by A. A. Bell
‘Both, depending on which diagnosis you read. She inherited Fragile X syndrome from her mother — you might have heard of it as Martin-Bell syndrome. It doesn’t retard the development of females as much as it can affect males, so she doesn’t look retarded, but she’s also been diagnosed from time to time as schizophrenic, and that’s mentally ill, no doubt about it.’
‘From time to time?’ asked Van Danik. ‘Does that mean she’s only part-time crazy, or that one of her personalities is convinced that she’s sane?’
‘Neither. It means that over the last decade, various doctors have drawn contradictory conclusions about her.’
‘So it’s probable that she could provide us with an opportunity to validate a misdiagnosis either way?’
Van Danik mused. ‘That could be huge publicity, Zan. Just what we need to gain rapid credibility... aside from Ben’s case, of course.’
Zhou looked unconvinced. ‘If she’s mentally retarded, she’s unlikely to provide consistent testimony for the duration of a public test case.’
‘I disagree,’ Ben said. ‘Mira’s strong and determined, and her story about her visions hasn’t changed in a decade. It’s only the diagnosis that changes.’
‘Even so,’ Van Danik said, ‘if she’s not the full molecule.’
Ben chuckled. ‘Wasn’t it you who mistook her for my nurse?’
‘I meant socially retarded,’ Van Danik said apologetically, ‘as in childish, immature.’
‘At times, perhaps.’ Ben paced in tight circles behind the chair, raking his fingers through his hair. ‘Who wouldn’t be, under the same circumstances? She’s been locked up and drugged nonsensical since she was twelve. But she’s progressed so far in barely a few hours. Who knows how far she could come if someone gives her a fair chance?’
‘That’s your job, not ours.’
Ben sighed heavily. ‘Look, you’re both doctors, aren’t you?’
‘Not me,’ said Van Danik. ‘My doctorates are in math, engineering and physics. Zan’s the man for all things that breathe.’
‘And I’m not convinced that she’d be able to help us,’ Zhou said. ‘Nor we her.’
‘You’re both scientists, though — seekers of truth and scholars of discovery, right? So aside from your current search for truth, surely you must be itching for a chance to work with a rare medical case? I think you even mentioned as much to me while we were discussing another client — Joan, remember? She’s the mumbler who can do complex arithmetic in her head.’
Van Danik winked at Ben. ‘He’s got you there, Zan. You’ve bitched for years about never being in the right place for a lucky break.’
‘What would you say,’ Ben went on, knowing that he was about to dangle his final carrot, ‘if I told you that Mira has also been diagnosed as having tapetum?’
‘She has what?’ Zhou’s mouth fell open and he leaned forward keenly. ‘Say that again.’
‘Tapetum; I kid you not. Her eyes look like shattered mirrors, or maybe frozen water, but they shine like diamonds.’
‘If this is a hoax,’ Zhou warned.
Ben cracked a grin. ‘You think I’d lie to two docs who have their own polygraph? I swear the tapetum made her eyes shine back at me like a thousand tiny mirrors.’
‘What’s tapetum?’ Van Danik asked.
Zhou leaned back, scratching his chin, and Ben took the opportunity to explain, giving Zhou more time to think. ‘Have you ever caught a fox in the headlights of your car?’
‘Yeah, their eyes glow; so?’
‘That’s tapetum — a silvery lining at the back of the eyeballs that amplifies light and makes it easier for some nocturnal animals to see in the dark. Cats have it too. Except Mira’s tapetum must be on the surface of her eyes somehow, because you can’t see into them.’
‘Behind the retina,’ Zhou corrected.
‘Not in Mira’s case. Come and see for yourself.’
Zhou steepled his fingers. ‘Tapetum is always behind the retina, Ben, and eyes with tapetum don’t shine or glow. The light you see is just a reflection of the light you shine into them.’
‘How common is it in humans?’ asked Van Danik.
