Part 33 (1/2)
”Why haven't you ever told anyone this before?”
”Because it was all my fault.”
”It wasn't,” Alex said. ”You were only a child. You weren't responsible for what the adults did.”
G.o.dwin shushed him with his finger to his lips. Dolly rolled her head from side to side: ”It was all my fault.”
”This has gone on long enough,” G.o.dwin whispered to Jerry. ”She's made some gains. I want to have a chance to consolidate them.”
”But we haven't even got to the Haggerty case.”
”Make it short then.” G.o.dwin said to the girl: ”Dolly, are you willing to talk about last Friday night?”
”Not about finding her.” She screwed up her face until her eyes were hidden.
”You needn't go into the details of finding the body,” Jerry said. ”But what were you doing there?”
”I wanted to talk to Helen. I often walked up the hill to talk to her. We were friends.”
”How did that happen to be?”
”I ingratiated myself with Helen,” she said with queer blank candor. ”I thought at first she might be the lady--the woman who shot my mother. The rumor was going around the campus that she was close to Dean Bradshaw.”
”And you were on the campus to find that woman?”
”Yes. But it wasn't Helen. I found out she was new in town, and she told me herself there was nothing between her and Bradshaw. I had no right to drag her into this.”
”How did you drag her in?”
”I told her everything, about my mother and Bradshaw and the murder and the woman at the door. Helen was killed because she knew too much.”
”That may be,” I said, ”but she didn't learn it from you.”
”She did! I told her everything.”
G.o.dwin pulled at my sleeve. ”Don't argue with her. She's coming out of it fast, but her mind is still operating below the conscious level.”
”Did Helen ask you questions?” I said to the girl.
”Yes. She asked me questions.”
”Then you didn't force the information on her.”
”No. She wanted to know.”
”What did she want to know?”
”All about Dean Bradshaw and my mother.”
”Did she say why?”
”She wanted to help me in my crusade. I went on a sort of crusade after I talked to Daddy in the hotel. A children's crusade.” Her giggle turned into a sob before it left her throat. ”The only thing it accomplished was the death of my good friend Helen. And when I found her body--”
Her eyes opened wide. Then her mouth opened wide. Her body went rigid, as if it was imitating the rigor of the dead. She stayed like that for fifteen or twenty seconds.
”It was like finding Mommy again,” she said in a small voice, and came fully awake. ”Is it all right?”
”It's all right,” Alex said.
He helped her up to a sitting position. She leaned on him, her hair mantling his shoulder. A few minutes later, still leaning on him, she walked across the hallway to her room. They walked like husband and wife.
G.o.dwin closed the door of the examination room. ”I hope you gentlemen got what you wanted,” he said with some distaste.
”She talked very freely,” Jerry said. The experience had left him drained.
”It was no accident. I've been preparing her for the last three days. Pentothal, as I've told you before, is no guarantee of truth. If a patient is determined to lie, the drug can't stop him.”
”Are you implying she wasn't telling the truth?”
”No. I believe she was, so far as she knows the truth. My problem now is to enlarge her awareness and make it fully conscious. If you gentlemen will excuse me?”
”Wait a minute,” I said. ”You can spare me a minute, doctor. I've spent three days and a lot of Kincaid's money developing facts that you already had in your possession.”
”Have you indeed?” he said coldly.
”I have indeed. You could have saved me a good deal of work by filling me in on Bradshaw's affair with Constance McGee.”
”I'm afraid I don't exist for the purpose of saving detectives work. There's a question of ethics involved here which you probably wouldn't understand. Mr. Marks probably would.”
”I don't understand the issue,” Jerry said, but he edged between us as if he expected trouble. He touched my shoulder. ”Let's get out of here, Lew, and let the doctor get about his business. He's cooperated beautifully and you know it.”
”Who with? Bradshaw?”
Codwin's face turned pale. ”My first duty is to my patients.”
”Even when they murder people?”
”Even then. But I know Roy Bradshaw intimately and I can a.s.sure you he's incapable of killing anyone. Certainly he didn't kill Constance McGee. He was pa.s.sionately in love with her.”
”Pa.s.sion can cut two ways.”
”He didn't kill her.”
”A couple of days ago you were telling me McGee did. You can be mistaken, doctor.”
”I know that, but not about Roy Bradshaw. The man has lived a tragic life.”