At that desk sat Dr. Stewart in his cheap office chair, looking up at Jane’s rude interruption. The man that sat across from the doctor looked no friendlier. Of course, Agent Bradford never looked kindly upon Jane’s presence.
Jane looked at the special agent as she said, “Please tell me you’re not really doing this.”
“As I already explained to the good doctor here, these patients are part of a federal investigation. You did not have the authority to move them around.”
Dr. Stewart sighed, as if the conversation with Agent Bradford had left him drained. “As I tried to explain already, these people need care we can’t provide. I stand completely behind Miss Elring’s suggestion to move them.”
Jane asked, “You haven’t moved any of them yet?”
“We moved two of them yesterday. Only Ethan Walker is still here, currently.”
Caleb observed his client throughout the conversation. Her shoulders were small but sharp, and they stood strongly in the face of this uncomfortable meeting. Her dark eyes were desperate however, and her voice carried an almost begging undertone.
Jane said, “Agent Bradford. Please, you must allow Ethan Walker to leave the hospital. There…. There is a radius to this thing, I think, and if you just—”
The special agent interrupted her. “I don’t care. We are done investigating these patients when I say we’re done investigating them. You do not have the authority.”
Authority. Caleb knew that word and what it really meant in the world of men like Agent Bradford. Authority was power without responsibility. It was about who had the biggest dick and could swing it around the room, knocking over the most shit. It was the word that cowards and bureaucrats used whenever they found themselves in a situation they couldn’t understand or control.
Caleb wondered if that was what Jane Elring represented to the special agent. Was that the root of their awkward silences and glances that always moved sideways from one another? Was it simply his fear?
Fear could turn into hatred, Caleb knew. It could taint a relationship so horribly that it became capable of destroying whatever came near it.
Jane wrung her hands together in utter frustration as she said, “Agent Bradford. If Ethan Walker stays, he dies.”
The special agent answered, “That’s your opinion. And you haven’t offered a single fact to back it up.”
The young woman sighed her deepest sigh as desperation got the better of her. “You’re killing him. Understand this, Agent Bradford, you’re killing Ethan Walker.”
“I’m not killing anyone! You accuse me of shit like that, you better be able to back it up!”
Agent Bradford rose just a little quicker than Caleb appreciated and he stepped closer to his client.
The two men locked eyes in what became an important silence. In that moment they sized each other up and came to estimations of how any physical conflict between them might end.
Caleb wished then that he wasn’t so goddamn fat and that his man boobs would stop scraping against his shirt.
The special agent had almost half a head on him and he was in decent shape, but his eyes lacked the instinct to do what was necessary. Caleb knew that if he really had to, he could take the special agent down.
The special agent that had his right hand in his pocket. Always his hand in that pocket. What the hell did he have in that pocket?
Agent Bradford pointed his left finger at Jane. “You don’t forget your place. And keep your watchdog on a shorter leash!”
The special agent brushed past Caleb and walked toward the door. Before he left he said, “And don’t fucking forget what you are. And what I have.”
Jane said nothing as she watched the special agent leave. When he had gone she turned her attention toward Dr. Stewart and gave him a careful smile.
“That was scary, huh?”
The doctor said, “I was halfway convinced I’d be stitching you all up in about five minutes.” He looked at Caleb. “You guys better control those tempers.”
Caleb said nothing. He did, however, step back from his client that was no longer in any direct danger.
Jane asked, “Dr. Stewart, I don’t suppose I could persuade you to send Ethan Walker off anyway? I’d— I’d take responsibility.”
The doctor shook his head in what was both a personal and professional defeat. “You know I can’t do that. If it were just me, probably I would. But I have the future of this hospital to think of and Arthur’s money only takes us so far.”
Jane nodded. “I understand, doctor. The government can be a great friend or a terrible enemy.”
Caleb listened to the young woman’s voice and knew that her words were genuine. She held no ill will toward the doctor as she knew all the government’s faces, including the very ugly ones.
Jane asked, “Can I see him, doctor?”
“Ethan Walker, you mean?”
Jane nodded.
“What do you want from him at this point? He’s a…. We…. We’ve turned him into a vegetable at this point. What could you learn from him?”
“He suffers. Greatly. You may not believe that, but I know it is true. I would like to offer him some relief for as long as I can,” she said.
Caleb watched the doctor’s face as it curled itself into a confused expression. He could tell that this experienced man of medicine typically had very little patience for the ignorant and the arrogant. Although Caleb didn’t pretend to understand her, he did know Jane was neither.
“Well, he’s not contagious so I guess it’s okay if you visit him.”
“Thank you, doctor, but make no mistake. Ethan Walker is extremely contagious. Just not in the way that you would traditionally think of.”
The doctor answered, “There is no virus or bacteria that we have found… and you haven’t even medically examined him.”
Jane gave the doctor a careful smile. “He does have a virus, but it doesn’t ravage his body. It functions where you and your considerable knowledge can’t reach.”
The doctor sank his tired head into his hands and shrugged. “I should never have listened to Arthur. I should have sent them all to Bryce when I had the chance.”
Jane turned around and gestured for Caleb to follow her. She paused briefly at the threshold.
“You have great instincts, doctor. You should listen to them next time.”
Caleb stood in the doorway of Ethan Walker’s hospital room. Quietly he watched his client as she stood next to the bed.
The room was dark, with the only source of light coming from the faint bulb in the center of the ceiling. The curtains were open, but somehow sunlight dreaded to touch the room and only big, gray clouds dared to linger in front of the windows.
Jane stood next to Ethan Walker’s bed and leaned over him. Caleb couldn’t hear what she was saying, but her hand on the patient’s suggested that she was trying to bring him comfort. Comfort to a vegetable.
Vegetable. That was what Dr. Stewart had said in his office no more than ten minutes ago. The doctor’s eyes had lost their glimmer as he said that word, as if he was ashamed of what was going on inside his hospital walls. They couldn’t care for him, couldn’t heal him, and they couldn’t ship him. So the only thing they knew to do was to make him as easy to handle as possible.
Comfort to a vegetable. Caleb wondered what his client thought she was doing to begin with. He tried his hardest to reserve judgment but when she had spoken to the doctor about what really ailed Ethan Walker, she sounded a little crazy.
Fifteen minutes passed. All of them filled with a solemn Jane Elring leaning over the hospital bed, shifting her glance from the patient to the corner of the room repeatedly. Her hand never abandoned Ethan Walker’s until she left. When she did so it was Jane that had difficulty letting go.