Merritt was as still as a statue.
Her silence in response to questions provided the questioner an awful lot of latitude. Cozy told her what was likely to happen. He asked, “Is it all right with you if Dr. Gregory and I discuss your situation?”
She surprised me by nodding, then reached down with one long arm and tugged the scratchy hospital sheets and thin hospital blanket up past her waist.
I said, “Merritt, your mother will be here soon. As soon as she is done with the police, I imagine. She is very worried about you. Would you like me to stay until she arrives?” I knew I should give her a default option. “I’m going to take no response from you to mean yes, that you would like me to stay with you.”
Without facing us or otherwise moving, she shook her head in two long arcs.
I was being dismissed. Without considering the consequences, I reached out and touched her lightly on the biceps of her left arm. I said, “Good night, I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”
Cozy said, “Good night, Merritt. We’ll do everything we can for you.”
Back in the hall outside her room, I motioned for the nurse to come over. She did. I stood near Merritt’s door in a position where I could see every move the immobile adolescent might make.
The nurse said, “Yes?”
“Some things have happened that have left this situation much worse than it was an hour ago. Her suicidal risk is sky-high right now. I’m not trying to be insulting by saying this, but doing one-to-ones can be pretty dull duty sometimes. Please don’t take your job lightly tonight. That girl’s life may depend on it.”
The nurse swallowed. I was telling her that the plane she was flying had just gone from autopilot cruise control to engine-out emergency mode.
She said, “This isn’t the best environment for a suicidal kid. Maybe she shouldn’t be here, Doctor.”
“You’re absolutely right, she shouldn’t be here. But right now she is. My next task tonight is to arrange a quick transfer to a psych hospital. But I’m sure you know how these things go. It may take a while to pull that off, to get approvals and to find her a bed.”
The nurse said, “You’ll fill in the staff nurses so they can back me up?”
I said, “Of course.” She resumed her post.
Cozy said, “How do you read it?”
“I don’t.”
“What do you mean? I thought reading people was your thing.”
“Cozy, she’s been upset for days. She’s more upset now, that’s obvious. But about what? Her sister? The bloody clothes? The gun? The fact that her mother was snooping in her room? The fact that she may be arrested tonight for murder? Maybe about whatever it was that caused her to take all those pills in the first place. We still don’t even know what that is. Or maybe it’s the fact that her parents haven’t been here to hold her hand during much of this. If you can discern any of that from her silence, please tell me, ’cause I don’t know the answers to any of those questions.”
“I’m just a lawyer, Alan, but assuming the evidence lines up the way it appears it is going to line up, it seems to me that the timing would indicate that her suicide attempt was likely precipitated by her distress over whatever her involvement was in the shooting of Edward Robilio, don’t you agree?”
I couldn’t shake the succession of images I had of watching Merritt react when I told her about finding the clothes and the gun. “You weren’t in there with me at first, Cozy. Merritt seemed more upset about the gun than about the blood. And if I was reading her right, she seemed most upset that someone had been snooping in her room at all.”
He considered my words. “Sorry, all that seems trivial to me. I’m not convinced that was it. Maybe you just read it wrong. Lord knows I misread the twins all the time, and they usually don’t shut up, ever.”
“I’m not jumping to conclusions, either. Right now, though, I need to get her transferred to a locked unit someplace for her own safety.”
“To a psychiatric hospital?”
“Yes. A psychiatric hospital. What’s your best guess, will she be arrested tonight?”
“Are you asking about timing, or about the police department’s intent?”
“Timing, I guess.”
“Given what the authorities already have, I’d say she’ll be taken into custody, oh, tomorrow sometime. In the interim, if they have as much probable cause as I’m afraid they do, I would imagine that you’re going to see a female officer’s butt on a chair in this hallway within an hour. Just to keep an eye on things, you know?”
“I know.”
“What’s her family situation? Brenda’s husband is her stepfather? Is that what you said earlier? Where’s her real dad?”
“The family has only been in town a short while, maybe six months. Brenda’s husband, John Trent, is Merritt’s stepfather. He’s a psychologist, but I don’t know him. I’ve only talked with him over the phone so far. He’s spending almost all of his free time with Chaney, the other daughter, at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. Merritt’s biological father is currently on an oil rig in the Persian Gulf. I spoke with him briefly already. He’ll come see Merritt if she wants him to.”
“Are they close? Father and daughter?”
“Brenda says the relationship is fine, friendly. Said he’s more like an uncle to her. Merritt, as you know, isn’t saying.”
“Is he successful at what he does?”
“Presumably, but I don’t know. He’s an oil-rig worker. Why?”
“Defending Merritt is going to get expensive fast, that’s why. I’m hoping someone who loves this kid has some resources to pay me.”
At that moment I was thinking it was no accident that managed care arrived first on the doorstep of the medical profession, and not the legal one.
Thirteen
“Do you mind taking a cab back to your car, Cozy? I have some calls to make before I leave here tonight. I need to find an adolescent female bed somewhere for Merritt. And I have to fill out the paperwork to place her on a seventy-two-hour hold.”
“No. I don’t mind. I’ll get a ride.” He paused. “You don’t have her on a hold already?”
“No. So far the admission has been voluntary. Her docs have stretched out the medical side of her hospital stay hoping she would start talking. She hasn’t. But that means she hasn’t complained about being here much, either.”
He raised his eyebrows at my explanation. I was assuming that now that Merritt was his client, he wasn’t sure he wanted her silence to be viewed as tacit agreement to anything. “Will finding a bed for her be difficult?”
“You never know. There aren’t that many acute adolescent beds available anymore. I’m going to have to run a gauntlet with her insurance company over approvals, too. But that won’t be until the morning.”
“If our suppositions are correct, the state will be paying for this admission, I’m afraid. Insurance approvals will be unnecessary.”
“I hope you’re wrong about that, Cozy. But you’re probably right. The truth is that I don’t want to see her at Fort Logan. I want her in a private hospital, so I’m going to try to get her a psychiatric bed before she’s taken into custody. If we can get that established, maybe the court will be more reluctant to order her moved.”
“If she goes to Fort Logan, would you be allowed to continue as her doctor?”
“Probably only as a consultant. Someone on staff would take the case.”
“An employee of the state?”
“Yes, an employee of the state. That person could be excellent, could be less than excellent.”
“That’s not good. I like your alternative better. But, as I said before, I don’t think you have more than eighteen hours or so to pull it off. Good luck.”