A Grip on Reality Ch. 02

At Adenauer's beckoning, Gina wheeled Ben across the marble floor to the balcony. As Ben stood up, his wife came over and gave him a quick hug. To Gina's eyes Cilla's action showed a distinct lack of affection, but she kept her opinion to herself.

Ben, Cilla and Dr. Adenauer seated themselves around the small table on the balcony, and Ed took up a position beside the entrance, leaving Gina standing their uncertainly. "This is a bit of a celebration," the doctor said grandly, "so I think refreshments are in order."

"No alcohol for me," Ben said quickly.

"No, no, of course not," Adenauer said, "I know your preference, Ben. We have coffee for you and tea for Cilla and me." He turned to Gina. "Everything is in the kitchen. Would you bring it out for us, Nurse?"

Gina bristled at being treated like a waitress. People had done that to her before and she'd quickly set them straight, but under these circumstances she held her tongue and went off in the direction the doctor had indicated.

As she walked into the little kitchenette she was confused about what was happening. What did they have to celebrate, she wondered. The whole thing seemed bizarre.

Looking around she spotted the cups and saucers set out on a silver tray. A pot of hot water was keeping warm on the stove, and next to it there was an expensive coffee maker with a full pot already brewed. As she poured the water into the cups with the tea bags and the coffee into the remaining cup, she noticed that packets of sugar had already been laid out on each saucer. She was about to take the tray out to the balcony when a terrible thought struck her: what if the sugar had been tampered with? The thought sent a chill through her, but before she could think what to do she heard Dr. Adenauer calling impatiently for her.

When Gina set the tray down on the table, Cilla quickly reached across and distributed the cups and saucers in their proper positions. Dr. Adenauer nodded approvingly, then looked up at Gina. "Thank you, Nurse, that will be all. You may return to your ward."

Leaving Ben alone with these people was the last thing Gina wanted to do. "Shouldn't I stay to help Ben?" she asked desperately.

Adenauer countenance hardened, and in a peremptory voice he said, "We'll take good care of your patient. Now go, and close the door behind you when you leave."

Gina turned and reluctantly made her way to the door, desperately trying to think of something she could do to help Ben. Failing that, she went out, pulling the doors to behind her.

Ben had been watching, and it was clear that he was growing uncomfortable. "I don't understand, Dr. Adenauer. Why am I here? What's going on?"

"We'll explain everything in just a minute," Cilla offered. "But first let's just enjoy our beverages and this beautiful fall sunshine."

As the three of them sipped their drinks, Adenauer used the opportunity to describe his vision for Longview Hospital and to boast about some of its achievements. When he had finished, Ben looked at him curiously. "That's all very impressive, Dr. Adenauer, but I don't see how that affects Cilla and me."

Cilla and the doctor exchanged a quick glance before Adenauer turned back to Ben. "The fact of the matter is that there are always challenges to any great vision, and there are always those unable or unwilling to see the opportunity. In the case of Longview, for instance . . ."

"What Dr. Adenauer is trying to say," Cilla interrupted, "is that he is a much better psychiatrist than he is a business manager."

Adenauer gave her an indignant look, but she pressed on. "I'm afraid the good doctor's grand vision has fallen on hard times financially. The hospital is experiencing a short-term but extremely serious cash flow problem. To make matters worse, the other lending institutions around here have all seen fit to deny the hospital the loans that would maintain its solvency. In short, if someone doesn't extend him some serious credit very soon, his hospital is going to go belly up."

"Now I think that's exaggerating the situation," Adenauer said, but Cilla ignored him.

"Community First Bank could have met the hospital's needs, but of course it doesn't make those kinds of loans," Cilla went on.

Ben shook his head emphatically. "That's right, we serve a completely different customer. We'd never make an institutional loan like that."

"That's true," Cilla said, "unless there were a change of management at CFB, one that brought in a new philosophy. But that could never happen unless the old leadership was somehow incapacitated, forcing a replacement."

"What are you saying, Cilla?" Ben asked in shock.

"Cilla, I'm not at all comfortable with this discussion," Adenauer said.

