Genesis

Epilogue

May 12th

9:15 A.M.

Knock, knock,” Jack called out as he pushed his head through the half-open door of room 821 of the Kimmel Pavilion.

“It’s about time,” Laurie said, with barely concealed frustration. “Where have you been? I’ve been texting you since early this morning.”

“It’s been an interesting night,” Jack said sheepishly. He walked over to the bed and gave her a peck on the cheek. She allowed it, but just barely.

“What is an ‘interesting night’ supposed to mean?” Laurie demanded. “That sounds to me like more of an excuse than an explanation.”

“It’s a little of both,” he said as he dragged over a chair to sit down next to the head of her bed. “Before I get more specific, how are you doing?”

“I’m doing remarkably well,” Laurie said as if angry. “Dr. Cartier was in here at the crack of dawn and couldn’t be more pleased. She even removed the drains as there had been so little discharge. She’s going to leave it up to me when I want to go home, including today if I choose.”

“That’s terrific,” Jack said. “Really terrific. What do you think you want to do?”

“I want to see exactly how well I can use both arms before I decide,” she said. “But considering how I feel now and with what I’ve been able to do so far this morning, I think there’s a good chance I’ll elect to come home today, but if not, tomorrow. I’ll still need considerable help with some common activities if you are up for that?”

“Absolutely,” Jack said. “I’d prefer you to be home.”

“Okay, good, and now with that out of the way, I want an explanation,” Laurie said with continued annoyance. “When I woke up this morning, I found myself occupying a different room, and one that was without the view that I was enjoying yesterday. When I asked the nurses why I was moved in the middle of the night while I was asleep, their answer was that I needed to ask you because it was your doing. Why, in heaven’s name, did you have my room changed while I was asleep?”

“Strangely enough, if you want to know the truth, it was your fault,” he said, allowing himself a slight smile.

“And what does that mean, my fault?” Laurie demanded. “Come on! No riddles or games! Just tell me.”

“I can’t help sounding obtuse,” Jack said. “I’m in kind of a daze. It’s all been so... what should I say... unexpected.”

“You’re teasing me, and I don’t like it,” she complained. “Out with it! Why did you change my room?”

“I’ll give you a hint,” Jack said. “I moved you because, incredibly enough, Aria Nichols was right in pursuing her investigation about the father of Kera’s fetus, and you were right for encouraging her.”

“So, this is all a big riddle, is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

“I suppose,” he said. “I could just out-and-out tell you, but somehow it will mean even more to you if I allow you to understand the dilemma I felt last night coming late to what you and Aria had essentially figured out even if you didn’t realize it. The bad guy in all this actually turns out to have been the father of the fetus, just as Aria suspected. What seems to have happened, as it is now being properly investigated, is that both Kera’s and Aria’s overdoses were staged. Apparently both women were either killed or rendered helpless with fentanyl in alcohol, or at least that’s what it is now assumed to have happened. Once they were unconscious, they were injected with a fentanyl-heroin mixture to make it look like an overdose. Now, all of this has not been entirely proven as of yet, but at the moment that’s what is being hypothesized.”

“This sounds extraordinary,” Laurie said. Her voice had lost all its edge. “Who’s looking into all this?”

“Lou Soldano,” Jack said proudly.

“Really?” she questioned. “How on earth did he get involved?”

“I called him in the wee hours of the morning,” Jack admitted. “When I suddenly discovered the identity of the bad guy, I knew Lou was by far the best person to take over what was undoubtedly going to become a major scandal.”

“When did you find out the identity of the quote-unquote bad guy?” Laurie asked. “Was it before or after my room got changed?” For self-preservation and to maintain her composure, she was forcing herself to participate in his convoluted storytelling.