‘Unheard of.’ Zhou’s eyes sparkled with fresh interest. ‘All right, you’ve hooked me. We’ll run her through a quick test as soon as we’re finished with you.’
Alone in the hall, Hawthorn received a text message: same time n place 2day
Ben made it through two new sets of control questions about his life — all of which could be verified through a private investigator — regarding his childhood, schooling and personal finances. However, he broke into a cold sweat when they started asking about events that occurred while he’d been sleeping on the night of the armed robbery.
‘Just relax,’ Zhou told him yet again. ‘Remember that we’re questioning your subconscious now, so just say the first thing that comes into your head, and we’ll be able to tell from your brain activity if your subconscious thinks it’s the truth or not. For example, was the party over when they shifted you from the sofa into the sleeping bag?’
‘Yes.’
‘True,’ said Van Danik, interpreting Ben’s responses from the EEG.
‘How many people were involved in framing you?’
‘Two?’ Ben asked himself aloud.
‘False,’ said Van Danik.
‘Three?’
‘True,’ Van Danik confirmed.
‘I don’t consciously remember that, though,’ Ben argued.
‘True, and it doesn’t matter if you consciously remember or not,’ Van Danik reminded him. ‘However, we do get clearer results if you answer decisively instead of intonating your responses as if they were questions.’
‘I can’t help it. I don’t consciously know the answers, so I feel as if I have to ask — as if my subconscious is someone else.’
‘Okay, try this,’ Zhou said. ‘You’re the parent of a kid who’s too young to speak for himself. You’re at McDonald’s and you’re ordering the kids’ toy-n-meal deal. The pimply teenager behind the sales counter asks which toy you want to go with the meal and you answer based on your knowledge, as limited as it may be, in relation to your own kid.’
‘Be decisive,’ Van Danik added. ‘It’s the tantrum from your subconscious that shows us when it disagrees. Only instead of kicking and screaming, the reaction is bioelectrical.’
‘Oh. Okay. I get it. Hit me again.’
Zhou looked back to his list of questions and typed in the next one. ‘Would you recognise the people who framed you if you saw them again?’
‘No.’
‘Definitely false,’ Van Danik said. ‘That’s a much clearer result. Your subconscious is certain it would recognise them.’
‘As Josh and Jake, you mean?’
‘Let’s narrow it down progressively as a series of cross-checks,’ Zhou replied. ‘Would you recognise their names?’
‘No.’
‘False,’ Van Danik reported. ‘Your subconscious is sure it can.’
‘Would you recognise their voices?’
‘No.’
‘False again. They must be three people familiar to you.’
‘Can you remember everyone who was at the party that night?’ Zhou asked.
‘Yes. I think so.’
‘True,’ reported Van Danik. ‘So tell us the names as a list, and then Zan can question you about them one by one.’
Ben gave them half a dozen names and, by a process of elimination, they pinpointed two who were involved in shifting him into the sleeping bag after they’d spiked his drink — a point that could have saved him from a verdict of guilty. The two names belonged to his old friend Josh Markovy, whom he’d suspected all along, and Josh’s girlfriend, Shelley, whom he never would have suspected in a million years.
‘What about the third name?’ Ben asked. ‘How do we confirm it was Josh’s brother Jake?’
‘By asking you: was the third person Jake?’
‘Yes.’
<
br /> ‘Sorry,’ Van Danik said. ‘He may be guilty but this result only shows that you’ve filled in that blank using a creative thought process; a deduction from other facts and suspicions.’
‘Also by a process of elimination,’ Zhou explained. ‘We know it’s someone you know and whose voice you’d recognise, but it’s also someone who wasn’t at the party. Perhaps they came later.’
Ben nodded, and after twenty more minutes of questioning and cross-questioning they’d pinpointed another name that he’d never have consciously suspected — Shelley’s older brother, Dean, who’d been rock climbing with Ben twice in the week before the crime.
