Character Sketch

Chapter 6 - Stitches

Chapter 6


Stitches





Katie slung the grey dish pan up on her hip.  She was half way through her shift bussing tables at the student union building.  She worked here three days a week and on some evenings and weekends she worked the catered events that the university would throw.  The students went through a buffet line to get their food.  They were supposed to clear their own tables but there was always the exceptions; someone in a hurry, visitors or simple laziness.  It wasn’t the greatest job but there were worse.


The one perk was getting to ‘people watch’.  Her Character Sketch book was full of snippets of conversation that she had over heard here.  People basically ignored her as she wiped down tables or spot swept under chairs.  Some of the regulars knew her by name but not many.


Mitch Roberts ate breakfast here every morning as he was coming off his shift as a campus security cop.  That’s how Elizabeth had met him.  He also ate dinner here every evening as he was getting ready to start his shift.  That’s how Katie had met him.  He had gotten several entries in her Character Sketch book.  Not that she was interested in him that way but it tickled her because Elizabeth always mentioned him every chance she got although she denied any special interest in him.


Katie pushed the grey dishpan through the window into the dishwashing area.


“I’m taking a break,” she said through the window to her supervisor.


“Ten minutes,” was the reply.


An idea had struck her. She hurried back to the break room.  She opened her locker and pulled the new Character Sketch book, Elizabeth had insisted on buying her, out of her backpack.


SUSPECT LIST                                                  


Wednesday, January 27, 2003


Anyone listed in Sketch Book more than once.


Mitch Roberts: night shift campus security cop


Bert Fulton:  student union custodian


Adam Lester:  second string baseball pitcher


Peter Finch:  Biology lab instructor


Professor Eastman:  Trig Professor


It was only a partial list but all she had time for until she got home.  She would be able to finish it off in her head through the rest of her shift. 


Michael would be picking her up to drive her home when she got done with work.  When Katie’s mother had heard about the girl in the hospital and the alleged stalker, she had insisted that Michael, Katie’s older brother by one year, come and take up residence with the girls at least for a week. Then if nothing was resolved she would take time off work and come up herself.


Katie didn’t think that her character sketches had anything to do with the attacks that had plagued the campus.  Doing a little investigating on her own would be harmless, help overcome this helpless feeling and keep her mind busy.  She would just eliminate the people in her notebook as suspects one by one.


The student union was beginning to quiet down as her shift ended.  They stopped serving dinner at 8:00pm just as she got off, but they still served snacks and deserts until 10:00pm.  She waved at Mitch sitting at his usual booth eating a late dinner as she left.  She grabbed her things from her locker and walked toward the service entrance where Michael would be waiting for her. Bert Fulton the Student Union custodian was emptying the trash cans in the kitchen and she waved at him. Usually she would change and try to get in a few hours at the library before heading home but that was now ‘ver botten’.


Katie stepped out into the cold night air and pulled her jacket more closely around her.  She looked around the receiving area and into the employee parking lot and didn’t see any sign of Michael.  Maybe he misunderstood her and thought he was supposed to meet her at the front entrance of the student union or maybe he was just late.  She decided to wait for a little while in case the later was true. 


Several of the cooks and dishwashers came out together, laughing and talking.  A cook named Charlie caught her eye.


“Do you need a ride?” Charlie asked.


“No, I think my brother is just a little late.  I better wait for him.”


“Do you want us to wait?”


“No, it’s ok.  I’m sure he’ll be here in a minute,” she laughed.


She debated in her mind what to do as she watched them drive off in their separate cars.  Finally she decided to check the front of building to see if he was waiting there for her.  When she tried the service door, it was locked.  She forgot they locked it after dark.  She would have to walk around the outside of the building. 


Katie walked down the stairs of the receiving dock.  The far side of the building was not very well lit.  She kept looking back at the parking lot to check to see if her brother’s car was there.  She hoped that she had just missed it.  This was the drive where the trucks came to make their deliveries.  The lights ahead marked the front of the building and the main entrance just around the corner from where she walked.


Halfway up the drive she turned, she heard footstep behind her.


“Michael?”


The footsteps broke into a run.  Katie could see a figure coming at her up the driveway. Someone in jogging sweats ran at her with the hood up the face in shadows.  Suddenly she was body slammed into the brick wall.  Her head bounced against the bricks. She felt her legs turn to jelly and she fell hard onto her knees.  Her backpack was ripped from her shoulder.  Katie brought her arms up across her face expecting further assault.  It took her a minute to recognize the sound of fleeing footsteps over the ringing in her ears.


