya's words were like a badly needed slap to my face. I took a breath, regaining a modicum of control. "Yeah, you're right. Oh my God. Jack, does the FBI have any idea where he might have gone?"

"Maybe I can help with that." said a voice. It belonged to Dr. Searles, who looked very somber. "Come to my office." We went to Dr. Searles's office. He sat down in front of his computer.

"This is the organ donor national system." Dr. Searles said, bringing up the program. "I told you before there was only one other claim on this liver, and that claim was dropped earlier today. Boston Medical was the hospital making the claim, and they were going to kick it, as the term is called, to a facility in New Hampshire."

"I'll alert the FBI." said Muscone.

"Agent Muscone," said Dr. Searles, arresting Muscone's attention. "Send your agents, but if they can't find that liver and get it here within the next hour or so... it may not matter. If it's going to Boston, it'll be on a plane, too."

"We can damn well try, and we can catch the son of a bitch that stole that organ!" snarled Muscone. He stalked out of the room.

"Has anyone told Teresa?" I asked.

"No." said Tanya. "Unless your wife did. Cindy's with Teresa now."

"Well," I said, "this is my punishment. It's my duty to tell them. Excuse me." I left the office and began walking down the halls, agony eating at my soul.

I met Laura in the hallway. "Have you told Teresa yet?" I asked.

"No." she said. "Do you want me to do it?"

"It's my job, and my duty." I said. Laura nodded. The look on her face was the most profoundly sad that I'd ever seen.

A moment later, I entered the waiting room. Cindy had Teresa looking at crime reports to distract her, and get Cindy up to speed on what Vice was doing. I sat down opposite them, and Cindy felt the vibe immediately.

"Don, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Ladies," I said, working my ass off to get the words out, "the organ that was coming to Amy was stolen from City Hospital. The FBI is trying to track it down now. But... but it's gone. It's not likely they'll find it in time..." I couldn't go on.

Teresa gaped, no sound coming from her mouth. She almost pitched forward, and caught the coffee table to balance herself. Cindy then caught her and took her into her arms.

"Nooooooo," Teresa was moaning. "Nooooooo."

"Dr. Searles is putting out the word to try to find a new one." I said, my voice haggard, barely working. "We will really need a miracle now."

Teresa was trying hard to rally. "We cannot lose hope. We cannot lose hope." she said. I silently commended her Warrior Spirit...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At 2:00am, Saturday, January 16th, City Police Detective 'Sapper' Warren called me. "We've got video footage of the guy. The van was found at City Airport; it's been impounded. We've turned the case over to the FBI."

"Okay, thanks." I said.

"Hey, Commander," said Sapper. "Tell everyone there we're all hurting here, too."

"Thanks, Sapper. I will." I said.

We were in Dr. Searles's office. He was scanning the organ donor system, as if the harder he clicked the mouse, the more likely a donor organ would appear. No such luck, though. Meanwhile, Amy had been taken back to her room, and we were told she'd likely sleep until morning.

I asked Teresa if she wanted me to call Todd. She said he'd had to fly out of the State, to California. It was strange that he had not told me. He usually did, or my mother did because she would take care of little Doug.

I called David Krueger, Myron Milton and Mary Milton to the hospital. I had Dr. Searles show them the organ donation system, and the Boston entry for the liver, as well as our own. It would not take Mary long to not only access that data from her laptop, but to go into the depths of the system, to see who'd accessed the records of that liver.

"It's obvious someone else wanted that liver." I said. "They monitored the system. When they saw it was coming for Amy, they stepped in and stole it."

"And it's someone from this County." said Mary. "Didn't try to route it around too many times. Looks like... well, this Hospital. Maybe I'm reading the data wrong."

"No you're not." said Myron, looking over his wife's shoulder. "These are Dr. Searles's computer's links, they're direct. These others are from another place in this Hospital."

"Okay guys, stay here." I said. "I need fifteen minutes to think about this, and then I'll have some instructions."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fifteen minutes became forty-five minutes. I sat in Laura's hospital office, alone, in the dark, putting every ounce of power that my mind could generate to see through this one. It was slow and agonizing, and it didn't help that someone's voice was in my head.

