1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 200 Women, Mothers, Nurses

After leaving the apartment, the two went to the community clinic to visit Sean Cowan.

Sean Cowan is in very poor condition and has been in a coma.

The clinic nurse had just finished suctioning his phlegm and was giving him medication.

Theodore stood aside and watched for a while before finding the doctor to ask about Sean Cowan's remaining time.

The doctor couldn't give a precise timeframe; he told Theodore that Sean Cowan might leave at any moment, or he might hold on for a few more days.

Theodore wasn't satisfied with the answer and asked the doctor again:

Will he wake up?

The doctor shook his head:
"It's hard."

After leaving the clinic, the two drove back to the Fourth Precinct and headed straight for the forensic lab.

The forensic lab had just received the evidence brought back by the patrol officers and was currently organizing it.

Theodore found the tall, thin medical examiner and asked him how long it would take to examine the evidence.

The tall, thin forensic doctor made a rough estimate and gave his answer:

"It will take at least two days."

Theodore couldn't possibly gamble that Sean Cowan could last two days.

The two then went to find the bald firefighter and Billy Hawke.

The bald firefighter has adjusted his strategy, prioritizing the review of fire incident investigation reports from the period surrounding the date Sean Cowan was hospitalized.

But the efficiency is still very low.

The main problem is that the hospital's testing efficiency is too low.

The nursing logs are all handwritten by the nurses, and even the tables on them are hand-drawn by the nurses themselves.

Nurses have a very busy and tiring job, and the notes they leave behind are very difficult to decipher.

The bald firefighter contacted the detectives at the hospital, and after some discussion, they concluded that the screening would likely be completed by tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

Billy Hawke's situation is slightly better.

Through Detective O'Malley, he has already made contact with the director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The board members agreed to provide them with more detailed internal records.

Billy Hawke was preparing to retrieve records to investigate Terence Cowan's electrical career.

But this also takes time.

A police officer came over and informed Theodore that Terence Cowan had already completed the registration.

Theodore hesitated for a moment, then decided to interrogate Terence Cowan immediately.

Terence Cowan was still wearing his faded Sears overalls, his hands cuffed in front of him, and was escorted in by two police officers.

He paused at the doorway, his gaze sweeping over Theodore and Bernie before quickly recognizing them.

His expression began to turn somewhat unpleasant.

The officer in charge of escorting him gave him a push, pressed him down into the chair opposite him, unlocked his handcuffs, nodded to the two men, and left.

Terence Cowan looked up at Theodore and Bernie for a moment, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end he said nothing, lowered his head and remained silent.

Theodore and Bernie exchanged a glance.

Bernie turned to Terence Cowan and proactively informed him of Sean Cowan's situation:

“Sean is currently at the community clinic. They know that Sean’s situation is special, and they have assigned Jenny, their most experienced nurse, to take care of him.”

He pushed a glass of water toward Terence Cowan.

While waiting for Terence Cowan to be brought in, Theodore made some minor adjustments to the interrogation room.

This glass of water is part of the arrangement.

Terence Cowan glanced at the water glass, didn't move, and his voice came in a muffled tone:

"They can't take good care of Sean."

Bernie asked him:

"why?"

“Nurse Jenny is very experienced and has cared for many patients.”

Terence Cowan looked up and stared at Bernie for a few seconds.

He pointed to his chest:
"Sean can't use this."

"He needs to breathe with a breathing bag."

"His most comfortable frequency is 17 squeezes per minute."

"The pressure must be even, not too much and not too little. Too light and he won't be able to breathe, too heavy and he'll get hurt."

“This requires constant squeezing; nurses wouldn’t take such good care of him.”

"They're definitely going to hurt Sean."

He explained it in great detail.

In addition to compressing the airbag, the risk of choking on sputum was also mentioned.

He told the two that they must pay close attention to the movement of Sean's endotracheal tube and carefully feel the force of the airbag compression.

If you hear a gurgling sound from the tube, or if the airbag suddenly increases in resistance, it means that Sean has choked on phlegm.

At this point, you need to stop squeezing the cuff, quickly disconnect the cuff connector, insert the manual suction tube deep into the endotracheal tube, remove the sputum, and then quickly reconnect the cuff to restore ventilation.

