Black Iris: Chapter Twenty-Four
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next day, I return to Dr. Nehrashani’s office to find the front door locked, the lights out, and the blinds drawn. There’s a sign posted that says “On Vacation,” though there’s no return date given or instructions for patients.
As far as I can tell, there are no security cameras pointed at the door. It’s probably alarmed, but I’ll bet I can get in, grab Louis Gadd’s file, and get the hell out of there before the police show up. Sure, it’s broad daylight, and some of the psychic customers saw me standing out here as they were heading in for their readings, but as long as they don’t see me actually doing something, I should be ok. I scratch a hole in the glass door, then unlock it from the inside.
There’s more good news: there’s no alarm after all.
The bad news is the place has been totally cleared out. No shitty plastic chairs in the waiting room, no desks, no lights, no patient files. Whoever these assholes are, they’re really good at cleaning up after themselves.
Dr. Bell. I’m not sure how mixed up in all this she is, but she recommended Dr. Nehrashani. It’s time to find out how much she knows.
***
I hop on a bus and arrive at Dr. Bell’s office 23 minutes later. Her receptionist tells me she’s all booked up for today, but I ask her to call me if there are any last-minute cancellations. I then wait outside the building for her next patient to arrive, stop him before he goes in, and gently persuade him to reschedule so that I might take his slot.
“Snowball?” Dr. Bell says with a furrowed brow as I barge into her office. “You’re not supposed to be here until next week.”
“I couldn’t wait.”
“But I have someone else scheduled right now.”
“Check your calendar again.”
She looks at her phone. “I could’ve sworn — ”
“Last-minute cancellation. Can I sit?”
She sighs. “Sure.”
This time I don’t lie down or pick up any of the stress toys.
“I’m not here to talk about me today. I’m here about Dr. Nehrashani.”
“The hypnotherapist?”
“Yes. I went to see him the other day, and it was very enlightening.”
“Were you able to recover your lost memories?”
“No, he couldn’t hypnotize me. But it turns out that’s for the best.”
“What do you mean?”
I lean forward in my seat. “How well do you know him?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say I know him, really. I’m aware of his reputation. He’s quite accomplished in his field.”
“But you have met him, right?”
She takes a breath. “I met him once. What’s this all about, Snowball? Did you have a bad experience with him?”
“It wasn’t great, but not as bad as Louis Gadd’s.”
Her right knee is bouncing, barely perceivable to the eye, but it’s enough to shake the table and jiggle the pitcher of water. For an expert in human behavior, she doesn’t seem to be very aware of her own tells.
“Gadd wouldn’t happen to be one of your patients, would he?”
She squints. “I’m sure you’re aware of doctor-patient confidentiality.”
“A little. It comes up on Law & Order sometimes. But I forget, does it still apply after the patient is dead?”
Her knee stops bouncing. “Louis Gadd is dead?”
I nod. “He was mauled by a bear at the zoo.”
“What?”
“Pretty fucked-up, right? The police think he was sleepwalking. Does that sound right to you?”
She frowns. “To answer your previous question, yes, doctor-patient confidentiality still applies after the person has died. Now, if you’re going to continue down this road, I’ll have to ask you to leave. Not only are you asking me inappropriate questions, but this is billable time that I should be using to work with my patients. The person whose slot you stole never cancels. I’m not sure how you’re here and he’s not, but I suspect it’s something shady.”
“Damien’s fine. He’ll see you next week at his usual time. What I’ve got going on is kind of an emergency. Don’t worry; I’ll pay for your time just like it was a regular session.”
“An emergency?”
“I don’t think Louis Gadd was sleepwalking. I think he was under hypnosis.”
She rolls her eyes.
“What, you don’t believe in hypnosis? Then why have you been recommending it?”
“I didn’t say that. I just don’t think it works the way you’re implying here.”
“I saw Louis at Dr. Nehrashani’s office yesterday, which would have been maybe 12 hours before his little sleepwalking episode. Think that’s a coincidence?”
“It could be.”
“While he was there, I overheard Gadd talking about a night he couldn’t remember. Is that another coincidence?”
“I don’t know. Where are you going with this?”
I see guilt swelling in her eyes like water coming over the side of a rowboat. More “Shit, this is my fault” and less “Shit, he’s on to me.”
“How many of your patients have you sent to Dr. Nehrashani?”
She sighs. “Six, including you.”
“And before you sent them, they all reported experiencing missing time?”
“Yes.”
“What about drawing flowers?”
“Of the six of you, four mentioned flowers, though one of the four was sculpting the flowers out of Silly Putty instead of drawing them. The other two were drawing mushrooms.”
“Did all five of them actually see Dr. Nehrashani?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard back from any of them.”
“None of them?”
She shakes her head.
“So, you lost five patients to this guy?”
“Well, a couple of them I don’t see very often, so it’s not that strange. But uh… two weeks ago, the police came by to talk about one of them.”
“Did something happen?”
She looks down at the ground. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.”
“Tell me anyway. People are dying, and the police aren’t going to do anything about it.”
“And you will?”
“If I can.”
She closes her eyes. “Fine. The patient they were asking about got run over by a train.”
“Why did they come to you with this?”
“Well, they didn’t find any drugs or alcohol in her system, so they thought it might be suicide. When I told them that didn’t fit my assessment of her, they ruled it an accident.”
“And what do you think now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s get back to how you know Nehrashani.”
“I had never heard of him until about a month and a half ago. He just showed up one day and wanted to take me out to lunch to discuss how our practices might benefit one another. Honestly, I only said yes for the free meal. I wasn’t really buying what he was selling, but then he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“He paid you for referrals.”
She nods.
“Isn’t that against the law?”
“Trust me, I feel awful about it. But it was a lot of money, and I’m sitting on over $250,000 in student debt, which I’ll be paying off for the rest of my life.”
“Yikes.”
“And I was able to trick myself into thinking I wasn’t doing any serious harm. Hypnosis is more or less like seeing a psychic or getting a tarot card reading, except it’s not as addictive. Most people only go once or twice, and that’s it. It either works, or it doesn’t. So yeah, my patients were wasting a few hundred dollars, but I justified it by thinking my rates are so reasonable that they’re still actually saving money by seeing me instead of someone else. Anyway, it was total bullshit, but none of us are immune to the promise of a comforting lie.”
“Is that Freud?”
“No, it’s from my first book, The Brain We Know.”
“Well, it looks like the stakes have changed. People are getting hit by trains and being eaten by bears.”
“I should turn myself in.”
“That won’t save anybody. Besides, I don’t know if the police can be trusted right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t get into it, but this thing is bigger than Dr. Nehrashani.”
“Do you think he’s killing people on purpose?”
“Yes.”
She shakes her head. “But why?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. I think it probably has something to do with our missing memories. And flowers.”
“So, what can I do to help? I feel awful about this.”
“First of all, throw out the rest of Dr. Nehrashani’s business cards.”
“Obviously.”
“Aside from that, just go about your life like nothing happened.”
Part of me wants to ask her for the names of the other patients, but after what happened to McCarthystein, I don’t want to put her in danger.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. I’ll see you Monday for my actual session, where I’ll let you ask the questions again.”
She forces a smile. “I look forward to it.”
