Der Schädelring: Thriller (German Edition)

said he was hired to steal my engagement ring and harass me.”
    "Allegedly. But Mr. Triplett has some—shall we say, suspicions —surrounding him. We need to investigate the matter more thoroughly."
    "Then why didn't anyone from your department dust for fingerprints?"
    Snead gave a smile. His lips looked like a reptile's that had just swallowed a satisfying bug might. "How do you know we didn't? Your house is a busy place."
    "Somebody was at my window again last night. Right after I talked to you on the phone, Dr. Forrest."
    The doctor frowned. "Julia, you probably imagined it. You know that paranoia is one of the side effects of non-specific panic disorder."
    "No. It happened. He said, 'He owns you.'"
    Snead and Dr. Forrest glanced at each other. Then Snead said, "Do you have any evidence?"
    "Maybe you could go check for footprints or something. I don't know. It's not like I had a video camera running."
    "Why are you so afraid, Julia?" Snead said.
    She stared at the beige swirls in the carpet. She remembered something James Whitmore had told her in Memphis, how cops never forgot the cases they hadn't solved. "How come you followed me from Memphis?"
    "I didn't follow you," Snead said. "I was here already."
    Before her? Then he must have kept track of her whereabouts. Did Elkwood have some connection to her father's disappearance? Even though Dr. Forrest had convinced Julia that her father was a terrible and abusive man, she would love to have that riddle of the past resolved. But Snead's interest in her was a more enigmatic riddle.
    "I'm a friend of Dr. Forrest," Snead continued. "We grew up together. And I've had several conversations with both her and your therapist in Memphis, Dr. Danner. I thought getting some insight about you might help me solve your father's disappearance. Plus, I was curious about how the tragedy affected you."
    "I thought doctor-patient information was confidential." She looked accusingly at Dr. Forrest. The older woman touched her abdomen as if to remind Julia of the pentagram that had been carved into her flesh.
    "A doctor can share a diagnosis, Julia," said Dr. Forrest. "What we can't do is give transcriptions or relate specific incidents or confessions that emerge from therapy."
    That didn't sound like anything Julia had ever heard, though most of her legal knowledge came from reruns of Law & Order .
    "Why don't you make yourself comfortable?" said the doctor. She crossed behind Julia and closed the office door. Snead waited by the window at parade rest. Julia took her usual chair, her purse in her lap.
    Dr. Forrest returned and sat in her own session chair. "Now, Julia, what brings you here this morning?"
    Julia gripped the arms of the chair. "You told me to come in."
    The therapist's face saddened, and the wrinkles around her mouth deepened. "Julia, Julia. That's not the way to healing. You can lie to me all you want, and that doesn't matter. What matters is that you're lying to yourself."
    "You called me in the middle of the night," Julia said. "Remember?"
    "You imagined it, just as you imagined the person at your window."
    Julia squeezed her purse, the leather moistened by her sweaty palms. Even sitting, she was as dizzy as if riding on a mad magic carpet.
    "Okay, let's assume you're not making it up," Dr. Forrest said. "What did you think this person at the window said?"
    "'He owns you,'" Julia managed to whisper.
    "'He owns you.' And what do you think this means, Julia?" The doctor tented her fingers, her legs crossed. Snead looked on as if Julia were a white rat ready for another run at a familiar maze. Why didn't Dr. Forrest make him leave?
    "I don't know what it means."
    "I'll tell you, then. That was your subconscious mind telling you that you're still letting the sins of your father control your life. You're still a slave to the past. But the fact that you're ready to hear the message is a good sign, whether it came in a dream or not."
    "I don't want to hear any message," Julia said. "And I don't want to talk about this in front of him ." Julia avoided Snead's eyes.
    "You trust me, don't you?" said Dr. Forrest.
    "Well, yes."
    "Then you know I'm doing what's best for you."
    Julia pressed back in her chair. "I . . . I'm not sure about anything anymore."
    Dr. Forrest leaned forward and touched Julia on the knee. She rubbed it lightly. "The memory's in the meat, Julia. Cellular memory. Just let it escape. Breathe."
    No. Dr. Forrest wouldn't try to hypnotize her here, not in