"Unless something else pops up and slaps us in the face, then we have our connection," Alison admitted."Before we do anything else, we need to let Derek know.He needs to get the word out to anyone else connected to the case, anyone who might now be in danger.It’s obvious why the four deceased might be blamed for the outcome, but who else was involved?Are the jury members in danger, too?"
"Maybe not," Moore replied."Their names wouldn’t be on record.Diana Shepherd could obtain the court records and the names of those involved, but the jury members would have some anonymity.Perhaps she could find out, but it would be far easier to get the four names of the deceased."
"Derek will be able to find the names if they’re available, and if not, then a member of the public won't be able to access them unless they have someone to gain access for them."
"Judge Greene?"Moore wondered."If he was lured to the courthouse last night by Diana Shepherd, she might have gotten him to access any closed records before she killed him, and—" Moore stopped talking and stared at her screen.
"What is it?"Alison asked.
"Is it possible that she’s putting on an act?"Moore asked.
"What do you mean?Diana?"
"Yeah," Moore said."You spoke about someone slipping in and out of another personality when they kill, right?Is it possible that she’s only recreating that to make it look like the murderer from eight years ago?"
"What did you find?"Alison asked, sitting forward.
"That’s a big part of why Hartman was assessed with insanity," Moore said."He claimed that he had a psychotic episode and didn't remember anything that happened on the day he killed his husband and son."Moore looked away from the screen and rubbed her eyes.Then, she looked at Alison."Is that a thing?Can that actually happen to someone?"
"Yeah, it can," Alison replied."We understand the human mind better than ever before, and we’ve only scratched the surface.People can have psychotic episodes where they completely disassociate from reality and have no memory of what they’ve done during that time.It’s like blacking out."
Moore drummed her fingers on her desk for a few seconds.
"Okay, so yeah, I can understand that part.I’ve seen things as a detective where people have blacked out, and I never did in my younger days, but I know people who’ve blacked out before, so I understand it as a concept, but can you prove it?Can't someone just pretend to have blacked out, and you’ll never know."
"In my line of work, I’ve seen a lot of people try, or read about it, word of mouth, and all that," Alison said."I think that’s a misconception, and maybe that’s a good thing.Blacking out is definitely used as an alibi, but it’s not a very good one.On the surface, someone can be very believable about blacking out, but as I said before, we’ve come a long way with the human mind."
"Okay, so how do you test for it?"Moore asked.
"There are a number of signs that a psychiatrist can look for during an assessment," Alison replied.She wasn’t an expert in those kinds of assessments by any means, but she knew enough to give a rough description."They’ll check current symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, and then compare that to other sessions over time.Consistency is a big part of the assessment.It can be an art more than a science, but if someone’s faking, they usually overplay their symptoms or give what could be considered stereotypical symptoms."
"So, the assessor could be fooled?"Moore asked.
"Anything is possible," Alison countered."We all make mistakes in our jobs, but on the whole, we get it right.Maybe a psychiatrist would misdiagnose one case out of…I don't know, twenty?Thirty?But I know I’ve made mistakes, too.I don't want to speak for you, Detective Moore, but you must have also."
"I don't like to admit to that, but yeah."
"Maybe in the case of Hartman, the diagnosis was wrong, but that would be the exception to the rule," Alison said."It’s not only the assessment, the multiple assessments; there’s also standardized tools to detect exaggeration and malingering.The MMPI-2 and SIRS tests both have validity scales to catch unusual or improbable symptom patterns, and we can compare responses to know profiles of genuine patients versus those who are faking it."
"Okay," Moore said."I don't know about any of this, but I know you, and I take you at your word.Either way, it doesn’t matter if Hartman was faking it or if he didn't remember anything after he killed two people.Diana believes he should have gone to jail, and now, she’s punishing those who kept him out of jail, and she’s modeling the murders after what he did to her family."
"That leaves me with one important question," Alison said."Why not go after the man who killed her family?"
"He’s in some facility somewhere, and she can't get to him."
"She plans to kill four people and accomplishes that without being caught?"Alison asked."If she can do all that, she must be able to think of something.I get why she would blame the four deceased, but no one is more to blame than Hartman.He killed her husband and son."
A knock came at the slightly open office door."
"Yeah?"Moore called.
Officer Briggs poked his head into the office."They’re ready for you.Interview room three."
"Thank you," Moore said."Let’s find out why she didn't go after Hartman himself."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"Diana Shepherd, thank you for talking with us today," Detective Moore said."Present in the room is Detective Moore, Diana Shepherd, Mr.Kinn, her lawyer, and Dr.Alison Payne."
