House of Bathory(106)
Dear Dr. Path:
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Andrew Simonoff, a practicing analytical psychotherapist here in Palm Beach, Florida, and graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in New York.
I have been working with a young patient for the last three years. Her name will not be mentioned in this letter but she is the sister of one of your patients. I shall refer to your patient only by her initials: DH. My patient will be identified by the initial M.
You must realize that only extraordinary circumstances—and concern for the health and welfare of our patients—would lead me to write to you.
In short, my patient has disappeared and I fear for her safety. According to her stepfather, she left their house in Palm Beach yesterday evening and has not returned.
He received notification of a charge on his credit card for an airline ticket to Krakow, Poland.
The stepfather is distraught, and perhaps with good reason. M.’s behavior has been erratic of late and her sudden departure indicates a mental struggle that has been ongoing for at least the past three years of therapy.
I believe that she may be trying to find her sister in Eastern Europe. Her stepfather reports that she was tracking your patient via a GPS device. That device has also disappeared from the house.
If you should encounter M., you should be aware of a few psychological factors that may protect you, your patient, and my patient.
She can become enraged to a point of violence. This includes episodes in which she can do harm to herself and others. Because of a deep-rooted trauma, M.’s behavior is unpredictable. She was institutionalized for three months and subsequently released to her stepfather’s custody.
I have not experienced any of these episodes, but I have reviewed her records. Apparently she attacked and injured three female ward nurses in a locked facility and a 6’3” ward guard during one of her episodes. All this despite her relatively light physical frame and body weight.
I was certain she was making steady progress, and we were on a precipice of psychological discovery. Now, however, I shudder to think of her facing that precipice alone, without psychiatric help. Please contact me at once should you encounter her. I have no ethical commitment that requires me to share our correspondence with her stepfather especially if you should ask me to keep this information private.
I think I might help you understand the depth and symptoms of her trauma, which may be useful to you should you or your patient encounter her in Slovakia.
M. has just turned twenty-one and is an adult. I don’t believe she would want her stepfather to know her whereabouts now.
Sincerely yours,
A.D. Simonoff, MA, PhD
John swallowed hard. He slid his finger across the screen, opening contacts. He scrolled down the list to the bottom.
The phone took about thirty seconds to begin ringing. A man’s voice answered.
“Detective Whitehall?” John said.
An hour later, snow covered the windows of the car. Blasts of wind swirled it away again, leaving behind transparent beads of ice, frozen diamonds adhering to the windshield.
Daisy’s phone pinged, making John jump. An incoming e-mail.
What the hell, thought John, rubbing his forehead. I’ve already pried into Betsy’s e-mail.
He flicked on the overhead light and twisted around, looking around for the phone. An iPhone in a dark purple leather case studded with medieval axes lay on the floor of the backseat.
John reached over the seat to retrieve it. He scrolled down the pages of unopened e-mails. A lot was spam, websites for Goth wear, makeup, jewelry, Goth music, movies, and chatrooms.
The most recent incoming e-mail, the one that had caught his attention with its alert, was from Kyle, Snowboard Dude.
Hey, Daisy!
Rn’t u even coming home for New Years? I’m over the edge worried about you!
Will u be back for the X-Games in January? I want u in my corner, Goth Girl. Get your butt back here. Seriously. I’ve got a new snowboard—it flies like a rocket. It’s Kevlar—bulletproof vest stuff.
U made the front page of The Aspen Times. “Aspen Goth Girl vanishes in Thin Air.”
OK now I’m supremely worried.
That was a wild dream about the witch torturing the women in the snow. What’s up with that? Yr shrink would have a party with that 1.
Yr sister Morgan contacted me thru yr blog—did you see? I didn’t even know you had a sister. She gave me her e-mail. Then she called me.
She said I should contact her immediately if I hear anything from you. Should I trust her? She sounded kind of weird.
Morgan told me she had the SAME dream as you posted. “Daisy’s in great danger.” She said she would intervene. WTF?? Intervene? Yr sister totally freaked me out, BUT what can I do to help u? I don’t even know where u r!!