Chapter Six
Eddie sat with Linda as the radiologist read her mammogram. Her breast was sore from the pressure of the machine. Linda held her hand tight. "At least you will know and can have all the information when you talk to Jamie."
"I don't intend to tell Jamie any of this if there's no reason to do it. He pulled a new rough case and I don't want him distracted."
Linda nodded, "If it is something?"
"Then I'll have to talk to him, I won't lie to him. I'm trying to protect him from worrying over a pulled muscle and some swelling."
"Mrs. Reagan, Dr. Jacobs can see you now," the receptionist said. Linda offered to come back with her and Eddie nodded yes. Hand in hand the two women waited as Eddie's images were put on the screen. "You can see a deep density in the left breast in line with the nipple and encroaching on the arm pit. This absolutely must be looked into more extensively. It could be a cyst or it could be a tumor."
"Cancer?" Eddie asked looking at Linda.
"Not necessarily, some tumors are not cancerous but given the size and the placement of this mass it is concerning. We'd like to get you a biopsy right away."
"Today?" Eddie asked. "Now? I have to get home to my kids. I have things to do."
"The procedure will only take a few hours. You can go home as soon as the medication wears off."
"I'll call Jamie and have him come down..."
"No, no. I will come tomorrow morning. I don't want to worry Jamie. Linda can you watch my kids tomorrow?"
She nodded, "Of course I will, I'll switch my shift now."
Eddie looked at her with grateful eyes, "Thank you so much, I promise if this come back positive I will tell Jamie everything."
Eddie made her appointment for 10 then headed home to Staten Island thinking about what she'd just been told. Jamie was home, she had to get control of herself so her detective husband did not read her face and know she was scared.
"Damn it," Jamie swore slamming his fist down on the table.
Lila's face turned to surprise, "Daddy, you said the D word."
"Daddy is upset, honey," he sighed. "Go and color your book for a little bit. Mommy will be home soon."
Lila nodded and went to color a picture. Jamie and Gordo studied the case file again, "Okay, other males in the home would be a partial DNA match to the little girl. Did the coach say anything when you got the DNA sample? Anything about why he was driving Harper home?"
"Nope, he coughed up the sample then lawyered up. He's hiding something but he's not our guy, not for this."
"Let's run him through NCIC and the sex offender system and see if he pops. If he does we can use it, he's working at a day camp, if he's on the list..." Jamie agreed with the angle and sighed. "Tomorrow we'll pay a visit to the Anderson house. See if there are any males in the home. In hindsight, Mom was just a little too eager to point a finger."
Eddie came in as the conversation wound up. "Hey, you were gone a long time," Jamie observed.
"Yeah, we got to talking and ran into traffic on the Verrazano. Was she okay for you?"
Lila came running out of the bedroom, "Mommy, I was waiting for you!"
Eddie hugged her little girl, "You were? Let's go and pick up you brother then we'll see about dinner. Jamie, are you still working?"
"No, I'm done for the day. I'll get Joey for you. I want to see him throw a few passes before we head home."
Eddie smiled at her husband as he left for Joey's football camp. She started dinner, lasagna, in case she didn't feel up to cooking the next day she could serve the leftover food. Lila helped spread the cheese and the sauce, her stripping seeming to have been resolved by the numerous loads of wash Eddie did.
"That's a good girl," Eddie praised. "Now put the noodles down. Lay them on the sauce."
This was the scene that greeted Jamie when he got home with Joey. "Lasagna!" Joey loved his mother's lasagna even more than his Aunt Linda's. "Yep, how was practice?" Joey started to talk about his day, it was a peaceful family scene.
While Eddie bathed the kids, Jamie called his brother. "Hey, Kid," Danny said knowing why he was calling. "Will you be ready by the first?"
"I can't do it, Danny. It's too much risk, I can't do it this time."
"Jamie, what the Hell! We need your help, for me and for Dad."
"I'm sorry, Danny," Jamie sighed. "I am, but Eddie and I talked about it and my children need their father. I risk my neck enough on the streets, my talent is in working with the kids on these assault cases when they come up. I'm knee deep in one right now and the little one has bonded with me. It's not the right time and it' not the right choice for my family. I'm sorry."
Jamie hated to do this. He knew his brother was counting on him and that he would be hurt by his rejection, but Eddie was right. He didn't do well in undercover operations, lack of a poker face.
"I guess that's it then. Can't say I'm not upset, I really thought you'd make another choice."
