In The House Of Secret Enemies

heal people with his hands, and nobody's heard of him. I would think Morales would make headlines in every newspaper in the country.'

Janet gave me the kind of smile I suspected she normally reserved for some particularly naive student. 'It's next to impossible just to get funding for this kind of research, what's more publicity. Psychic healing is thought of as, well, occult.'

'You mean like acupuncture?'

It was Janet's turn to laugh. 'You make my point. You know how long it took Western scientists and doctors to get around to taking acupuncture seriously. Psychic healing just doesn't fit into the currently accepted pattern of scientific thinking. When you do get a study done, none of the journals want to publish it.'

'I understand that Dr. Edmonston filed a complaint against Morales. Is that true?'

'That's what the police said. I have no reason to doubt it. Edmonston was never happy about his part in the project. Now I'm beginning to wonder about Dr. Johnson. I'm still waiting for his anecdotal reports.'

'What project? What reports? What Dr. Johnson?'

Janet looked surprised. 'You don't know about that?'

'I got all my information from my client. Obviously, he didn't know. Was there some kind of tie-in between Morales and Edmonston?'

'I would say so.' She replaced the Kirlian photographs in her desk drawer. 'We actually needed Esteban only about an hour or so a day, when he handled samples. The rest of the time we were involved in computer analysis. We decided it might be interesting to see what Esteban could do with some real patients, under medical supervision. We wanted to get a physician's point of view. We put some feelers out into the medical community and got a cold shoulder-except for Dr. Johnson, who incidentally happened to be Robert Edmonston's partner. I get the impression the two of them had a big argument over using Esteban, and Rolfe Johnson eventually won. We worked out a plan where Esteban would go to their offices after finishing here. They would refer certain patients-who volunteered-to him. These particular patients were in no immediate danger, but they would eventually require hospitalization. These patients would report how they felt to Edmonston and Johnson after their sessions with Esteban. The two doctors would then make up anecdotal reports. Not very scientific, but we thought it might make an interesting footnote to the main study.'

'And you haven't seen these reports?'

'No. I think Dr. Johnson is stalling.'

'Why would he do that after he agreed to participate in the project?'

'I don't know. Maybe he's had second thoughts after the murder. Or maybe he's simply afraid his colleagues will laugh at him.'

I wondered. It still seemed a curious shift in attitude. It also occurred to me that I would like to see the list of patients that had been referred to Morales. It just might contain the name of someone with a motive to kill Edmonston-and try to pin it on Esteban Morales. 'Tell me some more about Edmonston and Johnson,' I said. 'You mentioned the fact they were partners.'

Janet took a cigarette from her purse, and I supplied a match. She studied me through a cloud of smoke. 'Is this confidential?'

'If you say so.'

'Johnson and Edmonston were very much into the modern big-business aspect of medicine. It's what a lot of doctors are doing these days: labs, ancillary patient centers, private, profit-making hospitals. Dr. Johnson's skills seemed to be more in the area of administration of their enterprises. As a matter of fact, he'd be about the last person I'd expect to be interested in psychic healing. There were rumors to the effect they were going public in a few months.'

'Doctors go public?'

'Sure. They build up a network of the types of facilities I mentioned, incorporate, then sell stocks.'

'How'd they get along?'

'Who knows? I assume they got along as well as any other business partners. They were different, though.'

'How so?'

'Edmonston was the older of the two men. I suspect he was attracted to Johnson because of Johnson's ideas in the areas I mentioned. Edmonston was rumored to be a good doctor, but he was brooding. No sense of humor. Johnson had a lighter, happy-go-lucky side. Obviously, he was also the more adventurous of the two.'

'What was the basis of Edmonston's complaint?'

'Dr. Edmonston claimed that Esteban was giving his patients drugs.'

I thought about that. It certainly didn't fit in with what the senator had told me. 'Janet, doesn't it strike you as odd that two doctors like Johnson and Edmonston would agree to work with a psychic healer? Aside from philosophic differences, they sound like busy men.'

'Oh, yes. I really can't explain Dr. Johnson's enthusiasm. As I told you, Dr. Edmonston was against the project from the beginning. He didn't want to waste his time on what he considered to be superstitious nonsense.' She paused, then added, 'He must have given off some bad vibrations.'

'Why do you say that?'

'I'm not sure. Toward the end of the experiment something was affecting Esteban's concentration. He wasn't getting the same results he had earlier. And before you ask, I don't know why he was upset. I broached the subject once and he made it clear he didn't want to discuss it.'

'Do you think he killed Edmonston?'

She laughed shortly, without humor. 'Uh-uh, Mongo. That's your department. I deal in enzymes; they're much simpler than people.'

'C'mon, Janet. You spent an entire summer working with him.

He must have left some kind of impression. Do you think Esteban Morales is the kind of man who would slit somebody's throat?'

She looked at me a long time. Finally she said, 'Esteban Morales is probably the gentlest, most loving person I've ever met. And that's all you're going to get from me. Except that I wish you luck.'

I nodded my thanks, then rose and started for the door.

'Mongo?'

I turned with my hand on the doorknob. Janet was now sitting on the edge of her desk, exposing a generous portion of her very shapely legs. They were the best looking fifty-year-old legs I'd ever seen-and on a very pretty woman.

'You have to come and see me more often,' she continued evenly. 'I don't have that many dwarf colleagues.'

I winked broadly. 'See you, kid.'

'Of course I was curious,' Dr. Rolfe Johnson said. 'That's why I was so anxious to participate in the project in the first place. I like to consider myself open-minded.'

I studied Johnson. He was a boyish thirty-seven, outrageously good-looking, with Nordic blue eyes and a full head of blond hair. I was impressed by his enthusiasm, somewhat puzzled by his agreeing to see me within twenty minutes of my phone call. For a busy doctor-businessman he seemed very free with his time-or very anxious to nail the lid on Esteban Morales. He was just a little too eager to please me.

'Dr. Edmonston wasn't?'

Johnson cleared his throat. 'Well, I didn't mean that. Robert was a. . traditionalist. You will find that most doctors are just not that curious. He considered working with Mr. Morales an unnecessary drain on our time. I thought it was worth it.'

'Why? What was in it for you?'

He looked slightly hurt. 'I considered it a purely scientific inquiry. After all, no doctor ever actually heals anyone. Nor does any medicine. The body heals itself, and all any doctor can do is to try to stimulate the body to do its job. From his advance publicity, Esteban Morales was a man who could do that without benefit of drugs or scalpels. I wanted to see if it was true.'

'Was it?'

Johnson snorted. 'Of course not. It was all mumbo jumbo. Oh, he certainly had a psychosomatic effect on