Simple Genius

Horatio thanked her, hung up and slumped back in his chair. This put a whole new spin on everything that the psychologist didn’t like at all.

CHAPTER 62

LATER THAT EVENING Horatio moved into an empty room in the mansion at Babbage Town after Michelle told him Champ had authorized it.

“I’m surprised,” he said.

“Even geniuses change their minds,” she pointed out.

“No, I’m surprised that you asked him to do it.”

“How do you know I asked him?”

“I’m the head doc, okay? I just know.”

After he was unpacked Horatio asked Sean to come to his room. There he filled him in on what South had told him about Camp Peary and German prisoners of war being held there. And also the phone conversation he’d had with Hazel Rose. Sean mulled the latter part over. “What do you make of it?”

“Make of it? I make of it that Michelle’s mother was having an affair with this Army guy.”

“That part I figured out. I mean how does that fact tie into Michelle’s personality changing?”

“I’m not sure,” Horatio admitted.

“Did Hazel say when the Army guy stopped coming around?”

“No. Actually I didn’t ask her.”

The two men stared at each other. “You think Michelle saw something, don’t you?” Horatio slowly nodded. “Like what?”

“It’s only speculation, but something… bad. Like maybe her mother in bed with this guy. But what I’m really thinking is even worse. Her brother Bill didn’t believe it was the case, but I’m thinking that maybe Michelle was sexually abused by him.”

Sean looked skeptical. “And her mom would just allow that to happen? Come on!”

“Believe me I’ve seen it all. And maybe the mom didn’t know about it, or didn’t want to know about it so long as the guy kept coming around to see her.”

“So what would that do to a six-year-old kid?”

“Seeing the mom in bed with another man? At that age she might not be able to understand anything other than a strange man is with Mommy. And if Mom was quick enough to explain it away? But the sexual abuse? That could be devastating. Particularly if her mother acquiesced in it.”

“I can’t believe this, Horatio. Michelle has been very successful in life. Could she have done all that carrying around that sort of baggage?”

“Sometimes the abuse history makes a person incredibly driven and that ambition allows them to achieve a great deal. But underneath the success lies a very different picture. It represents a stark imbalance in life. And at some point that imbalance can bring everything crashing down.”

“That sounds like what happened to Michelle,” Sean pointed out.

“I know.”

Sean glanced out the window. “If Michelle saw her mom with another man or was abused by that guy and then told her dad about it?”

Horatio let out a long, troubled sigh. “Then you’re getting into some serious mental shit. Hazel did say the Army guy just stopped coming around. Maybe he couldn’t come around because he was dead.”

Sean blurted out, “Wait a minute. Army guy! The guy she beat up in the bar. He was dressed in military style clothing when I saw him.”

“Then that makes sense,” Horatio said slowly.

“What do you mean it makes sense?”

“I talked to people who worked with Michelle over the years, as well as friends, athletes. Some of them spoke about the fights she’d gotten in.”

“Let me guess. They were all military people?”

“Yes, as far as I could find out.”

“Horatio, we need to find out if anything happened to the Army guy.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Horatio said.

“When is the truth not a good idea?”

“This isn’t one of your investigations, Sean. This is about a person’s head. Sometimes the truth can do more harm than good.”

“At the very least I think we need to know so you can decide what to do next with her. She said you wanted to hypnotize her. If you do and you start asking questions you might end up somewhere you don’t want to be. Better you know all the facts before you do that.”

Horatio said, “Actually, you’re right. But how do I find out?”

“I bet South Freeman knows somebody that knows somebody that could help us out in Tennessee.”

“I’ll give him a call.”

A knock on the door interrupted them. It was Michelle. She immediately noted their gloomy faces.

“You two look like you’re planning a funeral and getting ready to go to war at the same time,” she said.

Sean said quickly, “Horatio was just filling me in on his talk with South Freeman. It appears those secret flights might be bringing in some folks that officially were never there. They have a black area there for secret diplomacy.”

“And potentially fatal for Monk Turing if that’s what he was witness to,” Michelle commented.

Sean continued, “And that’s not all. Before Camp Peary existed, the Navy held German prisoners of war there.”

Michelle said, “German POWs? That’s funny. Champ showed me a beer stein from Germany that he said Monk brought him.”

Sean sat up in his chair. “Monk Turing was in Germany?”