The entire sputum expectoration process needs to be completed within one minute, and this could happen at any time.

Bernie comforted him:
“Nurse Jenny is a professional nurse; she has studied how to provide care.”

Terence Cowan shook his head vigorously, a hint of anxiety in his voice:
"No, no, Sean is used to expelling phlegm whenever he has it."

“They find it troublesome to suction out phlegm every time they have it, so they only let the phlegm accumulate to a certain amount before they have it suctioned out.”

"And those tubes need to be wiped with saline solution every two hours."

"We also need to adjust the insertion of the cannula ligature. If it's too loose, the cannula will fall out; if it's too tight, it will hurt Sean."

"They only wipe them down once at the end of feeding time, and then tighten the leash."

Terence Cowan described a great deal of detail about Sean Cowan's care, from nasogastric tube feeding and medication to bed positioning and daily cleaning.

He spoke of these things with great familiarity and eloquence.

He could not only clearly explain the steps of each nursing task, but also point out details that are easily overlooked, and how these details would affect Sean.

This was a stark contrast to his behavior at the hospital that morning.

Bernie waited until he finished speaking before speaking:
"Did you take care of Sean like this every day in the past?"

Terence Kwan smiled and nodded.

Bernie's tone was slightly exaggerated:

"I find it hard to imagine how you managed to persevere."

Terence Kwan's smile faded, and his tone became low:

"He is my son."

He looked at Bernie and asked him:

"Can I go back?"

"Sean can't live without me."

"He's not used to being taken care of by others."

“No one but me would take such meticulous care of him.”

Bernie ignored what followed and asked him:

When was Sean diagnosed?

Terence Cowan did not reply.

He shifted his position, looking somewhat agitated.
A brief silence fell over the interrogation room.

Terence Kwan looked up:

"When I'm three years old, can I leave now? Sean really can't live without me."

Theodore looked up:

"Children with chronic Werdnig-Hoffmann disease usually show symptoms between 6 and 18 months of age. Why is it being diagnosed so late?"

Terence Cowan shifted his gaze, lingering on Theodore for a moment before turning back to Bernie.

He told Bernie that back then he was working late into the night every day and rarely saw Sean Cowan.

At that time, Sean Cowan was taken care of by his wife.

It was his wife's negligence that led to Sean Cowan not being diagnosed until he was three years old. Bernie immediately pressed him for details about his wife's condition.

Terence Kwan paused for a moment, then pursed his lips:

"Who knows whose bed that bitch is in right now."

Sean Cowan was diagnosed at the age of 3 years and 7 months, in January 1956.

According to Terence Kwan, it was because he noticed that Sean Kwan was having significant difficulty crawling and sitting that he insisted on taking him to the hospital for a checkup, which led to the discovery that he had spinal muscular atrophy.

Less than a year after being diagnosed, Mrs. Cowan could no longer bear to care for a child who was destined to die and proposed to abandon Sean Cowan.

She was willing to give Terence Cowan one more.

But Terence Cowan refused.

The two often argued about this issue afterward.

Nearly a year later, Sean Cowan suffered respiratory failure for the first time due to severe pneumonia and was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

To pay for medical expenses, Terence Cowan went home and sold the furniture, leaving his wife to take care of Sean Cowan at the hospital.

When he returned to the hospital with the money, Mrs. Cowan was gone.

Bernie turned to look at Theodore.

He was skeptical of Terence Cowan's account.

Theodore glanced at Bernie and asked Terence Cowan:

Has she not contacted you since?

Terence Kwan shook his head, his face full of disdain.

Theodore then asked him:

Haven't you thought about divorcing her?

He further explained:
“Since she doesn’t like Sean Cowan, you can divorce her and marry a woman who likes Sean Cowan and is willing to take care of him.”

"That way you can focus on working and making money so that Sean Cowan can have a better life."

“You could even hire a full-time caregiver to look after him.”

Terence Kwan curled his lip:

"No one but me will really be good to Sean."

"I'm not home, who knows what they might do to Sean?"

He was getting a little impatient:
"What exactly do you want to ask?"

Theodore nudged Bernie and said no more questions.

Bernie spoke up, asking about the date his wife had left.

