home, I’ll bet the situation doesn’t change much. He’s really into the
academic life-big fish in a small pond. I dropped by the J. C. before
I went to the house and caught a glimpse of him teaching. Guru on the
grass, disciples at his feet. A whole world she’s not part of. The
house reflects it-room after room of his books, his trophies, masculine
furniture. Even in her own home she hasn’t made an imprint.”
“So she makes an imprint on the kid.”
“Using familiar tools, things she remembers from her childhood.
Insulin, needles. Other poisons-manipulating what goes into Cassie’s
mouth the same way her aunt controlled her.”
“What about Chad?”
“Maybe he actually did die of SIDS-yet another traumatic illness in
Cindy’s life-and that was the stress that drove her over the edge. Or
maybe she smothered him.”
“You think your finding the cylinders will scare her off?”
“That would be logical, but with Munchausen, the whole power game, I
suppose it could do just the opposite-raise the ante, challenge her to
get the better of me. So maybe I just made things more dangerous for
Cassie-hell if I know.”
“Don’t flog yourself Where are the cylinders now?”
“Right here. In the car. Can you have them dusted for prints?”
“Sure, but Cindy’s or Chip’s prints on it wouldn’t mean muchone of them
stashed it years ago and forgot about it.”
“What about the lack of dust?”
“It’s a clean cabinet. Or you knocked off whatever dust was on it when
you took it out. I’m talking like a defense attorney now, though we re
not even close to making anyone need one. And if this Benedict guy
touched it, that’s cool too. They were sent to him in the first
place.”
“With the aunt dead, there’d be no reason for him to give them to
Cindy.
“True. If we can pin down this shipment to him after the aunt died,
that would be great. Any serial numbers on the things? Or an
invoice?”
“Let me check . . . no Invoice. But there are serial number.
And the copyright on the manufacturer’s brochure is five years ol
“Good. Give me those numbers and I’ll get on it. In the meantime, I
still think your best bet is to continue playing with Cindy’s head.
Give her a taste of her own medicine.”
“How?”
“Pull her in for a meeting, without the kid-”
“That’s already set up
for tomorrow evening. Chip’ll be there too.
“Even better. Confront her, straight on. Tell her you think someone
is making Cassie sick and you know how. Hold up a cylinder and say
you’re not buying any of this leftover crap. You want to take chances,
go for a big blulf: say you’ve talked to the D.A. and he’s ready to
file charges for attempted murder. Then pray she cracks.
And if she doesn’t?”
“You get thrown off the case, but at least she’ll know someone’s wise
to her. I don’t see what you can gain by waiting any longer, Alex.”
“What about Stephanie? Do I clue her in? Are we eliminating her as a
suspect?”
“Like we said before, she could be Cindy’s secret lover, but there’s no
sign of that. And if she was involved, why would Cindy mess with
Benedict? Stephanie’s a doctor-she could get the same stuff he
could.
Anything’s possible, but far as I can tell, the mom started out looking
good and she keeps getting better.”
“If Stephanie’s off the hook,” I said, “I should let her in on itshe’s
the primary doc. Pulling something this strong without her knowledge
is probably unethical.”
“Why don’t you just sound her out and see how she reacts? Tell her
about the cylinders and see where she goes with it. If you’re
satisfied she’s clean, take her along with you when you play with
Cindy’s head. Strength in numbers.”
“Play with her head? Sounds fun.”
“It rarely is,” he said. “If I could do it for you, I would.”
“Thanks. For everything.”
Anything else?”
Finding the Insujects had pushed the visit to Dr. )anos’s office out
of my head.
“Plenty,” I said, and told him how Huenengarth had beat me to Dawn