“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” Despite the silence filling the airwaves, the
dispatcher was certain there was someone on the line. Though arguably the imminent danger had
passed, she was still terrified and fearing for her life. She would have to find her words if she
wanted someone to find her – to help her.
“9-1-1,
what’s your emergency”, the dispatcher tried once more. There was an inaudible female response. “Hello? Caller?” The dispatcher could hear breathing, but she
couldn’t seem to make out the words.
“Caller are you there? Do you
need police, fire or a medic? Caller?”
“I
need a doctor!” The response was both
sudden and frantic, catching both women off guard. “I need a doctor!” The request was quickly turning into a
scream. “I need a doctor! I need a
doctor!” She began to rock back and
forth beside the bed as she struggled to catch her breath, suddenly unable to
stabilize her response.
“Okay
ma’am I need you to calm down. I can
dispatch an ambulance out to you but I need to know what’s wrong.”
“I
need a doctor!”
“I
understand, sweetheart, but I need you to bear with me, okay. Are you in danger? What’s your emergency? Are you alone?”
Her
voice was once more barely above a whisper, but the dispatcher was able to make
out, “I was raped”, before the woman’s words faded into what sounded like the inaudible
tears of a child.
“Ma’am,
please, stay with me. Is your assailant
still present in the home?”
“No,”
the dispatcher heard another silence as she typed away at her routing board.
“He…she’s gone.”
He
burst through the door with the air of a man drenched in frantic and fury. Charging the nurses’ station like an angry
bull, someone had better have answers. None
of the nurses present at the desk paid any particular attention to the stranger
standing before them. He opened the
floor by blurting out the announcement of his presence to the backs of their
heads as if responding to an open invitation.
“I’m Kite Spalding; I was told my wife was brought here.” None of the women turned around. They continued about the business of the
evening, refusing to acknowledge his presence.
No one even flinched. They
continued as if no words had been spoken.
His anger grew exponentially and it took him every ounce of restraint he
possessed to contain himself. “Excuse
me!” His voice was now far more urgent
and bordering on violently aggressive.
The urgency with which he spoke demanded the attention of anyone within yards
of his presence.
He’d
finally gotten someone’s attention. A
nurse, small in stature, but big on attitude, turned quickly to face him.
“Excuse me! Can I help you?” She met his
gaze head on, shoulders square and hands rested upon the nurses’ desk. Though
her face remained straight, her attitude dripped the existence of an unseen neck
roll. Mr. Spalding responded with as
much attitude as he was given.
“Yes!
And you can start by scrapping the attitude and telling me where the hell
you’re holding my wife!”
Trading
attitude for attitude, the nurse moved forward with the battle rolling her eyes
as she picked up the phone. “You know”,
she began with a deeply menacing smile, “where I can see how you might think
that a good place to start, I’ve got a better one.” She held up a finger and then turned her back,
forcing Kite to await her return to the conversation. She stood up a bit more
straight as someone picked up the line. “Yes, Security, we have a situation at
the nurses’ station.”
Kite
was livid. “You have a what!??!” He lunged at the nurses' back, making clear that his attitude was turning
into rage, but before the incident could run its course, a delicate finger
attached to a white lab coat hung up the phone.
Gently commandeering the receiver the elder woman quickly took control
of the environment.
“Nurse
Bridges, I can take it from here. Please page Dr. Harborough to Exam Room 4.”
The
young nurses’ attitude changed instantly for fear of reprimand and
reproach. She became a completely
different person in the blink of an eye, at once humble and willing to provide
assistance. “Yes doctor.” Picking up the
receiver once more, she turned slightly from the doctor and patients’ gaze,
bowing out gracefully.
The
doctor with her slightly sedate tone and comforting demeanor turned her full
attention to the man standing before the front desk as if she knew
instinctively what would come next.
Placing her hand close to his arm, she asked in a very
matronly fashion, “How can I help your sir?”
A plainly attractive, middle-aged white man
poked his head in just as Kite took note of the disturbed expression painted
across his face and the fact that he wasn’t dressed like a doctor.
“Dr.
Harborough.”
“Miranda,
a moment please?”
“Yes,”
she turned her attentions back to Mr. Spalding.
“Mr. Spalding, if you could give us just a moment?”
“Sure. Absolutely.”
“Thank
you sir.” The doctor flashed a very uncomfortable smile before leaving the
office and closing the door behind her.
In the hallway, certain that they were out of earshot, Ellis Harborough
quickly voiced his frustrations. “What the hell Miranda? I thought you handled the nut cases! What’d you call me in for?”
“First
of all”, Dr. Perriman chimed in, clearly taking offense. “My patients are not nut cases. They are simply wandering souls who have lost
their hold on mental health… momentarily,” she added. “Secondly, I think there may be more to this
case than just that. You’re an expert in
criminology; I need some help getting to the bottom of this thing.”
“Yes,
well call me crazy, but isn’t that what all these Albany PD detectives are
for?”
“Not
exactly, they are here to investigate the possibility of sexual assault, but I
think there’s more to it than that.”
“What’s
going on? What haven’t I been told about
this case?” Miranda led Ellis further
from her office door to address her concerns with the case. “Ellis, this woman
swears to the most high God that she was raped, and where there is evidence of
intercourse, she says that she was raped by a woman.”
“A
what!?” If he had any doubt that Miranda’s
patients were crazy before, she’d cleared that right up.
She
fanned her hands quickly before him. “Keep
your voice down! A woman Ellis, and not
just that, but Dr. Steven’s notes that
the initial examination shows obvious evidence of childbirth where the patient
has made no mention of children. The police
found no evidence of a child in the home and the husband denies that they have
ever had children.”
“Maybe
the kid was from a previous marriage.
Could be that she just doesn’t want him to know. You’ve seen the age difference between them;
this is clearly not her first time around the block.”
“That
may be true, but everyone who has ever ‘been around the block’ most often
remembers the trip, and according to this patient, Innocence Spalding is a
woman who has never bore any children. Ellis,
I need your help on this one.”
Ellis
never could resist those puppy dog eyes and she had him right where she wanted
him. She knew that he would do whatever he could to make her happy. “Okay, I’ll
see what I can dig up.”
“Thank
you,” she offered with the shy gaze of a schoolgirl.
“Dr.
Perriman?” Looking over Ellis’s shoulder
as best she could, given his stature, Miranda could see Kite quickly advancing
toward them. “Can I see my wife now?”
“I
can’t honestly say Mr. Spalding, but why don’t we go find out? Follow me.”
Before the door opened to Exam Room 4 Kite remembered Dr. Perriman’s
request to the nurse with the attitude.
This caused him to wonder exactly what had just taken place in the
hallway without him. It was obvious that
the doctor he found her speaking with was the individual she paged to Innie’s
room.
As
the door opened slowly, Kite could hear his wife’s voice long before he could see
her face. She sounded frantic and alone.
“I am telling you, I know what I felt and he had breasts! Why don’t you
people believe me!?!”
“Mrs.
Spalding, it’s not that we don’t believe you, but please, do try to understand
our position.”
Her
eyes quickly searching the room in obvious horror, they found no rest amongst
the flurry of strange faces. That is until she witnessed her husband advancing
through the crowd of detectives and hospital personnel.
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