"Oh, Commmannnddderrrr..."

"What now, Angela? I'm trying to think, here."

"Oh yes, you do that soooo well, Commander." Angela taunted. "You didn't catch me in time, and now that precious little girl is going to die because you didn't act in time. But all can be saved... if you just come over to the Dark Side with me. The answers will be soooo clear then."

"Either side won't do me any good if we don't get that organ or another one for that girl." I thought.

"Oh, you poor man." Angela said inside my head. "You just can't see that you can't fight Fate. Young Amy has served her purpose here, and valiantly. You have another job to finish. You have someone else far more powerful to stop, someone who I failed against, who corrupted me and beat me..."

I opened my eyes. It was still dark in Laura's office. But I now realized some things. Threads were now weaving together...

But God damn it, Angela! Why does Amy's life have to be the payment for this?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay, guys." I said, returning to Dr. Searles's office. My bug-killer was on, which took out Mary's wi-fi reception. "I want you to continue looking into Vauxhall. Dig deep, find what you can. Tell me anything you find, then tell the FBI if I say you can. Then I want you to start digging into this Hospital. I want you to look at everything Dr. Searles has done vis-a-vis this organ donation system, though I suspect he's clean. Look anyway. Then look at anyone that might have a connection to the system. I'll give you a shortcut: Dr. Louise Alcott, the Hospital Administrator. She may have used aides or proxies, so look at them. And dig so far up the Hospital Board's asses that they shit data bytes for a week."

"I don't suppose asking about a warrant is necessary?" asked Myron.

"Damn the warrants." I said. "Do it. On my authority. I may go to jail, but the bastard that stole Amy's organ as well as the slugs who paid him... will go down first."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As I was about to leave and go to the Station, a redheaded woman came out the elevator, alone. It was Bettina Wurtzburg. She saw my face, and her eyes got a bit too wide for her face.

"Off the record." I said, coming up to her.

"Deep background?" she asked quietly, giving it a try.

"How about... embargoed until I release it." I said. Bettina agreed.

"Is it true?" Bettina asked. "The organ for Amy was stolen?" I just nodded.

"How?" Bettina asked. Reminding her this was embargoed and the FBI was investigating, I told her the gist of the story.

"Oh my God." Bettina said. Having gotten to know Amy for her news story, she began crying. I took her into my arms and held her, fighting hard not to break down myself.

Part 22 - Relentless Ticking of Time

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said Bettina, standing outside University Hospital at 7:00am on Monday, January 18th. "We're bringing you continuing coverage of the devastating story over the weekend that a donor organ meant for young orphan Amy Croyle was stolen from City Hospital Friday night before it could be delivered. While Dr. Richard Searles searches desperately for a new organ for Amy, time is running out for the young girl. Doctors say she may have just days left to live."

"In other news, Jimmy Lawson was arrested for suspicion of the murder of Jack Naples a week ago." Bettina continued. "He is being held at County Jail, having so far been unable to make the one million dollars bail set by Judge Harry Nance."

It was an exceptionally somber MCD room. I thought about the weekend: when Amy woke up, Teresa had told her that the organ didn't arrive, and they were still looking for a new one. Teresa had literally torn out the wires of the TV set so that Amy would not hear that the organ had been stolen.

Still, Amy heard about it soon enough. When I brought Buddy to see her on Sunday, Amy asked me and Teresa to forgive whoever had stolen it, and that the organ hopefully had saved someone else's life.

"Amy," I said "you don't need a heart transplant, because the one you've got is wonderful. But it's my job to go after whoever did this, and keep them from ever doing this to someone else. It's what I get paid to do. Anyway, we'll keep looking for another one."

