Chapter 9 - The Neurologist
I had not spoken to Dr. Nathan Cole since Sophie changed medical groups the previous year.
He had treated her during the first months of the seizure disorder, before we transferred care to the hospital that eventually performed her surgery.
I remembered him as competent, impatient, and difficult to reach after hours.
I did not remember ever calling Sophie a liar in front of him.
Mark asked the obvious question.
"Did you ever say anything that could be twisted into that?"
I searched my memory carefully.
"I once told him Sophie sometimes had trouble describing what happened during a seizure."
"Anything else?"
"I said we had to separate what she remembered before a seizure from what she remembered after."
"Did you use the word liar?"
"No."
"Did Rachel attend those appointments?"
"Most of them."
Mark was quiet.
"Then we need to know what Dr. Cole actually said before tomorrow."
He contacted Dr. Cole's office through the number listed in the petition.
The receptionist would not discuss anything without authorization.
I signed a release for Mark to request records related to the alleged statement.
By evening, we had no response.
Sophie spent most of the afternoon sleeping.
When she woke, she asked whether she had done something wrong by pointing to the camera.
I sat on the floor beside the guest bed because she said looking down at people made her dizzy.
"No."
"Rachel said cameras aren't supposed to be used against family."
"Cameras show what happened."
"But she said families forgive mistakes."
"Forgiving someone is different from pretending something didn't happen."
Sophie thought about that.
"Are you going to forgive her?"
I could have given a simple answer.
Instead, I told the truth carefully.
"I don't know."
"Are you going to stay married?"
I looked at her.
"No."
She did not look surprised.
She looked relieved.
The relief hurt more than surprise would have.
"Okay."
"You don't have to worry about protecting my marriage."
"I know now."
"You should have always known."
She turned her head slightly toward the window.
"Rachel said if you had to choose, you would choose the person you married."
I felt anger rise again.
"She was wrong."
Sophie looked back at me.
"What if she says I made that up too?"
"Then she can say it."
"And people will believe her?"
"Some people might."
Her face tightened.
"That's not fair."
"No."
"Then why can't you say everybody will believe me?"
Because I could not promise something the world did not guarantee.
"Because I will not lie to you to make you feel better."
She watched me.
"But I believe you."
"Even if I cry?"
"Yes."
"Even if I forget something?"
"Yes."
"Even if I say it different later?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because remembering a frightening thing imperfectly is not the same as inventing it."
She absorbed that slowly.
Then she whispered.
"Rachel makes me repeat things until I say them the same way."
I stopped breathing for a second.
"What things?"
"Like when I fall."
"What do you mean?"
"If I get a bruise, she tells me what happened, and then I have to say it back."
I felt the room narrow.
"How often?"
"Sometimes."
"Did she do that with the bruise on your arm?"
Sophie nodded.
"The dresser."
"Did you hit the dresser?"
"No."
"Did she make you say you did?"
"Yes."
"Anything else?"
Sophie looked tired.
I stopped myself.
"We can talk later."
She nodded gratefully.
That night, Mark called at 8:40.
"Dr. Cole returned my message."
I walked into Rebecca's laundry room so Sophie would not hear.
The location felt cruelly appropriate.
"What did he say?"
"He is not Rachel's witness."
I leaned against the wall.
"What?"
"He says he never agreed to testify for her."
"Then why is his name in the petition?"
"Rachel called his office yesterday and asked whether he remembered concerns about Sophie's reliability."
"And?"
"He told her he could not discuss a former patient without authorization."
"So she listed him anyway?"
"She characterized him as a potential witness."
I closed my eyes.
"Did he remember me calling Sophie a liar?"
"No."
"Anything close?"
"He remembers the opposite."
I straightened.
"What does that mean?"
"He wrote a note after one appointment because Rachel repeatedly corrected Sophie's descriptions of symptoms."
The room went silent around me.
"What kind of note?"
"He documented that you asked Rachel to let Sophie answer in her own words."
I remembered that appointment now.
Sophie had been trying to explain an episode at school.
Rachel kept interrupting to say it had been shorter, less serious, and probably anxiety.
I had become frustrated and told her to stop speaking for Sophie.
At the time, I thought it was an ordinary disagreement between adults trying to describe a confusing medical event.
Now it looked different.
"Can we use the note?"
"With the appropriate authorization, yes."
"Will he testify?"
"He said he will respond truthfully if subpoenaed."
I almost smiled.
Rachel had tried to turn a doctor into evidence against Sophie.
Instead, she had pointed us toward a record that showed her silencing Sophie.
Mark was not finished.
"Dr. Cole also remembers Rachel asking him whether Sophie's condition could cause false memories."
"When?"
"Almost a year ago."
The date stunned me.
That was before Sophie's symptoms became severe enough for surgery discussions.
"Why would she ask that then?"
"He did not know."
"What did he tell her?"
"That some neurological conditions can affect memory in various ways, but he had not observed a pattern of fabricated events in Sophie."
I sat on the closed toilet lid because my legs suddenly felt weak.
Rachel had been building the language of doubt for a year.
The surgery did not give her the idea.
It gave her a stronger tool.
At 9:16 p.m., Detective Ruiz called.
The camera company had begun producing preserved account data.
"We found login activity from two devices."
"Mine and Rachel's?"
"Likely."
"Anything else?"
"A third device."
I frowned.
"What third device?"
"An Android phone that accessed the account several times over the last six months."
"I don't own an Android."
"Does Rachel?"
"No."
"Anyone else have the password?"
I thought of Denise.
"Rachel might have shared it with her mother."
"We will investigate."
"What did the third device do?"
Ruiz hesitated.
"It viewed archived clips."
"Which ones?"
"We do not have the full list yet."
"Did it delete anything?"
"Not according to the preliminary log."
"Then why does it matter?"
"Because it accessed the camera within minutes of several incidents involving Sophie."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"Meaning what?"
May you like
"Meaning somebody outside your house may have been watching in near real time."
