Speaking In Tongues

Matthews said, “I was here, let’s see, on six intakes. Must have been four years altogether. I was like a jailhouse lawyer, Collier. As soon as the patients heard I was a therapist they started coming to me.”

“So you were ‘Patient Matthews,’ “ Megan said, eyes widening. “In the reports about the deaths here.”

“That’s my Megan,” Matthews said.

She said to Tate, “They closed this place because of a bunch of suicides. I thought it was Peter who’d killed them.”

“But it was you?” Tate asked Matthews.

“The DSM-III diagnosis was that I was sociopathic-well, it’s called an antisocial/criminal personality now. How delicate. I knew the hospital examiners in Richmond were looking for an excuse to close down places like this. So I simply helped them out. The place was too understaffed and too incompetent to keep patients from killing themselves. So they shut it down.”

“But it was really just a game to you, right?” Megan asked in disgust. “Seeing how many patients you could talk into suicide.”

Matthews shrugged. He continued. “I got transferred to a halfway house and one bright, su

Tate recalled something else from the trial and asked, “What about your wife?”

Matthews said nothing but his eyes responded.

Tate understood. “She was your first victim, wasn’t she? Did you talk her into killing herself? Or maybe just slip some drugs into her wine during di

“She was vulnerable,” Matthews responded. “Insecure. Most therapists are.”

Tate asked, “What was she trying to do? Take Peter away from you?”

“Yes, she was. She wanted to place him in a hospital full-time. She shouldn’t have meddled. I understood Peter. No one else did.”

“But you made Peter the way he was,” Megan blurted. “You cut him off from the world.”

She was right. Tate recalled the defense’s expert witness, Dr. Roth-stein, testifying that if you arrest development by isolating a child before the age of eight, social-and communications-skills will never develop. You’ve basically destroyed the child forever.

Tate remembered too how he’d handled the expert witness’s testimony at Peter Matthews’s murder trial.

The Court: The Commonwealth may cross-examine.

Mr. Collier: Dr Rothstein, thank you for that trip down memory lane about the defendant’s sad history. But let me ask you: psychologically, is the defendant capable of premeditated murder?

Dr. Rothstein: Peter Matthews is a troubled-

Mr. Collier: Your Honor?

The Court: Please answer the question, sir

Dr. Rothstein: I-

Mr. Collier: Is the defendant capable of premeditated murder?

Dr. Rothstein: Yes, but-

Mr. Collier: No further questions.

“All he needed was me!” Matthews now raged. “He didn’t need anyone else in his life. We’d spend hours together-when my wife wasn’t trying to sneak him out the door.”

“Did you love him that much?” Tate asked.

“You don’t have a clue, do you? Why, you know what we did? Peter and I? We talked. About everything. About snakes, about stars, about floods, about explorers, about airplanes, about the mind..

Delusional ramblings, Tate imagined. Poor Peter, baffled and lonely, undoubtedly could do nothing but listen.

Yet… with a sorrowful twist deep within him Tate realized that this was something Megan and he didn’t do. They didn’t talk at all. They never had.

And now we won’t ever, he realized. We’ve lost that chance forever.

Their captor fell silent, looking into a corner of the hospital lobby, lost in a memory or thought or some confused delusion,

Finally Tate said, “So, Aaron. Tell me what you want. Tell me exactly.” He closed his eyes, fighting the incredible pain in his head.

After a moment Matthews said, “I want justice. Pure and simple. I’m going to kill your daughter and you’re going to watch. You’ll live with that sight for the rest of your life.”

So it’s come to this.

Tate sighed and thought, as he had so often on the way to the jury box or the podium in a debate, All right, time to get to work

“I don’t know how you can have justice, Aaron,” Tate said to him. “I just don’t know. In all my years practicing law-”

Matthews’s face writhed in disgust. “Oh, stop right there.”

“What?” Tate asked i

“I hear it,” the psychiatrist said. “The glib tongue, the smooth words. You have the orator’s gift… sure. We know that. But so do I. I’m immune to you.”

“I won’t try to talk you into a single thing, Aaron. You don’t seem to be the sort-”

“It won’t work! Not with me. The advocate’s tricks. The therapist’s tricks. ‘Personalize the discourse.’ ‘Aaron’ this and ‘Aaron’ that. Try to get me to think of you as a specific human being, Tate. But that won’t work, Tate. See, it’s Tate Collier the human being I despise.”

Undeterred, Tate continued, “Was he your only child? Peter?”

‘Why even try?” Matthews rolled his eyes.

“All I want is to get out of this and save our lives. Is that a surprise?”

“A perfect example of a rhetorical question. Well, no, it’s not a surprise. But there’s nothing you can say that’s going to make any difference.”

“I’m trying to save your life too, Aaron. They know about you. The police. You heard the message from the detective, I assume? On your answering machine?”

“They may figure it out eventually but since you’re here by yourself, an escapee, I think I have a bit of time.”

“What does he mean?” Megan asked. “Escapee?”

He saw no reason to tell her now that her friend Amy was dead. He shook his head and continued, “Let’s talk, Aaron. I’m a wealthy man. You’re going to have to leave the country. I’ll give you some money if you let us go.”

“Leading with your weakest argument. Doesn’t that mean you’ve just lost the debate? That’s what you say on your American Forensics Association tape.”

The faint smile never wavered from Tate’s face. “You saw my house, the land,” he continued. “You know I’ve got resources.”

A splinter of disdain in Matthews’s eyes.

“How much do you want?”

“You’re using a rhetorical fallacy Appealing to a false need-for diversion.” Matthew’s smiled. “I do it all the time. Soften up the patient, get the defenses down. Then, bang, a kick in the head. Come on, I didn’t do this for ransom. That’s obvious.”

“Whatever your motive was, Aaron, the circumstances’ve changed. They know about you now. But you’ve got a chance to get out of the country. I can get you a half million in cash. Just like that. More by hocking the house.”

Matthews said nothing but paced slowly, staring at Megan, who gazed back defiantly.

Tate knew, of course, that money wasn’t the issue at all; neither was helping Matthews escape. His immediate purpose was simply to make the man indecisive, wear down his resistance. Matthews was right- this was a diversion. And even though the man knew it Tate believed the technique was working.

“I can’t make you a rich man but I can make you comfortable.”

“Pointless,” Matthews said, shaking his head as if he were disappointed.

“Aaron, you can’t change things,” Tate continued. “You can’t make it the way it was. You can’t bring Peter back. So will you just let us go?”

“Specific request within the opponent’s power to grant,” Matthews recited, “requiring only an affirmative or negative response. Your skills are still in top form, Collier. My answer, however, is neg-a-tive.”

“You tell me you’re after justice.” Tate shrugged. “But I wonder if it’s not really something else.”