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This couldn’t be fucking good. If Jake wanted to see me in private, it meant something was not in order with Rita's head.
There was a reason why doctors couldn’t treat family members or close friends. Emotions could be a real danger when they intervened in our work. Right then, I was freaking out, even though my logic told me there were many reasons for her film to not be spotless after that hit to the head, but my palms were sweating, and my heart was racing. I could come up with twenty different scenarios where her life would be in danger.
When we got into his office, Jake went to his chair and started playing with one of his stress balls. You'd never see him without one.
"So, what's with the secrecy, Sullivan? You ask me to give an undocumented consult to a woman, you refuse to get her to your own hospital, and we both know you hate the private sector. What's up with this chick?"
"It's complicated, man. Thank you for doing this for me."
"Meh, I owe you for the time when you bailed me out of that poker game. But really, this is shady as fuck. Is she your undocumented housekeeper or something?"
Jake was a good doctor, but he was also a greedy bastard with the moral compass of a stray dog. Him treating Rita without even asking for an ID was a huge violation of policy, and he also could talk out of his ass a lot.
"No, she is not my housekeeper, don't be a jerk. She is special to me."
"Oh, I see, finally moving on from that bitch of a wife. It's all good, man. I'm all for dipping your dick in the waters again. But there is something you’re not telling me. It's more than just a head injury."
Disarmed, I let out a breath and put my hands in my pockets.
"She had a head trauma, but also she has a severe case of memory loss. She's missing quite a few years, but that's obviously a repercussion from the hit. I just want to keep things off the books."
Jake put his hands under his chin, intrigued.
"It might not be."
"What?"
"Her scans and blood work are a real piece of work, just look at this."
He walked to a big screen and opened Rita's images.
"No brain bruising, no swelling, just a mild concussion, plus she has no secondary tissue damage. That hit was not as hard as you think."
"This doesn't make sense. She doesn't remember quite a few years of her life. Things like this don't just happen from a shake. She should have signs of swelling."
"None, but..." the tone in his voice was suddenly very sober. It was a doctor's bad news tone. "Did you take a look at her CT?"
"No, the doctor in Boston failed to give her one after the fall. Idiot. Did you catch anything wrong?”
"From this trauma, no, but I took a scan just to be on the safe side. She should refrain from any other x-ray scans for the rest of the year, too much radiation."
"Yes, man, I know. What showed up on the CT?"
He opened another file, and a new film showed up on the screen. The difference between a CT and an MRI is that the last has more accuracy in showing soft tissue, like the brain, but a computed tomography will show better images of the bones. I wanted to kick myself for not taking a look at her skull sooner.
"James, this woman has six closed skull fractures, and by the look of it, three of them were deep hits. My approximation is six, maybe seven millimeters."
"Fuck. They could be from a previous accident..."
"Sullivan, come on, you are a world class neurologist. A rookie could see those were not made at the same time. Your Rita took repeated hits to the head."
With every word he said, my blood pressure went higher and higher. Adrenalin was pumping in my chest, making me shake. I needed to focus right then but it was hard to do so through the curtain of anger that was lowering over my eyes.
"None of these fractures look like they were made by a sharp object," I said with a rough but uncertain voice. I just wished I was wrong about it.
"No, your girl has been beaten up, I'm sorry to say it. I think the concussion she got from the hit to the head triggered her memory loss, but it's not trauma induced. She was exposed to chronic psychological stress, possibly depression."
"That's a shot in the dark."
