She was thinking, an index finger touching her chin. “He was very industrious, I remember that.
Made a lot of leather belts, brass rubbings. And he loved to knit, which was a little unusual. Most of the male patients won’t knit, don’t want to. They’ll stick with leather work, make ashtrays and so on. He was very creative and really pretty skilled. And something else stands out. His neatness. He was obsessively neat, always cleaning off his work space, picking bits and pieces of whatever off the floor. Like it really bothered him if everything wasn’t just right, clean.”
She paused, lifting her eyes to mine.
“When did he make the complaint about Jim Barnes?” I asked.
“Not too long after I started working at Valhalla.”
She hesitated, thinking hard. “I think Frankie had only been at Valhalla a month or so when he said something about Jim. I think he said it to another patient. In fact”–she paused, her prettily arched brows moving together in a frown–“it was actually this other patient who complained to Dr.
Masterson.”
“Do you remember who the patient was? The patient Frankie told this to?”
“No.”
“Could it have been Al Hunt? You mentioned you hadn’t been working at Valhalla long. Hunt would have been a patient eleven years ago during the spring and summer.”
“I don’t remember Al Hunt…”
“They would have been close to the same age,” I added.
“That’s interesting.”
Her eyes filled with innocent wonder as they fixed on mine. “Frankie had a friend, another teen-age boy. I do remember that. Blond. The boy was blond, very shy, quiet. I don’t recall his name.”
“Al Hunt was blond,” I said.
Silence.
“Oh, my God.”
I prodded her. “He was quiet, shy …”
“Oh, my God,” she said again. “I bet it was him, then! And he committed suicide last week?”
“Yes.”
“Did he mention Jim to you?”
“He mentioned someone he called Jim Jim.”
“Jim Jim,” she repeated. “Jeez. I don’t know …”
“Whatever happened to Frankie?”
“He wasn’t there long, two or three months.”
“He went back home?” I asked.
“I would imagine so,” she said. “There was something about his mother. I think he lived with his father. Frankie’s mother deserted him when he was small–it was something like that, anyway. All I really remember is his family situation was sad. But then, I suppose you could say the same thing about most all the patients at Valhalla.”
She sighed. “God. This is something. I haven’t thought about all this in years. Frankie.”
She shook her head. “I wonder what ever became of him.”
“You have no idea?”
“Absolutely none.”
She looked a long time at me, and it was coming to her. I could see the fear gathering behind her eyes. “The two people murdered. You don’t think Frankie …”
I said nothing.
“He never was violent, not when I was working with him. He was very gentle, actually.”
She waited. I did not respond.
“I mean, he was very sweet and polite to me, would watch me very closely, do everything I told him to do.”
“He liked you, then,” I said.
“He knitted a scarf for me. I just remembered. Red, white, and blue. I’d completely forgotten. I wonder what happened to it?”
Her voice trailed off. “I must have given it to the Salvation Army or something. I don’t know.
Frankie, well, I think he sort of had a crush on me.” She laughed nervously.
“Mrs. Wilson, what did Frankie look like?”
“Tall, thin, with dark hair.” She briefly shut her eyes.
“It was so long ago.”
She was looking at me again. “He doesn’t stand out. But I don’t remember him as being particularly nice looking. You know, I would remember him better, maybe, if he had been really nice looking or really ugly. So I think he was kind of plain.”
“Would your hospital have any photographs of him on file?”
“No.”
Silence again. Then she looked at me with surprise.
“He stuttered,” she said slowly, then again with conviction.
“Pardon?”
“Sometimes he stuttered. I remember. When Frankie got extremely excited or nervous, he stuttered.”
Jim Jim.
Al Hunt had meant exactly what he had said. When Frankie was telling Hunt what Barnes had done or tried to do, Frankie would have been upset, agitated. He would have stuttered. He would have stuttered whenever he talked to Hunt about Jim Barnes. Jim Jim!