'The other man had one of these too,' she said, holding it up.
'He said he was in charge of hospital security.'
A man named Huenengarth?' of She nodded. 'The two of you seem to be duplicating each others efforts.'
'When was he here?'
'Last Thursday. Does Western Pediatrics generally give this type of personal service to all its patients?'
As I said, it's a complex case.'
She smiled. 'Medically or socio-culturally?'
'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I can't get into details.'
'Psychotherapeutic confidentiality?'
I nodded.
'Well, I certainly respect that, Dr. Delaware. Mr. Huenengarth used another phrase to protect his secrecy. Privileged information.' I thought that sounded rather cloak-and-dagger and told him so. He wasn't amused. A rather grim fellow, actually.'
'Did you give him the chart?'
'No, because I don't have it, Doctor. Dawn left no medical charts of any kind behind. Sorry to have misled you, but all the attention she's generated lately has led me to be cautious. That and her murder, of course. When the police came by to ask questions, I cleaned out her graduate locker personally. All that I found were some textbooks and the computer disks from her dissertation research.'
'Have you booted up the disks?'
'Is that question related to your complex case?'
'Possibly.'
'Possibly,' she said. 'Well, at least you're not getting pushy the way Mr. Huenengarth did. Trying to pressure me to turn them over.'
Removing her glasses, she got up, returned my ID, closed the door.
Back in her chair, she said, 'Was Dawn involved in something unsavory?'
'She may have been.'
'Mr. Huenengarth was a bit more forthcoming than you, Doctor. He came right out and said Dawn had stolen the chart. Informed me it was my duty to see that it was returned-quite imperious. I had to ask him to leave.'
'He's not Mr. Charm.'
An understatement-his approach is pure KGB. More like a policeman than the real policemen who investigated Dawn's murder, as far as I'm concerned. The weren't pushy enough. A few cursory questions and goodbye-I grade them C-minus. Weeks later I called to see what kind of progress was being made, and no one would take my call. I left messages and none were returned.'
'What kind of questions did they ask about her?'
'Who her friends were, had she ever associated with criminal types, did she use drugs. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to answer any of them.
Even after having her as my student for four years, I knew virtually nothing about her. Have you served on any doctoral committees?'
A few.'
'Then you know. Some students one really gets close to; others pass
through without making a mark. I'm afraid Dawn was one of the latter.
