He went to George Ryan. Ryan told him coldly to sit down.
“George, something has been going on that you don’t understand.”
“I can’t exactly consider that news, Steve.”
“I can’t tell you about it right now. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Your attitude the last week hasn’t made that a very attractive idea, Steve.”
“I realize all that. Soon, maybe, I can tell you the score. Once I tell you, you’ll be justified in firing me. Just take my word that all this is — enormously important. I need your help. I want to get my kids out of the house and to — a safe place as soon as possible. And I want to quit right now. Quit the job until I can tell you the whole thing. This is Friday. With any luck—”
“What’s this about Paul and Diana?”
“They’re not in any physical danger. Just — emotional danger, George.”
“They know Russ, don’t they? Suppose I have him pick them up at your house and take them out to my place? Would that be okay?”
Steve thought it over. “It would be a perfect place for them to go. George. But I don’t think Russ ought to pick them up at the house. I don’t want Mrs. Chandler, even, to know where they’re going. I’ll phone her and ask her to bring them downtown. I could give Russ a note to give her that would explain it as well as it can be explained.”
“Fix it up with Russ, then. Steve — I’m glad, in a way, that you’re in some kind of trouble. It’s a better answer than the one I was beginning to have. Want to tell me about it?”
“Not yet. What do you know about Dr. Daniels, the county health officer?”
“Van Daniels. Honest, I guess. Sort of dumb. A rum pot. His brother is influential in the capital. That’s how Van Daniels happened to get the appointment.”
“I’ll tell you one thing, George. Don’t ask me to explain it. I’m telling you so you’ll understand the seriousness of the whole thing. I... killed a man.”
Steve saw George’s eyes flick toward the broken hand and away. “I won’t ask you to explain it right now, if that’s what you want, Steve. But let me know if I can help in any way.”
He put his left hand out, and Steve took it. George grinned and said, “Welcome back, anyway.”
It took him a full hour in the back files of the Coleburne Herald before he found the headlines about the setting up of a state committee composed of various state senators, to investigate organized crime in the state. The committee had been allocated seventy-five thousand dollars, and empowered to hire such outside experts as they considered necessary for the job at hand. The chairman of the committee was State Senator Gordon L. LaVerne. and in his first statement to the press LaVerne had said that the committee was fortunate in having secured the services of Brandon McGell, on leave of absence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to supervise the methods of gathering information.
Steve wrote the names awkwardly with his left hand and walked from the newspaper office to the County Courthouse. A fat young girl was the sole occupant of the office of the county health officer. She had a bright fresh sunburn and chewed gum with great intentness.
“About a commitment? You know the name of the party?”
“A Miss Gloria Hess. She was committed to Valley Vale.”
“Recent, eh? Let me check that. Say, our copy isn’t even filed yet. Gloria Hess. Age twenty-five. Dark hair, dark-brown eyes, height five seven and a half, weight one twenty-two. That’s her, I guess. This is a voluntary commitment.”
“Does it give the reason?”
“Here. Take a look. We keep one copy, and the dupe stays in the hospital files. Then they endorse it to us when the patient is discharged.”
He ran his eye down the form. Diagnosis — anxiety neurosis. There were three signatures on the sheet. Dressner’s, Daniels’, and Gloria’s. They all had been written with the same pen, in bright blue ink. Gloria’s signature looked firm, definite. He read the fine legal print, handed it back to the girl.
“How does this sort of thing work?”
“Well, this is the easiest kind, when they do it themselves. It’s more complicated when a relative does it. And when there isn’t any relative to go to bat, it’s really tough. Then the health officer has to witness an actual act of violence and do the committing himself, and he has to take a state policeman along with him. But a person signing themselves in, that’s easy.”
“Suppose they want to sign out again? Suppose they change their mind?”
“That’s tough, mister. They’re in there for the full ninety days or until such time as the doctor says they’re well enough to be released.”
“When will Dr. Daniels be in?”
“He’s overdue now. Some days he takes a real long lunch hour.”
He waited while the girl typed languidly. Daniels came in a half hour later. He was a narrow man. Narrow head, shoulders, and body, and he had a small, incongruous potbelly, as though he were stealing a small watermelon.
“Dalvin, you said? Oh, yes, Mr. Dalvin. Dr. Dressner mentioned you. Come in, come in.” He looked at Steve without friendliness. His voice was a bit slurred and he exuded a thick, unpleasant smell of alcohol.
He waved a hand and Steve followed him back into the small office.
“Sit down, sir. I understand you want to register a complaint about the handling of the case of that Hess girl. I would like you to understand. Mr. Dalvin, that all the affairs of this office are handled in the strictest accordance with all pertinent laws and ordinances governing such—”
“Hold it, please. I think you handled it splendidly, Doctor.”
The graying eyebrows shot up. “Eh! You do?”
“Yes. I’m afraid Dr. Dressner didn’t understand me when I spoke to him over the phone. You see, Miss Hess and I were about to be married. This was a terrible shock to me. Dr. Dressner is annoyed at me because— Well, you know how it is. No doctor likes to lose the services of a good nurse.”
“Yes, but—”
“So he won’t tell me her symptoms or anything like that. And I thought you might be kind enough to tell me how she — acted.”
“Why, of course! Glad to, Mr. Dalvin. She was overwrought. Close, I would say, to hysteria. Very disconnected in her speech. Carrying on at a great rate about something or other.” He leaned forward. “Now, this won’t appear on our records, of course, but she was caught trying to break into Dr. Dressner’s private files. Very irrational behavior. Dr. Dressner and I explained to her that unless she signed herself in, we’d have to get the troopers and have them witness my involuntary-commitment procedure. Very attractive girl. High-strung type. Dressner said she seemed to have the idea that she was being persecuted, and that she was a spy or something. By then, of course, the sedative was beginning to take effect. She was quieting down nicely.”
“Sedative?”
“Oh, yes. Indicated in such conditions. Demerol, I believe Dressner uses. Very effective. Works in a matter of minutes. She was trying to tell me something she thought was important. Poor child. They always have something incomprehensible to tell you, something that’s supposed to be a matter of life and death.”