“Okay. Here goes. The doctors started bringing Mandy Kowalski out of the coma at around nine in the morning. By early evening—Frieda told me it was around seven—Mandy regains consciousness enough to open her eyes and recognize her mom. She knows she’s in bad shape. She’s really agitated. Her blood pressure’s sky-high, her heart’s beating a mile a minute, and she’s shaking like she’s in the throes of a seizure. The docs thought that they may have brought her out of her sedation too quickly. Or maybe she was feeling intense pain from her burns. Because according to her mom, she was writhing in agony.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Man, I was relieved that I wasn’t there to see it.” A deep breath over the line. “So Frieda starts asking for pain medication for her daughter, but before they can knock her out again, Mandy starts mumbling words. At first, Frieda couldn’t make out anything distinct, but then Mandy kept repeating herself. Finally, Mom thinks she hears the word ‘dungeon.’”

“Oh God!”

“Yeah, exactly. Frieda had the presence of mind to repeat the word ‘dungeon’ back to her daughter. And that really spikes Mandy’s blood pressure. The girl becomes super agitated and buzzers start going off. The nurse rushes in, and is about to lace her IV with dope, but thank God for Frieda. She stops the nurse. The nurse and Frieda have words. Frieda wants a doctor to administer the sedation. The nurse gets all insulted and walks out in a huff and the doctor is paged.”

“Bravo for Mom.”

“You said it, because before the doctor could get to Mandy’s IV line, Mom managed to make out a few more words: ‘dungeon,’ ‘house’…‘murder.’ Then Mandy starts saying over and over: ‘the girl, the girl, the girl.’”

“Good Lord!”

“Yeah. Exactly. By this time, the doctor has come in and he’s really upset with Frieda. And Frieda is upset with the doctor and the nurse. So everyone is upset with everyone, but finally the doc puts Mandy under, she quiets down, and all is well in Sin City. It’s around seven-thirty by now. Frieda is finally calm enough to think. She decides it would be a good idea to call me up and tell me what Mandy said in her delirium. When I picked her up from the airport, I gave her my card, my cell number, and Scott’s cell number. She decided to give me a buzz.”

“It’s amazing she had the presence of mind to call.”