Phil Barrett reached for the sheet of paper. I retrieved it from his reach and handed it instead to Welle. To Phil Barrett, I said, "I'm afraid you'll have to excuse us at this point, Mr. Barrett. You don't have permission to hear any confidential information about Mariko Hamamoto's psychotherapy from Dr. Welle.
The consent that Mr. Hamamoto signed applies only to me and to the professional members of Locard. You… are not covered."
Welle and Barrett again exchanged something non verbally While Welle glanced at the document I'd handed to him, he said, "I'm sure Taro wouldn't mind at all Phil's hearing what I have to say about his daughter. Phil was sheriff in Routt County back then. He knows all this anyway."
I thought he was waiting to see if I would react to the news about Phil Barrett's involvement in the earlier investigation. I didn't. I said, "But Taros not here to give his assent. And I have no doubt that someone in your position would not want to risk violating patient confidentiality. Even on a technicality. Ray." The
"Ray" rolled right off my tongue. I smiled. My pulse was getting back to normal.
Welle wet his lips and said, "I'm afraid the man's right, Phillip. He has both ethics and law on his side. Tough combination to fight, even in Washington. So you'll have to excuse us for a few minutes. If we move onto unrelated subjects you can come right on back in."
I tried not to watch Barrett's embarrassing efforts at extricating himself from the wing chair. I failed. The weave of the material of his suit seemed to have a magnetic attraction for the velvet fabric of the upholstery.
Barrett finally departed. Welle said, "So what can I tell you? Mariko's treatment, to my memory, was a total success. Adjustment problems. A little acting out. Basically a good, good kid having trouble being an adolescent and being an American. She worked it out. I helped. Case closed."
I smiled.
"That's nice to hear. Taro Hamamoto told me basically the same thing.
My dilemma about Mariko is that I'm not sure exactly what I need to know about her. Ray. Would you mind if I take a moment to explain my role with Locard and then perhaps you can help me decide what it is I might need to know about the treatment you did?" I proceeded to give my I-needtogettoknowmarikoto-trytoknowher-killer speech.
He listened patiently. When I concluded, he said, "So the thinking now is that it wasn't a stranger who killed those girls."
"I'm not privy to Locard's current hypothesis, Ray. All I know is that this is a base they've asked me to cover."
"I think Phil and his boys investigated this whole thing pretty thoroughly.
Back then, of course. Better computers, more technology, better science now, sure.
That may help your group with its work. But my memory is that they ruled out that the killer was someone who knew the girls. FBI concurred."
"Locard seems to like to proceed from a point of view where the assumptions are wiped clean."
He nodded.
"Like to reinvent the wheel, do they? Can't argue with it. They've had their successes, haven't they? That Texas thing? Wow. Have to admit that was impressive."
"Yes, they have been successful. Why don't we start with the presenting problem?
What were the issues that you were helping Mariko with?"
"Let me see" He tightened his eyes as though he was trying to appear pensive. I wasn't convinced by his act when he said, "I think I got it. She'd been caught with some dope. Just enough to smoke, mind you, not to sell. That's my memory.
Too bad Phil's not here. He'd remember for sure about the dope part.
Mother was overprotective. Father was more reasonable but was kind of absent, you know, very busy at work. He was a big shot at the resort. Mariko was trying to find her way around a new culture, with new friends, new temptations.
Adolescent stuff."
"You mentioned her friends. Would you say she was especially susceptible to influence from her friends?"
"Especially? I wouldn't say especially. Had a good friend… yes, Tami-Tami Franklin, who was a very strong personality, a natural leader. I must say Tami didn't always lead kids in the direction that their parents wanted them to go.
But she was a natural leader. She certainly influenced Mariko."
"Tami was the girl she was murdered with."
He waved his left hand at me.
"Of course, of course. I know that. But lots of kids in town were susceptible to Tami's influences, not just Mariko. Tami was that kind of kid. She caused a lot of sleepless nights for a lot of Steamboat Springs parents, that girl did."
"Boyfriend?"
"Tami? Always. Mariko?" He shook his head and made a clicking sound with his tongue.
"You know, not that I recall. It's possible, I suppose, but I don't remember her talking about anyone special."
I was immediately curious why Welle knew and recalled so much about Tami Franklin. Had Mariko talked about her friend in therapy that much?
"What about other friends besides Tami?"
"Mariko talked about some other kids, I'm sure. But I couldn't remember their names. We're going back a lot of years. I bet the Franklins could be of some help on that. The kids all hung out in a group."
"School problems?"
"Again, not that I recall. Just being picked up that once with the dope and the oh yeah-the… I almost forgot. Her parents were mortified that when she was picked up by the police she was skinny-dipping in the hot springs out at Strawberry Park with some boys. And there was the lying, of course."
"The lying?"
"Mariko wasn't truthful to her parents about where she was going and who she was going with. That sort of thing. Her parents made a big deal out of it. May have been a cultural thing. Me? I didn't consider it too unusual for a teenager. Certainly didn't see it as pathologic. Tried to get Taro and Eri to put it in context."
"Did you do any testing?"
"You mean psychological testing? Nope. Wasn't my thing. When necessary, I referred for that."
"Did you refer Mariko for testing?"
He didn't hesitate.
"No. There was no need. I told you. This was an adjustment issue, a maturation thing. Pure and simple." I softened my voice as I asked, "What was she like, Ray? As a person, I mean.
Mariko?"
He smiled, it seemed, involuntarily.
"She was vibrant. Had a little accent still, sort of a mix of Japanese and British. Pronounced her words, every one of them, as though she'd been practicing. She was a smidgen shy, but she had this brilliance inside her that… just shined. Bright as a spotlight. Mariko was a little self-deprecating. Maybe a bit too much. But she was… witty… caring. And pretty. Oh my, pretty, pretty." I thought I saw his eyes moisten.
"You've seen pictures, right? She was a little treasure of a kid. Her death, her murder…" His fists clenched; his eyes tightened.
"My wife's death, my wife's murder… they are profane, bloody indications of what's so sick about this country. It's why I decided to go on the radio to try to do some healing.
It's why I went to Congress to try to force some change. It's why I want to be in the Senate. Its why I put up with these silly fund-raising luncheons." He waved his arm around the library as though the books were to blame.
I was moved, but at the same time, I knew I was being manipulated. I was too aware that Raymond Welle wanted me to be moved. It troubled me; I felt as though I'd been leashed and was being taken for a walk. I also wondered why Ray was so eager to alter his own personal history. He had decided to run for Congress for the first time-and had lost the primary-long before his wife was killed. Why was he arguing that her murder was a motivation for him to run for office?
Somewhere about here I lost control of the conversation. Raymond edged me, ever so cleverly, into small talk about Mariko, eventually concluding with
"I think it's time to get Phil back in here. See what he can add." He tapped his watch.