Into the Inferno - Earl Emerson [93]
“It would if I thought it was true.”
“Oh, it’s true.”
“Wow!” Hjorth said. “I guess there’s nothing wrong with Joel, then. And the chief must not be dead. Maybe we should go dig him up.”
I gave Hjorth a sharp look. “Why hasn’t he spoken to Dr. Riggs, who right now probably has more medical information about this than anyone?”
“He doesn’t have to talk to another doctor to reach an opinion. He examined Jackie. He said as far as he could tell she was a typical head case from a car accident.”
“He saw Joel, too?”
“No. I told him about everybody else, and he says they’re all within the realm of the normal.” She glanced at Stephanie, who was still seated at the computer behind me. “He said he’s almost positive this whole thing is hogwash. A sad and wonderfully illustrative case of collective delusion.”
“He’s almost positive?” I said.
“You look like you believe him,” Stephanie said to Karrie.
“Well . . . sure I believe him. He’s a doctor.”
“Listen, girl. I’m a doctor. My sister’s been in a brain ward for two months because of this nonexistent syndrome. Trust me, it exists.”
“But Dr. Perkins is internationally recognized.”
“Karrie,” I said. “What if he’s wrong?”
“He’s written books. I found one in the library.”
“A lot of idiots have written books that are in the library. Why not wait a couple of days before making an announcement? If this gets in the news as a fraud, nobody’ll help us. By Monday either I’ll go down or I won’t go down, and you’ll know once and for all.”
“All I did was phone him. He’s researching a new book. Modern Medical Myths: The Hazards of Self-diagnosis and Mass Delusion. It’s so perfect, don’t you see? It fits in perfectly with what’s going on here. You don’t have it. Stan didn’t have it.”
“Is this why your father was trying to disband the committee?”
“I don’t know anything about what my father is doing.”
“You took this doctor to the nursing home,” Ian snapped, “and then you told him about Jim’s wife leaving him and every other irrelevant piece of gossip you could think of.”
“You told him about my wife?”
Karrie backed away. “It’s not like you own the story, Lieutenant. I mean, she left town with my mother.” Having unexpectedly wandered into the mother lode of small-town gossip, Shad and Stevenson began rolling their eyes at each other. “I told him so he would have some background. And it’s a good thing I did, because your personal history works into all this. Dr. Perkins says all this womanizing you’ve been doing has finally come to a head with the delusion about the syndrome, because this woman from Tacoma you were dating, Holly, got sick, and now you’ve transferred your guilt about the way you treated her and whatever else you were feeling about women in general to this syndrome. I should really let him explain. He’s out in the other room gathering background material. When he puts you in his book, you’re going to be famous.”
“As a jackass.” I turned to Stephanie. “You know Perkins?”
“He’s written a couple of pop culture books. He specializes in exposing fad diets and exercise crazes.”
“The chief died out in the woods,” Karrie said. “Happens to hundreds of people every year. Jackie had a car accident because of her alcoholism. Of course Joel has brain injuries. He fell off his roof. Stan got so worked up about this syndrome, he made himself have an accident. Dr. Perkins said he wouldn’t be surprised if you had an accident, too.”
“Karrie. Let me see your hands.” When she tried to rush out of the room, I grabbed her left wrist and held on. She pulled, sticking her feet out like a balky horse, and we played it like a kids’ game until I reeled her in. “Jesus Christ, Karrie. What day are you on?”
“Perkins says it doesn’t fit any syndrome he’s ever heard of.”
“Karrie, you need to decide what you’re going to do.”
“Perkins says the only thing wrong with us is we’re caught up in a form of sympathetic hysteria. Show me one person of all these people where there isn’t another perfectly suitable explanation for how they got hurt.”
I nodded at Stephanie.