Part 78 (1/2)
”Inspector, I believe that Dr. Payne is about to advise me that in her professional medical opinion, Sergeant Payne, having suffered understandable pain, fear, and anguish as the result of tonight's events, not only is not able to intelligently respond to any questions posed by anybody, but is in urgent need of medical attention. Would you have problems with that?”
”No, sir,” Weisbach said. ”I'll call an ambulance.”
”No, G.o.dd.a.m.n it!” Amy called from the interview room. ”He's had enough sirens and flas.h.i.+ng lights for tonight.”
The men looked away in embarra.s.sment.
Doctor Payne was holding Sergeant Payne in her arms, stroking his head. He was sobbing uncontrollably.
After a moment, Peter Wohl entered the room.
”Take him,” Amy ordered.
Very gently, Wohl pulled Matt from Amy's arms and took him into his own.
She went to Kimberly's telephone and dialed a number from memory.
”This is Dr. Payne. I will require a private room immediately, anywhere but in psychiatric. I will be there shortly with the patient.”
She hung up, but stood there with her hand on the telephone in thought.
Captain Frank Hollaran and First Deputy Commissioner Coughlin walked into the room.
”Amy, honey!” he said when he saw her. ”I'm not sure you should be here. . . .”
”Just shut up, Uncle Denny,” she said, levelly. ”Now I'm I'm taking care of him.” taking care of him.”
Then she raised her voice.
”Get him on his feet, Peter. We're going to take him out of here.”
In a moment, Wohl appeared in the interview room door, his arm around Matt.
Matt smiled shyly at everybody as Wohl led him across the room and out the door, but no one spoke or moved.
[FIVE].
Sergeant Matthew Payne was lying on his side in the hospital bed, his arm over his face, when the door opened.
He first looked annoyed, and then curious. His hand reached out and found the bed control. As the back of the bed rose, he rolled onto his back, then folded his arms over his chest and looked somewhat defensively at the two physicians who entered the room. One was his sister, the other a short, plump, somewhat jowly man in his fifties.
He was Aaron Stein, M.D., the Moses and Rebecca Wertheimer Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a former president of the American Psychiatric a.s.sociation. Dr. Stein had surprised many of his peers-and annoyed as many more-when he selected Amelia Payne, M.D., for a psychiatric residency under his mentors.h.i.+p. She had then just turned twenty-two years old.
She had worked under him-he always insisted on saying ”with him”-ever since, and it was widely believed that Dr. Stein had been responsible for Dr. Payne's current position as the Joseph L. Otterby Professor of Psychiatry.
”I must really be off my rocker if Amy called in the heavy-duty reinforcements,” Matt said.
”How do you feel, Matt?” Dr. Stein asked.
”I feel as if I was drugged,” Matt said. ”I can't imagine why.”
”All I gave you was a sleeping pill,” Amy said.
”Did it say 'for elephants' on the bottle?”
Dr. Stein chuckled.
”How long have I been here?” Matt asked.
”You slept through yesterday,” Amy said.
”Let me guess,” Matt said. ”Light began to come through the windows a couple of hours ago. This is the morning of the second day?”
”Yes, it is,” Stein said, smiling.
”I normally tell time by looking at my watch,” Matt said. ”But that seems to be missing. And both the telephone and the TV seem not to be working.”
”You needed rest, Matt,” Dr. Stein said.
”Is that a polite way of telling the lunatic that he was really bouncing off the walls?”
”It's just what I said,” Stein said. ”You needed rest, Matt. And not only don't we heavy-duty psychiatrists use that word anymore-actually it means 'affected by the moon'-but you're not loony, bonkers, gaga, or whatever else you're thinking.”
Matt had to smile. He remembered what his father said about Dr. Stein: ”He looks, and acts, like a beardless Santa Claus.”
”Then what is wrong with me?” he asked.
”In layman's terms,” Dr. Stein said, ”do you know what thoroughbred racehorses and overachiever workaholics like yourself have in common?”
”We make a lot of money for other people?” Matt asked, innocently, after a moment.
Stein laughed.
”You don't know when to stop. You don't understand that you have limits like ordinary horses and other human beings,” he said.
He turned to Dr. Payne.
”He's all right,” he said. ”I'll talk to him now. I'll page you when we're through. And on your way out, have them send two breakfasts in here.” He turned back to Matt. ”I've never known you not to be hungry. What would you like? Take advantage of my presence. I get whatever I want.”
”I am a little hungry,” Matt said.
”Send in the ward nurse,” Dr. Stein said. ”She's getting a little too big for her britches, and it will do her good to take our breakfast order.”
”Okay,” Matt said. ”Amy's gone. That was a very nice breakfast, thank you very much. And now, I hope, you're going to tell me what's wrong with me?”
”I already told you what I know is wrong with you. Do you want to hear what your sister thinks is wrong with you?”
”I'm afraid to ask.”
”She's been really worried for some time about you, and she's been coming to me for some time to tell me why she's worried.”