‘Whoa! Hang on...’ Ben rolled his eyes, now making a conscious connection between the rappelling equipment that Dean used for climbing and the most likely method the robbers had used to leave the crime scene. ‘I can’t believe I’m remembering this only now, but the convenience store was at the top of a cliff.’
Zhou scrolled back through his notes. ‘I thought you told us earlier that it was on a main road?’
‘It was facing a main road, sure. But the back fence was at the top of a cliff. And the bottom of that cliff was only a short drive from the party. That has to be the route they used to get back so quickly to set me up. The road would have taken them down the hills the long way.’
‘Fantastic.’ Zhou asked a few more questions about the clothes they’d all been wearing on the night of the robbery, then he switched off the equipment. ‘Now all we have to do is hire a private investigator to come up with the dirt on these three using these leads and ipso facto presto, after a drawn-out media circus, you’ll have justice, we’ll have success and our financiers will have publicity. Assuming they choose to fund your case.’
‘Now what about your client?’ asked Van Danik. ‘What’s her name. Mira, was it? How soon can you fetch her over?’
‘Actually,’ Ben said, scratching his chin, ‘is it possible for you to go to her? Matron Sanchez is willing to compensate you for any inconvenience and pay you for an hour as consulting physicians.’
‘It’s more convenient here,’ Van Danik argued, ‘while our equipment’s still set up.’
‘The thing is,’ Ben confessed, ‘Mira’s been having a tougher time than usual with hallucinations since her stitches came out, so her medication has increased, causing a few other problems. She’s off her meds again, starting this morning, and although she should be fit enough for a session with you today, she won’t be fit enough to travel.’
‘Time is short,’ Van Danik said. ‘Our cargo plane leaves Monday, after which we’ll have to devote all our time to preparing for the first court hearing in a few weeks, regardless of which cases make the short list.’
‘Wow, you must have friends in high places if you can get the ball rolling on any case that quickly!’
‘We do,’ Zhou said, assisting Van Danik in detaching the last few sensor pads from Ben’s arm, forehead and fingers. ‘The media does love a good hard-luck story, especially when it involves an injustice.’
‘More so if the injustice involves an orphan or cripple,’ Van Danik added. ‘And your client is both. So if we see her this morning, we can evaluate if she’ll be of any use to us, and make any relevant recommendations to our financiers as part of our next progress report.’
‘Which happens tonight,’ Zhou explained. ‘Unfortunately, though, I’ve still got a dozen reports to write before then, so if we’re going to see your client, we’d better get packing.’
TWENTY
Matron Sanchez met them at reception in a purple-and-black uniform that matched the new violet highlights in her spiky black hair. Ben noticed a softness in her manner that he recognised as being glad to see him, but he was still so worried about what secrets she may be keeping about Mira’s home that he could only summon a curt nod in response to her greeting.
‘How’s Mira?’ he asked.
‘So far so good. I don’t want to push her too far too soon, though.’ Sanchez turned to the doctors and their two assistants. ‘Can you do the survey in her room?’
‘I can’t see why not,’ Zhou replied. ‘So long as it has a large table and at least one power outlet.’
‘Oh.’ Sanchez frowned. ‘Then it will have to be your old room in B-block. We had to remove all the power outlets in Mira’s room because she tried to open them, claiming they were escape hatches.’
‘Delusional,’ Van Danik said, a tone of presumption returning to his voice.
‘That’s only one diagnosis,’ Ben said in her defence.
‘It’s also the reason,’ Sanchez added, ‘that I want a ringside seat at your circus this time, gentlemen.
If Mira gets upset, I want to know exactly what causes it.’
She opened the visitors’ book to a new page and offered Zhou the pen first.
‘Am I missing something?’ he asked, signing in at 12:47 pm. ‘Did we have an adverse effect on her last time?’
‘We didn’t touch her,’ Van Danik insisted as he took the pen. ‘Remember, her eyes were stitched shut so we didn’t even ask her to sit down, except to listen to a little music while she waited for Ben.’
