AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jerome shook his head. “They come took my clothes and give me these to wear. Then a man give me two pills and no water to take ’em. He say use my spit.”
Jack could now see that Jerome was sweating and shaking, and he didn’t think it was just the heat. He felt the man’s forehead. “You have the chills and a fever.”
Jack went over to the door and pounded on it. The guard slid the peek window back. “Already finished with the monkey?”
“Tell the doctor to get back down here and bring his medical bag.”
“Why? He just seen him!”
“Tell him to come now or I go to court and file charges against him and you and everybody else in this damn place for grossly negligent treatment of a prisoner entrusted to your care. And you can go to jail for that. You think you’ll like the view from this side of the door? Go do it. Now.”
The man trudged off, cursing Jack under his breath, and came back presently with the prison doc, a stout, barrel-chested man with a fringe of white hair and a cloth dinner napkin tucked in his shirt and spread over his chest, and an angry expression layered over his features.
“What the hell do you want? I was just sitting down to my supper.”
“Has his head been x-rayed? Has his wound been cleaned and redressed?”
“You telling me how to be a doctor?”
“He’s running a fever, so why do I think his wound is infected?”
The man waggled his head. “That’s not your call to make. It’s mine. Now, you get outta my business, lawyer.”
“Well, let me tell you what is my business. If he takes seriously ill or dies before the trial, I can tell you that Mr. Edmund Battle will be one upset attorney general. Wonder who he’ll take that anger out on? And I will file a lawsuit against this prison and you so fast it’ll make what little hair you have left fall right off. I thought you doctors took a damn oath to do no harm? So what’s it gonna be?”
The man glanced over at the clearly feverish Jerome.
“Well?” said Jack.
The two men stared at each other until the doctor coughed, glanced at the guard, and said, “Bring my bag, son, and tell the nurse to roll the X-ray machine down here.”
“But—”
“Look here, we want this colored boy ready for his trial. He don’t get off easy.”
With a glare thrown at Jack, the guard stomped off.
The X-ray was completed and showed no fracture, but Jerome had likely suffered a severe concussion, the doctor conceded. The wound was thoroughly cleaned and redressed, and Jerome was given shots of penicillin and some other medication to help with the concussion, infection, and fever, along with two bags of fluids. Jack stood right next to the doctor and his nurse to make sure it was all done properly.
Then, noting how stiffly Jerome was holding himself, he told the doctor to check under his shirt.
Jack felt stomach bile flow into his throat at the sight of the livid purplish bruises that covered most of Jerome’s torso and arms.
“What in the hell?” he exclaimed, looking furiously at the guard.
The man blanched. “Hey, hold on, man, we didn’t do none ’a that.”
Jerome said, “He tellin’ the truth. This be from the cop beatin’ me.”
Jack said to the doctor, “You need to do something about that, too. Right now.”
The man grudgingly ordered ice packs and a hot water bottle.
“You satisfied, lawyer?” said the doctor after this was done.
“Just make sure that dressing is changed every day and that his fever is gone by the morning. Now I need to meet with my client. In private.”
After they left, Jack sat back down across from Jerome and opened his briefcase. He told Jerome what he’d done so far.
