Gin Palace 01 - The Poisoned Rose

come over to my house close to tears. He was just so…cruel. Why didn’t you get help, Mac? Why didn’t you leave?”
    I said nothing.
    After a moment Marie settled down and said, “Most of the time I was afraid. When I finally stopped being afraid, when I was finally able to leave, he convinced our father that I wasn’t well and had me locked-up in a hospital in Westchester. And if he finds me now, that’s where I’ll be headed again.”
    “He can’t just have you locked-up. There are laws. It’s not like that anymore.”
    “He can’t, but his doctors can. The thing of it is, he really thinks I’m crazy. He always has. He used to tease me when we were kids. He used to say that the dog that bit me had poisoned me and that’s why I was crazy. To him, anyone who doesn’t do exactly what he wants them to do is crazy. Anyone who doesn’t think the way he thinks has to be out of their mind. Or stupid. Or both.”
    “He has doctors that will lie for him?”
    “Of course. Christ, he tells doctors what to prescribe me, what drugs he thinks I need. He has a copy of the PDR by his bed. You should see the thing. It’s had the shit read out of it. The doctors cut him all the scripts he tells them to.”
    “And your father knew nothing about this?”
    “My father has been ill for a long time. My brother runs everything. People do what he says.”
    “Not everyone.”
    “I’m not going back to either place, Mac, that’s all there is to it. I’m not going back to that house, and I’m not going back to that hospital. I just want to be left alone. I just want to live my life. You can understand that, can’t you?”
    I said, simply, “Yes.” I waited a moment, then said, “What’s behind all this, Marie?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “There’s more you’re not telling me.”
    “There isn’t.”
    I looked at her, saying nothing.
    “Can’t you just help me, no questions asked?” she said softly.
    “I can’t make any more bad deals on good faith, Marie. You’re not telling me everything. Your brother is having people killed. The Chief got an animal out of jail and put him on your trail. If you want me to help you, I need to know everything, I need to understand.”
    “I can’t,” she said. “Everyone I’ve told the truth to is dead. Carter, Scully, everyone. You’re better off not knowing.”
    “Your brother set me up, Marie. One way or the other, my life is over. So telling me the truth can’t make things any worse than they already are.”
    “I can’t talk about it. Okay? I just…can’t.”
    “I can’t help you then.”
    “Please, Mac.”
    “Why does your brother want to lock you up?”
    “Please. I can’t…”
    “You know something, is that it? You know something that could ruin him and he wants to keep you silent.”
    “You don’t understand.”
    “Then make me understand.”
    “He doesn’t think that what he did was wrong. He doesn’t think anything he could do is wrong. He’s the crazy one. He’s the sociopath. He can’t see the wrong in anything he does. Anything.”
    “What did he do, Marie?”
    “It was a long time ago.”
    I sought out her eyes and held them. They looked wild, panicked.
    “What did he do, Marie?” I said.
    She took a breath, let it out, then took another. I waited, saying nothing.
    “He used our father against me, to keep me quiet,” she said finally. “He knew I would never tell anyone out of fear of it getting back to our father. I would never tell anyone what Jean-Marc did because I couldn’t bear the thought of our father knowing, of what he might think of me. So I kept it all in. I kept the secret. And when our father got sick, Jean-Marc realized there would be nothing holding me back once he was dead. He knew all kinds of hell would break loose. What I knew about him was enough to get him sent to prison for a long time.”
    She paused, then continued. “He got nervous and became even more paranoid than usual. He took over everything. The family business, the house, he was running it all like a dictator. He had the doctors confine my father and wouldn’t allow anyone to visit him. The man was helpless, shut off from the world, and he saw for the first time the monster he had created. He had always wanted my brother to be a leader, groomed him to be a captain of industry. You saw how he treated him, you remember that, right? Jean-Marc was entitled to anything and everything he wanted. He was the Golden Boy. But when my father