Cilla ignored them both. Looking at Ben she continued, "Once Dr. Adenauer helped me get you declared incompetent, it was a simple matter to manipulate poor love-struck Perry Bergen into doing what I wanted. Regrettably, Perry got impatient and wouldn't listen to reason, so it became necessary for me to get rid of him as well."

"Cilla, we didn't discuss this at all," Adenauer said anxiously. "This is making me very nervous."

Before he could say anything more, Ben leapt to his feet. "My God, Cilla, I can't believe this! You did this to me? You murdered Perry? Who are you?"

She gave him a cold hard smile. "I'm a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. And what I want now is for BankGroup to acquire CFB and make me very wealthy. Unfortunately, our negotiations have hit a snag. BankGroup is concerned that the power of attorney I hold could be reversed and the deal could fall through. To resolve this issue, Dr. Adenauer and I have to make sure that you never regain your faculties."

Ben felt a cold sweat come over him as he registered the implications of Cilla's words. "What are you planning now?" he asked anxiously.

"I'm afraid you're going to have another episode, Ben, a major one. In your delusional state, you're going to leap over the balcony railing and fall to your death."

"You can't do that!" Ben gasped with alarm.

"Actually, I already have," she said coolly. "The sugar in that coffee you just drank was laced with LSD, which should be taking effect any minute now. Look at you - you're already beginning to sweat like a pig. Soon you'll be totally helpless. Then our large friend Ed here is going to help you try to learn how to fly."

Ben felt Ed's heavy hands pressing him back down into his seat. "No! Let me go!" Ben shouted, and then began to struggle while yelling for help at the top of his lungs. Even as he did so, he felt another attack coming on.

Suddenly the door to the suite flew open and Gina rushed in. "What are you doing to him?" she cried out. "You let him go."

Adenauer was panic-stricken at Gina's sudden appearance, but Cilla remained cool. "Well, well, isn't this touching? Our little nurse is trying to save her patient. I wondered if you might have lost some of your professional detachment over my husband, and now I see that I was right."

"She heard what you said," Adenauer yelled hysterically. "What do we do now?"

"Actually, I think this is perfect," Cilla said calmly. "It will make a great story: caring nurse tries to save her patient only to be pulled to her death by the psycho. All those detailed notes you've been keeping will document how devoted you were to him as well as how demented he could become. We'll make a martyr of you, my dear."

At that moment Adenauer gave a loud, incoherent shriek, causing everyone in the room to turn and gape at him. "No, no, get away from me! Make it stop!" he shouted. His arms flailed wildly as he leapt to his feet, and his head swiveled right and left repeatedly, staring at something none of the others could see. "Keep away from me, don't touch me!" he screamed in terror. Then, as the rest of them watched in astonishment, the doctor suddenly lurched backwards, climbed up on the railing and toppled over the balcony with a wail.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't know that would happen," Gina said piteously. The rest of them turned to her in surprise. "I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want Ben to use that sugar so I switched it with Dr. Adenauer's," she said.

Ben began moaning as he felt the onset of the flashback, and then he slumped helplessly in his chair. Ed gave a snarl at Gina, pulled a knife out of his pocket and started toward the frightened nurse. When she saw him coming she screamed.

"Don't you touch her!" a voice yelled out from behind her, and Marco ran into the room, his pistol drawn. The big man saw him and changed direction to attack this new intruder. Marco fired, but the bullet seemed to have no effect. He fired again and then a third time. A look of surprise came over Ed's face and he looked down in wonder at the red blood pulsing out of his white jacket. Then he took a step backward, tripped over the wheelchair and tumbled to the floor. He moaned once and then lay still.

Cilla was the first to recover, and she quickly began to slide toward the door. But Gina saw her and grabbed her arm. "You're not getting away, you bitch," she snarled.

Seeing there was no escaped, Cilla stood up and straightened her clothing. "Office, I want you to arrest that woman," she said, pointing at Gina. "You heard her admit that she drugged poor Dr. Adenauer."

"That's a lie!" Gina gasped. "She was the one who was trying to drug Ben. And that man," she said, pointing at Ed's body, "was trying to kill me."

