little lungs are near to bursting with all the songs pouring out of his mouth.
'It's not just Sally who was kept there. There's a senator's daughter. Her name is Patricia. Doctor Beadermeyer gave her a lobotomy-and botched it, by the way.'
'That isn't true, none of it.'
'Now, Norman, the FBI will be at the sanitarium shortly with a search warrant, and they'll go through that office of yours like ants at a picnic lunch. All your dirty little secrets will be out. I have a friend at the Washington Post. All the world will soon know your secrets. All those poor people you've kept at your prison will be free again.
'Now, given all this, Noelle, do you still want to put any stock in this guy's word?'
Noelle looked from Quinlan to Dr. Beadermeyer. 'How much did my husband pay you?' It was suddenly a new Noelle-straight shoulders, no longer pale and fragile-looking, but a strong woman whose eyes were narrowed now, whose jaw was locked and hard. He saw rage in those soft blue eyes of hers.
'It was just for her care, Noelle, nothing more. Her case is complex. She's paranoid schizophrenic. She's been mentally ill for some time. We tried a number of drugs to relieve her symptoms. But we were never fully successful. This thing she dreamed up about her father-it gave her enough to focus to escape and come to kill him. It's that simple and that complex. I did nothing wrong.
'This Holland-poor fellow-I took him in. He's very simple in the head. It's true he attended Sally. He was very fond of her in his moronic way. Only a fool would believe anything he said. He'd say whatever Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
anyone wanted him to say. They'll realize quickly enough that he'll say anything, just to please them.'
'For someone who's not a shrink, you're not bad, Norman,' Quinlan said.
'What do you mean he's not a shrink?' Scott said.
'He's a plastic surgeon. He deals with the outside of the head, not the inside. He's a fake. He's a criminal.
And he watched your husband hurt his own daughter. I have no reason to lie to you, Mrs. St. John.'
'Bastard,' Dr. Beadermeyer said. 'All right, Noelle, if you no longer believe me, no longer trust my word, then I won't take Sally back with me. I'll leave. I've got nothing more to say. The only reason I came here was to help Sally.'
He took a step forward, but Quinlan was up in an instant. Three steps and he had Dr. Beadermeyer's tie in his fist. He said very softly, right in his face, “Who is paying you to hold Sally now that her father's dead? Scott here? If so, why? Why was she put away? It wasn't just revenge, was it?' Quinlan knew, but he wanted to hear it out of Beadermeyer's mouth.
'Noelle is paying me only for her regular treatment, the same as I've always received.'
'Bullshit. Who's paying you? You still want to lie, do you? Well, I'll be able to tell you, Mrs. St. John, exactly the amount your dear husband was paying this little bastard, just as soon as the FBI finishes going through all his crooked little books.'
'I'm calling my lawyer. You can't do this. I'll sue you, all of you.'
'If Mrs. St. John was paying you just for Sally's care, then why did you come to The Cove, knock both Sally and me on the head, and haul her back to your sanitarium? Did you bill Noelle for the airfare? And your little excursion to the Bonhomie Club with those two goombas- will you send Noelle a bill for their services? How about that rear window I shot out? Don't you bill for overtime, Norman? No comment this time? Don't you even want to insist that you're such a dedicated doctor that you'll do anything to help your poor patients?' Quinlan turned to Noelle, who looked as if she'd love to have a knife. She was looking at Dr. Beadermeyer with very new eyes. 'When I got to Sally in the sanitarium she was so drugged it took more than a day to clear her out. That sounds like great treatment, doesn't it, Noelle?'
'Oh, I believe you, Mr. Quinlan. I believe you now.'
Dr. Beadermeyer just shrugged and looked down at his fingernails.
'Maybe,' Quinlan said, 'it's Scott here who wants his wife kept under wraps?''
'That's ridiculous,' Scott Brainerd yelled. 'I never did anything, just told her father how worried I was about her.'
Noelle said very calmly, 'No, Scott, that isn't true. You're lying as well. All of you lied to me. If it had been just Amory, I wouldn't have bought it for a minute, but no, all of you were just like this Greek chorus, telling me the same thing over and over until I believed you. Goddamn you, I believed you! I allowed you to put my little girl in that goddamn institution!'
Quinlan quickly stepped out of the way when he saw her coming. She dashed to Beadermeyer and slammed her fist into his jaw before he even had a chance to twitch.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
He reeled back against the mantelpiece. Noelle stepped back, panting. 'You bastard.' She whirled around to face Scott. 'You vicious little shit, why did you do this to my daughter? How much did my husband pay you?'
Sally rose from the sofa. She walked to her mother. She put her arms around her. 'Thank you,' she said against her mother's hair. 'Thank you. I hope I can hit Beadermeyer myself before this is all over.'
Sally wiped her damp hands on her pants legs. She felt such a surge of relief that it made her mouth dry.
She actually smiled as she said to Scott, 'I'm divorcing you. It shouldn't take long, since I don't even want my poor ivy plant that's probably already dead anyway. My lawyer will serve the papers on you as soon as I can arrange it.'
'You're fucking crazy. No lawyer is going to do a thing you say.'
'If you take another step toward her, Brainerd, I'll just have to kill you. That or I'll let Noelle at you.
Look at poor Norman, his lip is bleeding. You know, I like the thought of Sally as a widow.'
