See Me(109)
“He’s lying.”
Margolis ignored her comment. “He told me that he’s not taking patients at the present time, and explained that he’s currently working in Tennessee for the state prison system. He said that he hasn’t spoken to Lester in weeks, but that Lester has a key to the house and occasionally stays in the apartment above the garage. He said that I’d probably be able to find Lester there. When I asked what he meant by ‘occasionally,’ Dr. Manning was quiet for a beat, and when he spoke again, I got the sense that I’d touched a nerve. He told me that ‘Lester is a bit of a nomad’ and there are times when he has no idea where Lester sleeps. I think he was referring to Lester’s habit of staying in vacant houses. When I pressed him, he added that he and his son are somewhat estranged these days, and for the first time, he sounded almost… apologetic. He reminded me that Lester was an adult and made his own decisions and there was only so much he could do as a father. He also added that if Lester wasn’t in the apartment at the house, my best bet was to try to find him at work. A place called Ajax Cleaners. It’s a janitorial service with a lot of commercial clients. He didn’t have the number offhand, but it was easy enough to find, and so my next step was to talk to the owner, a guy named Joe Henderson.”
Margolis looked up from his notes. “Are you following me so far?”
When Maria nodded, Margolis went on.
“When I spoke with Mr. Henderson, he said that Lester wasn’t a full-time or even part-time employee. He worked as an on-call employee – someone who could cover shifts when they were short-staffed or whatever.”
“How could they call him if he doesn’t have a phone?”
“I asked that very same question. The way it works there is they post open shifts on the employee section of their website – Henderson said it was easier to get a list of people and have them check than always scrambling to get the shifts covered. I had the sense there’s quite a few people who check the list regularly. Anyway, Lester sometimes worked two or three nights a week, but in the last couple of weeks, he hasn’t worked at all. Nor has Mr. Henderson heard from him. I found that interesting, so I called the house a couple of times, and no one answered. In the end, I sent my friend over there, and as far as he could tell, no one had been in the house or the apartment for at least a week. There were flyers in the mailbox, newspapers on the porch, that kind of thing. So I reached out to Dr. Manning a second time. And this is where things get kind of interesting.”
“Because you couldn’t reach him?”
“On the contrary,” he said. “Again, I left a message, and again, I got a call back within minutes. When I told Dr. Manning that Lester hadn’t been at work and that it didn’t appear that anyone had been at the house or apartment, his surprise gave way to concern. He asked again about the police matter – I hadn’t yet told him what it was – and I mentioned that I was looking into a case of slashed tires. He insisted that Lester wouldn’t do such a thing. He said his son isn’t violent; if anything, he’s terrified of conflict of any sort. He also admitted that he hadn’t been as forthcoming about Lester in the previous call as he could have been. When I asked what he meant, he told me that Lester…” Margolis reached for a page in the file. “Suffers from a delusional disorder, more specifically, ‘persecutory delusions of the nonbizarre type.’ While his son can generally function normally for extended periods, there are times when the disorder enters a more acute phase, sometimes lasting more than a month. In Lester’s case, it has its roots in the occasional usage of illegal drugs.”
Margolis looked up. “The doctor went into a bit more about the specifics of Lester’s disorder – way more than I needed to know, in fact – but essentially, it can be boiled down to this: When Lester is in an acute phase – when the disorder moves from simple paranoia to actual delusions – Lester ceases to function entirely normally. In these moments, Lester strongly believes that the police are out to get him and that they’ll stop at nothing to put him in prison for the rest of his life. He’s convinced they want to hurt him, and he’s convinced they will set other prisoners against him. He also has the same delusions about you.”
“That’s ridiculous. Lester’s been stalking me!”
“I’m just telling you what the doctor told me. He also told me that Lester had been arrested a few times. It was always during an acute phase, which was why he would resist arrest. The police would generally use Tasers to subdue him, and Dr. Manning added that on two separate occasions, Lester was beaten by other prisoners while he was locked up. That, by the way, goes to what I said earlier about my suspicion as to why the charges were dropped. I’m guessing that Lester wasn’t coherent and it didn’t take all that long for everyone to figure it out.”
Margolis let out a sigh. “But back to Dr. Manning. Like I told you, he sounded worried and he said that if Lester wasn’t at the house or working regularly, then he was likely in an acute phase. Which also meant he’d likely be in one of two places: either hiding out in a vacant house somewhere, or at Plainview, which is a psychiatric hospital. Lester’s checked himself in there numerous times in the past, more frequently since his mother died. In her will, she left a trust fund large enough to cover the cost of his treatment there. It’s expensive, by the way. I couldn’t get any answers on the phone, so I called my friend again and asked if he could head over to Plainview in person. He did that this morning, about an hour before I called you. And sure enough, Lester Manning is currently a patient there. He admitted himself voluntarily, but that’s about all the detective could really tell me. As soon as Lester learned that a detective wanted to talk to him about Maria Sanchez, he just… freaked out. My friend could hear him screaming from down the hall and the next thing he knew, a couple of orderlies were rushing in that direction. Like I said, interesting, don’t you think?”