Chapter Twelve A: Oath of Vengeance

It had not been a good weekend for Nina. Saturday afternoon she got the call from the Congresswoman indicating that there was a report in the Michigan City News-Dispatch Saturday morning. By Sunday morning the story had been picked up by the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times and by the South Bend Tribune. She could only expect that the story would be widely circulated nationally by Monday morning. She called in her key staff members and they began assessing immediately what role the Congresswoman might be cast in as a result of this news. Most agreed that this was generally good news for the Congresswoman’s fight for the Dunes and might even revive the chances of getting the Great Lakes bill out of committee. But her analyst, Al Sisson, had brought up the point that this might alienate the steel workers even further from Pol as a result of likely job crisis that would come in the wake of an industry shake-up. In a way, Nina greeted this a good news as it would make it much harder for Aaron Case to keep his job. But it was still critical to get it resolved before the Congresswoman started any broader statewide campaign. She’d get Marvin on it, she decided. It would be a great boost to the campaign and her standing if she could ride in to the rescue with a solution in hand.

Sunday afternoon she sent everyone home to get some rest before the Congresswoman came in on Monday morning. Why she’d gone to Indiana this weekend was a mystery to Nina. It was not on her schedule and not like her to take just Saturday and Sunday back home. Typically if she was going back, it was for a four-day weekend. She fought back a suspicion that she was planning campaign strategy with Aaron Case. She was not going to be cut out of that loop if she could help it. Probably time to exercise some authority and call him back to Washington to work on this new development. Timing was everything, however. She’d wait until about ten this evening and call him to tell him he needed to be at staff meeting at 8:00 in the morning. Let him go without sleep tonight, she thought. We’ll see how charming he is in the morning then.

She was about to leave the office when her phone rang. She turned back to her desk and automatically picked it up without looking to see who was calling, assuming it was one of the others who had left a few minutes previously.

“Nina Patterson?” the voice asked. Upon her affirmation it continued, “This is reception at Georgetown University Hospital. I’m calling because a person who was just admitted asked that we call you urgently. Mr. Marvin Jackson has just been admitted through emergency. He is badly injured and was barely lucid enough to give us your name. If you could come, it would be advisable to get here as soon as possible.”

“Yes, of course,” Nina responded. “I’ll leave immediately.” A calm professional automaton took over her voice as inside her mind raced in near panic. Marvin was hospitalized. He must have relatives or friends closer to him than Nina; why would he call her? And what did the receptionist mean “advisable to get here as soon as possible?” What had happened to him?

She raced to her car and navigated the late Sunday tourist traffic the short distance to Georgetown University Hospital. She parked in the emergency lot and rushed through the door. A sign at the receptionist’s desk reminded her to “Please turn off cell phones in the emergency room.” She fumbled for her phone as she told the receptionist who she was. To her surprise she was ushered immediately into a triage room where Marvin was lying. Doctors and nurses busily worked over him and she was handed a surgical mask and led to Marvin’s head.

“That’s everything we can do,” said one. “Keep him aspirated and let me know if there is a change. I want those x-rays stat. As soon as he’s done talking with his girlfriend start that morphine drip.” Then the doctor turned to Nina. “He’s refused pain-killers until he saw you, so be kind and be quick.”

“What happened?” Nina asked as she knelt beside Marvin and leaned toward him. He turned pain-glazed eyes toward her.

“They said I betrayed them. Story on poison,” he whispered. “You’re not safe. I told them. Thought they’d stop.”

“Who are they?” Nina asked. “Did they do this to you?”

“They’ll go after Stamos, too,” he whispered seeming to ignore her questions. “Never saw them before. Nina,” his body stiffened as he fought off the pain another moment, “I don’t think they’re Steel. The industry’s rough, but it’s not criminal. Somebody else is calling the shots. They’re dangerous. Very dangerous.” He stiffened again. Nina had a hundred questions she wanted to ask but she couldn’t watch him suffer any more.