"Five years ago, maybe but the look on my wife's face when she remembered my last operation going south...I made her cry wanting to do this Danny. Eddie doesn't cry easily."
"So she made your choice for you?" Danny sighed. "What was your choice, Jamie?"
"It was my choice, Danny. Eddie and I talked, she stated her position and she made it clear the decision was mine alone. This is my choice, I love you and I love Dad but my children are more important. You know that, you have your own boys. You worry sick daily over Jack being on patrol."
"Still can't say I'm not disappointed, Jamie. I'll see you Sunday, okay?"
"See you Sunday." Jamie hung up and put his head in his hands. He knew this choice would hurt his brother. Eddie sat down beside him, "Did he give you a hard time?"
"Not really, he's disappointed is all." Jamie sat back, "The more I think on it though the moreI know it's the right choice. My children need me, you need me..." He reached up to cup her face. "And I need you, Eddie. You are my rock, my touchstone. I could never handle everything I have to do out there without you here, especially not a case like Harper's."
Eddie tested the waters, "You might be you know? One day without me...we never know what's around the corner."
Jamie sat up straighter, "Where did that come from?"
"Just the facts of life, Jamie. God could call any one of us at any given time. Look at Pop, sitting at the Sunday dinner table one day and gone in his bed the next morning."
Jamie pulled her onto his lap, "Well, Pop was 93. That's not going to happen here. That's one reason you left the job so you wouldn't risk leaving the kids without a mother."
Eddie laid her head on his chest, she badly wanted to share this with her husband, her best friend, but she was too scared to burden him with her worries. He watched his mother die a long slow death from cancer, the word still put the fear of God in him.
Eddie took a long deep breath, inhaling Jamie's comforting scent. "I'm really tired tonight honey. Can we go to bed?"
Jamie nodded, "Yeah, we can. I need to be up early anyway. We're going to toss the Anderson house, Gordo and I have a hunch we'll find that missing link inside that place. Mom was too eager to point fingers, she wants justice for her daughter but she's protecting someone."
Neither Jamie nor Eddie got much sleep. His mind was racing about the case and Eddie's was racing about her tests. Jamie got up at seven, Eddie was just getting out of bed herself. "Is toast and jam okay? I over slept."
"Don't worry about it, just coffee. I'll eat at work."
Eddie started his coffee so it was ready when he left. "Good luck and Jamie...you can't save them all. Remember that."
He offered a weak smile and nodded before heading out the door.
Jamie and Gordo knocked on the Anderson family's door at 9:30 am. They had with them a warrant for the DNA of each male in the house. They were met with an indignant and angry Michelle who proclaimed no males to live in the home. "Then you won't mind if we look around."
Gordo and Jamie combed the entire house and in the attic room found it set up as if a teen boy lived there. "Whose room is this?" Jamie asked removing a hairbrush and toothbrush.
"My son, but he's only twelve. He likes to be up here to have his privacy but..."
Jamie sighed, a brother was a first degree relative. It would have popped against Harper's samples. Still he'd have the lab run it on the chance Michelle was lying again. She'd lied about the swimming coach, he couldn't trust her word now. "We'll put it on file and be in touch in a few days," Jamie told her. "How are you doing Harper?"
"Okay, Detective Jamie" she replied. "Doesn't hurt anymore."
He smiled, "Well that is very good news. How about a high five for me?" She gave him one. "How about one for my partner?" Harper would not bestow this gesture on Gordo, she only trusted Jamie.
"What is it with you and kids?" Gordo asked as they drove to the camp to ask more questions. "They love you to death."
"I grew up around kids, I was only 18 when Jack was born so I just have a way with them, that's unfortunately why we pull these cases so often, the department notices it too."
"Lucky us," Gordo replied. "Let's get a meal before we go into the camp. I'm starved." Jamie laughed, in that respect Gordo was just like Eddie.
Across town, Eddie had just arrived for her biopsy appointment. Linda had decided to go with her and asked Frank to mind Lila and pick Joey up at football camp. They cited Jamie's upcoming birthday as the excuse, Frank was only too happy to mind his grandchildren. He took Lila to football camp and together they ate hot dogs and watched Joey play.
As she lay on the table, Eddie wished she was anywhere but where she was. "I can't go under general, I have to be coherent when Jamie gets home."
"I know, we already told the doctor. He's going to numb the area with medication then make the cut," Linda assured her. "I'm going to scrub in, I'll be right by your side."
