“I am by no means an expert but in the majority of cases it is a role playing issue. Nothing more, nothing less. As I understand it, sometimes it involves masochism, but not always.”
“Spanking? That sort of thing?”
“Yes. Like any type of sexual fetish, it can be taken to any degree imaginable.”
“Women and men?”
Dr. Pregler nodded. “Women and men, definitely, in both roles. Not children, though. Infantilism is not related to pedophilia.”
“I see. So, is it possible for this kind of role-playing to get out of hand? As in, leading to murder?”
“Of course. As I said, any type of sexual role playing can be taken to an extreme.”
Mary thought about it.
“Okay, so let me ask you about psychology as a profession. How does it work? Do you monitor each other? Or just wait until things reach a court of law?”
“Physician, heal thyself, kind of thing?” the woman said. She had taken off her glasses and now chewed one end of the stem. Mary had heard that was a good way to get an ear infection.
“Sort of.”
“Your best bet would be the Psychiatric Review Board, which manages and oversees all claims of abuse,” Dr. Pregler said. “If you’re looking for information before it reaches court, that would be the place to begin. However, some of the information is public, but much of it is not. The service is free and patients can walk in and demand to see any complaints that have been lodged against a certain doctor.”
The woman scribbled something down on a sheet of paper and handed it to Mary.
“Here’s their address.”
Mary tucked it inside her purse.
“Can you give me any kind of idea how often there is trouble between a patient and his or her therapist?”
The woman nodded. “Much less often than you would think. In thirty years practicing psychology I’ve had less than half a dozen issues with patients. And I expect I’m fairly normal compared to my colleagues.”
“I see,” Mary responded.
“Now Detective Cornell said you had some relationship issues you wanted to talk to me about.”
Mary flushed slightly.
That jackass.
“No, no issues with me. Just the case,” Mary said. “Jake, however, definitely needs his head examined.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Psychological Association of Los Angeles was located in a single-story, fifties-style office building that sat on the corner of a quiet street in Reseda. Mary parked the Accord and went inside.
There was an unattended counter with a computer monitor and a chair. The monitor was turned off. The calendar was a month behind.
“Hello?” Mary said.
She heard a shuffling of papers and then a woman appeared. She was old but dyed her hair a cross between black and dark, dark red. She had on a black sweater over a red blouse, gray slacks, and shoes with thick black straps.
“How may I help you?” she said.
“I’d like to look into any information you have on Dr. Frank Fallon,” Mary said.
“Okay,” the woman said. She went to a computer, tapped the keys for a bit, and then looked up at Mary.
“We have different categories of information. Professional accomplishments, education, services offered…”
“I’m looking for any illegal activity,” Mary said. “Crimes, lawsuits, criminal activity. Anything like that.”
“I see,” the woman said. “The only information we can provide are documents that have already been made public. We use a software program that’s searchable by the physician’s name. There may be criminal information, but that would be stored separately. I can only give you what I find through the search. Anything else, you would need a court order.”
The woman tapped the keys some more.
“I’ve got about twenty pages of documents,” she said. “We charge ten cents a page.”
“Let her rip,” Mary said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mary grabbed a coffee to go from the Peet’s just down the street from her building, then went to her office, put her feet up on her desk, and set the papers on her lap.
She sipped the dark, strong brew until it was nearly half gone, then set it on her desk.
Mary picked up the papers and started reading, occasionally taking a coffee break before diving back into the documents.
By the time she was done, she learned that there had been only one real stretch of trouble for Dr. Frank Fallon.
A woman named Robin Dipple had filed a formal assault charge against Fallon. The charge had been resolved out of court, but news of the woman’s original complaint was still on file.
There were a few other minor skirmishes over billing and one instance of a supposed breach of patient confidentiality.
But that was it.
Mary double-checked the date of the original complaint. It had been nearly two years ago.
She glanced at the clock. There was still time to give Robin Dipple a call if she could track down the number. A quick search yielded an R. Dipple in Beverly Hills, and another in Long Beach.
Mary gambled and called the number in Beverly Hills.
A woman answered.
Mary explained she wanted to talk to the Robin Dipple who filed a complaint against Dr. Frank Fallon. She explained she was a private investigator.
The woman hesitated only briefly then surprised Mary by volunteering her address. She told Mary to stop by around lunch time and she would happily tell her all about Dr. Frank Fallon.
Mary loved it when cases picked up steam, and this one was starting to give off smoke.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mary was getting ready to leave her office for her appointment with Robin Dipple when a woman appeared in her lobby.
Mary immediately recognized her. She was the woman Mary had seen in the hallway outside of Dr. Frank Fallon’s office when she had gone there to question him.
“Hello?” Mary said, leaving her office to enter the waiting area.
“Hi, are you Mary Cooper?” the woman said.
“I am.”
“Hi, I’m Ann Budchuk. Do you have a couple of minutes to talk?”
Mary’s curiosity was piqued.
“Sure, come in,” she said. “Do you want anything? Water? Coffee?”
“No thank you,” Budchuk said.
They went into Mary’s office and the woman sat in a chair across from Mary’s desk. Mary slid her office chair out so the desk wasn’t between them.
“What brought you into a private investigator’s office?” Mary asked.
“I heard you at the doctor’s office…that you were looking into Craig Locher’s death.”
Mary hid her surprise.
“Did you know Mr. Locher?” Mary said, neither confirming nor denying if she was working the case.
“I did. We worked together years ago at a marketing firm and kept in touch. He was the one who actually recommended Dr. Fallon to me. I was shocked to hear he was murdered.”
“Do you have any idea who might have wanted to harm him?”
The woman shook her head. “No, everyone loved Craig, that was the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, women were attracted to him, men loved to go drinking with him because he was fun and always made the party better with his presence. So he was constantly getting pulled by various people in tons of different directions. And he had a big problem saying no. So he almost always said yes. And that caused problems for him.”