"Heidi's medically and psychologically unsophisticated. Claire told her what she wanted her to know. Any changes may have been subtle-a few sentences here and there. And they may have occurred only in response to Claire's prodding. Claire was spending intense one-on-one time with Peake, probing very deliberately. She knew what she wanted: a window into Peake's violence. And, by extension, Denton's. Even if Peake did say something to Heidi, there'd be no reason for her to comprehend. Or care. She'd dismiss it as gibberish, just as she did with the 'bad eyes' recitation until Claire turned up dead."

"And with Claire gone, Peake gets his full dosage again."

"And lapses into incoherence."

"Okay," he said. "Let me take this all in.... Peake blabs, Claire finds out someone else was involved ... and Wark enters the picture because he and Peake are somehow in contact-"

"Because Wark works at Starkweather-"

"Yeah, yeah, let me put this in order.... Peake wakes up- maybe he does get more violent. Or at least belligerent with Wark. He makes threats-'I've got this doctor who's really interested in me. I told her you turned me into a monster, she believes me, she's gonna get me out of here.' Even if Claire never said that, Peake could believe it-delusional. He's still crazy, right?"

I nodded.

"Still," he said, "that's an awful lot of gabbing for old Monster."

"Unless he's been faking."

"I brought that up at the beginning. You said it was unlikely."

"The context has changed."

He shot out of his chair, paced the room, buttoned and unbuttoned his coat. "If Wark was threatened, why not kill Peake?"

"Why bother?" I said. "Back on a full dose-or a higher one, if someone's tinkering in the opposite direction- Peake's no threat. He'll live out his life in his S&R room, the tardive symptoms will intensify until he's neurologically cooked, one day someone will walk in and find him dead. Just like Denton."

"Claire could just do that?" he said. "Pull pills with nobody noticing?"

"Starkweather gives its staff plenty of latitude. Dr. Aldrich was Claire's nominal supervisor, and he didn't seem to know much about her cases. Neither did Swig. In that respect, working at Starkweather was similar to her job with Theobold-plenty of solitude. The style to which she'd become accustomed since childhood."

"So," he said, "I waltz in there again and ask to look at the personnel files. Swig's gonna roll out the carpet."

"You can use the publicity threat-filing for warrants, the media getting hold of it. No reason for him to know the judges haven't cooperated. Ask to meet with the men in Claire's group. That's certainly reasonable. While you're there, try to work in the personnel records."

He circled some more. "One more thing. The Beatty brothers. Why would Crimmins/Wark tell Peake about killing them? On the contrary, if Peake's hassling him, the last thing he'd want would be for Peake to know anything."