"So it is the heroin," Nerdly said.
"Yes, the heroin is indirectly responsible. I examined your friend's body and found several abscesses on his upper arms and upper legs. It appears he has been injecting the drug subcutaneously, which, on the street, is called 'skin-popping'. Black tar heroin is really nasty stuff. It has a multitude of impurities in it and if it does have the right kind of bacteria in it, the heating that is done in the spoon prior to injection is sometimes not enough to kill them all. They get under the skin and find themselves in the perfect environment for reproduction. It would seem that this is what happened to Darren."
"How bad is he?" Jake asked. "Is he going to die?"
"Well, you have to understand that I don't have confirmation that this is what is wrong with him yet. I need to wait for the results of the spinal tap we took just so we can rule out meningitis and a couple of other things. If he does have botulism, then it is quite advanced. He should have been in the hospital several days ago."
"Nobody told us anything was wrong until today," Jake said angrily.
"Oh... I see," Bradford said. "In any case, assuming it's botulism, it is unlikely that he will die from it — possible, but unlikely — but he's going to be sick for a very long time."
"How long?" Matt asked.
"As soon as I have confirmation of botulism I'll contact the Center for Disease Control and get them to release some of their anti-toxin so we can start to treat him. We'll also put him on IV antibiotics. Hopefully that will keep his symptoms from getting worse but the recovery period from the advanced stages of botulism is usually measured in months."
"Months?" Nerdly asked.
"That's correct," Bradford said. "More than likely he is going to be on that ventilator for six to eight weeks. Once he's weaned from it he's going to need extensive rehabilitation in order to get back his muscle tone and mobility. From what I understand it can sometimes take the better part of a year before the patient is even able to lift anything again."
"Jesus," Jake said, shaking his head numbly.
"Fuckin' aye," Matt agreed.
Darren was moved from the emergency room to the intensive care unit upstairs. He had IV lines running through pumps into his arms. He had wires snaking all over his chest and eventually meeting at a beeping heart monitor. He had a tube sticking out of his mouth that was connected to a hose which led to a ventilator that gave a loud hiss and a thump every three seconds or so. He was completely unresponsive, his body flaccid on the bed.
Jake and the others only got a quick look at him before he was wheeled away. They were told that they might as well go home, that he wouldn't be allowed any visitors until he was a little more stable and they were able to absolutely rule out infectious disease as the cause of his malady.
"I'll call Crow and let him know what's going on," Pauline said as they settled themselves back in the limo. "For now I'll be vague on the long-term prognosis."
"Somebody needs to call Darren's mom too," Nerdly said. "They should hear it from us before they see it on Entertainment Tonight."
"That's a good point, Nerdly," Jake said. "Matt, do you still know his mom's number?"
"Yeah," he said. "I'll call her when I get home."
Pauline winced as she thought of Matt passing on bad news. Hey, Mrs. Appleman, your son's like all fucked up with botulism and shit. "Uh..." she said, "if you give me the number, Matt, I'll give them a call at the same time I call Crow."
"Oh... okay. Good idea."
"How long until the media finds out about this?" Nerdly asked.
"I'm surprised they're not here already," Jake said.
In truth, the story had already leaked out. The reporters just hadn't arrived yet. Though hospital admissions and patient information were supposed to be confidential, two of the billing clerks, one x-ray technician, one nurse, and two lab technicians wasted no time in calling every friend and acquaintance they knew from the hospital's phones to share the news that Darren Appleman, bassist for Intemperance, was in grave condition in the hospital. By the time the story made it to the reporters it was so wildly distorted it was hardly recognizable. Some reporters heard Darren had been shot, some that he'd been stabbed, some that he'd been in a car accident, and some that he'd overdosed. In every version, however, heroin was somehow involved and Jake Kingsley was somehow responsible for the damage done to Darren.
The media vans began pulling up shortly after Jake, Nerdly, and Pauline drove away. The reporters spilled out while their camera crews began setting up equipment in front of the emergency room entrance. They began filming and questioning every hospital employee who came outside to smoke or take a break. Most of these employees had heard that a member of Intemperance had been brought in but none knew any details of the hows or whys. This did not stop many of them from repeating the rumors they'd heard, or just plain making up new ones.
Finally, at around eight o'clock that evening, a hospital administrator, called in from home, gave a brief press conference that did more to sow confusion than clear it up. All she would say was that Darren Appleman, bassist for Intemperance, had been brought in just after five o'clock that afternoon by other members of the band. He was now on life support and in critical condition.
"Is it true that Jake Kingsley shot him in the head during an argument over drugs?" one reporter shouted.
"I am not allowed to disclose the details of Mr. Appleman's illness," she said.
"Does he have a head injury?" another reporter asked. "I was told that Jake Kingsley hit him in the head with a hammer."
"As I said," she repeated, "I am not allowed to disclose any details because of patient confidentiality rules."
"Has Jake Kingsley been arrested yet?" asked yet another reporter.
"I have no information on that," she replied.
The eleven o'clock news reports that night all featured in-depth stories about Darren that were based on very few facts. Every channel, in fact, reported something different. One even reported that Jake had been arrested for attempted murder.
It was late the following day that Pauline, with Crow standing next to her, gave an official statement in front of the hospital.
"Darren Appleman is suffering from a severe case of botulism caused by bacterial infection inside wounds on his arms and legs. These wounds were originally inflicted by Darren himself who has been struggling with a heroin addiction. He was apparently injecting the heroin in a manner known as skin-popping. He is in critical condition. A ventilator is breathing for him and he can hardly move his arms and legs. They have given him an anti-toxin and antibiotics but so far he is showing no improvement. He is expected to recover from this eventually but I am told this will take several months, perhaps as much as a year."
In a way the reporters seemed to feel that the real story was anticlimactic, boring even. They asked no questions about Darren's sickness, shifting focus instead to the future.
"Will this affect your release of the next Intemperance album?" asked one reporter.
Crow quickly leapt to the microphones and fielded that one. "Absolutely not," he said. "Intemperance's fourth album, It's In The Book, will be released for sale on November 15, as scheduled."
"What about the tour?" asked another. "Will there still be a tour to promote the album?"
Pauline took the microphone back. "We don't know right now," she said. "Obviously Darren will not be up to touring until he is fully recovered."
"Is there any talk of replacing Darren?" asked yet another.
Pauline's expression was a little angry. "He's only been in here for a little over twenty-four hours," she said. "I don't think any of us have started thinking that far ahead yet."