“Have you looked at Lucien lately?” I asked. “The guy is scary. He’s scarier than some of my patients.”
“Your aunt Lou raised him. What can you expect?”
She had a point. But at least Lucien had not been forced to get up before dawn every Saturday and comb the streets of Buckhead in a beat-up pickup truck before the garbagemen arrived, just to see what the wealthy were tossing out.
“I’ve got to go, Mom,” I said, determined not to let her ruin my day. I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. Fortunately the men in front seemed to get the message. They were quiet the rest of the way. I was relieved to find Thad’s car gone when we pulled into his driveway. I paid the fare. As I was getting out of the cab, the younger Tony looked at me.
“You want to give me your phone number so I can call you?” he asked.
I gave him my best smile. “This isn’t a good time for me, but thanks for asking.” I hurried to my car.
I made it to my office in record time and was stunned to find Harold Fry in my reception room. “Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” I said. But my relief was short-lived. I glanced at Mona, who was pacing the room, eyes blazing like something you might see in a scary demonic movie.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You will not believe what Agent Fry has discovered!” she said. “Dr. Manning, the chiropractor, is a fraud!”
“You mean he’s not really a chiropractor?”
“Right,” Harold said. “Even worse, he preys on women who are well-off and vulnerable. He insists on taking a ton of X-rays, and he has the patients come in several times a week, which they do because—”
“Because he’s a creep,” Mona cut in. “He pretends to be attracted to them so they can’t wait for their next appointment.”
Harold nodded. “And, because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he usually ends up causing more damage.”
“Which explains why I’ve been in so much pain,” Mona said. “And it gets worse. He’s married with three kids!”
“How do you know all this?” I asked Harold.
“Last time he was here, I asked him to look into it,” Mona said. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d get mad.”
“The name ‘Dan Manning’ is an alias,” Harold said. “He was forced to close his Virginia office because patients began complaining. He packed up in the middle of the night and took off.”
“Good thing I asked Agent Fry to check him out, huh?” Mona said. “I’ve already contacted my attorney.”
I was almost certain the American Psychological Association could put my license through a shredder over something like this. I tried to think what other skills I had to fall back on so that I wouldn’t end up homeless. Nothing came to mind. I would probably end up collecting junk with my mother and aunt. As a junior member of their corporation, I would be the one sent down into the Dumpsters.
“Do me a favor,” I said to Mona. “Kevin Bosley is due in shortly—”
“We’re not going to have to go back up on the roof, are we?” she asked.
I ignored the remark. “Would you try to reach him and see if he can reschedule for later today?”
“Sure.” She began searching through her Rolodex.
“Harold, I’d like to see you in my office,” I told him. He followed me inside, and I closed the door. I motioned to the sofa. “You’ve been very busy,” I said, taking a seat on my chair.
“Yeah. To tell you the truth, I’m kind of tired and feeling out of sorts.”
He looked tired. The opposite of a manic high is often depression. It wouldn’t be long before Harold crashed. My job was to get him through it. “Are you taking your medication?” I already knew the answer.
“I can’t take medication when I’m on a job,” he said. “It clouds my judgment.”
“Well, it sounds like you’ve solved the case, so this might be a good time to get back on track.” I would wait until Harold was stable before I lowered the boom on him, but I was not going to continue seeing him until we came to an understanding about his meds. “What do you think about calling your sister to come stay with you for a while?” I asked.
“I’ll make a deal,” Harold said. “I’ll call my sister and get back on my medication, but you have to promise not to blow my cover where Mona is concerned.”
“Blow your cover?” I asked.
“Meaning I don’t want her to know that I’m just a retired tax accountant. Let her keep thinking I’m CIA.” He smiled. “I think it turns her on.”
I had just finished up with Harold when Mona peeked in my door. “Alice Smithers is on line two. She’s crying. Do you think she just realized what bad taste she has?”
I picked up the phone. “What’s wrong, Alice?” I asked quickly.
“Liz’s boyfriend is in my condo,” she whispered. “I opened the door to leave for work, and he shoved me back inside. He was really drunk.”
“Did he hurt you?”
More tears. “He beat me up pretty bad. I grabbed my cell phone and locked myself in the bathroom. He seems to have passed out on the sofa, but I’m afraid he’ll wake up if I try to get past him to the front door.”
“You’ve called the police, right?”
“He’ll kill me if I report him,” she hissed.
“He’ll kill you if you don’t!” I said, noting that I had Mona’s undivided attention.
“I’m so scared, Kate. I’m so scared.”
I blinked several times at the change in her voice. She suddenly sounded childlike.
“Give me your address,” I said, not wanting to take the time to look it up. When she didn’t respond, I became insistent. “Alice, talk to me!”
“I can’t remember it.”
“You don’t remember your address?” I wondered whether Alice had a head injury. I was vaguely aware of Mona racing from my office. Suddenly there was a crashing sound from the other end of the line, followed by a booming male voice. Alice cried out.
I jumped to my feet. “Alice, get out of the apartment!” I shouted. Her phone went dead. “Dammit!” I cried.
