She gave him an address in the hills. He knew the area. It was expensive. He felt nervous again.
“See you tomorrow,” he said as he stood to go.
“Tomorrow.”
The detective was here again. Only this time she wasn’t as frightened. Yesterday he had sent flowers. She wondered why the doctors would not release her. She did not know that it was Shindler’s doing.
“How are you this morning, Esther? I thought I would bring these.”
More flowers. A bouquet of roses. Only John and that boy who had taken her to the prom had ever given her flowers. They looked very pretty.
“Thank you. You can put them in the vase on the dresser.”
He looked strange carrying the bouquet. He was tall and gangly and his suit didn’t fit well. The bouquet was lost in his large hand.
“I sent the flowers as a delayed apology for the way I treated you that time at the station house. I felt awfully bad about that.”
She did not know whether to believe him. There was something about Shindler that she did not like. Still, the flowers were pretty and he was acting like a gentleman. Maybe she had been wrong about him.
“That’s okay. I…I’d almost forgot about it.”
“Can I sit down?”
She looked at him for a moment, until it struck her that he was asking her for permission. She wasn’t used to that.
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
“Are you feeling better?”
“I feel fine now. Except the doctor won’t tell me where my boy is.”
“Your son is fine, Esther. I checked this morning. Welfare put him with foster parents.”
He saw the look of alarm on her face.
“Don’t worry. It’s only temporary. I’m looking into it for you, Esther. No one is going to take your baby. You believe me, don’t you?”
She eyed him warily. There was a trap here somewhere. She was afraid again.
“Do you want a cigarette?”
“The doctor said I shouldn’t.”
Shindler winked and held one out to her.
“I’ll cover for you.”
She was going to take it, but she hesitated and drew her hand back.
“No thank you. I’d rather not.”
“Do you mind if I…?”
“It’s okay.”
Shindler lit up.
“You seem to be coming around fine,” Shindler said.
“I guess.”
“I’m glad we didn’t lose you. You’re an important person, Esther.”
There it was again. Warning signals. There was something about his manner, his questions, that frightened her. She wasn’t important to anyone. She never had been.
“Esther, I am here to ask you a favor. Do you think that you would do me a favor?”
“What favor?”
“I know you don’t like to discuss it, but I want to talk to you about Richie Walters and Elaine Murray.”
She could feel her heart accelerate suddenly. She knew there was something! Why wouldn’t he let her be?
“I told you, Mr. Shindler, I really don’t know nothin’ about that.”
“How would you like to clear up everything, once and for all?”
“I would. Honest, Mr. Shindler. You ain’t trying to be mean. I know that. But it upsets me a lot when you talk about that.”
“Okay. I know you get upset. But think of it this way, Esther. Say you were there.” She started to protest and he raised his hand. “I’m not saying that you were. This is something I’m supposing. You know that Richie and Elaine’s murders were the biggest murders we’ve had in Portsmouth, don’t you?”
“I suppose,” she answered grudgingly.
“Okay. Now anyone who helped us solve those murders would be a pretty important person. She would be famous and everyone would be grateful to her, because of the help she had been to the community. So you can see why I think you are so important.”
“But, Mr…”
“Now hear me out, okay?”
Esther gave up and sank back on her pillow.
“Sometimes a person will see something that is so horrible that their own mind won’t let them remember it. Have you ever heard of amnesia?”
“Yeah. But I thought you only got that if someone hit you on the head.”
Shindler smiled.
“That is one way. But the mind is an unusual machine, Esther. It protects its owner. And it can make a person forget unpleasant things. I think that you saw Richie murdered. I don’t think you took any part in the killing. I’m a good judge of character. You get to be that way when you have been a policeman for as long as I have. I think you are too nice a girl to have been knowingly involved in a murder. But let’s just say that you and the Coolidge brothers did get drunk after that party. Do you remember telling me that you thought that you went cruising downtown?”
She nodded.
“Well, let’s suppose that after you went cruising, the Coolidges got into a drag race with Richie and Richie forced them off the road. And let’s suppose that they got mad at Richie and followed him up to Lookout Park and there was a fight and you saw them kill Richie. Now you are a nice girl. You would never do anything like that. That would have been so horrible to a nice person like you that your mind might blank out that part of the evening.”
“But, Mr. Shindler, it wasn’t like that at all.”
“How do you know, Esther? You told me that you were so drunk that you could not remember what happened that evening.”
“Well, I was. But I would remember something like…It just didn’t happen that way.”
She was starting to get upset and Shindler waited for her to calm down.
“Esther, remember I said that we could clear this up once and for all?”
“Yes. I would like that, Mr. Shindler.”
“There is a doctor I know. Dr. Hollander. He is a psychiatrist and he is an expert in hypnotizing people.”
Esther ran her tongue over her lips. Her anguish was evident. Her slender fingers worked the edge of the sheet anxiously.
“Dr. Hollander could hypnotize you. When you are hypnotized, your mind can’t keep your bad memories hidden as easily. Dr. Hollander will be able to tell if I am wrong.”
“I…I don’t know if I want to do that. Why should I see a psychiatrist? I’m not crazy.”
“I never said you were crazy, Esther. It just so happens that the best expert I know in hypnosis is also a psychiatrist. No one thinks you’re crazy.
“And once you get this business cleared up, you will feel better. If I’m wrong, then that will be the end of it. And if I’m right-why you will become a very famous and important person. Everyone in Portsmouth will be grateful to you for clearing up this horrible crime.
“And it will certainly help when I go to welfare to get your son back, if I can tell them how helpful you are being in clearing up this very serious case.”
“You think this would help with the welfare, if I saw the doctor?”
“I’m positive.”
“And you think it’s important?”
“This is very important, Esther. There are a lot of people who will be very grateful to you.”
“Uh, this wouldn’t be in the papers, would it?”
Shindler sensed a note of interest.
“If the doctor finds out that you did see the murders, you would be our star witness.”
Shindler waited while she mulled it over. She took a while before she spoke. When she did speak, her voice betrayed great nervousness and apprehension. But there was something else hidden below the surface. A sense of excitement.
“I want to think, Mr. Shindler. I can’t say now. But maybe I will-if it’s so important.”
4
“Dr. Hollander, this is Esther Pegalosi.”
The doctor was standing in front of an antique rolltop desk when Esther and Roy Shindler entered his office.
“I am pleased to meet you, Mrs. Pegalosi,” the doctor said, flashing her his best Kris Kringle smile. “Roy has told me quite a bit about you.”
Esther looked up nervously at Shindler. The doctor noticed and added, with a laugh, “Oh, it’s all been good. He is quite thrilled that you have consented to help him on this case and I think that you will find all of this quite exciting.