John continued, "You would think the attention at school would be positive, but kids aren"t like that. It turned to bullying and teasing. Her genius-level IQ became a target for some very cruel behavior. We date Allegra"s emotional troubles from then, and they were only compounded two months later, when Fiona was murdered. Allegra was in mourning, but she began to exhibit behaviors that we felt would benefit from a therapist. She was diagnosed with situational depression, and the therapist thought she would recover more easily in a different school, out of the area. We enrolled her in boarding school, where we hoped she would recover, in time, under the care of a private therapist."
Jane nodded. "We didn"t want her to go, we loved having her with us, but the bullying was too intense. We couldn"t move because of John"s businesses, so it made sense to send her away. Still, we missed her."
Mary"s heart went out to them both. It"s sounded like a nightmare, as if they"d lost both of their daughters in one fell swoop.
John continued, "However, Allegra"s grief over her sister"s murder seemed to migrate to a preoccupation with the murder case itself, the testimony, and the witnesses, even the exhibits."
Mary shuddered. She had seen that before, sometimes in medical malpractice cases, when a client found it easier to transfer their anger at losing a loved one onto a lawsuit.
"Allegra is simply obsessed with the case. For example, she has studied the trial transcripts and can recite entire pa.s.sages to you, by memory."
Mary tried not to show her alarm. "I didn"t know she had the file."
"She does, it"s public record, and she obtained it herself. Over the years, and despite various types of medication, Allegra has only become more convinced that she and she alone knows the truth about Fiona"s murder. She believes the delusion that Fiona and Lonnie Stall engaged in a love relationship, which if you read the trial transcript, he himself did not claim on the stand, and we know to be untrue."
Mary tried to process the information. "How do you know that"s delusional? Why don"t you think it"s true?"
"She undoubtedly told you that Lonnie and Fiona met when Fiona was babysitting, but we never asked Fiona to babysit her baby sister. Not once, ever."
Mary didn"t get it, but John wouldn"t have any reason to lie. "So if she told me that, you believe she made that up?"
"Not consciously. She believes it, but it"s not true. Professionals whom we have consulted have suggested that her native ability to focus and concentrate are part-and-parcel with an obsessiveness that you have already seen with her, whether it"s her beekeeping or any of her other interests, about which I"m sure you will hear."
Mary tried to keep an open mind, but she didn"t know if he was being fair to Allegra.
"We believe, and Allegra has been diagnosed more recently as having a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that relates to thought processes, like ruminative thinking. She thinks obsessively about the murder trial, and one therapist has even identified it as a justice obsession syndrome, with cases observed in Sweden, Germany, and other places around the world. I can send you the article if you like."
"Please do," Mary said, shaken.
"So, you understand, that while Allegra is blessed with preternatural intelligence, she also suffers as well. The proverbial blessing and curse."
Mary"s heart broke for Allegra, and for all of them.
"We don"t know the details of her fixation on the murder case, because like you, her therapist is governed by confidentiality and will share nothing with us other than her diagnosis and treatment plan. So we find ourselves, as loving parents, kept in the dark about our own daughter. And by the way, we pay for that privilege." Anger resurfaced in John"s voice, controlled yet unmistakable. "What makes this situation so singular is, of course, money. Any average thirteen-year-old wouldn"t have the means to indulge this obsession, but Allegra is lucky, or unlucky, in that regard, too. The distribution from her trust fund has empowered her to hire you, and though we disagree with what she is doing, we are powerless to stop it. Unless you can be prevailed upon, to exercise your common sense and decline to enable her."
Mary didn"t realize that he"d finished the sentence. "You mean drop the case?"
"Exactly." John eyed her, tilting his head back. "I"ve given you a great deal of information about Allegra, and I gather much of this is news to you, isn"t it?"
"Yes, it is."
"Well, then, if you are as qualified an attorney as your reputation would suggest, I would think that you would go no further with this matter. I know that some lawyers will do anything for a fee, but I had Rosato & a.s.sociates pegged as a cut above. Perhaps I was incorrect."
Mary took it on the chin. "We"re not in the habit of dropping a client, once engaged."
"Even though you know Allegra is having emotional difficulties and the lawsuit is only the expression of that?"
Mary glanced at Judy, but she could read her mind. "We appreciate your input, but Allegra isn"t an incompetent, that is, she isn"t mentally unable to engage a lawyer."
"I see." John sucked in his cheeks as if he"d eaten something sour. "So you can be bought."
"No, but we can be hired. And we were."
"Then this meeting is over." John rose abruptly, with Jane after him, then Neil Patel.
"Oh." Mary realized they were being thrown out, albeit in the cla.s.siest possible way, so she gathered her stuff hastily, and so did Judy.
"This will be the last time we meet, because we don"t wish to be involved in Allegra"s delusion, nor do we think it"s good or healthy for her. We cannot stop her from going forward, but we won"t enable it." John paused. "We hope and pray that some good will come of this, when you find that Lonnie Stall is properly in jail. Perhaps then Allegra will put this matter behind her, once and for all."
Mary wasn"t about to give him any rea.s.surance. "Thank you for your time."
"Yes, thanks," Judy said, and they let themselves be escorted out by Neil Patel, who walked them in silence to a brick walkway lined with red rosebushes, which led back to the lot where they"d parked.
"Safe travels, ladies." Patel waved to them, then folded his arms and watched them walk toward the car.
