Free The Evangeline by D. W. Buffa

mystery a little while longer. But so we’re all clear about one thing: I take it you found no physical damage to his brain, no physical trauma that would explain this alleged partial loss of memory?’
    ‘No, the CAT scan was normal; but there are other kinds of trauma.’
    ‘Oh, indeed, Doctor; and perhaps few as severe as what those poor people suffered during their long ordeal. Did any of the others—and you examined all but one of them—claim any loss of memory?’
    ‘No, but I could not go so far as to state categorically that none of them didn’t suffer some loss, or some distortion,’ he explained in a slightly hesitant voice.
    ‘Are you saying that some of what they saw, some of what they experienced, may have been so traumatic that what they remember of it may not be entirely accurate?’
    ‘We have all done things we later regret, and sometimes, perhaps to ease our conscience, we begin to shade the truth, to see it in less vivid colours—to make it appear, even to ourselves, that it was not really as bad as we had thought at first. Sometimes it’s more dramatic than that. When a memory is too painful, we try to forget it—and sometimes the mind will do this, so to speak, on its own. It pushes that memory into the subconscious and replaces it in the conscious mind with something more palatable, something that gives a different shape to the same event.’
    ‘Mrs Wilcox, for example?’ asked Darnell.‘I believe you testified that she appeared to be a “deeply religious” woman. Another witness testified that she claimed two angels came from heaven to help her. Is this the kind of thing you’re talking about, Dr Steinberg? The way the mind reinterprets reality to make it easier for us to live with something that has happened?’
    ‘I shouldn’t like to comment on anyone’s religious experience, but yes, it’s possible.’
    ‘Just one or two questions more, Dr Steinberg. The other woman who was rescued—Cynthia Grimes. She refused treatment? She left the hospital?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You don’t know where she went? Whom she saw?’
    ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t.’
    ‘But you had seen her before, hadn’t you? She wasn’t a complete stranger to you, was she?’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You’re the chief of staff of the hospital, and Benjamin Whitfield, in addition to being a member of the board, is the largest single contributor to the hospital’s endowment. He is also—is he not?—a man you consider a close friend.’
    ‘Yes, that’s true. Benjamin Whitfield and I are friends.’
    ‘Then surely you knew that he and Ms Grimes had been involved? And isn’t that the reason she left, to avoid having to face any questions about what she had been doing on the Evangeline in the first place? To avoid, I imagine, the embarrassment of having to explain her relationship with one of the country’s most respected men? Yes, well, never mind,’ he remarked, before Roberts was out of his chair with an objection.‘It doesn’t matter. Let me see … Hugo Offenbach.Yes, I saw him play here, myself. You say he had a heart attack—correct?’
    ‘Yes, a mild one, but—’
    ‘A mild one that would have killed him if someone had not taken care of him. Do you happen to know who that was?’
    ‘Mr Offenbach told me that Mr Marlowe saved his life.’
    ‘Did he, now? Did he say that? Well, yes, I imagine he would say that. One last thing, Dr Steinberg,’ said Darnell, peering intently at him from the end of the jury box. ‘You examined the survivors of the Evangeline —all but one of them—and you did this how long after they had been picked up by Captain Balfour and the crew of the White Rose a thousand miles east of South America?’
    ‘Nearly a week.’
    ‘During which time they had been given food and water and at least some medical care, to say nothing of a dry bed and plenty of sleep?’
    ‘Yes, that’s true.’
    ‘Would it be fair to say, then, that Captain Balfour, though he is not