In The Plan - 5. Chapter 5

5

Four days after the accident, Brad Coghlan came into Doug's room. They were still in the same hospital though Brad seemed in better shape, since he could walk. Doug hadn't left his bed.

"How you doing?" Brad asked. Doug could only see with one eye - his left was bruised to the point of danger - and he couldn't easily talk because his jaw was wired shut. But he tried conversation.

"I hurt," he said.

"Tell me about it. I'm on painkillers I didn't know they made."

Doug wanted to laugh but didn't think he remembered how. He'd been sleeping a lot, hoping, when he woke, his body would be fine.

He couldn't remember what else he and Brad had said, which he told Ben Carleson when he visited again.

"It was just normal stuff. Nothing important. Those drugs help kill pain, but they sure have side effects."

Were there other people in the room?" Carleson had gone on.

"Yeah. Three or four. Family and friends."

But they couldn't remember the conversation, either, when Carleson gently quizzed them.

Brad hadn't come alone. He'd brought someone with him - a nurse or the aide who'd taken him to Doug's room. "I wanted to see how you were," Doug remembered Brad saying.

Doug had been thinking about Brad, but not a lot. Mainly, he'd drifted in and out.

The second time Doug saw Brad, he was feeling a little better. They were still in the hospital but in the therapy room. Someone had wheeled Doug there, and he was tugging some kind of elastic bands, feeling like an idiot.

"You've got to do it," his girlfriend, Jenny, had told him. "It will help." Doug had pretended to believe her.

The one thing he absolutely remembered from Brad's second visit - because it came as such a shock - was Brad's accusing him of driving the car. Specifically, he announced, "You were driving the Mercedes."

He wasn't asking. He was stating fact.

"No, I wasn't," Doug immediately replied. It was knee-jerk, and he had no trouble remembering.

Brad didn't retreat - didn't suddenly admit he'd been fooling around - but he also didn't say why he'd accused Doug. In fact, he said nothing further. And while there were other patients and a couple of therapists around, none of them could remember this conversation, either. Ben Carleson had asked.

"How long did Brad talk with you?" Carleson had questioned Doug.

"Not even a minute. It was closer to several seconds."

"And that's all he said?"

"Yes."

"Tell me the next time he stops by. And try to have someone with you."

"I will."

The third time Doug saw Brad, he'd made the visit. He'd been feeling even stronger - strong enough to get out of bed by himself - and had a friend roll him to Brad's room.

"What did he say?" Carleson asked that evening, on the phone.

"Again, we didn't really talk much," Doug reported. "Mainly asked how each other was."

"He didn't bring up who was driving?"

"No."

"Your friend would have heard him?"

"Yes. That's why I brought her along."

"Was Brad alone?"

"No. There were three or four other guys in the room. Maybe friends from work. I didn't know them."

"Did you ask who was driving?"

"Nah. Why piss him off?"

The fourth time was a phone conversation Brad began. He'd called Doug at home, after they were both released from rehab. It was a pleasant conversation, but at no time did the question of who was driving come up.

"Did anyone hear the conversation?" Carleson had asked, immediately afterward, when Doug had reported the call.

"We were on the phone,' Doug said. "How could they?"

"Was anyone listening in?"

"Not at my end. I'd picked up the phone - it was next to where I was watching TV - and we chatted."

"And you didn't ask Brad why he'd accused you?"

"Why would I?"

Carleson didn't answer that. Instead, he asked, "How long did you talk?"

"In all? Maybe a couple minutes. We didn't have a lot to say."

The fifth time they'd met at the wake of a mutual friend. It was August, three months after the accident, but Doug wasn't close to going back to work. He wasn't sure about Brad.

Brad had come over, hugged him and apologized. "For what?" Ben Carleson wanted to know.

"I wasn't sure. It could've been the accident. Or could've been the friend's death - you know, like, 'I was sorry to hear...'"

"Was anyone else listening?"

"Yes. His girlfriend. Heather."

"Did you ask Brad what he was sorry for?"

Doug shook his head. "No. It wasn't the time."

That was the last time Doug thought he'd talked with Brad. Though he'd seen him around.

"When?" Carleson had asked.

"In his patrol car. When someone was driving me. So I guess he was back to work."

"When was this?"

"I don't know. October. November."

"Did you see him at the bar?"

"No."

"But you've been there?"

"Some. Not like I used to go. And never drinking - 'cause of my pills."

"Does Brad come in?"

"Not that I know of."

"How do you know? Maybe he's there when you're not."

"My friends would've told me. They still go."

"Okay."

Later Doug realized he'd seen Brad several other times.

"When?" Carleson again asked.

"In outpatient rehab. After we got out of the real thing."

"How soon after the accident?"

"You'd know better than me. Late June? Early July? This was before that funeral."

"How often did you see him?"

"Well, I started going three times a week - at the beginning. And he was doing different treatment."

"But on the same days?"

"Sometimes. I guess when they overlapped, that's when we ran into each other."

"Was he alone?"

"Sometimes. Mostly, I think. I remember once his girlfriend was with him."

"Did you ever talk about who was driving? On the night of the accident?"

"No."

"Did you talk about the accident at all?"

"Not really. Neither of us wanted to bring it up. I mean why would you want to?"

"What did you talk about then?"

Brad had to laugh. "How much we still hurt. And this was a month or two later."

Carleson laughed at that, too.

"And we talked about drugs. About which ones felt good. And which weren't worth the money - not even with our insurance companies paying. It was mainly social."

"Did his girlfriend hear this?"

"I guess. The one time she was there."

"Did you have anyone with you?"

"I had to - it's not like I could drive. But it was always different people. Like I said, at first, I was going to rehab three times a week. That wore everyone out."

"How long did you go to rehab?"

Again, Doug had to think. "Three times a week - till maybe till early September. Then it slowed down."

"That would have been three months?"

"About - if you're counting after real rehab. Longer, if you're taking after the accident. More like four."

"Then the last time you saw Brad was some time in September?"

"The last time I spoke to him - yeah. Like I said - I've seen him around."

"You're sure?"

"Doug grinned, then shrugged, though he knew Carleson couldn't see that. "As sure as I am of anything these days."

Carleson laughed with him. "You're still having memory problems then?"

"Unfortunately."

"Have your doctors suggested anything new?"

"They sent me to a psychologist - as if that's gonna help. Sometimes I think they're the ones who are crazy."

"Well, they are the experts."

Doug said nothing to that. And Carleson decided to leave it alone.