"Nonsense," Cilla spoke up quickly. "Ed was an employee of the hospital who was trying to protect Dr. Adenauer from what he thought was an attack by intruders. And that man over there - who is obviously mentally disturbed - is my husband, who was being treated by Dr. Adenauer."

Gina calmly crossed her arms and stared coldly at the woman she had come to hate. "Oh is that so?" she asked. "We'll just see about that." With that she darted into the kitchenette and came back out a moment later holding her cellphone. "I left this in there when you tried to send me away, and it's been recording everything that was said. I wonder what a jury will think of that, Cilla?"

The attractive woman stood there in silence, staring at her antagonist balefully.

As Marco went over to cuff Cilla, Gina rushed over to Ben, who was still sitting slumped in the chair. As she reached his side, he lifted his head and gave her a bewildered look. "What happened?" he asked weakly.

"I think the stress pushed you into another flashback," Gina said gently.

Recognition flashed in Ben's eyes and he sat upright. "Oh my God, I remember. Cilla killed Perry and she was going to have me killed as well. She's the one who's been feeding me the drugs!"

He stared at Gina, expecting to see his own shock mirrored in her expression. But what he saw was a happy smile, and his face showed his confusion. "Ben, listen to yourself," she said excitedly. "You shook off the flashback! You were out of it only a few minutes and now you're back to normal. You really are getting better!"

With that she threw her arms around him, and he returned the embrace in happy relief.

When Gina got home from work two weeks later, she was delighted to see her big brother there. She hugged him soundly. "My hero!" she said.

"Enough, enough!" he said, although it was clear that he enjoyed her continuing gratitude.

"It'll never be enough," she said fervently. "If you hadn't showed up when you did, I might be a red spot on the hospital parking lot now."

He shuddered and turned serious. "I heard you, you know. On the phone I heard you say you were scared just as I hung up. I just couldn't desert my little sister."

She hugged him again, tears of gratitude in her eyes.

After dinner Gina encouraged her daughter to go up to her room to play because she wanted to get an update from her brother on the case and she didn't want her five-year-old to hear the conversation. Once Angela had left, Marco gave Gina and her mother the latest news. He told them that Cilla had been indicted by the grand jury, but "She's hired some big-shot lawyer and pleaded not guilty."

"How can she do that?" Gina demanded indignantly. "I have a recording of her laying out the whole plot in Adenauer's office. There's no way she can talk her way out of that."

Marco shrugged his shoulders. "Her attorney is trying to argue that that whole thing was a privileged conversation between doctor and patient. I never heard of anything like that being privileged, but even if it is we've got a ton of other evidence against her, and we're digging up more all the time. I don't think there's any way she'll wiggle off this hook."

Marco shook his head with a wry smile. "You know, I could almost feel sorry for Cilla - if she wasn't a homicidal psychopath. She was quite the schemer, but very scheme she hatched kept running into obstacles. She married Ben because she thought he would be her ticket to luxury. But she became frustrated when Ben refused BankGroup's acquisition offer.

"So Cilla decided to get Ben declared insane with Dr. Adenauer's help, and she seduced Perry Bergen to get him to agree to BankGroup's offer once Ben was out of the way. She figured Bergen would be easier to manipulate than Ben had proved to be."

"So Bergen was in on the whole thing?" Gina asked.

"All of it except Ben's murder," Marco replied. "Bergen's wife told us that Bergen had always been jealous of Ben, and all the public acclaim Ben received only made it worse. Anyway, when Cilla made a play for him, Bergen was putty in her hands. He thought she loved him so he went along with her scheme to get Ben out of the way."

"So after Cilla got Ben committed and Bergen became CEO, what went wrong?"

"Apparently, Bergen got greedy: he had Ben's title and Ben's wife, and he didn't want to wait to let everyone know it. That caused Cilla a big problem because she knew people would start asking questions if their relationship became known. So she decided to get rid of Bergen and become CEO herself. That way, she figured she could do anything she wanted at the bank."

"Wait, I thought you told me Bergen's death was ruled a heart attack," Gina objected.