Eddie nodded, lying back on the gurney as the doctor came in. The procedure was fast but rather unpleasant. The doctor removed a portion of the tumor and cut into one lymph node for a sample. It left a wound about a half inch long and over an inch deep.
Even with the local she'd received Eddie was hurting badly. "How am I going to convince Jamie I'm okay? What am I going to tell him about this cut?"
"You need to tell him the truth Eddie, please tell him the truth," Linda begged.
"I can't. Not until I know for sure one way or another I can't tell him. Help me figure this out, what can cause a cut like that?"
"Don't tell him anything, we'll cover it up with a bandage, and you tell him you're feeling sick. In a few days you can tell him the truth, if you refuse to do it now. You look horrible anyway, so he'll believe you aren't up to snuff."
Linda drove Eddie home, but Jamie still wasn't there. He'd left her a text saying he'd be later than usual, he was working on Harper's case. By the time Eddie got into the house she was ready for bed. Her arm ached and she was so tired. She called her father in law and asked if he's bring the kids home and stay until Jamie got there. Frank immediately agreed.
When he arrived he told both children to be quiet and immediately go to their rooms to play until he heated dinner. He poked his head into the bedroom, "Do you need anything sweetheart?"
Eddie shook her head, "No, it's a bad migraine and my stomach is a little bumpy. I just need to rest."
Frank made her a cool cloth for her head, "You lie still, don't worry about your kids. If you need me, just call out."
Eddie nodded once and laid still as she could. The pain was blinding and made her vomit twice. As the clock ticked on and Jamie still had not appeared Frank called his youngest boy. "Jamie, where are you son?"
"On my way home, Dad. I got a lead at the last minute. Harper Anderson is adopted, that's why the DNA didn't pop as a partial match. We got a match from the brother's hairbrush and the samples on Harper's panties. We are going to bring the kid in tomorrow and the mom. Where are you?"
"At your place, I just put Joey to bed but Lila is having a hard time."
"Where's Eddie?"
"She's been in bed since she got home today, a bad headache. There's nothing I can do for her, anything I try she says no or it makes her throw up."
Jamie hung up the phone and sped up the car. This was not like his wife at all. He was in the door five minutes later.
"Eddie!" he called out but was derailed by a crying Lila. "It's okay pumpkin, Daddy's here. Daddy's' going to fix Mommy, don't you cry." Lila, like Jamie, was unaccustomed to Eddie not feeling well. "Sit on Grandpa's lap and he'll sing you your song while I check on Mommy."
Jamie hurried to the bedroom as his father softly started to sing "Goodnight Sweetheart" to Lila. "Eddie?" he kept his voice very soft and low. "Sweetheart are you awake?"
"Jamie?" Her voice was weak as she tried to sit up. She was pale and sweaty.
"I'm home, why didn't you call me?" he asked sitting on the bed.
"You were working on Harper's case. She needs you to get her attacker more than I need a nursemaid. Your dad helped."
"I know he did, he's putting Lila to bed now. What do you need?"
She shook her head slightly, "Nothing, just to be still. When you are done with the children come to bed, you are tired. I'm fine, I'm going to be fine." Maybe if she said it out loud she'd believe it to be true.
Jamie nodded his head, "Lie still. I'll get you more ice after I check on the kids." He kissed her forehead and went back out to talk to his father.
"She's out," Frank announced handing the sleeping girl to her father. "How's the patient?"
"She's going to be okay, she has these every now and then, she rests then she is fine by morning." Jamie sat down with Lila and held her. "This case Dad, it keeps turning. I have a positive match from the brother to the panties but that doesn't explain why the coach drove the girl home. That is the one piece that doesn't fit."
Frank sighed, "The piece is there, just move the puzzle around until you find where it goes. Patience is your virtue, use it."
Frank left a few minutes later. Jamie put his daughter in her bed and laid down beside his wife. He pulled Eddie close and held her tight, trying to help her feel better.
When he woke in the morning the bacon was cooking and the coffee already in his cup. He'd been right, she did feel better after a good night's sleep. He shared the meal with his family before heading out leaving Eddie to run her daily errands with a promise of see you tonight.
While Eddie drove from the YMCA, to the store, to the bank, her cell phone rang. The doctor...she let it go to voicemail. He called three times that day and each time she let it go to voicemail, deleting each message without listening to it. This wasn't anything, it was just a lump, a harmless lump...and no test was going to say otherwise.
Next in Tough: Danny and Jamie argue at Sunday dinner. Eddie's secret comes out.