Mary fell into step with Judy. "Say nothing. The flowers have videocameras."
Judy smiled, then gestured to the lawn. "Here comes Allegra."
Mary turned to see Allegra hurrying across the lawn toward them, half-walking and half-skipping, looking every inch a carefree young girl, except that she wasn"t. Her thoughts were obsessive and dark, preoccupied with murder and death. Mary resisted the urge not to see her with new eyes. Allegra had a sweetness that was impossible to miss, and what Mary had heard about her only made her feel more sympathetic and protective. More than anything, Allegra needed a friend, and Mary wasn"t about to abandon her.
"Allegra!" she called out, shielding her eyes from the sun.
"Hi, guys!" Allegra came over, still smiling.
"How are you?" Mary smiled back at her. "You get your hives done?"
"Not yet." Allegra"s smile faded, and her sharp gaze shifted from Mary to Judy and back again. "He told you I"m crazy, right?"
Mary felt a pang, caught off-guard. "He also told us you were a genius."
"Same thing," Allegra said, flatly.
Chapter Eleven.
"Well?" Mary steered the car on roads that wound through the sunny countryside, her fingers tight on the wheel and her diamond ring blinding her.
"Well, what?" Judy looked over with a crooked grin. "Another fine mess, obviously."
"What do you think? Is she crazy?"
"Is bats.h.i.t a medical term?"
Mary felt another pang. "Aw, that"s not a nice thing to say."
"Then why ask me?"
"I didn"t think you would say that. She"s sweet."
"And nutty."
"Stop." Mary whizzed past a dairy with a herd of cows, a black-and-white blur. She couldn"t wait to get back to the city, where all the milk came in plastic containers and none of the rooms was wired. "Do you think Stall is guilty?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Little thing called evidence."
"And you think Allegra"s obsessed and delusional?"
"Yes." Judy kicked off her clogs and put her bare feet up on the dash, and Mary almost stopped the car.
"No feet on the dash."
Judy rolled her eyes and moved her feet. "Partner attack."
Mary smiled. "Now tell me why you think she"s delusional."
"Because I"ve seen that before, when I clerked for the judge. We had case after case filed by the same litigants, and we even got to know their names. There"s a lot of sad people in this world, and they file a lot of abusive lawsuits, gumming up the courts." Judy"s tone turned disgusted, because n.o.body loved the law more than she did. "It prevents legitimate cases from being heard timely, clogs the court"s dockets, and costs a fortune. Most courts have a staff attorney, whose sole job it is to handle all the pro se complaints. It"s a waste of taxpayer dollars."
"Unless they have merit."
"The abusive ones don"t. We know those litigants. They"re crazy."
"But politics aside-"
"It"s not politics. One of the great things about this country is that we let everyone have his day in court, and one of the worst things about this country is that we let everyone have his day in court." Judy turned to the window, running fingers through her raggedy blonde hair. "Anybody with a filing fee can file a frivolous lawsuit, and I"ve seen them for a ton of wacky reasons-a belief that injustice occurred, or for attention, or for something to do, or to feel important and lawyer-y, even for the drama of it."
"But you think Allegra is one of those?"
"She could be, like a conspiracy theorist with no conspiracy. I get what her father is saying, I see that in her. She"s all over the bee thing."
Mary couldn"t buy in, so quickly. "But isn"t every teenager like that? I was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and Boys II Men. I went to every concert and had every alb.u.m, shirt, and poster."
"This is a murder, not a boy band." Judy shuddered. "It"s a ghoulish preoccupation."
"It was her sister."
"All the more ghoulish."
"But when Mike was killed, I was overly involved with that case. I thought about it, and him, all the time. It"s part of grieving." Mary glanced at her hand on the steering wheel, where her diamond ring blazed in the sunlight, searing her eyes.
"She"s in treatment. She"s diagnosed."
"So what? Maybe I would have been, too, if I had gotten to a shrink. I just didn"t have the money."
"She"s not you."
"I know that."
"But you"re already too emotional about her."
"Of course I am. Have we met?"
Judy laughed. "It"s a difference of degree, and we can"t say for sure when an avid interest in something, whether it"s murder or bees, shades into obsession."
"You sound checked out." Mary turned onto a two-lane road, which was as many lanes as she was going to get out here. "Where"s your loyalty?"
"I"m still on board, but I have my doubts about her now."
"Her own father slandered her."
"He told us the truth."
"He told us his view."
"And a professional"s."
"Please." Mary hit the gas, switching lanes. "Everything isn"t a disease. Allegra wants to find her sister"s killer, so we call that "justice obsession syndrome"? If there is such a thing, then Bennie has it, and so do we all."
"You totally have it. You got it from a toilet seat."
"I"m lousy with it." Mary smiled. "In fact, I"m addicted to justice. I"m a justice junkie. Treat me. Send me to rehab."
Judy chuckled. "No, but here"s the thing. I didn"t think it was a wild-goose chase when she came in, or us playing out some fantasy for a very confused kid. Now, I do."
"We don"t know that it is."
"We don"t know that it"s not."
"You"re judging her because she has emotional issues. That"s not right."
Judy paused. "Okay, point taken. Maybe I"m wrong. I table my objections."
"Thank you." Mary checked the clock, which read 12:15. "I want to read the file and plan our next move."
"Our next move is obvious."
"But we can"t go until after we"ve read the file."
"Why read it? We could just ask our genius client what it says, since she memorized it."