"When you looked at me and smiled."
"I didn't say anything?"
"No. It was when Gates was out of the room. You just… smiled."
Calling that grimace a smile was like calling a rabid wolf a puppy, but he didn't want to upset her more than she already was, not if it wasn't going to change anything.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think anything of it." I didn't want to think anything of it. "How bad is this, Kara?"
There was a long pause, then a tremulous sigh, then:
"I may have the same thing as Kelly."
Rob gripped the phone with muscle-cramping intensity.
"Where are you? I'm coming to get you."
"I'm okay, Rob. I'm handling it. I've got an appointment with Dr. Gates at five. I'm going to start treatment with him right away."
"I'll meet you there and sit in like before."
"No. Thanks, but that won't be necessary this time."
"I don't trust him, Kara."
"I've got to start trusting him now. I don't have any choice."
"There are plenty of shrinks in the city."
"But he's already familiar with this case. I'll have to start from scratch with anybody else."
She made sense, but Rob still didn't like it.
"Okay. Call me when you're through. Let me know what he says."
"Rob—"
"I care, Kara. Dammit, I still care. I don't want anything bad happening to you."
"Thanks, Rob," she said in a smaller voice. "That helps. I'll call."
After hanging up, Rob checked his watch. He wondered if he could get to talk to Doc Winters today. He wanted to clear up a couple of questions about Lazlo Gati.
▼
5:06 P.M.
"You can go in now," the receptionist said.
It was a replay of last Thursday, only this time Kara was alone. She had left Jill at Aunt Ellen's for the afternoon. The poor kid wasn't sure what was happening, she just knew it wasn't good. Kara would have loved to have been able to explain everything to her, but how? She had told her that she wasn't feeling well and had come to New York to see a doctor who could help her. Jill wanted details but Kara had managed to avoid them. For now.
Kara had called Marge, her supervisor at the hospital, to explain her absence. She still had some time off coming to her and was going to have to use up what was left. Marge didn't sound too happy. She told Kara that if she couldn't do the job, they'd have to find somebody else. Kara had hung up with the feeling that the world was closing in on her. She didn't need this extra pressure, not with her mind playing tricks on her and her book falling farther and farther behind schedule.
Dr. Gates was behind his desk as usual. His blue oxford shirt picked up the blue of his eyes. His light brown tie was almost the same sandy shade of his wavy hair and mustache. His expression was as neutral as ever.
He motioned her toward a chair.
"Have a seat, Miss Wade, and tell me all about the 'strange things' that have been happening to you."
Kara gave him a brief description of the weekend's unsettling incidents, from her soiled feet on Saturday morning to the message carved over Jill's bed. Dr. Gates listened in silence, twirling that key ring on his finger. When she finished, he rose from the desk and walked to the window. His expression was troubled when he turned back to her.
"I was afraid of this."
"Of what? Tell me what's happening. That's why I'm here."
"Isn't it obvious? Janine—your second personality. She's no longer dormant."
"That's just it: It's too obvious, and too bizarre. I can't buy that. I can't buy Janine's existence."
Dr. Gates returned to his high-backed swivel chair behind the desk. His face was once again impassive.
"Denial is your first hurdle on the road to recovery. You must get over that before we can start meaningful therapy."
"But isn't there another explanation? Couldn't I be doing this to myself in some way? I mean, it's such a coincidence that you should tell me about Kelly's second personality and the possibility of my having one called Janine, and then wham, Janine starts writing on walls. It's all a little too facile."
"You're overlooking the hypnosis session," Dr. Gates said gravely. "I was against it from the beginning but you insisted. I warned you it was dangerous. I warned you it might awaken something best left dormant. It appears I was right."
Dr. Gates' smugness would have infuriated Kara under different circumstances, but the sick dread seeping through her now left little room for anything else.
"But two sisters with multiple personalities… it sounds so far fetched."
"On the surface, yes. But not quite so far fetched when you consider the specifics of your case: two genetically identical children subjected simultaneously to identical trauma. Given those circumstances, is it so outlandish to suppose that the psychological defense mechanisms would also be identical?" He ticked points off on his fingers "Same genes, same trauma, same response. It is logical."
Kara was numb.
"When do we start therapy?" she said.
"Today, if you wish."
"I wish. What kind of therapy?"
"Just let me worry about that," he said with a small, condescending smile.
The sudden surge of anger within her energized Kara. Anything was better than feeling afraid.
"I am not an idiot, Dr. Gates. If this is going to work I have to know what's going on. I am not a child and will not be led through the dark by the hand."
He stared at her a while before answering.
"Very well. I plan to use free association at the start. I'll have you lay back in the recliner and begin talking off the top of your head about your childhood. I'll be searching for what we refer to as 'blocked' areas. When I have identified a pattern of blocks, I will put you under hypnosis and try to unblock those areas. If I'm successful, you will then begin the most difficult part of the therapy: you will have to face the painful memories you have repressed since childhood."
"And that will do it?"
"Theoretically, yes. Once the repressed memories are free, once you have dealt with them emotionally and intellectually as Kara, there will be no more need for Janine. She will either go dormant permanently or cease to exist."
It sounded sensible to Kara. She felt the first stirrings of hope.
"Let's get to it."
"There's something else you should know," he said, holding up a hand. "It will not be as easy as it sounds. It will take a long time, perhaps years, during which you will come to hate me, call me an incompetent, a charlatan, and want to quit. But you must have faith. You must stay with the therapy."
A cold lump of fear formed again in Kara's throat.
"Years? You mean I've got to spend years wondering whether I'm going to turn into this other person who writes on walls and God knows what else?"
He shook his head and pulled a pad from the top drawer of his desk.
"We can do something about that. Your second personality appears to be adopting a pattern of activity similar to your sister's: Janine takes over only when you are in periods of lighter sleep."
That was a relief.
"Then I'm safe during the day."
"For now.
"What does that mean?"
" 'Kara' is your primary personality, the dominant one, the personality through which you deal with the workaday world. This is a strongly entrenched, well-integrated, adult personality that has no need for 'Janine.' So 'Kara' remains in the driver seat while 'Janine,' the relatively minor personality, remains in the passenger seat. She has been dormant for a quarter century or so and hasn't the power to push 'Kara' aside and take over—except when 'Kara' is asleep. But the more time she logs in control, the stronger she will become. And some day she may well be able to assert dominance any time she wishes."