She struggled to her feet.  Her head ached and her knees were throbbing as she walked slowly the rest of the way up the driveway leaning one hand against the brick wall.  Katie gingerly touched the back of her head and her fingers came away warm, wet and sticky.  She came around the corner of the building into the light hoping to see Michael. 


There he was parked in his car by the front entrance.  She saw him look at the door and then his watch.  He did a double take when he saw Katie step into the light.  She looked down at her legs.  Her pants were torn and her knees were bleeding too.  He jumped out of his car and ran over to her.


“Oh Katie, what happened?”


“Somebody wanted my backpack really bad and they didn’t ask nicely.”


“I’m so sorry, I thought I was only a few minutes late.”


“I don’t know why but I was expecting you by the service door.”


She needed to sit down because her head was starting to spin.  She folded right there on the grass.


“Your head is bleeding.”  Michael gasped. “What should I do?”


“There is a campus cop inside eating his dinner, will you get him.  Officer Roberts. Mitch Roberts.”


“I can’t leave you.”


“I’ll be ok, just hurry back.”


Katie fought the desire to lie down.  She knew she probably had a concussion.  Two girls walked up and asked her if she was okay.


“They are getting the police,” she answered.


“You need something to stop this bleeding,” one girl suggested. “I’ve got a clean towel in my gym bag; let me put it on your head.”


“I’ve got a tube sock and a safety pin so we can secure it.”


They were busy putting on the makeshift bandage when Michael came out.


“Katie, Officer Roberts was already gone but I called an ambulance and campus police so someone should be here shortly.”


“Hi, I’m Michael Moore, this is my sister Katie, we really appreciate your help.”


“I’m Patsy Johnson and this is my roommate Carolyn Swartz.  We were glad we could help.  If you don’t mind us asking, what happened?”


“I was coming around the building up the service driveway and someone body slammed me against the wall and stole my backpack.”


“The attacker!”  Patsy gasped.


“I don’t think so, he meant to hurt me but only so he could get the backpack.  I don’t really know why, there wasn’t anything of value in it but a few clothes and a notebook.”


An idea germinated in her mind but before it could flower Sergeant Yeargin pulled up in his squad car followed by an ambulance.





A curtain separated the two sides of the trauma room. Chains hung down from a ceiling runner and connected to metal grommets at the top of the heavy drape. It slid along the runner to add in varying degrees to the privacy of each half of the room. Cabinets lined one wall with drawers of varying sizes and metal shelves held boxes of medical supplies. Katie stared at the spot lamp hanging above her bed.  Michael dozed in a chair with his head propped against the cabinet. They had already been here a couple of hours. It was long enough for the couple in the next room to get the good news that the husband was not having a heart attack. The pains in his chest had another cause. They went home with some pain medication and an admonition to visit their family doctor as soon as possible. Though she couldn’t see the couple on the other side of the curtain she was privy to everything that was said.


A female police officer had been into visit asking about the attack on Kaitlin. Her probing questions trying to assess if there had been any sexual assault. The officer had taken pictures of the back of Katie’s head and her knees. Both wounds now had light dressings on them waiting for the doctor to come in and suture her head and knee.


The new residence of the other half of her trauma room were a couple, well not exactly a couple more like friends. The patient had swallowed a crescent shaped piece of glass that had chipped off when he opened a bottle of cream soda and downed it. It cut his throat on the way down so they had already made one trip to the ER now it had cut him coming out and he was hoping to get some pain medication and grounds for suing the bottling company. Katie had listened to his friend talk on the phone telling and retelling the story to friends, family and late night lawyers. The two realized they didn’t have money for a retainer for a lawyer. 


While the patient was taken to get an x-ray his friend peeked his head around the curtain. 


“Hey sugar what you in for?” A tall blonde thirty something with a definite lilt to his voice stepped into their side of the room.


“Cuts and abrasions,” Kaitlin answered.


“Your boyfriend ruff you up?” He indicated Michael with a nod of his head.


“No, that’s my brother. I got mugged.”


“Your brother, he’s one handsome drink of water.”


“I’ll tell him when he wakes up.”


“I’m Dirk.”


“Kaitlin.”


“I’m here with my friend; he drank a cream soda that had a glass chip in it. Do you want to see it?” He held out a folded paper towel.


“The glass chip?”


“Yeah, we saved it so if we go to court.” He unfolded the towel and a slight ‘tink’ sounded as the glass hit the floor.”


