Page 76 of Watching You
Beth shook her head.
‘She didn’t kill anyone! Are you insane? Fuck me. Christie, tell her. This is some science fiction bullshit,’ Lively said.
‘It was probably caused by the injury to your temple,’ Connie said. ‘Fregoli syndrome often results from a lesion, the one that caused your concussion, but a CT scan wouldn’t have been detailed enough to show it. With Fregoli delusion, your brain tells you you’re seeing the same person over and over again. You see the real faces but believe wholeheartedly that you’re seeing someone usually very important in your life, often someone associated with a trauma. People who suffer from Fregoli delusion feel victimised, and in your case, I think you were transported directly into that moment of fight-or-flight when you felt you had to kill Karl Smith to survive.’
‘She’d remember it,’ Lively said. ‘There’d have to be some sign of what she’d done.’
‘Actually that’s why I think it was you, Beth,’ Connie said.‘You’re a surgeon. You know how to kill fast and efficiently. You didn’t leave any forensic trace, not because you were being devious, just because your natural intelligence kicked in, and you never hurt anyone more than was necessary to kill. The whole case has been quite unlike anything else any of us have ever seen, and that’s why.’
‘But those poor people,’ Beth sobbed. ‘I worked so hard to save Archie Bass. Why didn’t I see him as Smith again if I’d tried to kill him the night before?’
‘Probably the sterile setting or the fact that he had all sorts of tubes, wires and a mask on. Fregoli delusion is very rare, but it also tends to mess with your memory. It’s like the rest of your brain knows it’s not possible, so everything gets jumbled. You were just reliving that day with Karl at the cabin over and over again, and fighting for your life each time. You’d have been a in fugue state during each attack and for some time afterwards.’
‘But Divya Singh,’ she cried, doubling over. ‘How could I have done such a terrible thing?’
‘Your conscious brain had no idea it was Divya Singh. It’s unlikely you knew you were killing at all. You were, to all intents and purposes, fighting a ghost,’ Connie said.
‘Her family won’t care about that,’ Beth sobbed. ‘I wouldn’t. It was so violent, so brutal.’
‘I know this is hard,’ Salter said gently. ‘But we need to establish the facts before we explore Dr Woolwine’s theory in any more depth. Dr Waterfall, do you remember visiting Jupiter Artland?’ Salter asked.
Beth dashed tears from her cheeks and nodded. ‘Several times. It’s a place I love. But I couldn’t give you the dates.’
‘Did you ever go home and find yourself more muddy or dirty than usual after a trip there? Have to wash your clothes or really scrub your hands?’ Salter continued.
Beth gasped. ‘I couldn’t figure out why. I thought that maybe I’d fallen over, something to do with my head injury, but I didn’t have a headache and my vision was fine.’
‘You fucking did it!’ Smith moaned from the floor. ‘Youare the killer!’ He looked across to Connie. ‘I told you she was a murderer. I told everyone at the hospital too. No one believed me.’
Salter twisted his left arm behind his back and put her other hand on the back of his neck while pushing his head back to the floor, then got her weight on top of him to keep him down. ‘You need to shut the fuck up, right now,’ she told him. ‘Because the truth is that you caused all of it, whether you meant to or not.’
‘We need to get you to a hospital,’ Connie told Beth. ‘Salter, can we move Beth without making an arrest?’
‘Oh God,’ Beth sobbed. ‘What have I done?’
Connie went across to her and wrapped her in a tight embrace. ‘You’ll get through this,’ she whispered. ‘I know this feels terrible and I know you’re going to be in a very dark place for a long time, but this wasn’t you.’
‘Please don’t tell Molly,’ she cried. ‘I’m so sorry, Sam. I didn’t know. Please just don’t tell Molly what I did.’
Connie stepped aside and let Lively take over.
‘She doesn’t even remember that her daughter’s dead. What’ll happen to her?’ Lively asked Connie over Beth’s shoulder.
‘We’ll do all we can to unravel it,’ Connie said. ‘It might not be easy and it won’t be fast, but don’t lose hope, okay? Beth’s going to need you.’
Everyone’s attention was elsewhere when it happened.
Karl slid the knife into his neck with no fuss and no sound. It hadn’t occurred to any of them that he might have been carrying a backup blade. He’d taken it from his pocket with his free right hand, slowly, gently, and slid it into the soft tissue at the side of his throat.
‘Fuck!’ Salter shouted. ‘That’s so much blood. How do I stop it?’
‘Oh God.’ Connie ran to her side and pressed hard on his neck. ‘Lively, run out and bring in the paramedics!’
Beth stepped over and got down on the floor.
‘Apply pressure here and here,’ she instructed them. ‘Let’s get his head raised. Wait there.’ She raced into the kitchen, slamming cupboards before running back with her hands full of gauze and bandages. ‘Let me work.’
She did her best to stop the flow of blood, packing the wound and holding it until the paramedics got there.
