Brian Freemantle - A Mind to Kill

‘As well as for organic reasons, apparent mental illness can be caused by head or brain malformation or injury,’ continued Fosdyke, looking up. ‘A difficult birth, the use of forceps or Caesarian section, things like that can result in cerebral anoxia, damage the temporal lobes and bring about epileptic dysfunction in later life… cortical atrophy even…’

Perry stirred, smiling sideways to Hall. ‘This could be better than any defence we’ve thought of so far…!’

‘If I could find any of it, which I can’t,’ stopped Fosdyke, immediately puncturing the expectation. He made an inclusive gesture towards Lloyd. ‘As a part of my assessment, we’ve carried out faeces, urine and blood tests. Earlier today there was even a lumbar drain, to examine spinal fluid for any cranial bleed or infection. In nothing we have done have we found the slightest evidence whatsoever of any medical conditions or illness from which Mrs Lomax might be suffering: most certainly nothing that would reflect upon or cause the mental collapse she appears to have undergone-’

‘What about physical damage or malformation?’ pressed Hall, reluctant to lose an acceptable defence avenue.

‘She responded a hundred per cent normally to every sensory test I carried out in the ward,’ refused Fosdyke. ‘In the examination room I even extended the scan, beyond the brain, to include the upper part of the body. There is absolutely no brain abnormality or malformation to account for Mrs Lomax’s behaviour. Neither is there in the upper body: anything that could be interrupting the oxygen or blood supply to the brain, for instance…’

‘… In short?’ invited Hall.

Fosdyke lifted the plates and printouts from the scan and said, ‘In short, Jennifer Lomax is, physically and neurologically, probably the fittest thirty-two-year-old woman I’ve ever examined in my life. Actuarilly, she’ll live to be a hundred.’

Hall finally picked up his cooled coffee. It was excellent, despite its container. ‘There’s no other test left you could carry out?’

The neurologist shook his head. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘So am I,’ said the barrister, with feeling.

Beside him Perry said to Julian Mason, ‘Which means our hope comes back to you.’

‘I’m not sure you’re going to be any better pleased,’ said the psychiatrist. He got up, refilled his cup and stayed slightly propped against the window in an attitude reminding Hall of how his tutor had sometimes tried to explain particularly esoteric points of law. The recollection prompted a reminder of its own, which he put aside until he’d heard Mason out.

‘You can’t have found nothing,’ challenged Perry in irritation.

Mason smiled, unoffended. ‘The problem may be that I’ve found too much but that I need even more.’

Hall detected a move of fresh irritation beside him and quickly said, ‘Perhaps you should talk us through it.’

The psychiatrist paused, preparing himself but unencumbered by any notes. ‘You’ve got to understand from the outset that one session, like we had today, was always going to be totally inadequate. I’ll need more – probably a lot more – if I’m ever going to be of any practical use to you or to a court.’

‘Of course we accept that,’ said Hall. ‘What we’re looking for today is a suggested way to go forward.’

Mason nodded, extending the gesture towards the neurologist. ‘George was looking for a pathological cause for Mrs Lomax’s condition. And didn’t find one. On face value Mrs Lomax is showing some of the classic symptoms of schizophrenia. There are no pathological tests for schizophrenia. It’s decided upon by the psychiatrist from visual and behavioural perception. For which they observe the symptoms devised by a German psychiatrist named Schneider: technically it’s called the Schneider Present State Examination. Mrs Lomax’s most obvious symptom is Second Person Auditory Hallucination: people – in this case one person – are talking to her. Equally obvious is Delusion of Thought Insertion: Jane can think for Jennifer, is aware of Jennifer’s thoughts… is inside her head, listening.’

Mason paused to sip his coffee and Hall waited, far from impatient at the lecture. Rather, he wanted a lecture: whatever defence they decided upon, he was going to need the phrases and the methodology. To be able to use and understand them.

‘There are some other schizophrenic indicators,’ resumed the psychiatrist. ‘The apparent uncontrolled movement of her arms and legs. Not having many friends is schizoid. Using obscenities is another… the actual murder would come under the heading of dyssocial personality disorder…’

Humphrey Perry didn’t have Hall’s patience. ‘So she’s genuinely mentally ill? Not properly aware of what she’s doing so we can suggest she’s suffering diminished responsibility or is unfit to plead?’

‘No,’ said the psychiatrist, shortly.

‘No!’

‘I’ve treated and diagnosed dozens of schizophrenics: a lot of paranoid schizophrenics who’ve killed. And I’ve never before encountered anyone like Jennifer Lomax.’

‘So she’s faking it?’ persisted Perry, easily able to dance to a different rhythm.

‘I don’t think that, either.’

There was a sharp sideways look from Lloyd. The neurologist gave no reaction and Hall presumed the two specialists had fully discussed everything before their arrival. He had to remember the absence of the voice, as well as raise the query from the long ago Cambridge debate. He said, ‘Until this moment I’ve understood everything you’ve said. Now you’re losing me.’

‘What was the first thing that interested her when we met, knowing I was a psychiatrist?’ demanded Mason.

Perry shook his head.

‘Your name,’ recalled Hall.

‘Exactly. And she smiled. A schizophrenic wouldn’t have been interested in my name. Nor have smiled, to fit the circumstances of the introduction. Facial reaction is usually dysfunctional, out of context or keeping with the moment: she frowned in the right places at the right time and she smiled in the right places at the right time.’ Mason seemed surprised his polystyrene container was empty and added to it. ‘Mouthing obscenities is a common manifestation. But being embarrassed by them isn’t. When she told me Jane had called her a good fuck and I asked her if she was, she visibly blushed, discomfited, although she admits to using the word herself. The context of everything she did and said is vitally important. And everything she did and said fitted, as if there was a person none of us was aware of, taking part in the discussion…’

Perry sighed, too heavily, and Mason grinned at him. ‘You think I’m enjoying saying this… even considering possession…!

‘Faked!’ dismissed the solicitor.

‘Then answer me this!’ demanded Mason, coming forward with the challenge that reminded Hall again of his Cambridge tutor when he’d laid a trap for an inattentive student. ‘If you were faking a mental illness and were confronted by two supposed experts…’ He waved his hand towards the neurologist. ‘… Like George and I, what would be absolutely vital for you to know…!’

Once again, uncomfortably, Perry shook his head.

‘Whether we believed you or not,’ supplied Fosdyke, re-entering the conversation and confirming Hall’s guess of a rehearsal. ‘When we came out of the scanner Peter and I said we had sufficient and Hall asked if it was enough for a preliminary finding-’

‘-And Jennifer stopped either of us replying,’ came in Mason. ‘She actually said “Not in front of me: I don’t want her to know” and claimed the voice called her a bitch for not letting us speak, even if we’d intended to.’

‘All part of a damned clever act,’ suggested Perry.