Page 28 of Say Now
"Are we okay here?"the barman asked.
Claire showed him her ID, and he nodded before going off to find some coffee.
"Dr.Laurent?"Claire asked."Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"
"I haven’t done anything wrong."His words were slurred and slow.
"We only want to find out where you’ve been over the past week.Can you tell us that?"Claire asked.
"The past…the week?The last seven days.Yeah, I’ve been here."
"Where?"she asked."Here in the pub?In Butte?"
"All over," he replied.
The barman returned with some coffee for Steven.
"Excuse me," Claire said."How often is Dr.Laurent in here?"
"Dr.Laurent?"the barman asked."Hopefully, he’s not looking after any patients.He’s been in here all day today, and I think it was two days ago that he was here in the morning before he stumbled out.That was around noon when he left.That was the first time I met him.He’s doing a good job of keeping the bar operational all by himself."
"Thank you," Claire said.
The barman took the hint and left them to it.
"Dr.Laurent, we know you are on a sabbatical from your job because of what happened to your patient.We also know that you were the one who helped to free James Costner.Other psychologists worked on that case over the years.Dr.Kent, Dr.Hartley, and Dr.Gates.Do those names mean anything to you?"
"I know them," Steven said, straightening up more.He reached out, expecting the glass of liquor to be there.
Alison slid the cup of coffee into his hand."You knew them?In a professional capacity?"
Steven looked at the coffee, then at Alison.He sat back a little, trying to focus his eyes."You’re like me, aren’t you?I can always tell."
"How did you know them?"Claire asked.
Alison thought it might be better if only one of them questioned him, as each time he looked at the other, he had to refocus.
"I never knew them."
"Youdidn'tknow them?"Claire asked.
"Not in person.No, no, no, no," he replied."They worked on the case, and I worked on the case, and a million people worked on the case.Do you know how many lives we destroy?"He turned and looked at Alison, sitting back some again."Youknow."He pointed a finger at her."You know exactly what I’m talking about.We play god with people’s lives, but we’re not gods because we have no idea what our decisions mean.We’re trapped in a bubble, each of us, and each case is a bubble within that bubble, and we don't know what any of it means until the bubble pops."
"They made the wrong decision.Is that what you thought?"Alison asked.
"The wrong decision?The wrongdecision?See, that’s what’s so wrong with it all.We can't look at one decision at a time, can we?How do we know whose lives we are destroying without seeing the bigger picture?We need to look at the long-term, not the short-term, and we can't look at individual cases.We need to step back and see the bigger puzzle.Everyone wants immediate results, but we need to track the long-term outcomes of psychological evaluations.Don't you see?"
His eyes widened as he stared at Alison.She got a sense of what he was trying to say, but he was also so drunk that he might babble so much nonsense that some of it might sound coherent.
"Did you know Dr.Kent, Dr.Hartley, or Dr.Gates?"Claire asked.
"Yeah, I worked in the same case as—"
"No, not working together, have you had any contact with them?"Clair pushed.
"I don't know them.I don't know any of them anymore.I don't even know who I’ve become."
"This won't get us anywhere fast," Alison said."We won't know what he knows until he sobers up a little.We need to get him home before he gets any worse."
