“You have to explain this to me in detail.” Aldon was agitated. “I want to know exactly what turns a mental patient into a homicidal maniac.” Despite his warmth and charming nature Aldon was not a man to be trifled with. He wanted the facts. He was on a mission.
“Patients are admitted to mental hospitals for a host of disorders,” Tracy started. “The illnesses patients suffer from range from depression and severe personality disorders to forms of psychosis. But please realize, most patients who are admitted have never been violent. In fact, statistics show that mental patients are five times more prone to becoming victims of crime. This is distinctly different from the population at a hospital for the criminally insane.”
Aldon nodded appreciatively. He was clearly impressed by the scope of Tracy’s knowledge.
“Maggie suffered with depression,” he went on.
“Depression has been described as rage directed at the self,” Tracy continued. “When depression lifts, when energy returns, as I said, this is the time of the greatest risk of suicide, or other forms of acting out. The deep rage that has been suppressed is now activated and can be let loose.”
“Maggie’s depression was lifting?” Aldon asked Dr. Wright.
“Yes, it was,” Dr. Wright said. “She did have more energy, was engaged and hopeful.”
“We’re going to need to speak to whomever Maggie interacted with here,” Tracy spoke up.
“Of course,” said Dr. Wright. “As I said, Virginia was her roommate and Maggie was close friends with a few patients, Ashley, Kaylna, Hanna, and others.”
“Write the names down,” Aldon said to Tracy. “If Maggie’s death wasn’t suicide, if she was a victim of murder, what else would cause a patient here to turn into a killer?”
Tracy balked. “The popular view always thinks of mental patients as potential killers,” she said. “But studies suggest that the odds of a mental patient being murdered are five times greater than for anyone else.”
“I can understand that.” Aldon nodded grimly.
“Thank you for quoting that study,” Dr. Wright uttered. “That’s why it’s unlikely that a patient here committed a crime.”
“Unlikely, but possible.” Aldon wouldn’t let go. “I want to know what makes it more possible than not?”
“Even though patients with stable mental illness do not present an increased risk of violence,” Tracy went on, “patients do get worse, they destabilize. Both the circumstances in their lives and the course of their illness are always subject to change. Some start to decompensate.”
“And wouldn’t the staff be aware when someone started to decompensate?” asked Aldon.
“Hopefully,” said Tracy, “but not always. It depends very much upon the patient, the degree of their withdrawal, and ability to camouflage what’s happening within. For psychotic patients, medication lowers the risk of acting out, but in some cases their fury is secretly projected upon others. Strange transferences form between patients. They develop attachments and yearnings that can never be fulfilled.”
“We guard against that,” Dr. Wright tried to interject.
“Some patients do well in hospitals, others grow increasingly hopeless,” Tracy went on. “A few feel they are no longer persons, but have been taken over by staff. They cannot deal with restrictions to their behavior or loss of personal will. Faced with illness and despair all around them, it’s possible for these patients to become violent as well.”
“Most of our patients do well here,” Dr. Wright insisted once again. “We respect who they are. We treat them beautifully.”
Aldon stood up abruptly. “But the ones who died didn’t do well. They ended up dead.”
“No one is denying that.” Dr. Wright’s face flushed once again. “Nevertheless, the patients at Ashton are well protected.”
Aldon stood up swiftly. “Okay, enough theory. I want to see Maggie’s room immediately. And I’m sure Tracy does too.”
“Absolutely,” said Tracy.
Aldon moved closer to her. “Come on,” he said in a husky tone, “let’s get going.”
*
Maggie’s room was on the second floor. Already cordoned off as a crime scene by the police, no one was allowed to go in or out. Aldon flashed his FBI badge and he and Tracy slipped inside the narrow entrance. By the time they arrived, however, the body had been removed and forensics collected. Maggie’s roommate, Virginia, had also been transferred to another room.
Tracy looked at the small room with two twin beds, one on either side of the room. Yellow curtains covered a tiny window high up that barely let in any light. There were no pictures left on the wall and by now, the room had the flavor of a prison cell. A sense of heavy sorrow filled Tracy. At first glance there were no traces of a life that had been snuffed out for no apparent reason.
