False accusations

CHAPTER 42

Leeza was struggling to button Elliott’s coat, but the boy wouldn’t stay still. While he zoomed his plastic spaceship through the air, Leeza managed to get the top button fastened. But as she moved down to the next one, the phone rang.

It was Hellman calling from his car, relieved that he’d caught her before she left to drop the kids off at day care.

“I’ve got something I have to discuss with Phil,” he said.

Leeza told him Madison was in the garage building a toy box for Jonah. “He’s been in there for three hours, since six-thirty this morning, pounding away, taking out his aggressions with a hammer. I guess it’s good therapy for him.”

“Not for a surgeon,” Hellman said. “He’s not supposed to be doing those things. His hands are-”

“Jeffrey, he doesn’t care. And right now, I can’t say that I blame him. The hospital revoked his privileges.”

“Sac General? The one he pulled from the trenches ten years ago?”

She blurted a laugh filled with disbelief. “Is that a kick in the ass?”

“Guess I shouldn’t tell him why I called.”

“Why did you call?” she asked, wedging the phone between her ear and shoulder so she could button the rest of Elliott’s coat.

“You haven’t seen the Herald this morning?”

“No,” she said as Chandler came down the stairs. “Let me guess, more bad stuff.”

“It ain’t good.”

She patted her son on the buttocks and moved the phone away from her mouth. “Ryan, would you get the paper out front?”

“I haven’t read the whole article yet,” Hellman said, “but it covers the protests yesterday, makes some snide remarks about Phil’s still seeing patients and that all he cares about is the money. I just wanted to smooth things over for him.”

“You’re a good friend, Jeffrey. He could use the cheering up,” she said as she and Chandler opened the paper.

“Let me talk to him.”

She walked over to the intercom and buzzed the garage. “Pick up, honey. Jeffrey’s on the phone.”

“I don’t feel like talking.”

The sound of a hammer pounding a nail reverberated through the intercom.

“He needs to talk to you.”

Madison picked up the wood, tossed the hammer aside, and grabbed the phone off the wall. “Yeah.”

“Just heard about the hospital,” Hellman said. “I’m sorry. We’ll get through this, buddy, I promise you.”

“No offense, but I’m not convinced.”

“You forget that we’re about to blow the lid off the prosecution’s case-”

“We better, because I can’t take much more of this. What the hell am I going to do, Jeffrey? If I’m not a surgeon…” He trailed off, ignoring the larger picture, which included a lifetime of incarceration. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“First of all, you’ll get past all this bullshit. We’ll repair the damage once this case fades into the dust.”

“I don’t know if it’ll ever go away. I’m only now beginning to realize that.”

“Don’t make any earth-shattering decisions just yet. Give yourself some time and perspective. Then you can assess the situation. Not now.”

“I can’t ignore what’s been happening. Look at how they’re treating me. My name-my reputation-was once worth gold. Now, no one wants me around. I mean, who would’ve ever thought that Sac General would abandon me? After all we’ve been through together, after all I’d done for them, I figured that of all people, they’d be the ones in my comer. But nothing counts for anything, I guess.” He tossed the piece of wood to the ground. “The past is the past, and money is money, and business is business. And an accused murderer is bad for business.”

“Are you done? Because now that you’ve got that out of your system, you need to listen to me. Put your emotions aside for the moment. I know you better than I know myself. When you get backed into a comer your emotional side takes over. Rein it in. Contain it so that you can get on with your life. I need you strong right now, not falling apart. Got it?”

“You’re trying to handle me, Jeffrey.”

“Damn right. Get your act together. I’ll call you later.”

“That’s odd,” Leeza said. “Can’t find the keys. Did Phil give you the spare keys to his car?” She pulled open a drawer and began rummaging through it.

Chandler pushed his arm though the sleeve of his black leather jacket. “I’m using the rental. Why?”

“They’re usually hanging on this hook by the phone. But they’re not here.”

“You need a ride somewhere?” Chandler asked. “I’ve got some people I have to catch up with, but I can take you on my way out.”

“No, no, I’m fine. I’ve got my van.” She opened a different drawer and pushed things aside.

“Want me to help you-”

“No, don’t worry about it. I’ll find them.”

As Chandler started for the door, his phone rang. He brought it to his face and noticed that the Caller ID said it was Denise. “Hey, honey. What’s going on?”

“I found something, Ryan. I don’t know what it is, but it’s got me freaked out.”

“What are you talking about? What’d you find?”

“A lump.”

“A lump? Where?”

“In my breast, Ryan. I found a lump in my breast.”

Chandler was silent for a moment. He stopped and turned to Leeza. “Have you ever felt it before? How big is it?”

“It wasn’t there before. It’s maybe the size of a large pea. I had Joanne come over and feel it, and she thinks I should go in and get it biopsied.”

His eyes slid over to Leeza, whose attention was now focused on Chandler. “Call Jason and make an appointment. Let him examine it and then we’ll figure out what needs to be done. Don’t be talking about a biopsy.”

“But Joanne’s a nurse.”

“At a nursing home, Denise.” He sighed. “We should have a doctor look at it.”

“I want you to come home, Ryan. I need you here.”

Chandler’s mouth was frozen half open. “I’ll be home in a few days. There’s just-”

“I want you to come home now.”

He sat down on the last step of the staircase and chewed on his lip for a moment. “Look…I’ve only got a few loose ends to tie up. As soon as I do that, I’m out of here.”

“Ryan, you don’t understand…” she said. “Breast cancer is a big deal. My grandmother had it, and it runs in families. I don’t want them to cut off my breast, but I don’t want to die.”