“Start the morphine,” she said looking up at the anesthetician. Then she looked back at Marvin and gently stroked his hair. “Don’t worry baby. We’ll be safe. We’ll find them and punish them, I swear it. You get well. Heal up and we’ll go to Jamaica again. You know you want that. Just get well, baby. Just get well.” Tears swelled up in Nina’s eyes as the morphine drip took hold and Marvin drifted into oblivion. In moment’s the doctor’s returned and she was pushed back against a wall as they rushed Marvin out to surgery. She heard words but could only make sense of a few: ruptured kidney, punctured lung, broken, broken, broken, move move move. In moments they had wheeled him out of the room and she was left alone. She wandered back out to the reception area to wait and asked what happened. A police officer made his way to her in a few minutes.

“Are you related to Mr. Jackson?” the officer said.

“No,” Nina answered. “We date. He asked to see me before they put him under morphine.”

“I need to ask if he said anything to you that would indicate who else was involved in this,” the officer said.

“What happened?” Nina asked.

“A witness said that she saw his car go into Sligo Creek off the parkway. She called 911 immediately and that is probably what has saved his life up till now. But the doctors have indicated that the injuries are not consistent with an automobile accident. He’s been severely beaten.”

“My God!” Nina whispered. “He said ‘they thought he’d betrayed them,’ but he didn’t say who they were. He said that it wasn’t Steel, though.”

“Who is Steel?” asked the officer.

“He’s a lobbyist for the steel industry,” Nina replied. “He seemed to think it was important that I know it wasn’t them that did it. But he also said that he thought I was in danger, and perhaps my boss.”

“And who is your boss?” the officer continued. He’d been writing nearly every word that she’d spoken.

“Representative Stamos, Sixth District Indiana,” Nina gave the official designation.

“We’ll look into that as well,” the officer said. “Miss Patterson, I’d like to give you some paper and ask that you record as closely as you can your conversation with Mr. Jackson in the emergency room. It may provide a vital clue to what we are looking for. I don’t know if this is gang related, organized crime, or a bunch of buddies that got upset over a football game. One way or another, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Nina agreed and began the laborious process of recalling as close as she could everything that Marvin had said. Beaten. Dumped in Sligo Creek. Who would do something like that? It had to do with the story that had broken over the weekend in northern Indiana. Marvin must have known about the mercury in the water but hadn’t told her. Damn it. She could have used that kind of information in advance. What did he think she was paying him for? But he didn’t have to go and get beaten up over it. Who would have done that if it wasn’t the people he worked for on his day job. She’d have to think this through. Who stood to gain from the catastrophy.

She neatly recopied her draft and folded the notes she’d made and put them in her purse. Eventually the doctor came back out and gave her a description of what they were able to do. Marvin was in critical condition and it was too early to tell if he would recover. He ran a list of broken bones, ruptured, bruised or punctured organs. His nearest relatives were listed as being in Indiana, therefore, as she was the only one they knew of here in Washington, she could be with him in his room if she wanted to. Nina didn’t really know why, but she fiercely wanted to be with Marvin. It wasn’t right that someone like him should suffer alone. She’d leave when his family arrived.

She sat in the room next to him. He was unconscious. She held his hand for a while, but finally slumped in sleep in the chair. About 11:00 p.m. she was awoken by a high-pitched tone and people scrambling into the room and around Marvin’s bed. It was a nightmare. She was backed into a corner by the press of doctors and nurses wheeling equipment and shouting instructions. After ten minutes that seemed like an eternity it was all quiet again. The cart was wheeled away. The doctors began to clear the room and it was the last one who turned from the bed and saw Nina still in the corner of the room.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We did everything that we could, but it wasn’t enough.” Nina looked at the still shape of Marvin, peacefully lying on the bed and realized slowly that he was dead. Tears streamed down her face as she approached the bed. The doctor said he’d give her a few minutes alone with him before they came in to take care of things. She stood over his bed and held his hand as the tears flowed freely. She hadn’t realized how much she cared for him—for everyone. She had to protect the Cogresswoman. She would be at the office to meet her when she came in. And she had to be with Marvin and see that he was given into his parents care. It was just so wrong. It’s not how it was supposed to turn out.

“I’ll kill them for this,” she swore. “Whoever did this, I’ll kill them.”

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