“You think Sean’s a smart man?”
“One of the smartest I’ve ever met.”
“And yet he was deceived too.”
“But he figured it all out. Me, I was still in la-la land.”
“How did you feel about Sean and this woman?”
“Like I said, he’s a big boy.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
She snapped, “I felt bad about it, okay? Are you satisfied?”
“Bad because he chose her over you?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t have a lot of tact, do you?”
“We’ll assume that I don’t. But is that how you felt?”
“I think I felt he was making a fool of himself.”
“Why?”
“She was a witch. Desperate to get her claws in him. And she was a murderer too though we could never prove it.”
“So you suspected her of being a killer while Sean was seeing her?”
Michelle hesitated. “No, I didn’t. There was just something about her that I didn’t like.”
“So your instincts proved right with her.”
Michelle sat back. “I guess so. I never thought about that really.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here, to help you think of these things. And patients often contribute to the healing process perhaps without even knowing they are.”
“How so?”
“Like when you were in that bar. Part of you was looking for someone to hurt, to maybe even kill. Yet another part of you was looking for someone who could actually punish you, kill you. The result was you got the shit beat out of you, but you didn’t die, and I believe you had no real intention of doing so.”
“How are you so sure?” she said mockingly.
“Because people who really want to die use methods that are basically foolproof.” He ticked items off on his fin
gers. “A shotgun blast to the head, hanging, gas in the oven or poison down the throat. Those people don’t want help; they want to die and they almost always do. You didn’t die because you didn’t really want to.”
“Suppose you’re right, now what?”
“Now I want to talk about Michelle Maxwell as a six-year-old.”
“You go to hell!” Michelle stalked out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
Horatio screwed the top back on his pen and smiled contentedly. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”
CHAPTER
13