Sanchez shrugged and dipped into a drawer for a handful of tags that would provide electronic access to most public areas in each ward, as well as the staff toilets. ‘I doubt her troubles relate to any of you,’ she said, handing out the tags, ‘even though they did escalate the same day that she met you.’
She watched Ben sign his name last, then ushered the group towards the nearest stairwell. ‘Go on up and make yourselves at home. I’ll be up as soon as I’ve arranged for someone to fetch Mira over from her ward.’
‘I’ll go,’ Ben offered, and stayed with Sanchez while the others started up the creaking stairs with their bags of equipment.
‘I have to tell you that I’ve been back there,’ he said as soon as the doctors and their two guards were out of earshot.
She looked puzzled. ‘Where?’
‘I’ve seen the earthmovers, Madonna. Please tell me you didn’t send them.’
‘Not directly. But it’s worse than you think.’
‘What could be worse than that?’
‘Her land’s been sold, Ben. When you went out there with her the other day, you were both trespassing.’
‘What? But I —’
She gripped his arm. ‘I swear, if I’d known she was going to recover — even half this much — I’d never have signed off on it. But we’re fighting to survive here, Ben — all of us. It costs a huge amount of money to provide her care every year. The government’s been supporting her for a decade and in all that time she’s never shown a single sign of improvement! If anything, she was deteriorating. All the while, her home’s been deteriorating too, and her file says it was never suitable for renting.’
‘You sold it without even going to see it?’
‘I didn’t need to see it. An asset is an asset and hers had to be liquidated.’
‘So what happens now? What are they building there?’
‘Anything they like. It’s their land. I believe the developers have applied to council for approval of a new housing subdivision. At this rate there won’t be any vacant land left in this state by the end of the decade.’
‘So we can protest? It’s mostly virgin coastline. We have to stop them!’
‘Already on it. Did it look as if they’d stopped when you were there? I was told they were on a tight schedule — dawn-to-dusk labour.’
He shrugged. ‘They’d been busy. Their machines were still there but I didn’t see anybody.’
‘Listen, we can’t reverse the sale, Ben. It’s too late for that. But I’ve offered to buy back the portion of land that her favourite trees are standing on at a price that should be enticing.’
‘And they’ve agreed?’
‘Well, they haven’t not agreed — yet.’
Ben allowed himself a small sigh of relief. ‘That’s something, I suppose. There’s one other thing I wanted t
o discuss with you, though.’
‘Be quick. We don’t want to keep the doctors waiting.’
He opened his duffle bag for her to see inside. ‘I bought Mira a new pair of sunglasses. They might put her in a better mood for coming up here. Also some potpourri for her room, and a child-proof fan.’
Sanchez nodded. ‘Fine. Any help is appreciated. I have to confess that I’m not happy about letting her out of her room yet. Nev and Steffi feel the same.’
‘Please tell me they haven’t used that damn Taser on her?’
‘No, never again.’
‘Or sedated her?’
‘Not heavily. And before you complain, it was to help her sleep, okay? It was risky to cut her off cold turkey, and it seems to have worked; that, and the pizzas you sent. They arrived two hours early by mistake, but the end result was positive. Mira’s really looking forward to your visit and she’s not doing anything that might put that privilege at risk. Steff and Nev even managed to clean away her pizza scraps without being attacked. Still, they’re not going to be happy about fetching her up here without at least two people to accompany her. We’re short-staffed at the moment.’
‘Why can’t Narelle or Carlo help out?’
‘Carlo?’ Sanchez clutched at her breast and her face darkened. ‘You didn’t hear? Oh, no, of course you didn’t.’
‘Hear what?’
‘He was killed on his way home from work on Tuesday.’
‘He’s dead? How?’
‘He was walking home over the old tram bridge and one of the fishermen snared a big one. It flung up, hit Carlo in the head and knocked him into the water. The current was too swift for anyone to dive in after him. By the time they’d attracted the attention of a nearby jet skier to go after him, it was too late.’
Ben’s face paled with shock. ‘Freddie Leopard predicted —’
