Where There is Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Chapter 13: It Eats its Own Heart

“Yzha.”

 

“Myaso. Yzha.”

 

“Tak... dobre... dobre...”

~-~-~

Kulish was responding to the treatment. Seemed everything was working in his favor since he'd been brought in. The bastard had yet to speak to anyone yet he'd even managed to upgrade his legal council. Big news once it hit the racks that an honest to God cannibal had been captured in Santa Barbara. It had taken less than a day for it to go national and since that time, reporters from as far as New York had been desperate to get film of both the “Monster” as well as his only surviving victim. Anyone with any connection to the case had been set upon by camera crews; officers and grieving family alike. Vick had finally assigned an officer to keep guard over Spencer's room to keep the aggressive press away from the man. Barely surviving the second surgery, he had yet to awaken two days out. Once again, O'Hara had been forced to postpone their visit. Carlton, however, no longer felt relief about that.

He'd never been one of the legion of fans that followed Spencer's clown act like they were the pastel colored poodles in his performance. His emotions towards the man generally hovered around forced tolerance – bumping up to grudging appreciation on exactly five occasions. Far more rarely had he ever felt concern. More rarely, still, than that – guilt. And it was this last emotion that froze him, glued him to the station when everyone else around him, obviously, had taken on Spencer Watch 2010.

Henry had thanked him for saving his son.

What would he say if his son died because help hadn't gotten there soon enough? If Carlton had been the one missing, would Shawn have found him sooner? It left a hole in his chest – the way the answer was so clear in his head.

How could he stand in that room and watch the man slowly die? Every forward step in his treatment was hampered by two stumbles backward. The first surgery was eclipsed by a massive internal hemorrhage – Spencer nearly bled out before he'd even reached the OR. They managed to save his life a second time but now the infection they'd been controlling had gotten away from them, charging through tissue like a wildfire. His fever had been climbing daily and there was now talk of possible brain damage if they couldn't stop it. And with his body already so weakened, brain damage was the positive outcome. Because it would mean he'd at least survived.

But now...

He hadn't been able to speak to Henry of the new complication. No doubt it was the media circus that had promoted the so-called altruistic act but Carlton knew better. Because he knew the snake in a suit from previous court hearings. Nudging out the state appointed council, DA Wayne Mattock had offered to take on Kulish as his client free of charge. His claim was that he felt a duty to protect a mentally diminished man from “the SBPD's witch hunt”. He'd found a sympathetic judge with enough miles on the bench to be flirting with his own diminished capacity and within a day, the paperwork had been signed to transfer Kulish to a minimum security psychiatric hospital pending full evaluation to be set at a later date.

There'd been enough confrontations between Lassiter and Mattock that it was no surprise when the man had sought him out to twist the blade.