“I’ve got her address, and I’m dialing nine-one-one now,” Mona called out from the next room.
It was all I could do to focus on Kevin Bosley’s words as I waited for word on Alice. This was only my second session with Kevin after his attempt to hurl himself off the roof, so I wanted it to go well.
A complete physical by his family doctor confirmed that he was in excellent physical condition; and since Kevin had no history of depression, nor was his family tree saddled with it, I felt it was situational. I was not going to delve too deeply into his psyche until I was certain he was stable.
“How’s the depression?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t feel like jumping off rooftops.”
“That’s a good sign,” I said, giving him a thumbs-up. “How are you sleeping?”
“Better. I decided to hold off interviewing for a new job until I get through this, so that lowered my stress level.”
“That is an excellent idea,” I said, delighted he’d thought of it himself. “Are you getting out of the house?” Depressed people tend to isolate, which is the worst thing they can do.
“I’ve been walking the mall, and I’ve seen a lot of movies.”
“What about hobbies?”
“I used to play tennis. I’m pretty good. Also, I biked with these guys. I’ve got a fifteen-hundred-dollar bicycle in my garage collecting dust.”
“I’d say it’s about time you dust off that bicycle.”
Kevin smiled for the first time since I’d met him.
“Have you heard anything about Alice?” I asked Mona once I’d scheduled Kevin’s next appointment and walked him out.
“Nobody will tell me anything,” she said.
I knew somebody who could get me the information I wanted. I called Jay and explained the situation.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” he said.
&nb
sp; Mona and I waited. She practically dove on the phone each time it rang. Finally she handed me the receiver. “It’s Jay.”
“Here’s what I’ve got so far,” he said. “The cops arrived at the scene and found a badly beaten woman. There was nobody else inside the condo. The woman was taken by ambulance to the ER.” He gave me the name of the hospital.
“Thank you, Jay,” I said.
“Anytime, Katie.”
I hung up the phone and passed the news on to Mona. “Would you please cancel my appointments for the rest of the day? I’m going to go to the hospital.”
She nodded. “I know this is bad timing, but Mrs. Perez is picking me up shortly to take me to the chiropractor her cousin uses. Maybe he can undo some of the damage that jerk upstairs did to me.”
“What’s going to happen to Dr. Manning?”
“My lawyer has already contacted the police; there is a detective looking into it. It’s all hush-hush since they don’t want him to suspect anything and take off again. Speaking of jerks, George Moss called. He thinks you should give him another chance. I told him to forget it.”
“Don’t worry about coming back to the office today,” I told her.
“Nancy won’t be around to help with the phones,” Mona said. “She has several job interviews set up today.”
“Let the answering machine pick up the calls. I’ll be back later to check it.”
“You’ll have to meet with Omar when he comes in,” Mona said.
“Omar? Is he a new patient?”
“He’s performing at the mental health fair, but he has to be paid up front.” She handed me an envelope with his name on it.
I could have argued with Mona about spending money on an event that made no sense to me, but I would have been wasting my breath. Besides, it was her money. “Omar the Great, huh?” I said. “What’s so great about him?”
“He’s a famous sword swallower.”
“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.”
“His brother, Gus the Great, was supposed to perform, but he discovered he was overbooked.”
“Is Gus a sword swallower too?” I asked.
Mona shook her head. “He’s a knife thrower.”
“Oh, well, that makes sense,” I lied. Nothing seemed to make sense in my life these days.
I drove to the hospital, parked as close to the emergency entrance as I could, and hurried inside. The waiting area was crowded and noisy. The receptionist informed me they did not have a patient by the name of Alice Smithers.
“There must be some mistake,” I said. “I was told she was brought here by ambulance.”
The woman called the nurses’ station. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Nobody named Smithers.”
I stepped aside so that the person in line behind me could approach the desk. I wondered whether Jay had been given the wrong hospital, but knowing the vicinity where Alice lived, I felt certain I was in the right place.
I took a seat in one of the chairs and wondered what to do next. Something didn’t feel right. I tried to think what it might be. For one thing, it made no sense that Liz Jones was gone, but her boyfriend was still coming around. What made him think he could just barge in on Alice? Had he been so drunk that he hadn’t been thinking straight? If he and Liz had this hot thing going, why wasn’t he with her? Why hadn’t Liz returned for her clothes?
So many unanswered questions.
I recalled how terrified Alice had sounded, so terrified that she couldn’t give me her address. I would not have even recognized her voice had I not known it was Alice calling to begin with.
I was missing something. I ran through my list of possibilities. Alice had a serious problem with boundaries. Her mother was an alcoholic. I knew in my gut there had been some form of abuse. That Alice was unable to forgive the abuse suggested it was bad. Children of abuse felt trapped and terrified. They feared telling on the abuser, so they had to find ways to cope.
I suddenly had a chilling thought. I knew one way they coped.
