Denial by Keith Ablow Read Free Book Online Page A

under the glass window.  "You tell your Auntie Em I came by to give the injection at six-thirty, just like we planned.  If Westmoreland loses it and busts his head against the wall, I'm not taking the heat.  I was here, trying to do the right thing."  I started to walk away.
    "Uh, Doctor..."
    I stopped and turned around.  "Clevenger.  Frank Clevenger."
    "One hour really matters?"
    I made a great display of calming myself.  "Well, Officer Lucey, it's hard to say.  Westmoreland might do just fine until seven o'clock.  He might be able to go until seven-thirty.  Possibly even eight.  Then again, he might chew off a finger or pluck out an eye in twenty minutes."
    "I didn't know," he shrugged.
    "That's the first step."
    "Excuse me."
    "The first step toward enlightenment.  You know that you don't know."
    "Sure..."  He looked at me as if I might be crazy myself.  "Let's get his medicine into him."
    Westmoreland hadn't gotten his Thorazine until after midnight and was curled up on the floor of his cell in a deep, fitful sleep, wearing only a T-shirt and soiled boxer shorts.  The rest of his clothes were laid out in the shape of a person on his cot.  The sun was coming up, and the bars on his window cast long shadows across him.  Of a sudden, one or another of his limbs would jump.
    "He stinks like garbage," Lucey said.  He grabbed a ring of keys off his belt and jammed one into the lock on the cell door.
    I caught his wrist and pressed my thumb into the softest place between the bones.  "Quietly," I said.
    He winced and tried to pull away.
    "Quietly," I repeated.  I let go and held a finger to my lips.
    He glared at me, but then eased the door open.
    I walked in alone and knelt at Westmoreland's side.  His eyes whipped back and forth under his lids.  His breathing was a series of gasps.  I drew the Amytal into a syringe and carefully tied a tourniquet around his arm.  A vein ballooned up.  I buried the tip of the needle.  Westmoreland grimaced but didn't wake up.  I slowly pushed the plunger down.
    Amytal burns as it flows in, and just as I was finishing the injection, Westmoreland's eyes snapped open.  He stared for a few seconds at the little drop of blood gathering on his skin, then at the syringe in my hand.  His face twisted with terror.  Without a word, he punched himself in the face.
    "Grab him!" I called out to Lucey.
    Westmoreland started swinging wildly at himself.  I could only pin down one of his hands.  He landed a blow to his nose.
    Lucey was standing over us, looking scared.
    I reached up, grabbed his belt and pulled him toward the floor.
    Together we wrestled control of Westmoreland's arms, but not before he had split his lip and opened a cut over one eye.  He was still struggling against us — or against himself — with everything he had.
    "What the hell is happening to him?" Lucey demanded.  "What is that crap you gave him?"
    "The crap is sap!" Westmoreland yelled.  "The tree is me!"
    "It'll be over soon," I said evenly.
    Westmoreland struggled free of Lucey's grip and landed a solid blow to his own ear.
    "He's crazed," Lucey said.
    "Shut up and hold him."
    "Jesus Fucking Christ."  Lucey lunged for Westmoreland's arm, caught it and held it to the ground.
    "Mother Mary came, came, came to me," Westmoreland spewed.  He arched his back in a last attempt to overcome us, then collapsed to the floor.
    "If he's dead, it's your ass," Lucey said.
    "He's not dead."
    He looked at me doubtfully.  "I'm calling this in to Captain Hancock immediately."
    "I could use you here."
    "Don't do anything else to him," he warned.  He got up and walked to the door.
    "What did you have in mind?"
    The cell door clanged shut.  "Crazy sonofabitch," he muttered.
    Even with blood trickling down his face Westmoreland seemed more at peace.  He was lying still with his eyes closed.  I stayed silent about a minute, then took his hand in mine.  His skin was dry and thick with calluses.  "Mr. Westmoreland,"