Manning and Louie looked over in our direction.
“There,” he said,” back to a thing of beauty. You’ll live, but you probably know the drill, swelling for a few days, eyes will blacken. This will help open that up,” he said. Then pulled out a reddish rubber ball thing with a small pointed end, the thing looked like a miniature turkey baster. He gently inserted it into my nasal passage.
“Just aspirating here, get some of that blood and mucus out. Believe me, this will be a lot better than trying to blow it out later tonight.”
The door opened and Captain Elkers stepped in. He took one look at me, saw the conference in the corner and headed toward Manning. Before the door closed completely Aaron LaZelle pushed the door open and entered the room.
Aaron took one look at me, mouthed the word ‘fuck’ and joined the conference heating up in the corner.
I winced as the one of the EMT’s placed some pressure on my ribs.
“Oh, what’s this?” he said, lifting a stethoscope from around his neck.
“Someone tried to get my attention,” I grimaced and exhaled.
“Let me just lift that shirt, mmm-mmm,” he said looking over my rib cage. “Anything here,” he asked pressing up and down my left side.
“No nothing.”
“And here,” he said, doing the same on my right, but a lot more gently.
“Yeah, oh Jesus, yeah that hurts.”
He was on it with the stethoscope, gently, listening to my breathing.
“I want you to raise your arms to shoulder height, take some deep breaths if you can, okay?”
I nodded, did the deep breath routine. It was sore, but not as bad as I’d feared. My guess was they weren’t broken.
“I don’t think they’re broken, a little bruised, nothing forty-eight hours and taking it easy won’t help heal. You’re a bit banged up, but you’ll live. If you want we can maybe transport for x-rays?”
“You recommend that?”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s necessary, but I suspect this might be on the city’s nickel.” He said under his breath, then gave a nod to the far corner where Manning was getting it from Louie, Aaron and Captain Elkers. I thought I might have detected the hint of a smile from the EMT. “I suppose if there’s nothing else I could give them the word.”
“Nah, I don’t want to do x-rays. I think I’ll be fine, but maybe we could let them discuss things a little further,” I said, then moved my head in the direction of the conference corner.
Louie was in the process of jabbing a finger at Captain Elkers and I heard the words, “with your goddamned signature,” and a little later, “grabbing headlines.”
“Be fun to watch,” The EMT smiled, “but if this is all we better get going, maybe take some extra strength Tylenol for a couple of days to make you a little more comfortable.”
“Thanks, no offense, but I hope I don’t see you around, Doc.”
He laughed, started placing things back into the medical bag. He tossed the bag on the stretcher and while his partner wheeled it toward the door he approached the group. Some low key murmurs followed, nodding, the occasional excitable outburst from Louie as the EMT continued to speak in low tones and then he nodded and left, giving me a wink on the way out.
Louie strolled over, opened his briefcase, spoke to me under his breath.
“Turn around and face me.”
“What?”
“Turn toward me, I need a picture,” he said, pulling a digital camera out of his briefcase.
I turned sideways in my chair. Louie quickly shifted a couple steps to the side. He was going to photograph me with Manning and Elkers in the background, unfortunately Aaron would be in the photo, too.
“Look toward the mirrors,” he whispered. The flash went off before I heard the camera click.
“What the, oh shit,” Elkers said.
Flash. Flash.
Elkers stormed past, red faced.
“Nice chatting with you, Captain,” I said as he tore open the door and fled the room.
Louie moved around me taking more photos. Talking to Manning, as the camera flashed.
“We’ll need a driver, my client, Mister Haskell will not be remaining in custody. Under the circumstances, I just don’t think your department is up to the task.”
Flash.
Manning looked like he was going to kill, but I’m not sure he was thinking of Louie or me as his intended targets.
Flash.
“Lift the shirt up Dev, let’s see those ribs.”
I pulled my shirt up, slowly, maybe a little too dramatically.
“Oh my God,” Louie said.
Flash.
“Christ, let me get some things arranged for you. You want anything?” Manning asked, he was standing with the door open, still red faced, but at least not heading toward purple any longer.
Flash.
“No, I think you’ve all done more than enough, already,” Louie said then took a couple more shots of the bruise on my ribs.
Manning nodded and left. Aaron walked over, waited while Louie took a few more shots of my face from different angles.
“I don’t know what it is with you people,” Louie said.
“Hey, Louie, relax, he’s a pal. And stop flashing that damn camera, you’re driving me nuts,” I said.
“Dev, what the hell happened, you were supposed to come nicely,” Aaron said. “You hit on one of the arresting officers’ wives in the recent past?”
“If I did, she most likely turned me down.”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know, these SWAT guys just…”
“SWAT? They sent the SWAT team out there?”
“Yeah. I looked out the window, saw a couple of black and whites on the street, a television news van. I knew why they were there so I went upstairs to get a clean shirt, pee, the next thing I know they kicked in my front door.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I was ready to let them in, I was coming down the stairs to open the door and ask ‘em if they wanted something to drink.”
“Did they pound on the door or anything when you were upstairs?”
“No nothing, believe me, I thought it was going to be a nice guy sort of deal. Next thing I know the door gets kicked open, and I’m looking down the barrel of a couple of AK’s. Some guy grabs me and throws me over the banister, they weren’t kidding around.”
“Christ, that’s Elkers, he must have lined that up, wanted to go for the action shot,” Aaron said.
“Hey, you got an action shot, all right. We’ll subpoena the news tapes,” Louie said, then smiled coldly at Aaron.
“Dev, I’m truly sorry, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this,” Aaron said.
“You realize, Lieutenant, that…”
“Give it a rest, Louie,” I said. “Where do we go from here?”
“Well, here’s the deal, obviously this thing has turned into a cluster fuck. That said, there’s no doubt it will be running on the news tonight. The arrest of a stalker and killer,” he turned to look at Louie. “If you’re going to pursue the police brutality angle, and of course you’ve got your signed agreement, it would seem to me running on tonight’s news could only help your case,” Aaron said.
I nodded, it made sense.
“Based on what you tell me, I agree with your attorney. You shouldn’t stay in protective or segregated custody here. You can however, get us to pick up the tab on a fairly luxurious stay at some hotel. Eat some good meals for a change, take a few days off, rest up. Hopefully, someone will surface once they believe we’ve got you locked up and the coast is clear,” Aaron said.
“And if they don’t surface?” Louie asked.
“Sue our ass one way or the other, under the circumstances you hold all the cards. Like I said before, after today’s incident, continued cooperation on your part would only seem to strengthen your chances with any lawsuit you decide to bring down the road.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
We were seated at a large polished table in my hotel suite. The curtains were drawn back so we had a view of the boat traffic on the Mississippi and the sun setting off to the west. The sunset was a gorgeous orange and reflected down the length of the river. A large white boat with a red paddlewheel had just begun heading upriver on its evening excursion.