Amy nodded, and petted Buddy. She was trying to stay strong, but the ravages of the disease on her young body, the drugs that had been given to her to prep her for the surgery, and the effort to endure and drive on were all taking their toll. Amy was getting weaker, much weaker, every day. Buddy settled down by her side and lay there, his canine eyes showing his love, making it easy for her to pet him and for her to feel better with his presence...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"How can someone be so... evil... to steal a little girl's only chance to live?" Joanne Cummings said quietly, nearly in tears.

Just then, Detective Julie Newton came into MCD. "Commander, can I see you for a moment?"

"Sure." I said. We went out into the hallway, which was apparently enough for Julie.

"Sir," she said, "I've been trying to track the guy who stole that organ from City Hospital, but I'm being blocked."

"Hacked?" I asked.

"No sir," said Julie, "but I can't get data."

"Well, the FBI might've cut you off, by accident or just as a precaution." I said. "And I appreciate your trying to help, but let's let the FBI handle this one. It's bigger than us, and not even in our jurisdiction."

Julie did not seem mollified, but she headed back to Vice.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The M.E.'s report was devastating. It showed conclusively, enough to be admitted as Court evidence, that the scalpel recovered from Jimmy Lawson's home was the scalpel that had cut Jack Naples's spine and been driven into his head.

Jimmy Lawson had done the wise thing: he'd immediately invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. I had watched from the anteroom of Interrogation-2 as Tanya and Theo Washington had questioned Lawson, through his lawyer. They even offered to do hypotheticals after getting my permission, but neither Lawson nor his lawyer would play the game.

"I don't get it." said Paulina, watching in the anteroom with me. "I know he has rights, but we've got a strong, strong case against him. He was the only one pretty much alone with Naples, though someone conceivably could've snuck back in later. He didn't want to go on strike, and Naples was pushing relentlessly for a strike. The Union has furnished the lawyer, but no one is stepping up to pay his bail. He has no money, he and his wife have no family. If he doesn't speak out, find a way to show he's innocent-- yeah, I know he doesn't have to-- but still..."

Tanya and Theo came out of I-2 and into the anteroom. "I don't know." said Tanya. "Maybe they'll put up a defense that the scalpel was planted, though his words at the scene that it was souvenir damns him on that."

"Unless they throw it out because his rights weren't read to him yet." said Theo.

"But they were read to him." I said. "I mirandized him myself. He could still say someone stole the scalpel, killed Naples, and returned the scalpel... but my God, how that can be shredded by a good prosecutor... a good... prosecutor..." I was off to the races in a reverie.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cindy came into my office later that morning. "You're not with Teresa?" I asked.

"No. Todd's back from his trip, and he's staying with her at the Hospital." Cindy said, then added. "Don, I don't think Amy has a week left."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "How's Teresa holding up."

"She's staying strong for Amy's sake." Cindy said. "But I know she'd really like to be working on the case. If she ever finds the bastard before anyone else does..."

"Hell, he'll have a better chance with her than he will with me." I said.

"You okay, Don?" Cindy asked, peering at me.

"No, Cindy. No I'm not." I replied. "I am not okay. I cannot believe the unspeakable level of evil that I have seen here. We are going to put an end to it, my friend. I am going after the bastard that is behind this, and after he is publicly exposed for his crimes, I am going to watch him die at Jacksonville State Prison. And then... I will be okay."

Cindy just nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if would be better just to kill him, even though that's stooping to his level, and we just become criminals. But how many lives would we save by exterminating his?"

"I know." I replied. "To me, the only problem with killing him is that the World won't know of his crimes, his evil. They'll only know he was killed by us. He might even become the martyr, the hero, and we the villains and killers. Like The Batman and The Joker."

"So," I said after a pause. "How are things with Jenna?"

"I have not seen her in days." Cindy said. "I've been at the gym doing all the paperwork, at the Hospital with Teresa, trying to keep up with Vice on Teresa's behalf; and Jenna's working on her campaign for 20 hours a day, sometimes staying at her Headquarters office overnight." I just nodded.

"I'm going to go check on Vice." said Cindy. She got up to go.

"So how is the bug-killer working?" I asked, realizing she was using it now. Cindy turned with a smile.