“Honey, listen to me. Nobody said anything about cancer. Nobody said anything about you dying. And nobody said anything about cutting off your breast. Go in and have Jason examine. I trust him. Once he takes a look, we’ll go from there. But I promise you that no matter what happens, no matter what it is, we’ll get through it.”

“That’s why I need you here. I’m not handling this well. I feel so far away from you.”

“You’re under a lot of stress-worrying about your mid-term grades, having to do double duty taking care of Noah while I’m gone, and now this.”

“I’m glad I have your permission to be stressed out. A lot of good that does me.”

Chandler paused, rubbed his forehead. “Okay…okay. Call Jason’s office and make an appointment: Then call me and let me know when it is. I’ll see what I can do.”

“That doesn’t sound like you’re on the next flight home.”

“Denise, I’m at a critical point in this case. If I screw it up, Phil could go to prison for life. He was there eight years ago when I needed him. I can’t just walk out on him.”

“What if Jason tells me that it doesn’t look good and I need a biopsy? I don’t know if I can handle that alone.”

He arose from the step. “All right. Make the appointment. I’ll call you later and we’ll take it from there.”

“Take it from there?”

“You know, we’ll talk about it. Let’s deal with first things first.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Ryan. You’ve told me all I need to know. Phillip Madison is more important to you than I am.”

“You’re the most important thing in the world to me, Denise. You and Noah. You should know that.”

“Saying it is one thing. Showing it is another.”

“Denise…if I knew for sure this was serious, I’d be home on the next flight. But right now, we don’t know that it’s anything more than, what’s it called, a fatty nodule?”

“I’ll call you with the appointment information.”

A second later, the line went dead. Chandler slumped back down onto the step.

“Ryan,” Leeza said, approaching him. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I got the gist of your conversation.” She sat down next to him. “Mind if I give you some advice?”

“Please…” Chandler said, motioning for her to continue. “God knows I screwed up royally handling it my way.”

“Women deal with these types of things differently than men do. Men tend to see things analytically, logically. They want to find ways of solving problems-to them, finding the solution is the most important thing.”

Chandler nodded. “Shouldn’t it be?”

Leeza smiled. “Women look at things more emotionally. When we tell you about a problem or an insecurity we have, we’re not looking for solutions. We’re looking for support.”

“I can see where support’s helpful, but all the support in the world isn’t going to solve your problems.”

“True, but it validates our feelings, and sometimes that’s more important.” She looked at him, as if gauging his reaction to see if he was grasping what she was saying. “For example, instead of saying ‘I’m sure everything will be fine,’ you could say ‘I know you’re scared, this is a very frightening thing to deal with. I’ll be there for you, don’t worry.”

Chandler stared off at the wall for a moment. “I did kind of the opposite, didn’t I?”

“She probably felt as if you were dismissing her fears as just hysterical ranting.”

“But that wasn’t my intention.”

“Don’t tell me, tell her.”

Trying to put Denise out of his mind for a few moments proved difficult for Chandler. He stopped in at Food amp; More, the market where Madison and Harding had their public argument, to see if he could locate the checkout employee who was working the night the altercation occurred.

Madison had been able to give him only a loose description of the young man, but he hoped that it would be enough. With the store manager off, he was able to assemble only a partial list of employees fitting the checker’s description. To determine which ones on his list had worked the night in question, he would have to wait until the manager returned. Chandler said he would stop by tomorrow.

On his way back to his car, he phoned the crime lab in New York. He made the mistake of asking Valerie, Hennessy’s assistant, how the office was holding up. Not so well, she responded, and proceeded to tell him about the leaky roof and the tainted evidence that resulted from the water damage. “The division head blamed maintenance…which blamed scheduling and supply. But no matter whose fault it was, the evidence was ruined, and they’re gonna have to let Bobby Lee Walker go free. You can imagine what’s going on here,” she said. “Big political mess for the mayor, letting a murderer go free, Ryan, I’m telling you. Made him look bad. He was real pissed off.”

“So let me guess,” Chandler said. “Hennessy’s having a fit.”

“The director came down on him this morning. So now the captain’s walking around saying ‘I’ll wring Chandler’s neck when he gets back: That’s a direct quote, Ryan. But I kind of spared you all the cursing.”

“How did I get involved in this? I’m not even there.”

“He was babbling up a storm, but he said something about if you were here, the evidence already would’ve been evaluated and logged, reported on, and secured in the storage room, long before the roof leak.”

“Let me talk to him, Valerie.”

“You crazy? He hasn’t gotten over it yet. Maybe you should wait until things die down a bit.”

“I’m a big boy, Valerie. I can take it.”

A moment later, Hennessy picked up the line and launched into a continuous sea of expletives; Chandler held the phone away from his ear until he detected Hennessy’s need to take a breath.

“I’m going to be coming home in a few days,” he managed to get in.

“You understand what I’m saying? I want you back here now!”

“Fine, then beam me over. Otherwise; you’ll have to wait till I arrive on the flight I’ve got scheduled for Tuesday.”

“Chandler-you’re in deep shit. I’ll own your ass when you get back.”

“Sorry, chief, my wife’s already laid claim to that part of my anatomy.” Chandler held the phone away from his ear until Hennessy was done shouting.

“Chief,” Chandler said, trying to get a word in so that he could end the conversation. “Chief, I’ve got to go.”

“It’s captain!”

“If you want me to be on that plane, I need to get off the phone. I have leads to follow up on before I leave.”

Hennessy made some comment about Chandler caring more about his case out West than he did about those that he was being paid to work on by the City of New York.

Chandler agreed, not listening to what Hennessy was saying, and hung up. It was then that he realized that Valerie was right, he never should have bothered. Then again, this confrontation with Hennessy was no different than any other conversation they’d had over the years.