1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 198 Such a coincidence?
The doctor didn't want to gossip too much and turned his attention back to Terence Cowan.

His words were very direct:
"Sean needs continuous ventilation support and very specialized care."

“I know this is difficult, but at the moment we really don’t have any effective treatments that can change the outcome.”

“Take him home, back to a familiar environment, with his family by his side. That would be a more humane choice for him.”

He waved to the nurses' station, and a nurse jogged over and handed him an airbag.

The doctor squeezed the airbag, then took out a prescription and handed them both to Terence Cowan:
“We will teach you how to use this airbag, give you some medication to help him feel more comfortable, and arrange for a community nurse to visit him occasionally.”

"In case of an emergency..."

The doctor paused, then glanced at Terence Cowan:

“You can call us or the ambulance anytime.”

"But I must be honest with you, the arrival of the ambulance may not be able to change anything... You need to be strong... and stay with him until the very end...

Terence Cowan said nothing and did not accept the airbag and prescription handed to him by the doctor.

He asked the doctor in a low voice:

"Could we let him stay in the hospital a little longer?"

The doctor remained silent.

Terence Kwan stared at the doctor:

"At least until he wakes up."

The doctor didn't answer, nodded to Theodore and Bernie, and hurried away.

A nurse came over, holding the airbag, and cautiously asked Terence Cowan:

"I'll teach you how to use it."

Terence Cowan glanced back at the nurse and shook his head:
"Thank you, I will use it."

He took the airbag.

The nurse handed over another prescription.

Terence Kwan accepted it as well.

The nurse then took a box of morphine out of her pocket and handed it to him, whispering:
"Give him one when he's not feeling well."

Two more nurses came over.

They began removing the life support devices from Sean Cowan.

The nurse had previously stuffed the airbag into Sean Cowan's mouth and squeezed it evenly.

From this moment forward, this airbag will be Sean Cowan's lung.

Sean Cowan was lifted into a wheelchair, and the nurses carefully helped to secure him.

The airbag was handed to Terence Cowan.

Terence Cowan squeezed the airbag repeatedly, silently following the wheelchair out of the ward and towards the hospital's designated exit for transporting patients.

That's the taxi waiting area.

Theodore and Bernie exchanged a glance, then turned and walked toward the nurses' station.

The head nurse was scolding a young nurse, and the other nurses passing by quickly moved quietly, afraid of attracting the head nurse's attention.

It sounds like a young nurse almost killed a patient due to improper technique while administering medication.

Fortunately, the head nurse, who was operating the procedure on the next bed, noticed in time and prevented the young nurse from performing a fatal nursing procedure.

The head nurse has a terrible temper.

Her voice wasn't loud, but her words were vicious:
"Damn it! What were you trying to do?! Were you trying to send the patient straight to the morgue?"

Is that thing around your neck an ornament?

"Are you blind or just plain stupid?!"

"The scale! Look at the scale! Do you think this is free lemonade?!"

"I could smell your stupidity all over the hallway!"

"With your pathetic skills? Your teacher should be ashamed to death!"

The head nurse kept cursing under her breath, but her hands moved quickly, already preparing the medicines needed for the patient in another ward.

The young nurse was still standing behind her, head down, sobbing.

The head nurse turned around, carrying a tray, and glared at her:
"Stop crying! Hold it in!"

The young nurse's crying immediately went silent.

The head nurse ended the reprimand with the words, "You are simply the worst nurse I have ever trained!"

A kind middle-aged nurse passing by tugged at the young nurse's arm and led her away.

Bernie approached the head nurse and asked if Sean Cowan had previously received treatment at this hospital.

The head nurse shook her head:
“Sean Cowan was only brought in for emergency treatment a few times; his chronic Werdnig-Hoffmann disease wasn’t treated here.”

She casually pointed to a ward she passed, where adult patients lay on the beds, some with missing limbs.
"The patients we treat most often are those with fractures and amputations."

"We can only provide basic care for Sean Cowan's illness."

Theodore asked the head nurse:
When was the last time he was brought in for emergency treatment?

