“Or from an episode of ER,” Joanna said dryly. “Maria described something else, though, and it constitutes the ‘scientific proof’ Mr. Mandrake’s always referring to.” She pushed the chair over in front of the gunmetal cabinet. “Maria said that when she was up near the ceiling, she saw a shoe on a ledge outside the window, a red tennis shoe.” She stepped up on the chair, looked at the top of the cabinet, frowning, and stepped back down. “The shoe wasn’t visible from any other part of the room, but when the doctor went up to the next floor and leaned all the way out of the window, there it was.”
“Which proved that the soul had actually left the body and was hovering above it,” Richard said.
“And, by extension, that everything the subject experiences in an NDE is real and not just a hallucination.” She dragged the chair over to the wooden medicine cupboard and stepped up on it. “Pretty convincing, huh? The only problem is, it never happened. When researchers tried to verify it, it turned out there was no such event, no such patient, no such hospital.”
She withdrew the newspaper-wrapped object from her pocket. “Of course, even if it had been a true story, it wouldn’t have proved anything. The shoe could have been visible from some other part of the hospital, or the patient or the NDE researcher could have put it there. If and when a subject tells us he saw this,” she said, holding up the object, “I’ll consider the possibility that he really was out of his body.”
“What is it?” Richard asked.
“Something no one’s likely to guess,” she said, leaning forward on tiptoe and stretching up to place it on top of the cupboard. “Including you. If you don’t know, you can’t accidentally communicate the knowledge to anyone.” She wadded up the newspaper and stepped back down. “I’ll give you a clue,” she said, dropping the crumpled paper into his hand. “It’s not a shoe.” She turned and looked speculatively at the clock on the wall.
“Do you want the clock taken down, too?”
“No, although it might be a good idea to move it to where the subject can’t see it. The fewer objects the subject has to confabulate about, the better. Actually, I was wondering about your subject. What time did you say she’d be here?”
“She was scheduled for eleven, and she called to say she had an exam and would be a few minutes late. She’s a premed student,” he said, glancing at the clock. “But I expected her by now.”
“Your subject pool is premed students?”
“No, just Ms. Tanaka,” he said. “The other volunteers are all—”
“Volunteers?” she said. “You’re using volunteers? How did you describe the project in your call for volunteers?”
“Neurological research. I’ve got a copy right here,” he said, going over to his desk.
“Did it mention NDEs?”
“No,” he said, rummaging through the stacks of papers. “I told them what the project entailed when they came in for screening.”
“What kind of screening?”
“A physical and a psych profile.” He found the call for volunteers and handed it to her. “And I asked them what they knew about near-death experiences and if they’d ever had one. None of them had.”
“And you’ve sent some of them under already?”
“Yes. Mrs. Bendix has been under once, and Mr. Wojakowski and Ms. Tanaka, that’s the one who’s coming in today, have been under twice.”
“Did you take all the applications at once and then bring them in for screenings?”
He shook his head. “I started the screenings right away so I wouldn’t have to wait to begin the sessions. Why?”
There was a rapid knock on the door, and Amelia Tanaka swept in. “I am so sorry I’m late,” she said, dropping her backpack on the floor and yanking off her wool gloves. She jammed them in her pockets. “You got my message, didn’t you, that I was going to be?”
Her long, straight black hair was flecked with snow. She shook it out. “The anatomy exam was
She seemed suddenly to become aware of Joanna. “Oh, hi,” she said, and looked questioningly at Richard.
“I want you to meet Dr. Lander, Ms. Tanaka,” he said.
“Amelia,” she corrected. “But it’s going to be mud if I did as bad as I think I did on that exam.”
“Hi, Amelia,” Joanna said.
“Dr. Lander’s going to be working with me on the project,” Richard said. “She’ll be conducting the interviews.”
“You’re not going to ask questions like ‘Where is the vestigial fold of Marshall?’, are you?” Amelia asked.
“No.” Joanna grinned. “I’m just going to ask you what you’ve seen and heard, and today I’d like to ask you a few questions about yourself, so I can get to know you.”
“Sure,” Amelia said. “Did you want to do that now or after I get ready for the session?”
“Why don’t you get ready first?” Joanna said, and Amelia turned expectantly to Richard. He opened the gunmetal supply cupboard and handed her a pile of folded clothing. She disappeared into a small room at the back.
Richard waited till she’d shut the door and then asked Joanna, “What were you going to say before Ms. Tanaka came in? About the screenings?”
“Can I see your list of volunteers?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said and rummaged through the papers on his desk again. “Here it is. They’ve all been approved, but I haven’t scheduled them all yet.”
He handed it to Joanna, and she sat down on the chair she’d stood on to put the “shoe” on top of the medicine cupboard and ran her finger down the names. “Well, at least this explains why Mr. Mandrake didn’t try to pump you about your project. He didn’t have to.”
“What do you mean?” Richard said. He came around behind her to look at the list.
“I mean, one of your volunteers is a subject of Mr. Mandrake’s, there’s another one I think probably is, and this one,” she said, pointing at Dvorjak, A., “has CAS, compulsive attention syndrome. It’s a form of incomplete personality disorder. They invent NDEs to get attention.”
“How do you
“Over half of the so-called NDEs in Mandrake’s book, which I see you have a copy of here, aren’t really NDEs at all. Visions during childbirth and surgery, blackouts, even fainting episodes qualify if the person experiences the standard tunnel, light, angels. Amy Dvorjak specializes in blackouts, which, conveniently, don’t have any external symptoms so you can’t prove they didn’t happen. She’s had twenty-three.”
“Twenty-three!”
Joanna nodded. “Even Mr. Mandrake doesn’t believe her anymore, and he believes everything anybody tells him.”
He grabbed the list away from her and crossed out “Dvorjak, A.” “Which ones are Mandrake’s subjects?”
She looked ruefully at him. “You’re not going to want to hear this. One of them’s May Bendix.”
“Mrs. Bendix!” he said. “Are you sure?”
Joanna nodded. “She’s one of Mandrake’s favorite subjects. She’s even in his book.”
“She said she didn’t even know what a near-death experience was,” he said, outraged. “I can’t believe this!”
“I think before we send anybody else under, I’d better check the rest of the names on this list,” Joanna said.
He glanced at the door of the dressing room. “I’ll tell Amelia the scan’s down and we can’t do a session today.”
Joanna nodded. “I’d also like to interview her, and the rest of the subjects, after I’ve checked to see whether
