Rachel Alexander 09 - Without a Word

staying on top of things.”
    “What a nightmare for you,” I said, “coming in on something like that, everything a total mess. I bet you put in a lot of overtime fixing the mess she left.”
    “For months,” she whispered. “I never got home before eight at night.” She shook her head. “I was brought up to have pride in my work.”
    “It’s amazing to me how few people there are like you nowadays. How does someone like that even keep a job?” Ms. Peach inhaled through her nose but didn’t respond. “I’m trying to remember what else he said about her.“
    “Who?” she asked.
    “Mr. Spector. Something about Celia being especially kind to Madison at such a difficult time,” I said, continuing to make it up as I went along, keeping an eye on Ms. Peach as I spoke. “Was it Storch, Celia Storch? I’m sure it started with an S, is that right?”
    But Ms. Peach was on to me. She was frowning now, looking down at her keys, perhaps thinking it was time to get to work, time to get rid of the snoopy stranger.
    I went on as if nothing had happened. “I wonder, Ms. Peach, is there any way you could help me out here?”
    “In what way?”
    “I wonder if I might talk to any of the other parents of the doctor’s other patients?”
    “You know that’s impossible. And what on earth do you want to do that for?”
    “I just wonder if any of the other children had a run-in with Madison,” I said.
    “Oh, I couldn’t possibly give you the names of any of the doctor’s other patients. That would be against the law.”
    “I understand. But you could tell me that, couldn’t you?“
    “Certainly not. Anything that goes on here is private, confidential.”
    “Even in the waiting room?”
    “Yes, even there.”
    “I guess you’re right,” I said. “Well, how about just letting me peek inside at the doctor’s office, for just one minute?”
    Ms. Peach stood taller, somewhat appalled by what I was asking. “Isn’t that a bit ghoulish?”
    “No, no, no,” I said, “it’s not what you think. It’s just so that if the child tries to communicate something to me, I’ll know what it is. I’m told her communications, her pictures, are kind of cryptic.”
    “Not the one I found on the doctor’s desk.”
    “Do you still have that?”
    “Certainly not! The police took that.”
    “Not even a copy?”
    “Of course not. I wouldn’t have touched anything. It was a crime scene.”
    “Not even the doctor? To make sure he was dead?“
    “That’s different. Naturally I felt for a pulse.”
    “And did you see the needle at the time, when you knelt next to Dr. Bechman to feel for a pulse?”
    Ms. Peach put both her hands against her chest. “It was lying next to him. It must have fallen out when he fell.“
    “Did you pick it up? Or did you go straight for the phone?“
    “I went straight for the phone,” she said, a little too quickly.
    “His or yours?”
    “What on earth do you mean?”
    “I mean did you just reach over, as anyone would, and pick up the closest phone, and did you see the drawing Madison had made at that time? Or did you carefully back out of the office and use your own phone, so as not to disturb any possible evidentiary material?”
    Ms. Peach’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
    “The detectives who were here had no issues with any of my behavior,” she said a moment later.
    “Not that they mentioned,” I said.
    “You’re making it sound as if I had some part in this when it’s clear it was Madison who—”
    “No, no, no,” I said. “Nothing like that.”
    Ms. Peach nodded.
    “You mentioned that Madison was a terror. But you didn’t say whether or not she’d ever hurt anyone before, you or another child or, of course, Dr. Bechman.”
    Ms. Peach leaned closer. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. I shouldn’t even be talking to you, but since you are being so persistent, yes, she did hurt other children here. That’s why Dr. Bechman started having her come last, when the other children were gone. Are you satisfied now? You’re barking up the wrong tree, Ms. Alexander, if you think by snooping around here you’ll find out that Madison didn’t do this. I don’t know when I’ve ever seen a child as full of rage, as mean-spirited.”
    “Tell me about the children she hurt.”
    Ms. Peach pulled her breath in, her chin along with it. “Please, it’s important I understand. If I am, as you say, barking up the wrong tree, then shouldn’t I know it?