"All right. I'm going to put you to sleep now. Just relax.... Close your eyes and relax...." It took ten minutes. Dr. Keller said, "Toni..."
"I'm here. You want to know what really happened, don't you? Ashley was a fool to invite Sam to stay at the apartment. I could have told her what he would do."
He heard a cry from the bedroom, quickly rose from the couch and scooped up his gun. He hurried over to the bedroom door and listened a moment. Silence. He had imagined it. As he started to turn away, he heard it again. He pushed the door open, gun in hand. Ashley was in bed, naked, asleep. There was no one else in the room. She was making little moaning sounds. He moved to her bedside. She looked beautiful tying there, curled up in a fetal position. She moaned again, trapped in some terrible dream. He meant only to comfort her, to take her in his arms and hold her. He lay down at her side and gently pulled her toward him, and he felt the heat of her body and began to be aroused. She was awakened by his voice saying, "It's all right now. You're safe." And his lips were on hers, and he was moving her legs apart and was inside her.
And she was screaming, "No, Father!"
And he moved faster and faster in a primal urgency, and then the savage revenge took over. She grabbed the knife from the dresser drawer at her bedside and began to slash into his body.
"What happened after you killed him?"
"She wrapped his body in the sheets and dragged him to the elevator and then through the garage to the alley in back."
"... and then," Dr. Keller told Ashley, "Toni wrapped his body in the sheets and dragged him into the elevator and through the garage to the alley in back."
Ashley sat there, her face dead white. "She's a mon - I'm a monster."
Gilbert Keller said, "No. Ashley, you must remember that Toni was born out of your pain, to protect you. The same is true of Alette. It's time to bring this to a closure. I want you to meet them. It's the next step to your getting well."
Ashley's eyes were tightly shut. "All right. When do we... do this?"
"Tomorrow morning."
Ashley was in a deep hypnotic state. Dr. Keller started with Toni.
"Toni, I want you and Alette to talk to Ashley."
"What makes you think she can handle us?"
"I think she can."
"All right, Dockie. Whatever you say."
"Alette, are you ready to meet Ashley?"
"If Toni says it's all right."
"Sure, Alette. It's about time."
Dr. Keller took a deep breath and said, "Ashley, I want you to say hello to Toni."
There was a long silence. Then, a timid, "Hello, Toni..."
"Hello."
"Ashley, say hello to Alette."
"Hello, Alette..."
"Hello, Ashley..."
Dr. Keller breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I want you all to get to know one another. You've suffered through the same terrible traumas. They've separated you from one another. But there's no reason for that separation anymore. You're going to become one whole, healthy person. It's a long journey, but you've begun it. I promise you, the most difficult part is over."
From that point on, Ashley's treatment moved swiftly. Ashley and her two alters talked to one another every day.
"I had to protect you," Toni explained. "I suppose every time I killed one of those men, I was killing Father for what he had done to you."
"I tried to protect you, too," Alette said. "I - I appreciate that. I'm grateful to both of you."
Ashley turned to Dr. Keller and said wryly, "It's really all me, isn't it? I'm talking to myself."
"You're talking to two other parts of yourself," he corrected her gently. "It's time for all of you to unify and become one again."
Ashley looked at him and smiled. "I'm ready."
That afternoon. Dr. Keller went to see Otto Lewison.
Dr. Lewison said, "I hear good reports, Gilbert."
Dr. Keller nodded. "Ashley's made remarkable progress. In another few months, I think she can be released and go on with her treatment as an outpatient."
"That's wonderful news. Congratulations."
I'll miss her. Dr. Keller thought. I'll miss her terribly.
"Dr. Salem is on line two for you, Mr. Singer."
"Right." David reached for the phone, puzzled. Why would Dr. Salem be calling? It had been years since the two men had talked. "Royce?"
"Good morning, David. I have some interesting information for you. It's about Ashley Patterson."
David felt a sudden sense of alarm. "What about her?"
"Do you remember how hard we tried to find the trauma that had caused her condition, and we failed?"
David remembered it well. It had been a major weakness in their case. "Yes."
"Well, I just learned the answer. My friend, Dr. Lewison, who's head of the Connecticut Psychiatric Hospital, just called. The missing piece of the puzzle is Dr. Steven Patterson. He's the one who molested Ashley when she was a child."
David asked incredulously, "What?"
"Dr. Lewison just learned about it."
David sat listening as Dr. Salem went on, but his mind was elsewhere. He was recalling Dr. Patterson's words. "You're the only one I trust, David. My daughter means everything in the world to me. You're going to save her life.... I want you to defend Ashley, and I won't have anyone else involved in this case...."
And David suddenly realized why Dr. Patterson had been so insistent on his representing Ashley alone. The doctor was sure that if David had ever discovered what he had done, he would have protected him. Dr. Patterson had had to decide between his daughter and his reputation, and he had chosen his reputation. The son of a bitch!