Memory Man

Marshall looked over at Decker. “Do you really think that this might be connected with all those deaths?”

“I know that it is.”

Marshall took off his glasses and slid the file away. “Belinda Wyatt was a teenager living in rural Utah. When she was sixteen she was, to put it bluntly, gang-raped, sodomized, brutally beaten, and left for dead.”

Bogart glanced sharply at Decker, but the latter kept his gaze on Marshall.

“So she suffered a brain trauma from her injuries and she came out of it with hyperthymesia,” said Decker.

“Yes. And she also suffered a great deal of emotional trauma, as you can imagine,” added Marshall. “Enough that realistically a full recovery was never going to happen. She was permanently damaged from it, emotionally, and physically as well. With the physical damage done she would never be able to conceive a child, for instance.”

“My God,” commented Jamison.

Bogart said, “But, Decker, I’m not following this. Wyatt’s a girl. She can’t be our shooter. It’s a guy.”

“She can be our shooter. She is our shooter.”

Bogart glanced at him sharply. “How do you figure that exactly?”

Decker looked at Marshall. “Belinda had issues, didn’t she? Other than her being beaten and raped? Having to do with sexual orientation perhaps?”

Marshall said in amazement, “I really don’t know how you possibly could have known that. To my knowledge that was never mentioned in any session.”

“I can’t exactly explain it other than in my head some things came together. The line of a jaw, the curve of a thigh, the hands. And mannerisms and movements. All jumbled together. Pieces of a puzzle.”

“Your mind is truly extraordinary, Amos.”

“So was that why she was raped and brutalized? I would guess twenty years ago in rural Utah someone like that would not be very popular.”

“I was not privy to the exact details of the crime, but that could have been the case, yes. I’m not sure how far we’ve come as a society, actually. I would imagine that sort of condition would still provoke severe if totally misguided reactions.”

“What exactly were her medical conditions?” asked Decker.

Marshall seemed about to protest, but then resignation swept over his features. “Twenty years ago Belinda Wyatt would have been classified as suffering from true hermaphroditism.”

Jamison said, “You mean like a hermaphrodite?”

“Yes,” said Marshall. “Now, that’s an arcane term, no longer in use because it’s more than a bit insensitive. Today we call such conditions intersex or DSD, which is an acronym for ‘disorders of sexual development.’ That’s where there’s a discrepancy between the external and internal genitalia, meaning testes and ovaries respectively, and also where you may have female chromosomes but male genitalia or vice versa. It has four known categories. Belinda technically belonged to a subset of the condition known as true gonadal intersex.”

“Which means what exactly?” asked Decker.

“That the person has both ovarian and testicular tissue. Belinda also had both XX and XY chromosomes. She also had one ovary and one testis. As you can imagine, it would be a difficult condition for anyone. The medical community has come a long way now in terms of helping the person to deal with the situation, to make choices, surgical and otherwise. Twenty years ago the decision was often made to have surgery immediately and to make the patient a woman in lieu of a man because the surgical procedures tended to be easier. Now we know there are many other factors involved. It’s often better to wait and come to understand each person’s unique situation and to allow the patient to have substantial input into the decision. I mean, it’s their body and life after all.”

“But twenty years ago?” said Decker.

“It was very different,” said Marshall. “And people could be very ignorant. And extremely cruel. Wyatt was sixteen and in high school. That time period is perilous enough for many young people who do not have to deal with, well, being different biologically from other people their age.”

Jamison said darkly, “So whoever gang-raped and beat her probably knew about her condition. And they were of the ignorant variety? And they decided to teach the girl a lesson?”

“Presumably, yes.”

“And her parents?” asked Decker.

“Since she was not at the age of majority at the time, they had to give their authorization for her to come to the institute.”

“Did they ever visit her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“To put it delicately, I would number them among the ignorant.”

“God, talk about being totally abandoned by your parents when you need them most,” remarked Jamison.

“So they thought their daughter was what, a freak?” asked Decker.

“I spoke with them on the phone a few times. I don’t think they cared what happened to her. Thoroughly unpleasant people.”

Bogart said, “Why were you privy to all of this medical information on patients at the institute? I thought you just did research on cognitive issues.”