Jonathan Kellerman - Alex Delaware 03 by Over the Edge

Author:Over the Edge [Edge, Over the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

HE'D BEEN moved to one of the inpatient rooms that Montez had shown me during my tour of the jail. Three deputies, one of them Sonnenschein, stood guard outside the door. I looked through the window in the door and saw him lying face up on the bed, head swaddled in bloodstained bandages, spidery limbs restrained by padded cuffs. An IV line dripped into the crook of one arm. In the midst of the gauzy turban was a fleshy patch - a few square inches of face, battered and swollen. He was asleep or unconscious, purpled lids closed, cracked lips parted lifelessly.

Souza stood next to a short, bearded man in his early thirties. The lawyer wore a gun-metal-colored suit of raw silk that reminded me of armor. When he saw me, he walked forward and said, angrily:

'He threw himself repeatedly and forcefully against the wall of his cell.' He glared at the deputies, who responded with stony looks of their own. 'There are no broken bones or apparent internal injuries, but his head absorbed most of

the damage, and Dr. Platt here suspects a concussion. He'll be moving him to County Hospital any minute.'

Platt said nothing. He wore a rumpled white coat over jeans and a work shirt and carried a black leather bag. Clipped to his lapel was a county badge identifying him as an attending neurologist. I asked him how bad it looked.

'Hard to tell,' he said softly. 'Especially with the psychotic overlay. I came over on a stat call, and I don't have much in the way of instruments. His reflexes look okay, but with head injuries you never know what can happen. We'll be observing him over the next few days, and hopefully we'll have a clearer picture then.'

I looked through the window again. Jamey hadn't moved.

'So much for security,' said Souza, loud enough for the deputies to hear. 'This puts a whole new complexion on things.'

He pulled a miniature tape recorder out of his briefcase and dictated the details of the suicide attempt in a courtroom voice. After walking over to the deputies, he peered at their badges and recited their names into the machine, spelling each one with exaggerated enunciation. If they were intimidated, they didn't show it.

'What's in the IV line?' I asked Platt.

'Just nutrition. He looked pretty cachectic to me, and I didn't want him dehydrating, especially if there is some internal hemorrhaging.'

'Sounds as if he took quite a beating.'

'Oh, yeah. He hit that wall hard.'

'Nasty way to do yourself in.'

'Gotta be.'

'See this kind of thing a lot?'

He shook his head.

'I do mostly rehab - deep-muscle EMGs. But the doc who usually takes jail calls is out on maternity leave, so I'm filling in. She sees plenty of it, mostly PCP ODs.'

'This kid never took drugs.'

'So they say.'

Footsteps sounded in the corridor. A pair of ambulance attendants entered with a stretcher. One of the deputies unlocked the door to the room, went in, and emerged a moment later, mouthing the word okay. A second deputy followed him back in.

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