Terence Kwan blurted out:

"April 1957, 11."

He immediately shut up and looked at Bernie warily.

Bernie remained calm, with an expression of understanding.

This made him feel a little more relaxed.

Theodore nudged Bernie and wrote three words on the paper: woman, mother, and nurse.

Bernie glanced at it and quickly recalled Theodore's analysis that morning about the arsonist burning Evelyn Shaw.

Theodore argues that the arsonist deprived Evelyn Shaw of her three identities: that of a woman, a single mother, and a nurse.

At the time, they all found it hard to understand, but now, after listening to Terence Cowan's account and looking back, it suddenly seems like it's not hard to understand at all.

Terence Cowan's wife repeatedly threatened to abandon their son, Sean Cowan, and abandoned the father and son during the family's most difficult time.

He showed an unusual distrust of the nurses' professionalism.

Everything matched Theodore's analysis.

There was a knock on the door of the interrogation room.

Detective O'Malley is back.

Theodore got up and left the interrogation room, only to find that there were quite a few people outside.

The arsonist's case was not strictly confidential, and many officers in the Fourth Precinct had heard about it.

Since the interrogation began, several detectives who were nearby had been eavesdropping.

Detectives from other locations would also find various excuses to come over, pretending to discuss official business, but actually eavesdropping.

They were very interested in this case, which was reported to headquarters, almost led to the formation of a task force, and ultimately involved cooperation with the FBI.

Detective O'Malley asked Theodore in a low voice:
"How was the trial?"

Theodore shook his head:

"It's still early."

He briefly described the interrogation process.

Detective O'Malley was somewhat puzzled.

He couldn't understand why Theodore and Bernie weren't asking about the case directly, but instead kept probing into Terence Cowan's family affairs.

Theodore glanced at Detective O'Malley, doubting whether he could understand.

He hesitated for a moment, then offered his explanation:

“Sean Cowan is not under his care, and this loss of control would cause him anxiety.”

“Bernie can use these topics to win Terence Cowan’s favor.”

"Being unable to control Sean Cowan will make him uneasy, and under the influence of the suspension bridge effect, he will trust Bernie more."

Seeing Detective O'Malley's bewildered expression, Theodore stopped speaking.

Detective O'Malley nodded as if he understood, took out his notebook, opened it, and changed the subject.

What suspension bridge effect? ​​I've never heard of that! I don't understand at all!

He whispered to Theodore that they had finished checking the people who had watched the fire last night.

The situation is not good.

Terence Cowan's name was not on the list of registered personnel.

Instead, two apartment maintenance workers were identified.

Theodore paused for a moment, took the notebook, glanced at it, and then returned it.

Detective O'Malley's handwriting was so illegible that he couldn't recognize a single letter.

Theodore thought for a moment and asked him:
"Where are those photos?"

Detective O'Malley shook his head:

"Completely unrecognizable."

He glanced towards the interrogation room and asked Theodore in a low voice:

"Could it be that he wasn't there to watch last night?"

Theodore countered him:

"The arsonist was an excitable arsonist who derives satisfaction from observing the chaos caused by the flames."

Detective O'Malley shook his head.

He simply couldn't understand why an excited arsonist would necessarily stay at the fire scene to watch, or why an excited arsonist would derive satisfaction from watching a fire.

He sighed:
"He might be deliberately avoiding us, and his information wasn't even registered."

Theodore proposed another possibility:
"It's also possible that the arsonist's mood was greatly affected by not experiencing the expected sense of satisfaction, and coupled with his concern for Sean Cowan's condition, he left early."

Detective O'Malley hesitated for a moment, then asked a question:
"Why are you in such a hurry to interrogate him?"

"Wait a little longer, and wait until we have more sufficient evidence before bringing the case in for questioning. Wouldn't that be easier?"

Theodore shook his head:

"We don't have that much time."

He recounted his analysis of Terence Cowan.

Detective O'Malley didn't understand at all.

He paused for a moment, then changed the subject:
"November 23, 1957, right?"

Theodore glanced at him and nodded.

Detective O'Malley jotted down the date in his notebook and pointed towards the conference room:

"I'm going to find Michael."

(End of this chapter)