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“Isn’t that our job?” Stephanie snapped. “To prevent it?”
“No.” Diomedes shook his head. “Our job is to help them heal. But we are not God. We do not have the power over life and death. Alicia Berenson wanted to die. At some point she was bound to succeed. Or at least partly succeed.”
I hesitated. It was now or never.
“I’m not so sure that’s true,” I said. “I don’t think it was a suicide attempt.”
“You think it was an accident?”
“No. I don’t think it was an accident.”
Diomedes gave me a curious look. “What are you trying to say, Theo? What other alternative is
there?”
“Well, to start with, I don’t believe Yuri gave Alicia the drugs.”
“You mean Christian is mistaken?”
“No,” I said. “Christian is lying.”
Diomedes and Stephanie stared at me, shocked. I went on before they could recover their power
of speech.
I quickly told them everything that I had read in Alicia’s diary: that Christian had been treating
Alicia privately before Gabriel’s murder; that she was one of several private patients he saw unofficially, and not only had he not come forward to testify at the trial, he had pretended not to know Alicia when she was admitted to the Grove. “No wonder he was so against any attempt to get her talking again,” I said. “If she did speak, she would be in a position to expose him.”
Stephanie stared at me blankly. “But—what are you saying? You can’t seriously be suggesting that he—”
“Yes, I am suggesting it. It wasn’t an overdose. It was an attempt to murder her.”
“Where is Alicia’s diary?” Diomedes asked me. “You have it in your possession?”
I shook my head. “No, not anymore. I gave it back to Alicia. It must be in her room.”
“Then we must retrieve it.” Diomedes turned to Stephanie. “But first, I think we should call the
police. Don’t you?”