Marco was undeterred. "It's not surprising that the original autopsy didn't turn up anything suspicious. After all, Bergen was found lying on the floor fully clothed with no observable wounds. When the Medical Examiner opened him up, his heart showed clear signs of a myocardial infarction, so - case closed.

"But now the D.A. has gotten a court order to exhume Bergen's body, and this time they're going to take a hard look at what they can find in his system. There are a lot of drugs that can cause a heart attack; I hear the ME's guess is digitalis. Bergen wasn't in great shape to begin with, so it's not surprising it was fatal."

"So what did she do, give Bergen another poison sugar pack?" Gina wanted to know.

Marco shook his head. "Here's the way we think it went down. Bergen drove her to his home the night you overheard the two of them in the parking garage. His wife was out of town, so when they got there they had sex. He probably fell asleep afterwards, and that gave her a chance to give him the lethal injection. By the time he felt the needle it was too late. Then, once it was over, she managed to get him dressed again and left him lying there. Pretty cold, hunh?"

Gina shuddered.

Just then their mother spoke up. She'd been listening to the conversation and now she said, "I'm still confused. Who did Cilla have an affair with: Perry Bergen or Dr. Adenauer?"

"I'd bet money on both of them," Gina said quickly. "That woman would do anything to get what she wanted, so what was one more lover to her?"

Marco shrugged his shoulders. "She might have been having an affair with Adenauer, but she's refusing to answer any questions. Adenauer is dead, so we don't know for sure.

"But even if she didn't, she still had a powerful hold over him. Adenauer desperately needed money to keep his hospital afloat. Cilla found out and offered him a loan in exchange for his help in getting Ben diagnosed as psychotic. Then, when Bergen became a problem, we think she got Adenauer's help with him too.

"After we get through combing the records at the hospital, I'll bet we'll find that Adenauer was the one who supplied both the LSD for Ben and the digitalis - or whatever she used - to get rid of Bergen when he got in her way," Marco added.

"Anyway," he went on, "just when she thought she had everything lined up, BankGroup backed away from the acquisition of CFB because of uncertainty about Ben's status. That was when Cilla decided that she needed Ben out of the picture permanently. By that time, Adenauer was in so deep that he had no choice but to go along with her."

Marco gave his mother and sister a wry look. "Cilla's little plan was like a cancer: it kept growing and spreading until it got completely out of hand. And even with all that, she might still have pulled off the whole scheme if it wasn't for Gina."

Gina blushed and shook her head in denial. "That's not true, Momma. Marco figured out what was going on and then he showed up just in time to save the day."

Their mother grabbed both her children and hugged them warmly. "All I know is that I'm very proud of both of you," she said proudly.

At that moment their celebration was interrupted by the doorbell. Momma Esposito went to see who was calling and a moment later returned, accompanied by Ben Mitchell. Out of the corner of his eye Marco noticed that Gina broke into a big smile when she saw who it was.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," Ben said awkwardly, "but this is really the first chance I've had to come by and thank you." He held up a large box filled with calla lilies. "Gina, I don't know how to tell you how much I appreciate what you've done for me, but I figured at least I could start by bringing you these."

"They're beautiful, Ben," Gina said, accepting them happily. "Thank you."

Ben turned to Marco with a smile. "I owe you a lot too, but I didn't bring you any flowers."

"I'm just as glad," Marco said, and the rest of them laughed.

Just then Gina's daughter wandered down the stairs. Angela had been playing in her room and had come to see what all the commotion was about. Gina beckoned her over to the group and pointed to Ben. "Say hello to Mr. Mitchell, baby. He's the man I've been telling you about."

Solemnly Angela offered her hand to Ben, who bent down on one knee to shake it. "Are you the one my momma likes so much?" she asked innocently.

"Angela!" Gina gasped, blushing in embarrassment.

Ben smiled broadly. "I hope I am, Angela."

The little girl looked at him appraisingly. "Do you like my momma?" she asked.

Gina started to intercede but Ben held up his hand to stop her. "It's alright," he said. Then he turned back to Angela. With a solemn face but a twinkle in his eye, he said, "You know what? I'm crazy about her."