The Nose Knows (29 page)

Mom tensed. We were all ears.

Detective Finley took a sip of his coffee before he spoke again. “I know what happened to you eleven years ago. In fact, I was there eleven years ago.”

Mom frowned as she studied Detective Finley’s face.

“I was one of the policemen who came to your office.” Mom’s face showed no sign of recognition.

Finley smiled. “That’s okay, Dr. Richards, I was younger back then; plus I was a street cop, so I was in a uniform with my hat on. Besides, there were a lot of cops there that day. You and I only spoke briefly before the detectives showed up. I don’t expect you to remember me, but I do remember you. So this time, when I heard your name over the scanner, and heard that there was an armed intruder at your office, I told them I’d take the call. I knew how terrified you must be that it might all be happening again.”

Mom relaxed a little and smiled. “That was very kind of you, Detective.”

He continued, “The other day, after we’d arrested those two and we were all back at the precinct, I told you I wanted confirmation before I released their identities. That wasn’t entirely true. Actually, I knew who they were, but I wanted to try and fill in a few of the blanks before I spoke to you.”

Mom leaned forward. “You know who they are? Tell me, who are they? What blanks did you fill in, Detective?”

Finley cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll try and make this as easy to follow as I can. Number One, eleven years ago, Mr. Steven Cartwright was the man who held you hostage.”

Mom slowly nodded. “Correct. . . . And?”

Finley said, “He was sentenced to the mental hospital and after two years he was transferred from there to the penitentiary.”

Mom again nodded. “And I was told that he subsequently died in prison.”

Finley nodded in agreement, “True. But were you told how he died?”

Mom shook her head. “No. I was told they couldn’t release any details.”

“Truth of the matter, Dr. Richards, he committed suicide.”

Mom gasped. The blood drained from her face. She reached for Jacob’s hand. I started to jump down and go to her, but Jacob had gently put his arm around her. He was doing fine without me. I settled back into place.

Detective Finley’s voice softened, “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but Mr. Cartwright hanged himself in his jail cell. The autopsy showed there was no medication in his system. Apparently, he had stopped taken his psychiatric meds. The doctor told me that without that medication his mental and emotional status would have deteriorated rapidly.”

Mom slowly shook her head. Her voice was hushed as she said, “And the voices in his head again would have told him that he had to die. That’s so sad. I had no idea.” Then she got angry. “Why, oh why, didn’t someone see the change in him and do something about it?”

Finley said, “Hard to know who to blame for all that, but one thing I do know, Dr. Richards, is that it wasn’t your fault. However, I’m afraid that his children didn’t see it that way.”

Mom’s head jerked up. “His children?”

“Yes, Dr. Richards, the two people who accosted you are actually the children of Mr. Cartwright. Their real names are Theodore and Samantha Cartwright. They’re the son and daughter of Steven Cartwright, your former patient. They’re his only children and in fact they are—”

“Twins.” Mom’s voice was so soft I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly, but since all the cats were staring at me with their mouths hanging open, I guess I had. She had just confirmed my same-litter hypothesis. They were, in fact, twins.

Mom went on to say, “Yes, I remember. That day, I kept reminding Mr. Cartwright he had two young children at home who needed him. They were the twins. If I remember correctly, his wife ran out on them years before that.”

“Yes, their mother walked out without a word of warning. They’ve never heard from her again. I’m afraid that laid the groundwork for their hatred of you.”

“Me? Why do they hate me?”

Detective Finley put down his cup and leaned in gently toward Mom. “Dr. Richards, I’m sure you can understand, better than most, the effect on two young children when their mother abandons them. They were only five years old when she left. They were twelve when their father was arrested for holding you hostage. They were in the courtroom the day Mr. Cartwright was sentenced. They heard him begging you to remain his therapist. What they
saw
was you turning your back and refusing to talk to him. Don’t get me wrong, Doctor, you could not and should not have remained his therapist. However, I don’t think anyone explained that to those kids. In fact, no one knows what they were told. Right after that their father was led away; they were split up and shipped off to foster care. Four years later, their lives got even worse when they were told their father had killed himself in jail.”