“It was a number of hours after,” Jack said. “Okay, I can tell I’ve tortured you enough. Here’s the story: After I left you around nine last night, I ended up going back to my office because it was so close by and because it was too late to catch the children before they went to bed. The reason I wanted to go back was remembering that I had failed to look at Madison Bryant’s hospital record, which I’d given Bart Arnold some heat to get. When I looked at the record, in particular Madison’s ECG when her fatal fibrillation started, I had an epiphany. The changes that occurred in the last three heartbeats reminded me of a case you and I were involved with years ago about the nurse serial killer in the Manhattan General Hospital who was knocking off patients destined to be economic drains on their health insurance company’s bottom line. She used intravenous KCl. Do you remember?”

“Of course I remember,” Laurie said. “Jasmine Rakoczi. I’m never going to forget that horrid individual. That was back when I had my ectopic pregnancy.”

“My epiphany was that possibly Madison Bryant had also been killed with KCl, which immediately begged the question of why. When I asked that question while associating Kera’s, Madison’s, and Aria’s deaths all at the same time, it made me terrified of you being in the hospital with a keep-open IV. If perchance the father of Kera’s fetus had indeed killed her, and Madison, and Aria, you, with your connections to the case, were potentially in the crosshairs for the same reason.”

“So, you moved me to protect me,” she said with a combination of astonishment and appreciation. “And then did you have confirmation that my life was indeed in danger?”

“Yes and, I’m afraid to say, yes again,” Jack said. “But when I moved you, I was far from convinced I was right and truly thought I might have been suffering from anxiety-induced paranoia. I really had no idea what to do besides try to stand guard all night. I wasn’t even sure enough to involve any of the hospital authorities, or to call and ask Lou’s opinion. I was truly at a loss.”

“So, after you moved me, what did you do?” Laurie asked. “Did you merely wait in ambush for someone to show up? I mean that wouldn’t really work unless I was there, and he tried something.”

“Exactly,” he said. “If someone used KCl in the ICU to take care of Madison, it had to be a healthcare worker of some import, like a nurse, or an aide, or a doctor. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten in there. After I’d safely stashed you in one of the vacant rooms, which turned out to be this room, I took a patient gurney down to the medical school simulation center and borrowed one of the computerized high-fidelity simulation mannequins that are used to teach students how to respond to critical emergencies. You know, the kind that are programed to respond physiologically just like a live human. I then brought it up to 838 and set it up with the ECG going and covered it with a blanket. I mean, it was terrific, especially in the dark. Even the breathing sounded entirely normal.”

“So, it was a kind of a trap,” Laurie said with amazement.

“Exactly,” Jack said. “And it worked like a charm. When the bad guy came in somewhere around three thirty, he obviously thought for sure it was you and was probably hyped up enough not to check. To tell you the truth, I was sound asleep at that point and didn’t wake up until he caused the simulator’s alarm to go off by injecting the damn KCl.”

“My good Lord!” she said.

“It’s appropriate to invoke his name,” Jack said with a smile. “In retrospect, he had to have been involved in how everything turned out.”

“Maybe you better not tell me the details of what happened after that,” Laurie said. Knowing him as well as she did, she could imagine he’d transformed into a wild man, possibly putting himself in danger. Her only consolation was the idea that the individual was most likely a healthcare worker and probably not armed.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Jack admitted.

“All right, enough evasions,” Laurie said. “Now I’m ready for you to tell me the identity of the bad guy. From your description of him as a bad guy, plus mentioning that you wanted Lou involved early because you feared a scandal, and finally your sense it had to be a healthcare worker, I’m fully prepared to be shocked. Who is it?”

“Dr. Carl Henderson,” Jack said.

“Oh. My. God!” she exclaimed, pronouncing each word separately. She was totally stunned. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts before saying: “Who would have guessed? He’s about the last person I would have suspected. It’s all such folly and such a tragedy on so many levels...”

“Let’s look on the bright side,” he said.

“I’m having trouble seeing a bright side,” Laurie said.

“It seems that you and Aria Nichols have added genetic genealogy to the forensic grab bag of tricks to make it possible to construct a perpetrator’s genome. If that’s not a bright side, I don’t know what is.”