I returned to the receptionist’s desk. “Would you please check and see if you have a patient by the name of Liz Jones?”
chapter 17
“I’m fairly certain Alice Smithers has dissociative phenomena,” I told Thad as we sipped coffee in the hospital cafeteria and waited for her to get out of X-ray. The attending physician was checking for head trauma. I had called Thad and asked him to meet me at the hospital. Without going into details, I had told him it was urgent. Thankfully, he’d gotten over my slipping out on him, and he had driven straight over. He had listened quietly as I’d tried to back up my reasoning.
“Well, multiples are pretty rare,” he said, “but it would explain what’s going on with this patient. I wouldn’t mind taking a look.”
“That’s why I called you. I want your opinion.”
He stirred his coffee. “Oh, so this wasn’t just an excuse to see me again?”
I chuckled. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
“The question is, what would you do without me?”
I had to admit it was a valid question. We finished our coffee and headed for the elevators. Thad punched the button, and we waited until the elevator cleared before we stepped on. I gave scant notice to the uniformed man standing before the control panel.
“What floor?” he asked.
I knew that voice. I turned. “Mr. Lewey!”
He gave me a sheepish smile. “Hey, Dr. Kate,” he said. “How’s the wrist?”
“What are you doing here? And why are you wearing that uniform and operating an elevator? You don’t like elevators.”
“I felt so bad over what happened the last time I saw you, especially after Mona convinced me I was a creep, that I decided to take action and finally do something about my problem. Instead of expecting you to fix everything for me,” he added.
I noted he was holding the door open so that others could get on. “I’m so proud of you! Would you please take me to the first floor?”
“You got it, Dr. Kate.”
Thad and I exited the elevator a moment later and headed for the ER. All he had to do was smile at the receptionist, and she pushed a buzzer that opened the metal doors leading to the treatment area.
The policeman standing outside Alice’s door stepped aside when I told him that Thad and I were doctors and needed to consult with my patient. I paused before going in.
“Has the man responsible for her injuries been located?” I asked.
“Still looking,” he said.
Thad and I walked into the room. The woman inside was badly beaten, and was wearing a short leather skirt, a tight blouse, and red Prada high heels. She was groggy and complaining to the nurse for not allowing her to smoke. She looked at me. I could barely pick out Alice’s features beneath the heavy makeup and bruises.
“Well, well, look at what the wind blew in,” she said derisively. Her voice sounded nothing like Alice’s. She turned her attention to Thad, and her eyes took him in hungrily. “I hope you’re my doctor, because the other guy isn’t much to look at, if you get my meaning.” She gave him a come-hither smile, then winced and touched her swollen lips.
“You’re going to have to lie still, hon,” the nurse said. “You’ve got a couple of cracked ribs.” The nurse gave us a curious look as she left the exam room.
I stepped closer to the bed. I did not want to call Liz by name. “This is an associate of mine,” I said, motioning to Thad. “Dr. Glazer. He’s a psychiatrist. I’d like your permission to have him present while I speak with you.”
She shrugged.
Thad offered his hand. “And you are?”
“Liz Jones.” She glanced at me briefly as they shook hands. “You’ll have to excuse my appearance,” she said. “My prick ex-boyfriend got drunk and beat the crap out of me. The cops are waiting to take my statement. I’m going to have his ass thrown in jail this time.”
“Has the doctor said whether you’ve suffered any head
trauma?” I asked.
“My head is fine,” she said, her words clipped, “but he wants to keep me overnight for observation, which sucks, since I can’t smoke.”
“I’d like to see you in my office as soon as possible,” I said.
She looked smug. “I’ll bet you would. But that’s not going to happen, if I have any say in the matter.”
“What makes you say that?” Thad asked.
She didn’t look at him; her gaze was still fixed on me. “Because it’s a waste of time,” she said. “I know what she wants.”
“Perhaps you’ll reconsider,” Thad said. “Dr. Holly and I share a genuine interest in getting to know you better.” He gave her his card. “In the meantime, please call me if you need anything.”
“Sure.” She studied the card before tucking it inside her bra.
Thad and I left the room a few minutes later. “The person we just spoke to is not the woman who has been seeing me the past couple of weeks,” I told him. “They have distinctly different voices and dress styles. This morning I heard the voice of a little girl.”
“I think you just might be right about having a multiple personality on your hands,” he said. “I seriously doubt Alice knows about Liz.”
I agreed with him. “I think Alice suspects something isn’t right, though. She mentioned losing track of time, sometimes hours.”
“That’s a good indication,” he said. “It’s not going to be an easy case, Kate, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to integrate the personalities. You know how these things work.”
I nodded. “I can probably get Alice Smithers to agree to counseling,” I said, “but Liz Jones will be a problem.”
“Just leave Lizzy to me,” he said, giving me a wink. “I’ll play her like a tune.”
I laughed. “I could never love you as much as you love yourself.”
“I could teach you.”
I arrived back at work and was surprised to find the hall door unlocked, as well as the door leading to my private office. Had I been in such a rush to get to the hospital that I’d forgotten to lock up?
I stepped inside, flipped the light switch, and gaped when I saw my file drawer standing open, a drawer I never forgot to lock. I felt a presence in the room even before I turned and saw him, before I heard the door close and the lock click into place.
What Looks Like Crazy Page 18