taters that you just saw.” His voice was loud and persistent as it came from the speaker system, “Tell me, Bill.'
“Yeah,” more like a response this time.
“Bill—I'm here to make you feel good.'
“Yes. Good.'
“Are you sick, Bill?'
“Nnnnnn.'
“Tell the doctor. Are you sick now, Bill? You're all grown up now. How do you feel now?” No answer.
“Are ... you ...
“Sometimes.'
“What does sick mean, Bill?'
“Don't feel good.'
“When you don't feel good, where do you hurt, Bill?'
“Head. Head hurts.'
“Why does your head hurt?'
“Hurts real bad.'
“Why does your head hurt, Bill?” Nothing. “You're all grown up, Ukie. Ukie is a man, now.'
“Fine.” So the brothers had come from a background of child molestation.
“Ukie, how do you feel?'
“Fine?'
“Are you sick?'
“Yes.'
Eichord had been riveted to his chair by the admission of Ukie's.
“Ukie, tell the doctor why you're sick.'
“Angioneurotic edema, anaphylaxis, anaphylactoid purpura, treponema pertenue, renal impairment, intestinal amebiasis, systemic lipus erythematosus, chlamydia trachomatis, pericarditis, endocervical—'
“Ukie, tell the doctor where you saw those words.'
“Words. On a paper thing.'
“Do you like to memorize words?'
“Yes. ‘Member words.'
Eichord sat motionless.
“Do you hurt in your head, Ukie?'
“Yes, bad there. Hurt bad.'
Jack was still nailed by the admission.
“How do you hurt in your head, Ukie?'
“Comes inside to do things.'
Jack almost regarded anything else he'd hear as anticlimactic now. This was hard, clinical evidence. Inadmissible or not, it was sufficient.
“No,” slurring the word, his face a contortion of terror. There was no faking this. Ukie Hackabee was scared shitless.
“Tell me about the thing, Ukie—” And Mandel hung in there for a while but it was taking its toll on Ukie, who appeared to have clammed up for good. By the time the doctor brought the session to an end Hackabee's face was streaked with tears. He appeared to be a genuinely tormented man.
“Jesus.” Eichord felt the cold stab of fear.
“Want me to go back and play the part where he says that about Ma and Pa hurting them?'
“No, thanks. I've seen everything I need for now.'
“As soon as he's rested I'm going to take him under again and ask him about the killings. I'll wager he'll say he didn't do them.'
“Any chance he could be faking the responses?'
“Almost none. The drug is extremely powerful. When he was regressing, the little boy who had been hurt in his Privates—you're getting the truth as he remembers it. There's an almost nonexistent chance that he could have been preprogrammed to respond in a certain way but the odds would be greatly against it. This is an experimental drug that has been used on so-called brainwashed prisoners and what little evidence is in indicates it's a breakthrough deal. I think we can put stock in the tape.'
“The conclusions being that Ukie and his twin were abused or molested children.” It had hit Jack so hard he had to force himself to get up and move.
“Right.'
“Okay.” He felt like a crushingly heavy weight had just been placed on him, and he knew then, as he moved into action, how much danger Noel Collier was in.
“If Ukie's thoughts are open to his brother,” he asked the doctor, who was following him as he walked quickly toward the squad room, “I wonder how much danger he's in.'
“Ukie you mean?'
“Yeah.'
“I don't know.'
“If he can take Ukie on this neural thing, can he pick his brain? Can he ask him about what he's told you? Will he have a way to probe and find out about the narcoanalysis session?'
“We have to assume he already knows. Yes.'
“Can he force Ukie onto the neural pathway anytime he wants?'
“Who knows? It seems that he can.'
“Could he force him to commit suicide?'
“Huh uh. I don't think so. I don't think he can force so much as emphasize and suggest. He can put ideas in Ukie's head the same way posthypnotic suggestion operates. He can underscore. Reinforce something that Ukie already thinks or something where he may be vulnerable or highly susceptible or easily influenced. I have trouble buying the mind-over-matter aspect. I just don't know. You can't rule anything out here, We're dealing with a unique and brand-new situation virtually without precedent,” he said as they went in the room and Eichord headed for his telephone.
Jack started to dial then stopped for a second and looked at Mandel and said, “Thing I don't get is the MO. A genius IQ. A man from a horror-filled background of molestation that somehow turned him into a mass murderer. The possibility of a birth disorder of some kind such as ... One suggestion was anoxia. Something goes wrong and creates a kind of conscienceless monster. His rage can be slaked only by taking lives. He hates his twin, whom he's always been able to influence, so he goes through disguises and all that rigmarole to create an airtight, elaborate frame that puts the abduction, rape, and conning of Donna Scannapieco into motion. But his next actions ... That's where I get fuzzy.'
“How so?'
“He calls US, putting HIMSELF in the picture. Why the hell do that? He could have stayed in Houston. Gone to Cleveland on vacation. You name it. Why insert yourself into the thing when you KNOW you'd become a number-one suspect because of your tie to the primary suspect in custody, Ukie?'
“Whom he knew he could control as he always had. He was on top of it all the way. Even staying in the shadows of his twin's mind. Convincing Ukie that the buried bodies were the work of a taller man, tall as a basketball player. Making himself even more inhuman and invulnerable by the absence of an identity in Ukie's head.'
“Yeah, but why put yourself into it at all unnecessarily and THEN on top of everything go to one of the best law firms in the state and latch on to the top defense lawyer? Why give your object of the frame that much of a shot at getting off scot-free? Makes no sense.'
“Sure it does,” the doctor said. “What would be the quickest way to divert suspicion from yourself? Come from the most positive point on the compass. A model of cooperation. The devoted brother who wants the finest legal representation money can buy. It was the smartest thing he could have done. I'm sure he convinced himself of that when he was envisioning the way the headlines would look. What I want to know is how did he manipulate Ukie, to the point of digging a grave?'