“I had no idea. I had no idea.” Tears were sliding down Mom’s face.

Sweetie had quietly moved over and was tenderly leaning against Mom’s leg. Not rubbing or moving, just making contact. I don’t think Mom was even aware that she was gently stroking Sweetie’s head. The effect was calming. Bless his big heart.

Detective Finley went on, bringing the story up to the present. “Two days ago, I contacted Dr. Hayden and asked if he’d talk to the two suspects. Not just to evaluate them, but to see if he could learn anything to help us. See, I now knew from Theodore’s record that Dr. Hayden had been the one to tell them their father had died. In fact, he’d seen the twins several times after that. However, foster care services didn’t see any need for continued therapy, so he had to stop seeing them. But the kids felt he’d helped their father and they had trusted him.”

Mom suddenly frowned. “Wait a minute. I had a referral from Dr. Hayden asking
me
to see Mrs. Wainwright, which was what she called herself. He must’ve just seen her.”

Detective Finley let out a big sigh. “No. That was one of Theodore’s scams. He’d stolen that letterhead from Dr. Hayden’s office years ago at their last appointment. Dr. Hayden hadn’t seen them again until two days ago. Nevertheless, my hunch was right, they did still trust him. They both waived their rights and started telling him everything. Apparently, Theodore is extremely proficient at conning people. In fact, we now know that the first con he pulled on you was around six years ago. He was only seventeen at the time.”

I held my breath. Could it be this cop had actually put all the pieces together?

Mom interrupted, “Six years ago? What in heaven’s name are you talking about? I never saw that man before he showed up in my computer therapy group!”

I couldn’t help myself. I whined. “Hush up, Mom. Let the man speak!”

Detective Finley proceeded. “True, you never saw him before, but about six years ago he was the one who broke into your house.”

Hot dog! This cop was really onto something. Finally, a human was putting it all together.

“He told Dr. Hayden that about six years ago he broke into this house while you were away,” Finley continued. “He downloaded a virus onto your computer so that it would crash on a designated date. Apparently, Theodore is quite the computer whiz. He was president of the computer club when he was a senior in high school, and he also had a part-time job doing repair work in a computer store downtown—the same shop where you’d always taken your old computer for maintenance. When the virus he implanted shut your computer down, he was confident that you would bring it there to be repaired. He knew the store would tell you that it was beyond repair and then try to sell you a new computer. That’s exactly what happened. Theodore was the one who transferred your old files onto the new machine, and while he was at it he added a transmitting device so he could spy on all your work.”

Mom sat there frowning. “Why go to all that trouble? Why didn’t he just plant the bug on my computer when he broke into the house?”

Finley chuckled. “I asked him the same question. Apparently, your computer was too old. It wasn’t capable of handling the type of transmission he wanted. So he had to get you to buy a new computer with greater capabilities.”

“But why? What did he want? Why spy on me?”

“He says that he wanted to get access to your patient files and case notes. That way he’d know all of your patients’ secrets, as well as their identities. He planned to contact them. He was going to tell them that you leaked their personal information. He wanted to destroy your practice and your reputation. He wanted to hurt you. But apparently he couldn’t because—”

Mom finished his sentence. “Because I no longer was seeing patients.”

“Exactly, you had stopped practicing. There were no more patients and no more records downloaded. Therefore, he needed another plan. But before he could do that, he was arrested trying to rob a convenience store. He was put on probation, but then he was arrested for breaking and entering. This time he was sentenced to four years in jail. He was just released eight months ago.”

“What about his sister?” Mom asked.