“We have to talk to other patients who knew Maggie as soon as possible,” said Aldon.
“It may take a while,” said Tracy. “There’s going to be protocol about when and how we can approach patients. Wright isn’t thrilled about our digging in.”
In the dim light Aldon stopped and gazed at Tracy. “I’m glad you’re here,” he murmured. “You’re a great resource, familiar with everything.”
“I know how these places work,” said Tracy.
“And you’re the perfect person to speak to the female patients,” Aldon continued. “I’d like to be with you when you interview some of them.”
“Of course,” said Tracy.
“Wright’s on the defensive,” Aldon continued, “he’s not used to a public investigation. Dollars to doughnuts he’s going to make it hard, pull rank.”
“Yes, I agree,” said Tracy. “He can slow us down a little, but that’s about all. His job is at stake, he’s nervous.”
“He should be nervous,” said Aldon. “Three patients dead, and no weapon found! The killer had to have disposed of the weapon quietly. These are definitely premeditated murders. Same MO, same signature. We’ve got a serial killer on our hands. Someone right here most likely.”
“Maybe?” said Tracy, wanting to calm things down.
“And the hospital was willing to call it suicide!” Aldon burst forth. “How could the police go along with that crap! Someone got bribed big time to quiet it down.”
“Or blackmailed,” added Tracy.
“Cover up,” said Aldon, “obstruction of justice. We could be looking at two separate crimes. We have to see if the staff is covering for someone.”
“I doubt the staff knows who killed these patients,” said Tracy. “And remember, for all we know we may only be looking at a stream of suicides. Hospitals have to keep lots of things that happen inside quiet, or they’d all be closed down.”
Aldon shook his head fitfully. “You’re not on board with hiding information, are you?”
“No, of course I don’t agree with covering up, but it’s a balancing act,” said Tracy. “Wright’s living in la-la land, focusing on his success stories. He has to do it to keep himself going.”
Aldon clearly wasn’t taken in. “Let him find a better way.”
“But on the other hand, we need these hospitals badly,” Tracy continued. “On the whole they do a lot of good.”
“Until they don’t.” Aldon pursed his lips together. “Until their medicine turns to poison.”
Tracy was struck with that phrase. “Sure, medicine turns to poison,” she said, “but poison can also turn to medicine. The pain a patient feels can get so bad that they finally seek treatment, choose something different, change their lives.”
“But how many really get better?” asked Aldon.
“It depends what you mean by getting better,” said Tracy. “If you mean that a person never suffers again, that’s not it. If you mean they learn how to deal with their suffering, stop blaming others, find some meaning in it, that happens all the time.”
Aldon stopped and looked hard at Tracy. “How do you know it happens all the time?”
“I’ve seen it myself,” said Tracy.
Aldon smiled widely suddenly and reached out his hands.
“I like you, Tracy,” he said suddenly. “I like the way you think. I respect your knowledge, and what you’re doing with your life.”
Tracy gave him her hands and he squeezed them encouragingly. I like you too, she wanted to say, but instead simply smiled.
*
“You will be joining us in the dining room for an early dinner tonight,” Dr. Wright informed Tracy and Aldon as soon as they left Maggie’s room. “Patient interviews will start tomorrow morning. We have to get patients ready first. Of course you understand?”
Tracy was eager to get going right away, though. “Time is of the essence,” she replied.
“You’ll get an overview of the patients in the dining room tonight,” Dr. Wright continued. “I’ll point out the ones who spent time with Maggie.”
“How about Deidre? Who was she close to?” Aldon asked. “She only died a month ago.”
“Deidre’s case is closed,” Wright answered fitfully. “What’s the point of adding fuel to the fire and opening it up? I will point out the patients who spent time with Maggie at dinner.”
“I thought you said the patients wouldn’t leave their rooms,” Tracy commented.
Dr. Wright gave her a long piercing glance. “They have no choice about it, do they? When it’s time for dinner, they come and eat their food.”
“Everyone on earth should have a choice.” Aldon grimaced.
“It’s part of the treatment here.” Dr. Wright smiled fitfully. “When it’s time for dinner, like it or not, patients join the community and eat.”