The Guardian

gowns. She somehow managed to handle it all.
    As he pulled into the parking lot, he couldn’t help but wonder how awful it must be to have been mutilated to the point damn near every one of your senses was taken from you. Christ man, he couldn’t even pee. The poor bastard would never be the same again. Somehow, he would have to find out about this guy without his help. He sure as hell wasn’t going to get it from the victim.
    He went to the information desk, badged the lady sitting there, and got directions to the victim’s floor and room.
    Halloway went to the Nurse’s station first. He didn’t want to make enemies or step on any toes. These people could be the source of future information and as the old saying goes, “you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.”
    “Excuse me; I’m Lieutenant Halloway, Las Vegas PD.” He said, showing his badge.
    “Yes Sir, how may I help you?” The nurse said, looking up from her charts.
    “Good morning young lady, I’m here to inquire about the gentleman brought in early this morning from downtown, a John-Doe with some serious physical trauma. Perhaps you know the one I’m referring to.”
    She smiled at the reference of the young lady comment. Good Lord, she was pushing 50. Even if he didn’t mean it, it’s always nice to hear.
    Smiling broadly she said “Oh yes, I’m afraid I do. Everyone knows about that one. My goodness, who on earth could do such a thing?” She started shaking her head.
    “We don’t know yet ma, am, but we are trying to find out. I’m sure he isn’t capable of giving me any information, but I would like to speak to a doctor or someone who could fill me in a little bit.”
    “That would be Dr. Kreekmore, let me page him for you.”
    “Thanks, I’ll be right over here.”
    He heard the page go out over the PA system, “Paging Dr. Kreekmore, paging Dr. Kreekmore. Please come to the nurses’ station.”
    Halloway stepped over to the water fountain and took a long cold drink. He couldn’t believe how incredibly thirsty he had gotten. He didn’t like hospitals very much. There was no clear-cut reason. Perhaps it was the smell of the antiseptics, the sick and dying everywhere you looked. It yanked at his heart to see these people. some here at the hands of others. It just made him feel weak and helpless.
    “Lieutenant…” He heard from across the room. “I’m Dr. Kreekmore.” He said as he walked briskly towards Halloway, his hand out and ready to shake.
    Dr. Kreekmore was a tall, handsome man with thick graying hair, neatly and expertly combed back. He wore green scrubs with his white smock and stethoscope around his neck.
    “Lieutenant Halloway Dr. Kreekmore. Thank you for taking the time to see me.” Shaking the Dr’s hand, noticing the smoothness of the skin that covered his fingers and the skill they must have. These hands obviously had never done any serious, physical work before. They were more valuable and skilled in the healing and saving of lives.
    “Always glad to help. I hear you’re here about the fellow who came in last night.”
    “Yes, I was hoping you could bring me up to date on his condition or any other information you might feel helpful to us.”
    “Well, we had to do a certain amount of surgery on him. As you know he had suffered a great deal of physical trauma.”
    “I saw him right after two of our officers found him. He wasn’t looking in very good shape then; I presume he’s some what better now.”
    “Not much I’m afraid. Physically, well, there’s a lot of permanent damage. We had to do surgery on his penis to have a tube inserted through the urethra so that he could urinate. That will be a permanent fixture for him. Since we didn’t have the rest of the “parts” if you will, there really wasn’t much else we could have done.”
    “Pretty sick individual to do damage like that I guess.”
    “Well, that wasn’t the worse of it. His rectum had been abused by what appeared to be a roughly sanded piece of wood. We found some splinters of wood left behind. The abrasions were very intense. His thumbs also removed. The skin was cauterized. We could only clean them up. He may regain the use of his eyelids. We’re not sure what that is. There was some sort of chemical used to blind him before they were sewn shut. We are running lab tests to see just what that may have been. Of course, as you know, his tongue was also removed, and again because of the way it was done there was