“Oh my lands, wouldn’t you just know it. Clumsy me of course I dropped it.” Down on his hands and knees he exclaimed, “I found it,” with a sigh of relief.


“Did I tell you Larry is just my friend? He’s straight.”


“No, you didn’t tell me,” Katie chuckled.


“You could tell your brother.”


“He’s got a girlfriend.”


“All the good ones are always taken.”


Dirk regaled Kaitlin for the next half hour sharing hair and beauty tips. His chosen profession was a hairstylist. He admonished Kaitlin to get a gay hairstylist claiming they were the best because they weren’t in competition with you and wouldn’t be jealous of your beauty only want to make you the best possible you. He was very proud of his social bend and told two gay jokes that Kaitlin couldn’t help laughing out loud.


She began to realize Michael was only feigning sleep when she heard a suppressed chuckle from him.


Soon Larry was wheeled back into the room and Dirk slipped back around the curtain. Kaitlin heard the doctor say they didn’t think there was any permanent damage and apologized but they couldn’t give him any pain medication because they tend to constipate and that would do him more harm than the pain killer’s would help.


As Katie’s neighbors were packing up to leave a nurse preceded the doctor into her half of the room and in less than a minute had a suture tray ready. A needle inserted into the wound on her knee administered the pain medication. It sent a shock of fresh pain through Kaitlin and bubbled up the flesh making the cut on her knee began to bleed again. Kaitlin lay her head gingerly back on her pillow and decided she didn’t need to watch.


She felt the cool water run down her leg as they cleaned the wound and then the tugging as they stitched up the cut. They rolled her on to her side to do the stitches on the back of her head. The doctor ordered an x-ray for her head and it was another hour before the transporter came to get her. The x-ray tech was kind enough to put a folded towel under Kaitlin’s head but still her head ached with the pressure on her cut.


Kaitlin hadn’t realized Michael had called their mom until she saw her standing in the trauma room as she was being wheeled back from x-ray.


“Mom,” suddenly she couldn’t keep the tears from flowing. What was it about seeing your mom that instantly brought on tears that had very bravely been held at bay for hours?


“Oh Katie, it’s going to be okay.”


All the events of the past few days crashed down on her; being pulled out of class with the memories that invoked, interrogated by the police ending with them confiscating her notebook, learning she’s being stalked and now being mugged.


“Hi sweetie, how are we feeling?”  A nurse with a pink and blue flower lab coat leaned over her in the bed.  “I just need to check a few things, okay, honey?”


“We’ve been here most of the night and I have a roaring headache if that helps to expedite things.”


“I’ll get you something for that in a little bit, okay, sweetie?”


“Thanks.”


“Let’s see, temperature, normal, pulse, ok, blood pressure, very good.  Let’s check the dressing on your head.”


Katie rolled over on her side and saw Michael grinning at her from a recliner next to her bed.


“Mom will be back in a minute,” he whispered.


Katie groaned.


“Are you okay honey?” the nurse asked.


“Just a headache that won’t quit.”


“Everything looks fine, sugar, the doctor will be in to talk to you in just a minute. I’ll be right back with your meds.”


After the nurse left Katie turned to Michael. “So does that mean no brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging or brain tumors?”


“Kaitlin Moore I don’t think that’s very funny and I don’t appreciate that kind of humor.  What happened to you last night was very serious.”


“Sorry, mom.”


“Do you know the girl that was attacked four days ago is still in a coma?” Her mother glowered in the doorway.


“What was her name again?” Michael asked.


“Melissa Conners,” Katie replied.


The nurse came back in.  She held out a tiny cup with several pills in it..


“This should also make you feel better.”


“What are those?” Kaitlin’s mom asked.


“One’s a multi vitamin, one’s an antibiotic, and the other is a pain medication.”


“You know that Kaitlin is allergic to penicillin, right?”


“It’s on her chart. It’s good of you to double check though.” The nurse smiled.


Katie swallowed the pills and the nurse left.


“Hey how many stitches did I get?” Katie asked.


“Five in the head and six on your left knee,” Michael reported.


“That puts me ahead, right?”


“No, you’re still down by five.  I got eight in my foot about four months ago, stepped on some glass.”


“You two are impossible.” Katie’s mother groaned.


The doctor released Katie with a prescription for antibiotics and orders to take it easy for the next couple of days.  No work and no school.


Sergeant Yeargin called and asked her to stop by his office on the way home to give a full statement.  There wasn’t much to tell and Katie’s mom kept the interview short.