She was completely out of control. They had to put her in a padded room where she could not hurt herself, restrained by handcuffs and leg-irons. When the attendants came to feed her, she tried to grab them, and they had to be careful not to get too close to her. Toni had taken total possession of Ashley.
When she saw Dr. Keller, she screamed, “Let me out of here, you bastard. Now!”
“We’re going to let you out of here,” Dr. Keller said soothingly, “but first you have to calm down.”
“I’m calm,” Toni yelled. “Let me go!”
Dr. Keller sat on the floor beside her and said, “Toni, when you saw that picture of your father, you said you were going to hurt him, and—”
“You’re a liar! I said I was going to kill him!”
“There’s been enough killing. You don’t want to stab anyone else.”
“I’m not going to stab him. Have you heard of hydrochloric acid? It will eat through anything, including skin. Wait until I—”
“I don’t want you to think like that.”
“You’re right. Arson! Arson is better. He won’t have to wait until hell to burn to death. I can do it so they’ll never catch me if—”
“Toni, forget about this.”
“All right. I can think of some other ways that are even better.”
He studied her a moment, frustrated. “Why are you so angry?”
“Don’t you know? I thought you were supposed to be such a great doctor. He’s marrying a woman with a three-year-old daughter. What’s going to happen to that little girl, Mr. Famous Doctor? I’ll tell you what. The same thing that happened to us. Well, I’m going to stop it!”
“I’d hoped we’d gotten rid of all that hate.”
“Hate? You want to hear about hate?”
It was raining, a steady downpour of raindrops hitting the roof of the speeding car. She looked at her mother sitting at the wheel, squinting at the road ahead, and she smiled, in a happy mood. She began to sing:
“All around the mulberry bush,
The monkey chased—”
Her mother turned to her and screamed, “Shut up. I told you I detest that song. You make me sick, you miserable little—“
After that, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The curve ahead, the car skidding off the road, the tree. The crash flung her out of the car. She was shaken, but unhurt. She got to her feet. She could hear her mother, trapped in the car, screaming, “Get me out of here. Help me! Help me!”
And she stood there watching until the car finally exploded.
“Hate? Do you want to hear more?”
Walter Manning said, “This has to be a unanimous decision. My daughter’s a professional artist, not a dilettante. She did this as a favor. We can’t turn her down… This has to be unanimous. We’re either giving him my daughter’s painting or we don’t give him anything at all.”
She was parked at the curb, with the motor running. She watched Walter Manning cross the street, headed for the garage where he kept his car. She put the car in gear and slammed her foot down on the accelerator. At the last moment, he heard the sound of the car coming toward him, and he turned. She watched the expression on his face as the car smashed into him and then hurled his broken body aside. She kept driving. There were no witnesses. God was on her side.
“That’s hate, Dockie! That’s real hate!”
Gilbert Keller listened to her recital, appalled, shaken by the cold-blooded viciousness of it. He canceled the rest of his appointments for the day. He needed to be alone.
The following morning when Dr. Keller walked into the padded cell, Alette had taken over.
“Why are you doing this to me, Dr. Keller?” Alette asked. “Let me out of here.”
“I will,” Dr. Keller assured her. “Tell me about Toni. What has she told you?”
“She said we have to escape from here and kill Father.”
Toni took over. “Morning, Dockie. We’re fine now. Why don’t you let us go?”
Dr. Keller looked into her eyes. There was cold-blooded murder there.
Dr. Otto Lewison sighed. “I’m terribly sorry about what’s happened, Gilbert. Everything was going so well.”