Bonnie - Iris Johansen [50]
“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 will kill him if he’s guilty. I won’t wait for a court to declare him incompetent and let him free or put him in some plush booby hatch.”
“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.