"Give me that number? I may be able to have her call you right back."
"Can't you just give me her number?"
"She wouldn't be pleased if I did that"
More paranoia? I wondered. I dictated the number of my cell phone.
The woman on the other end of the line said, "Wait there five minutes. I'll try and find her and have her call. I'm Satoshis roommate by the way. I'm Roz."
"Roz, is Satoshi okay?"
"What do you mean?"
"She seemed… worried about something today"
"She's not herself. Let's leave it at that."
I left it at that and said, "Thank you, Roz."
A few minutes later the phone rang and startled me, despite the fact that I was waiting for it to do just that. I answered it after half a ring, saying, "Satoshi?"
"Yes?"
"Its Alan Gregory. I'm at the airport. I forgot to ask you about something that I need to know. Do you mind?"
"I don't mind. It's all right. I only have a few minutes before I need to T.A. a class, though. I hope it won't take long."
"It shouldn't. I'll be… blunt. I'm trying to determine if your sister was involved in a relationship around the time she disappeared."
"You mean a romantic relationship? Are you asking about a boyfriend?"
"Yes."
"Not that I know of, no. She hung around with a group of kids, mostly Tami's friends. But she wasn't dating anyone. I would have known about that. She and I were close. We talked a lot."
Despite my promise of frankness, I had hoped to approach the rumor indirectly.
That attempt had failed. So I decided to confront the innuendo straight on.
"I've heard, but have not been able to substantiate, that she might have been involved with… an older man. Someone in town.
Do you know anything about that?"
"You're kidding."
"No"
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"But you suspect someone specific, don't you? I can hear in your voice that you are… I don't know, casting for a… a certain fish."
"I don't suspect someone in particular. But at that time there were people in Steamboat who suspected that the relationship between your sister and Raymond Welle might have been… less than professional. Improper, even."
"What? Raymond Welle? Dr. Welle? You think that my sister was involved with Dr. Welle?"
"Perhaps."
Her voice became hard and all remnants of her accent evaporated.
"No way. She idolized him."
I didn't find that argument persuasive.
"If she felt so positive about him, why would you rule out a more "
"It's not possible. That's all."
"Satoshi, please help me understand why. If the rumors are false, I need to be able to put them to rest."
"It's simple. Mariko would not have taken me to see him if he was being inappropriate with her."
"You saw Dr. Welle? You mean professionally?"
"You didn't know? I understood that you'd spoken with Dr. Welle already. My father said he gave you permission. I assumed Dr. Welle had told you that he'd met with me."
"But you didn't think he would have told me about the rape?"
"No. He wouldn't be allowed to, would he? Wouldn't he be forbidden to breach confidentiality?"
"Yes, he would have been prohibited, but the reality is that I didn't know you had seen him professionally. Your father didn't mention it to me. And Dr. Welle certainly didn't."
"My father didn't know. I only saw Dr. Welle once. It was Mariko's idea. It was right after I told her about… that time with Joey. She thought he could help me like he helped her."
I tried to keep the dates straight.
"I thought you said that no one knew about what Joey did to you except for Mariko." "I'm sorry. When I said that, I thought you already knew about my meeting with Dr. Welle."
"You saw Welle-what?-a day or two before your sister and Tami disappeared?"
"I saw him that same afternoon. After school with Mariko. She came with me. She took me to see him."
"To his office?"
"No. We met him at his ranch."
At his ranch?
"Why did you meet him at his ranch?"
She seemed perplexed at my question.
"That's where Mariko took me. I never asked why."
"Was he… helpful?"
She was suddenly hesitant.
"He was kind. He listened to me. But he said he couldn't see me again without my parents' permission. And, of course, I couldn't ask them for permission.
They would want to know why I needed his help. I couldn't tell them that. Then Mariko disappeared and…"
"You never saw him again?"
"Never. Maybe around town once or twice, but not professionally. Is that it? I really have to go."
"One more thing. Did he send you to someone else for help? To a colleague, maybe?"
"No"
"Did he arrange for you to see a physician after the rape?"
"No"
"Did he encourage you to report the assault to the police?"
"No."
"To your parents?"
"I really do have to go. No. He didn't do any of those things. He was… compassionate. That's all. I really have to go."
I thanked her.
She said goodbye.
I had to give Welle credit for refusing to see Satoshi for more than one psychotherapeutic intervention. There were many reasons for him to refuse.
Treating two siblings in the same family was risky business in any circumstance. Although it was always a difficult choice to refuse to see someone in crisis, it was the ethical decision when the patient was a thirteen-year-old who was lacking parental permission for psychological treatment. But why hadn't Welle made subsequent arrangements for Satoshi to see a physician? And why hadn't he referred her on to someone else in town for further evaluation and psychotherapy? I didn't understand that.
Perhaps Satoshi's memory of the events was clouded by the trauma she had suffered.
Satoshi's conclusion that Mariko would not have taken her younger sister to see a man with whom she was romantically involved was logically flawed. If the transference in Mariko's therapy permitted her to view Welle positively enough to become involved with him romantically herself, she wouldn't have refused to involve her younger sister with him, either.
I was also troubled by the very fact that Mariko even knew where Raymond Welle lived.
And why had Welle not told me he had seen Satoshi for a crisis visit? That puzzle wasn't so hard. I quickly determined that there were lots of reasons why he might not have been more forthcoming.
One, I hadn't asked.
Two, he didn't have permission from anyone to discuss Satoshi's visit with me or with anyone else.
Three, he actually didn't have the legal right to see Satoshi at all. She'd been thirteen, below the age where she is permitted in Colorado to consent to her own treatment.
Four, when he did agree to see her, he saw her at the Silky Road RANCH. Not at his office. A questionable decision, for sure.
I concluded that if I were in Raymond Welle's shoes, I'd probably keep Satoshi's visit to myself as well.
But with the information that Satoshi had given me about her visit to the Silky Road Ranch I was in a position to view Raymond Welle differently. I now knew that Welle knew that Joey Franklin was a rapist, which was something that Raymond Welle didn't know I knew.
I typed furiously from moments after takeoff until moments before landing, trying to capture the essence of what I'd learned from Satoshi
Hamamoto. It seemed that the more I learned about the case of the two dead girls, the longer my task list grew.
At the top of the list: talking with Joey Franklin. Meeting the famous young golfer no longer felt at all like an option.
Once back home I faxed my report to A. J. and spent a couple of hours puzzling through the new information with Lauren. She had as much difficulty as I did deciding what any of it actually meant.
While we started getting ready for bed, she spelled it out.
"Let's pretend that it's all true. Right? Raymond Welle now has two possible motives for killing those girls, or at least being involved in their deaths. We were concerned when we thought he might have been covering up for being sexually involved with Mariko, correct?" I nodded.