While the microphones were clipped on and the lights set up, Diane chatted off camera with Owen Messinger.
“Thank you for fitting us in, Doctor,” she said.
“I’m glad we could work things out.” Owen smiled, a bit too toothy for Diane’s taste. “The day started with a burglary here, and it’s been nonstop since then.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Diane. “I hope nothing too valuable was taken.”
“Actually, I could never put a monetary value on the things that were taken.” He nodded in the direction of the bookcase. “All the patient notes that I had been keeping for a clinical study I’ve been working on.”
Diane groaned. “How miserable for you. Will you be able to reconstitute them?”
Owen frowned. “I’m not sure.”
Segueing to the interview, Diane explained what they were going to be talking about. “As I told you in my phone message, Dr. Messinger, Hourglass is doing a story on ‘girls who cry wolf’—women, that is, who disappear for a few days, only to show up falsely claiming that they’d been kidnapped. I was originally sent down here to cover the Leslie Patterson story, and though the abduction and death of Carly Neath changes the dynamic, we still want the same questions answered for our viewers.”
“Okay,” the doctor said, smoothing back his hair. “I’ll do my best.”
Diane glanced at her camera crew. “Ready, guys?”
“Rolling,” Sammy confirmed.
Diane cleared her throat. “First of all, Dr. Messinger, research shows that while kidnappings themselves may be on the decline, falsified kidnappings are more common than anyone would suspect. More often than not, these kinds of hoaxes are perpetrated by females. What’s going on?”
“You’re right, Diane. Despite all the publicity and hysteria, abductions by strangers have actually been falling for years. Statistically, a child has a greater chance of dying of a heart attack than of being kidnapped and killed by a stranger.”
“And what about the young women who are faking these things? Why would a woman do that?”
“Many times, it’s a call for help. They crave attention. The woman may feel unloved and uncared for. Invisible, as it were.” Owen reached for his glass of water and took a swallow before continuing. “Unfortunately, when a person makes a false report, it damages the credibility of real victims, not to mention wasting police funds. It also frightens the public.”
Diane knew she already had some solid sound bites. She crossed her legs and continued. “Here in Ocean Grove, Leslie Patterson, the first young woman to disappear, was suspected of crying wolf until Carly Neath was abducted. What does it do to a person who is telling the truth when people don’t believe her?”
“Well, I can’t comment on Leslie’s case specifically, but you can imagine how you would feel, can’t you, Diane? Feelings of frustration and even anger would be pronounced. And there is also a sense of terrible isolation. You know you are proclaiming the truth, and yet no one believes you. You feel totally alone, and you want vindication.”
At his last words, the doctor stared intensely into Diane’s eyes, and she felt herself grow uncomfortable. Owen Messinger was a natural for television. His answers were succinct and interesting. Yet there was something she couldn’t quite put her finger on that disturbed her. She thought of the middle-aged man who had pleaded for her attention as she and the crew had arrived downstairs. Larry Belcaro didn’t think too highly of Dr. Messinger. Suddenly Diane wanted to know why.
“Dr. Messinger, when we were in the parking lot here, we couldn’t help but notice the group of young women who had just left this building, Leslie Patterson among them. Were they all your patients?”
“I can’t really say.”
“Of course not,” said Diane. “Well, let me put it another way. Do your patients usually leave weeping?”
“Therapy can be painful, Ms. Mayfield.”