“I can leave after I meet Katz and Dr. Shade at the Farm. Katz is picking me up at eight. God, I hope it isn’t still raining. I haven’t even looked out the window yet.”
“It’s sunny here,” he said as if that meant it had to be sunny in Knoxville.
“If something comes up and you decide not to leave, then change hotels.”
“I will.”
“Then go back to Richmond.”
“No,” I said.
“I can’t do anything about this in Richmond. And Lucy’s not there. At least I know she’s safe. If you talk to Marino, don’t tell him anything about me. Don’t breathe a word about where Lucy is. Just assume he will tell Denesa Steiner. He’s out of control, Benton. He’s confiding in her now, I know it. ”
“I don’t think it would be wise for you to come to North Carolina right now.”
“I’ve got to.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got to find Emily Steiner’s old medical records. I need to go through all of them. I also want you to find out for me every place Denesa Steiner has lived. I want to know about other children or husbands and siblings. There may be other deaths. There may be other exhumations we have to do.”
“What are you thinking?”
“For one thing, I’ll bet you’ll find there is no sick sister who lives in Maryland. Her purpose in driving north was to run my car off the road and hope Lucy died.” Wesley did not say anything. I sensed his equivocation and did not like it.
I was afraid to say what was really on my mind, but I could not be silent.
“And so far there’s no record of the SIDS. Her first child. Vital Records can’t find anything about that in California. I don’t think the child ever existed, and that fits the pattern.”
“What pattern?”
“Benton,” I said, “we don’t know that Denesa Steiner didn’t kill her own daughter.” He let out a deep breath.
“You’re right. We don’t know that. We don’t know much.”
“And Mote pointed out in the consultation that Emily was sickly.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Munchausen’s by proxy.”
“Kay, no one will want to believe that. I don’t think I want to believe that.” It is an almost unbelievable syndrome in which primary care givers–usually mothers–secretly and cleverly abuse their children to get attention. They cut their flesh and break their bones, poison and smother them almost to death. Then these women rush to doctors’ offices and emergency rooms and tell teary tales of how their little one got sick or hurt, and the staff feels so sorry for Mother. She gets so much attention. She becomes a master at manipulating medical professionals and her child may eventually die.
“Imagine the attention Mrs. Steiner has gotten because of her daughter’s murder,” I said.
“I won’t argue that. But how would Munchausen’s explain Ferguson’s death or what you’re alleging happened to Lucy?”
“Any woman who could do what was done to Emily could do anything to anyone. Besides, maybe Mrs. Steiner is running out of relatives to kill. I’ll be surprised if her husband really died of a heart attack.
She probably killed him in some disguised, subtle manner, too. These women are pathological liars. They are incapable of remorse. ”
“What you’re suggesting goes beyond Munchausen’s. We’re talking serial killings now.”
“Cases aren’t always one thing, because people aren’t always one thing, Benton. You know that. And women serial killers often murder husbands, relatives, significant others. Their methods are usually different from those of male serial killers. Women psychopaths don’t rape and strangle people. They like poisons. They like to smother people who can’t defend themselves because they’re either too young or too old or incapacitated for some other reason. The fantasies are different because women are different from men.”
“No one around her is going to want to believe what you’re proposing,” Wesley said.
“It will be hell to prove, if you’re right.”
“Cases like this are always hell to prove.”
“Are you suggesting I present this possibility to Marino?”
“I hope you won’t. I certainly don’t want Mrs. Steiner privy to what we’re thinking. I need to ask her questions. I need her to cooperate.”