Page 105 of Precise Justice

Ernie, who looked like he was ready to melt, said, “Okay Maddy. For you, okay, I’ll do fifty.”

“Ernie,” Maddy softly said with her hand still on his arm. “Easiest twenty you’ll ever make.”

“How about forty, I’ll go forty,” Ernie said looking at Maddy.

“Thirty it is,” Maddy said.

“I gotta make a living…” Ernie started to protest looking at Marc. He then looked back at Maddy and caved in.

“Ernie,” she said only this time she puffed out her lower lip just a bit.

“Fine, okay, thirty. I better agree before I end up paying you.”

Maddy leaned down and kissed him on the cheek then said, “You’re a man among men, Ernie.”

“I’m a sucker, is what I am. Have the check sent to my office,” Ernie said.

“I said I’d do that if you came down to twenty, not thirty.”

“You’re killing me, Kadella,” Ernie said.

“How much money did you make off of my clients last year?” Marc asked.

“Never mind.”

FORTY

Dear Diary:February 7

I had my first session with the psychiatrist Marc sent me to today. Her name is Lorraine Butler. Today we, I mean me, took a mental test. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. She told me it is commonly given to find out someone’s personality traits.

Dr. Butler showed me a list of personality traits the test predicts. She had my test scored, then we discussed the results. Of course, it showed I have depression. Big surprise! There are a bunch of others. The most interesting is the one for masculinity/femininity.

I answered all of the questions honestly. The score for masculinity/femininity, Dr. Butler told me, showed more on the scale of masculinity, notfemininity. I don’t know whether to be happy about this or angry.

Why didn’t Dr. Frankenstein give me this test? If he had, maybe I wouldn’t be in this mess. Maybe I would still be a boy. The man is, sorry was, a quack. I hate him even more than I did before.

I like Dr. Butler. I will be seeing her once a week from now on.

“So, the MMPI showed that Robbie is more masculine than feminine,” Marc said. He was on the phone with Lorraine Butler getting an update.

“I have to ask, Marc. Are you considering an insanity plea?” Butler asked.

Marc paused thinking about his answer. Finally, he said, “I’ll wait until you know more to answer that, Lorraine. I’m reading through her diary entries…”

“You have the diaries?”

“No, I have copies. The cops grabbed the real ones,” Marc said.

“I want them. Can you get me a copy?” Butler asked.

“Sure. I’ll have them scanned and emailed. There’s over five-hundred pages.”

“That’s okay. I can speed read. Send them, please,” Butler said.

“I was going to tell you something, but I’ll let you find it and then we’ll talk. When do you see Robbie again?” Marc said.

“Next week, sometime. Send me the diary and we’ll talk then.”

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