“Apparently she managed fairly well in her foster home. She finished high school and got a job at Wal-Mart. She didn’t have any problems with the law until Theodore came back into her life. They’d kept in touch while Theodore was in jail. When he got out, he didn’t have anywhere else to live, so he showed up on her doorstep. Unfortunately, Theodore was beginning to manifest mental health problems similar to his father’s. Samantha told Dr. Hayden she was terrified that Teddy might also kill himself if she rejected him. She was scared so she went along with his bizarre requests.”

Mom now saw the bigger picture. “Was she the person we saw sitting behind Mr. Johnson—sorry, I mean Theodore—when he signed on to my computer therapy group?”

“Yes, ma’am, she was. Theodore was again trying to spy on you and your clients. Since you no longer saw patients in person, he conned his way into being one of your computer patients. But you got suspicious and cut him off.”

We critters all turned and gave Fearless a well-deserved nod of recognition. He’d been the first to spot a problem with “Mr. Johnson.”

Finley continued. “When you threw him out of the group, Theodore’s irrational anger grew. He began plotting a way to get to you directly. He wrote the letter on Dr. Hayden’s letterhead asking you to see Mrs. Wainwright. Remember he knew your address from before.”

That sent a shiver down my spine.

Mom looked confused. “So why not just attack me on the street or in my own yard? Why the big charade?”

“Theodore told Dr. Hayden that he didn’t intend to physically hurt you. He wanted to terrify you. He said he wanted you to feel as alone and as scared as he believed his father had felt. Yes, there were simpler ways to do that, but Dr. Hayden reminded me Theodore’s mind was already disturbed. We believe he wanted to recreate a scene in your office similar to the one his father had played out. Except this time, he thought he could rewrite history and be the winner. He trusted his sister, so he used her. But bottom line, he wanted revenge and he wanted to prove to you he could get to you.”

Mom took several slow, deep breaths. She too shivered. “And now what, Detective? Now what happens?”

We all waited for his answer.

Detective Finley looked Mom straight in the eye. “In all honesty, we don’t have a whole lot of charges against the woman. We have charged her with conspiring to commit a criminal act. But we can’t even charge her with trespassing since she was invited to attend the group. Theodore, on the other hand, we can charge on multiple counts. He also violated the terms of his parole by carrying a gun. He could easily get ten years.”

Detective Finley paused and looked at Mom.

Her voice was calm and steady. “But then history might repeat itself. It could turn out exactly the same way it did for his father. Is that what you were thinking Detective?”

Finley quietly added, “Yes, ma’am, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Don’t get me wrong, Dr. Richards, it’s you I’m worried about. I want you to be able to have a say in what happens here.”

Mom quietly looked into Detective Finley’s face for several moments. Maybe she was looking for the answer in his eyes, or maybe she was listening for the answer within herself. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “First, I want to talk to him for myself. Can you arrange that Detective?”

“Yes, ma’am, I can do that, just so long as you don’t ask to be left alone with him.”

Mom smirked. “No, Detective, I certainly will not ask that. What do you think about Dr. Hayden being in the room with me?”

“I think that would be an excellent idea. He seems to have a very calming influence on Theodore. Of course, Theodore would be handcuffed and I’d be on the other side of the mirror. Is that sufficient for you?”

“Yes, Detective, I think that would be just fine. You can let me know when it might be a convenient time for Dr. Hayden.”

After Detective Finley left, we were all very quiet. Mom had a lot to think about and did not need us chattering. Detective Finley had given us vital pieces to the puzzle.

Yet, none of us felt much relief.

M
om needed time to process all she’d heard. She left Jacob at the house and we headed off for a walk. It was a good October day—not too cool and with a gentle breeze blowing from the west. The leaves were already turning into reds and yellows. They fluttered in the air and crunched under my feet. The path was strewn with acorns, and the geese honking overhead told me they’d soon be heading south. The smell of burning leaves told me our neighbor had been busy raking. Under different circumstances, Mom would’ve said, “Spunky, look at this day, it doesn’t get any better than this.” Today she didn’t see, or smell, the beauty.