“For someone who’s not a shrink, you’re not bad, Norman,” Quinlan said.
“What do you mean he’s not a shrink?” Scott said.
“He’s a plastic surgeon. He deals with the outside of the head, not the inside. He’s a fake. He’s a criminal. And he watched your husband hurt his own daughter. I have no reason to lie to you, Mrs. St. John.”
“Bastard,” Dr. Beadermeyer said. “All right, Noelle, if you no longer believe me, no longer trust my word, then I won’t take Sally back with me. I’ll leave. I’ve got nothing more to say. The only reason I came here was to help Sally.”
He took a step forward, but Quinlan was up in an instant. Three steps and he had Dr. Beadermeyer’s tie in his fist. He said very softly, right in his face, “Who is paying you to hold Sally now that her father’s dead? Scott here? If so, why? Why was she put away? It wasn’t just revenge, was it?” Quinlan knew, but he wanted to hear it out of Beadermeyer’s mouth.
“Noelle is paying me only for her regular treatment, the same as I’ve always received.”
“Bullshit. Who’s paying you? You still want to lie, do you? Well, I’ll be able to tell you, Mrs. St. John, exactly the amount your dear husband was paying this little bastard, just as soon as the FBI finishes going through all his crooked little books.”
“I’m calling my lawyer. You can’t do this. I’ll sue you, all of you.”
“If Mrs. St. John was paying you just for Sally’s care, then why did you come to The Cove, knock both Sally and me on the head, and haul her back to your sanitarium? Did you bill Noelle for the airfare? And your little excursion to the Bonhomie Club with those two goombas- will you send Noelle a bill for their services? How about that rear window I shot out? Don’t you bill for overtime, Norman? No comment this time? Don’t you even want to insist that you’re such a dedicated doctor that you’ll do anything to help your poor patients?” Quinlan turned to Noelle, who looked as if she’d love to have a knife. She was looking at Dr. Beadermeyer with very new eyes. “When I got to Sally in the sanitarium she was so drugged it took more than a day to clear her out. That sounds like great treatment, doesn’t it, Noelle?”
“Oh, I believe you, Mr. Quinlan. I believe you now.”
Dr. Beadermeyer just shrugged and looked down at his fingernails.
“Maybe,” Quinlan said, “it’s Scott here who wants his wife kept under wraps?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Scott Brainerd yelled. “I never did anything, just told her father how worried I was about her.”
Noelle said very calmly, “No, Scott, that isn’t true. You’re lying as well. All of you lied to me. If it had been just Amory, I wouldn’t have bought it for a minute, but no, all of you were just like this Greek chorus, telling me the same thing over and over until I believed you. Goddamn you, I believed you! I allowed you to put my little girl in that goddamn institution!”
Quinlan quickly stepped out of the way when he saw her coming. She dashed to Beadermeyer and slammed her fist into his jaw before he even had a chance to twitch.
He reeled back against the mantelpiece. Noelle stepped back, panting. “You bastard.” She whirled around to face Scott. “You vicious little shit, why did you do this to my daughter? How much did my husband pay you?”
Sally rose from the sofa. She walked to her mother. She put her arms around her. “Thank you,” she said against her mother’s hair. “Thank you. I hope I can hit Beadermeyer myself before this is all over.”
Sally wiped her damp hands on her pants legs. She felt such a surge of relief that it made her mouth dry. She actually smiled as she said to Scott, “I’m divorcing you. It shouldn’t take long, since I don’t even want my poor ivy plant that’s probably already dead anyway. My lawyer will serve the papers on you as soon as I can arrange it.”