The head nurse glanced back at Theodore, then gestured around the room with her fingers:

"With so many patients here every day, how could I possibly remember the date each patient was brought in?"

After a pause, the head nurse seemed to realize that she had brought out her emotions towards the young nurse who had made the mistake.

She raised the tray in her hand again, her tone softening:

"Wait a moment, after I change their dressings, I'll check for you."

The two followed the head nurse into the ward and watched as she skillfully changed the patients' dressings.

The patients were well-behaved; no one flirted with the head nurse like they had with Evelyn Shaw.

A dozen minutes later, the head nurse returned to the nurses' station with a tray and found Sean Cowan's admission record for the two of them:
"He was transferred to the ward at 2:50 a.m. on April 20."

Theodore inquired about the cause of the emergency treatment.

The head nurse flipped through it:

"Based on the nursing summary, it should be respiratory failure."

Theodore asked her:
"When will you be discharged?"

The head nurse turned the thick notebook around and pushed it in front of the two of them:
"On April 24, the patient's family completed the discharge procedures."

This is a nursing logbook, and all the grids and records are handwritten by the nurses.

Perhaps due to frequent handling and recording, the logbook is bulging, and most of the pages have frayed edges.

Theodore and Bernie exchanged a glance, then asked the head nurse:
Are there any earlier records?

The head nurse didn't answer, but simply closed the nursing log and pointed to the cover.

The cover reads "April Ward Nursing Record".

This nursing log is only from April.

Theodore looked at Bernie.

He felt that the head nurse treated him very differently from Bernie.

He felt that the head nurse didn't seem to like him.

Theodore was unsure of the source of this obvious difference in attitude, and he decided it would be better to let Bernie communicate with the head nurse.

Bernie asked the head nurse:

Where are the earlier records?

“We need Sean Cowan’s earlier hospitalization records.”

The head nurse glanced at Bernie: "The previous nursing records are all in the archives."

"The hospital has a rule that the records must be filed before the 10th of each month."

"You can apply directly to the hospital to access the documents."

Following standard procedures, they would first need to return to the Department of Justice building to draft formal investigation documents.

The whole afternoon passed by in a flash.

Theodore and Bernie didn't want to waste time going through the proper procedures.

The head nurse looked up at the time and felt that too much time had already been wasted. If things continued like this, she would have to work the night shift tonight.

She was ready to end the conversation.

She pointed outside the ward:

"Go up to the fourth floor, walk into the corridor directly opposite the stairs, the second office on the left, that's the dean's office."

She told the two that if the dean agreed, they could borrow the materials first and then supplement them with written materials later.

After saying that, she put away the nursing log, called out the names of two nurses, and went back to her work.

Following the head nurse's directions, Theodore and Bernie found the hospital director.

Bernie presented his credentials and explained the urgency of the situation to the dean.

He did not mention the arson or the arsonist, only stating that he and Theodore were investigating the disappearance of nurse Evelyn Shaw.

This makes the whole case sound like a hostage situation.

Even a complete novice understands one principle when dealing with these types of cases.

That means the sooner the hostage is found, the greater the chance of survival.

The missing person is a nurse from their hospital.

The Fourth Precinct has done an excellent job of maintaining secrecy, and to this day, no news of Evelyn Shaw being burned to death has leaked out.

However, Evelyn Shaw has been missing for almost a week.

The hospital nurses and doctors had been discussing this matter privately for some time.

After FBI agents Theodore and Bernie appeared and intervened in the investigation, it was widely believed that Evelyn Shaw was likely in grave danger.

This caused some panic among the doctors and nurses.

During this period, when we hired them to go to and from get off work, especially after finishing their night shifts, they always went home in groups.

The hospital director had already heard rumors circulating in the hospital, and after listening to Bernie's explanation, he agreed without much thought.

He solemnly told the two that he would do his best to cooperate if Evelyn Shaw could be found.

Bernie politely declined the Dean's offer of cooperation.

As Theodore and Bernie emerged from the dean's office, they remained silent.

