'We can't release the names of our patients. This is a private hospital, patients are guaranteed anonymity.'
'How about a list of staff and anyone on staff who might have been undergoing treatment while they were employed here?' Vail suggested.
She thought about that for a bit, then excused herself and went towards her office. She stopped at the door and said, 'I'm not playing prima donna. These people have very fragile egos. They need all the breaks they can get. It doesn't always have a happy ending, sometimes they end up back here - or someplace worse. We're not infallible, you know, it's not like treating mumps.'
She went into the office and closed the door.
St Claire leaned over and whispered, 'You realized we could be chasin' the biggest wild-goose in history.'
'Got a better idea?' Vail whispered back.
'Hell, no, it was my idea to begin with.'
They could hear her muffled voice as she spoke on the phone. Vail lit a cigarette. Ten minutes crept by before she came back. She sat down in the rocking chair.
'I'm not comfortable with this,' she said. 'I talked to Lowie - Fred - and our personnel director, Jean Frampton, and they agreed to give up the staff records. They left it up to me, whether to discuss staffers who were also outpatients. That's what I'm uncomfortable about. These people, when they reveal themselves to us, that's the ultimate in trust. To violate that…'
'I understand that, ma'am, and we certainly appreciate your feelings. Could I make one suggestion, please? If there are staffers who were patients, maybe we could discuss 'em in general terms, not necessarily by name, unless they become real strong candidates.'
'We'll see.'
'Fair 'nuff.'
Thirty minutes later they had a computer printout of the staff members going back for the past five years. They spread the sheet on the coffee table and she began going down the list. It was divided into sections: Name, address, age, sex, education, qualifications, previous employment. There was also a check box marked References and another marked Photograph. There were fifty-five names on the list. Thirty-eight had been employed the entire three years. Six others had been there at least two years, four were relative newcomers, and seven had been dismissed or had resigned.
'Let's start with them,' St Claire suggested.
Molly had a remarkable memory for all the staffers, knew their backgrounds and temperaments, how proficient they were. 'When you see the same forty people every day for years, you get to know them very well,' she explained. They went down the list, checking backgrounds, discussing each of the people as if he or she was a candidate for office. As the afternoon wore on, she became increasingly interested in the project, gradually cutting down the list, occasionally making a discreet phone call to clarify questions that arose. St Claire was beginning to question his hunch, although not out loud. They finally eliminated all but three prospects, two women and a man.
'Jan Rider,' said Molly. 'She was an inpatient for several years, then lived in a halfway house as an outpatient for about six months. She was a housekeeper. Borderline psychotic. Delusionary, disassociated. Her neighbours had her committed when she went into the backyard stark naked and prayed to a tree. She believed it was the Virgin Mary.'
'Do you know where she is now?'
'The state hospital in Ohio. She was one of our failures.'
'Are you sure she's still there?'
'Yes.'
'Next.'
'Sidney Tribble. I'll tell you right off the top, he is from St Louis and he went back there after he got his ticket. Tribble has a sister there, they're quite close. He's got a good job making an acceptable salary. No psychological recurrences so far.'
'Why was he here?'
'Schizoid, paranoid, dissociative.'
'Why was he committed?'
'Court order. His wife left him and he began to delude. Thought she and her new boyfriend were taunting him. He stabbed a man in a shopping mall, someone he didn't even know, he just picked up a pair of shears in a hardware department and attacked him.'
'Did he kill him?'
