Going to his office, Thorn closeted himself alone. Buzzing his secretary on the intercom, he asked her to get Jennings on the phone. She tried but received a tape-recorded message that Jennings was out. She reported this to Thorn, mentioning the tape recording; Thorn requested the number and dialed it himself. The recording was in Jennings' own voice, one of the do-it-yourself answering services. It was the same voice that called him. Why had he not identified himself? What kind of game was he playing?

Thorn next received word that Katherine had called, but he delayed calling her back. She would want to talk about the abortion and he was not ready to reply.

"He will kill it," Thorn remembered the priest saying. "He will kill it while it slumbers in the womb."

Thorn quickly found the phone number of Dr. Charles Greer and explained he was on his way over on a matter of urgency.

Thorn's visit came as no surprise to Greer, for the doctor had sensed Katherine's deterioration. There was a fine line between anxiety and desperation, and he had seen her, several times, jump back and forth across the line. Her terror could become extreme, and it occurred to him that she might try to take her life.

"One never knows how deep these fears go," he said to Thorn in his office. "But frankly I'd be remiss if I didn't confess I think she's headed for serious emotional trouble."

Thorn sat tensely in a hard-backed chair, while the young psychiatrist puffed hard on his pipe trying to keep it lit as he moved about the room.

"I've seen it before," he continued. "It's like a freight train. You can just watch it picking up steam."

"She's gotten worse then?" Thorn asked in a shaky voice.

"Let's say it's developing."

"There's nothing you can do?"

"I see her twice a week. I think she needs more constant care."

"Are you telling me she's insane?"

"Let's say she's living in her fantasies. Her fantasies are terrifying. She's responding to that terror."

"What fantasies?" asked Thorn.

Greer paused, assessing whether or not to elaborate. He sat heavily in his chair, seeing Thorn's desperate eyes.

"For one thing, she fantasizes that her child is not really hers."

The statement crashed down upon Thorn like thunder. He sat paralyzed, unable to respond.

"I interpret this not so much as a fear, frankly, as a desire. She subconsciously wishes she were childless. This is a way of accomplishing that. At least on an emotional level."

Thorn was stunned, unable to reply.

"I don't mean to suggest that the child isn't important to her," continued Greer. "On the contrary, it's the single most important thing in her life. But for some reason it's very threatening to her. I don't really know if the fear revolves around motherhood, or emotional attachment, or simply the belief that she's inadequate. Unable to handle the job."

"But she wanted a child," Thorn managed to say.