recognized it because Hu Chang used it as one of the ingredients when he concocted a knockout potion that could also cause severe disorientation.”
“I imagine most pain medication can be used to do that.”
“Yes, but Thorazine was better than the majority of drugs.” She paused. “Because it was used in psychiatric treatments for schizophrenia. It was also useful in cases of split or multipersonality when combined with other drugs.”
“What?”
“Dr. Nils was a psychiatrist. The honorable discharge Ted Danner received from the Army was on the condition that he seek help and have regular therapy from an accredited psychiatrist.”
“No, he had a back injury.”
“Yes, but that was minor. He would have been able to return to active duty after his operation except for his mental problems.”
“It’s not true,” Gallo said harshly. “He was as sane as you are. And he wouldn’t have lied to me.”
“He did lie to you. It was all in that letter from Dr. Nils.” She paused. “Something happened on that last tour of duty in the Middle East. According to Nils’s letter, Danner’s superiors said that he was behaving irrationally and had fits of violence. They had noticed it before, but it became more pronounced, and they couldn’t overlook it. Then there was an incident.”
“What kind of an incident?”
“Nils didn’t know. Perhaps the military didn’t want to crucify Danner after his years of valiant and loyal service to the Army. Or maybe they just didn’t want to cause a situation that might be awkward for them. Anyway, the doctor who recommended the discharge merely said that Danner had done something that made it impossible to keep him with his unit, and they discharged him. Nils tried to treat your uncle, but he wasn’t having any luck. Danner wouldn’t talk to him, so he referred him to a specialist in Atlanta who was supposed to be the best psychiatrist in the Veterans Administration. Dr. Kevin Donnelly.”
“He would have told me. He wouldn’t have lied.”
“He loved you. You had a case of king-size hero worship. Do you think that wasn’t important to him? Mental problems carry a certain stigma in our society.”
“I wouldn’t have cared. I would have helped him.”
“But he’d always been your savior. He couldn’t stand to have the situation reversed.”
Gallo was silent, and Eve could see the conflicting emotions struggling in his expression. He finally said, “And you think he was so sick in the head that he could have killed Bonnie?”
“I’m not saying that. It’s a possibility. But maybe he only knew about her death and the people who killed her. Why would he kill Jacobs? All I’m saying is that the ugliness we saw in Danner in that bayou may have been growing in him for years. We have to find out the rest.”
“How, dammit? You said he wasn’t talking to Nils, and Temple hadn’t even seen him before he signed that death certificate.”
“The psychiatrist who treated him in Atlanta may be the key. Dr. Donnelly’s records show that he was treating him at least twice a week for years. There were a couple periods when he saw him every day for weeks. I’d judge by that that Danner was cooperating with Donnelly. He must have thought he was making progress, or he would have recommended alternate treatment.”
“You mean put him in an asylum. He’s not crazy. No one can tell me he is.”
“She’s not trying to tell you he’s crazy, John,” Eve said quietly. “Start thinking with your head instead of your emotions. He had a problem, and it might have caused him to do something that he wouldn’t have done if he’d been well. We have to find out if that happened.”
“So that you can kill him?” Gallo’s eyes were glittering in his taut face. “That’s where this is leading, isn’t it? You told me once that you’d kill the monster who murdered Bonnie without a second thought.”
“And I would.” She met his gaze. “I won’t lie to you. If I find out that Ted Danner killed my little girl, I’m not going to care about his mental problems. I’m only going to care that he robbed Bonnie of her life. You may be torn, and I can understand it. But there’s no way I could pity him. It’s not possible for me. You see him as wounded, and I see him as a monster.” She paused. “And I
“I can’t let-” He broke off and drew a deep breath. “What are we talking about? He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t do it.”
“Well, I don’t know that, John,” she said grimly. “And if you get in the way of my finding out, I’ll take you down.”
“Cool it,” Catherine said quickly. “We’ll find out, Eve. I think Donnelly is the key. There must have been some kind of bond between them since they were together all those years. The relationship between patient and therapist is usually very intimate. The psychiatrist often is looked upon as almost a father figure.”
“Not my uncle,” Gallo said grimly. “He wouldn’t have chosen to look upon anyone as a father figure. He told me my grandfather was an addict and abused both him and my father. That’s why he was so horrified when he became addicted to prescription drugs.”
“Regardless, there could have been an element of emotional dependence on Donnelly,” Eve said. “What did Donnelly’s case files on Danner say?”
“No case files. Which doesn’t surprise me. A psychiatrist’s records are usually ultraconfidential. Donnelly wouldn’t have turned them over to the hospital for anyone to riffle through.”
“Then how do we get in touch with him to ask him questions? Do you have an address or telephone number? Can you contact him through the hospital?”
“He’s no longer with this hospital. He resigned a number of years ago. He left no forwarding address. He placed all of his former patients with other psychiatrists and left his position.”
“Someone has to know where he’s at,” Gallo said. “He must have had contact with other doctors and patients and their families. Particularly if he went to the trouble of placing his other patients with competent professionals. He can’t just have disappeared.”
“Maybe he could,” Catherine said. “If he was paid enough.”
“You’re thinking that Temple’s payoff and Donnelly’s resignation might not be a coincidence?”
“Donnelly had his last appointment with Danner two weeks before Temple signed that death certificate. Something big was going down about that time.”
“You believe that my uncle may have told Donnelly something in a therapy session that Donnelly used as a bargaining tool?” Gallo asked. “That his confidentiality only went as far as his wallet?”
“I don’t believe anything right now. I’m just throwing ideas out there to see if they stick.” She paused. “But I located something else in Donnelly’s records. I had to dig because it was buried deep. Donnelly was involved in a court case about that time, a patient’s mother accused him of experimentation, of implanting false memories into her son’s mind.”
“What was the verdict?”
“I don’t know, the court records were sealed. He didn’t lose his license, but it might have spurred him to leave the hospital. Joe is talking to the head nurse in the psychiatric ward right now. The records clerk said she’d been here at the hospital for the last twenty years, so she’d have to have been familiar with Donnelly. I’ll let you know as soon as he comes back.” She hung up.
Eve pressed the disconnect and gazed at Gallo. “Well?”
“What do you expect me to say?” He turned away. “Am I scared and sick to my stomach about all this? Hell, yes. But all we know for sure is that my uncle lied to me, and he had a problem. We’ll have to see what Quinn finds out.”
“Yes. That hospital doesn’t appear to have a great staff, does it? First Temple, and now this Dr. Donnelly. Memory implant? That would be truly criminal to experiment on a sick man.” She dropped down in the chair. She felt scared and sick, too. She couldn’t forget the image of the gentle, kind man who had looked at Bonnie and told Eve what a pretty little girl she was. “But I don’t see how you could have been fooled. I was a stranger to him, but you must have suspected he wasn’t quite…”
“Sane? He was more normal than anyone I knew. Almost everyone I grew up with was a little twisted and lived in dysfunctional homes. It went with the territory.” His lips twisted. “When you live with poverty, vice, and drugs, you don’t expect normalcy. You know that yourself, Eve.”
