“Yes, but why? We’re underfunded and overloaded as it is. Usually, if we can remand a patient to family, that’s a best-case outcome. Good for the patient, good for us. In fact it’s my impression Congreve was hired because the board of directors believed he would reduce the number of people going on State lists.” Ethically or not, she added silently.

“Maybe,” Ariel said, “you don’t know as much as you think you know about what goes on where you work.”

Bose cleared his throat. “Keep in mind that Sandra’s here to help us. She’s our best shot at getting Orrin a fair deal.”

“I’ll see what I can find out about this incident. I don’t know whether I can help, but I’ll do my best. Ms. Mather, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions about Orrin? The more I know about his background, the easier it’ll be for me to move the case forward.”

“I told Officer Bose everything already.”

“But if you don’t mind repeating yourself? My interest in Orrin is a little different from Officer Bose’s.” Or a lot different. Clearly Sandra hadn’t yet taken the full measure of Jefferson Amrit Bose. “Has Orrin lived with you all his life?”

“Up till the day he got on the bus to Houston, yes.”

“You’re his sister—what about your parents?”

“Me and Orrin had different daddies and neither one of ’em stuck around. Mama was Danela Mather and she died when I was just sixteen. She looked after us as best as she could but she got distracted pretty easy. And she had trouble with drugs toward the end. Meth and the wrong men, if you know what I mean. After that it was only me there to take care of Orrin.”

“Did he need a lot of taking care of?”

“Yes and no. He never asked for much in the way of attention. Orrin was always happy to be by himself, looking at picture books or whatever. Even when he was little he didn’t cry much at all. But he was pretty useless at school and he cried plenty when Mama took him to class, so he just mostly stayed home. And he wasn’t good at feeding himself. You didn’t put food in front of him twice a day, he’d blink and go hungry. That’s just how he was.”

“Different from other children, in other words?”

“Different he surely was, but if you mean is he retarded I have to say no he is not. He can write letters and read words. He’s smart enough to hold a job if anybody’d hire him. He worked a night watchman job a while back in Raleigh—and here, too, Officer Bose tells me, until he got fired.”

“Does Orrin ever hear voices or see things that aren’t there?”