The entire second basement level of the hospital was used to store archives; it was practically a library.

The two entered the archives room and, with the help of the staff, quickly found the shelf where the nursing logs were stored.

According to the management, the hospital's nursing logs are destroyed on a ten-year cycle.

In other words, the archives now only retain nursing logs from May 1951 to the present.

Fortunately, Sean Cowan is only nine years old.

Assuming monthly archiving, with one record archived each time, Theodore and Bernie would only need to read about one hundred nursing logs to find all of Sean Cowan's hospitalization records.

This job is comparable to screening more than 400 registered electricians.

Theodore silently calculated for a moment, then decisively abandoned his previous approach of searching endlessly.

He went directly to the nursing log from April 1958 and quickly found the relevant records.

1958年4月26日，凌晨04：15，肖恩·柯万被转入病房看护。

Nursing log records show that Sean Cowan was admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment due to pneumonia and sputum retention.

For children with spinal muscular atrophy, pneumonia is as common as the common cold is for healthy children.

After a brief stay in the hospital ward, Sean Cowan was transferred to a hospital in the Northwest District on the afternoon of April 26.

Bernie borrowed the phone from the manager and called Detective O'Malley.

A dozen minutes later, a police car pulled up outside the hospital, and four internal affairs officers got out and headed towards the basement.

They were sent by the Fourth Precinct to help check the nursing logs.

They will select all of Sean Cowan's medical records.

Theodore handed over the responsibilities to Bernie and the other four before leaving the hospital.

They planned to visit the Northwest Regional Hospital where Sean Cowan had been transferred.

On the way, Bernie shared his views on the series of cases.

He told Theodore that in the phone call to Detective O'Malley, in addition to asking Detective O'Malley to send someone to the hospital, he also asked Detective O'Malley to send someone to stake out Terence Cowan's house.

He believes Terence Cowan was the arsonist:
“He lives in an apartment on Brentwood Road, so he must be familiar with the area.”

"And he's also an electrician."

"He was in charge of maintaining the electrical circuits in apartment 209 (which was burned down on May 5.5th)."

"There is still time to save the arsonist and Sean Cowan."

"Sean Cowan was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment on April 26, 1958."

"Two days later, on April 28, 1958, a fire broke out at 1705 Thomas Street."

"Sean Cowan was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment on April 20, 1961."

"Three days later, on April 23, a fire broke out at apartment 121, northeast section of Brentwood Road."

"It's too much of a coincidence that they were so close both times."

Bernie suggested starting by finding Sean Cowan's hospital admission date in the hospital's nursing logs, and then looking for fire incidents that occurred around that date.

Theodore agreed:
"Terrence Cowan's life revolves entirely around Sean Cowan."

"But chronic Werdnig-Hoffmann disease is an incurable condition, and very few children with it live to adulthood."

"This left Terence Kwan with absolutely no hope."

"He could only watch helplessly as Sean Cowan grew sicker day by day."

"There's nothing he can do."

“Each time Sean Cowan’s condition worsened and he needed to be rushed to the hospital, it deepened his sense of losing control of his life.”

"At this point, he desperately needed to regain a sense of control."

"Arson became his only way to briefly experience a sense of control."

Bernie spoke with some emotion about Sean Cowan.

He was also a father and felt great sympathy for Terence Cowan.

Bernie was particularly moved when the doctor advised Terence Cowan to give up treatment.

Theodore calmly analyzed:
"Sean Cowan has completely lost the ability to breathe and swallow on his own."

"He can only lie in bed and wait to die now."

"He was conscious, but he couldn't control his body."

He turned to look at Bernie:
"Rather than continuing to live, Sean Cowan probably wished he could end his life as soon as possible."

Bernie suddenly remembered his neighbors, the Moores, in Felton and asked Theodore:
"Just like David begged Cynthia to kill him?" (See Case VII, Chapter 58)
His expression as he looked at Theodore began to turn strange.

He still remembers how Theodore described the Moores.

(End of this chapter)