bET. STURGIS: So . . . you read up on Munchausen syndrome-doing the
old professor thing.
MR. JONES: (laughs) What can I tell you? In the end we all revert.
.
. . It was a revelation, believe me. learning about the syndrome. Not
that I ever imagined, in the beginning, that Cindy might be doing
something to hen Perhaps I was too slow to suspect, but my own
childhood. . . too painful. I suppose I repressed. But then. . .
when I read.
bET. STURGIS: What? Why are you shaking your head?
MR. JONES: It’s hard to talk about . . . so cruel. . . You think you
know someone and then. . . But the fiteverything started to fit.
Cindy’s history. Her obsession with health. The techniques she must
have used.. . disgusting.
bET. STURGIS: Such as?
MR. JONES: Smothering to simulate asphyxia. Cindy was always the one
who got up when Cassie cried-she only called me when things got bad.
Then those terrible GIgastrointestinal-problems and fevers. Once I saw
something brown in Cassie’s baby bottle. Cindy said it was organic
apple juice and I believed her. Now I realize it must have been some
sort of fecal matter. Poisoning Cassie with her own filth so that
she’d get an infection but it would be an autologous one-selfinlection,
so that no foreign organism would show up on the blood tests.
Disgusting, isn’t it?
bET. STURGIS: That it is, Prof What’s your theory on the seizures?
MR. JONES: Low blood sugar, obviously. Overdose of insulin. Cindy
knew all about insulin, because of her aunt. I guess I should have
figured it out-she talked about her aunt’s diabetes all the time,
wouldn’t let Cassie have any junk food but it really didn’t sink in. I
guess I really didn’t want to believe it, but. . . the evidence. I
mean, at some point one simply has to stop denying, doesn’t one? But
still. . . Cindy had-has-her frailties, and sure, I was furious with
her for her sexual acting-out. But her own child. .
bET. SrvRGIS: Hers, only.
MR. JONES: Yes, but that’s beside the point. Who wants to see any
child suffer?
bET. STURGIS: So you went over to the university and pulled medical
articles out of the SAP data bank.
MR. JONES: (unintelligible) bET. SrvRGIS: What’s that?
MR. JONES: No more questions, okay? I’m getting a little tired.
bET. STURGIS: bid I say something that offended you?
MR. JONES: Tony, make him stop.
MR. T0~RI~: Session ended.
bET. STURGIS: Sure. Absolutely. But I just don’t get it.
We’re having a good talk, all convivial, and then all of a sudden I say
something about the SAP data bank that great computerized system
they’ve got, where you can pull articles right off the computer and
Xerox them? Something just click about that, Professor? Like the fact
that professors can open an account and get an itemized monthly bill?
MR. TOKARIK: My client and I have no idea what you’re talking
aboubET.
S’rURGIS: Steve?
bET. MARTINEZ: Here you go.
MR. TOKARIK: Ah, more tricks from the police bag.
bET. STURGIS: Here. You look at it, Counselor. The articles with the
red stars are on sudden infant death. Check the dates your client and
Ms. Kirkash pulled em out of the computer.
Six months before Chad died. The blue ones are on Munchausen
syndrome.
Check those dates and you’ll see he pulled those two months after
Cassie was born-long before her symptoms started. To me that spells
premeditation, don’t you think, Counselor? Though I have enjoyed the
little comedy routine he’s just done for us maybe the fellas on cell
block will enjoy it, too. Hell, maybe you can get him off High-Power
and into the main population, Counselor. So he can teach those
sociopaths some sociology what do you say?
What’s that?
MR. JONES: (unintelligible) MR. TOKARIK: ChipbET. STURGIs: Are those
tears I see, Chipper? Poor baby.
Speak up-I can’t hear you.
MR. JONES: Let’s deal.
bET. SrvRGis: Deal? For what?
MR. JONES: Reduced charges: assault assault with a deadly weapon.
That’s all you’ve got evidence of, anyway.
bET. S’11IRGIS: Your client wants to negotiate, Counselor. I suggest
you advise him.