True-Life Adventure

accepted the fact that I wasn’t meant to be a parent. So I got a divorce and relinquished custody.
    “That means I haven’t been around Jacob very much anymore, but my guess is, it was her illness that pushed him over the edge. I mean, like they used to say, his mind snapped. Or to be more accurate, he lost his already tenuous grasp on reality. He actually thought he was curing her. Do you understand that? The Nobel Prize-winning scientist believes that he has developed a cure for Leukemia. He thinks the FDA is the only thing keeping him from marketing the thing. But the truth is, there is no thing. At least I don’t think so.”
    “You mean you’re not sure?”
    “I’m pretty sure. Once, when he was still pretty lucid, he told me how it was going to work. He figured it was going to take another two years to get the bugs out— before they could test it on humans. That was less than a year ago.”
    “Anyway, when Terry told me about the ‘treatments,’ I confronted him. He acted as if I were out of my mind to doubt him. You know how arrogant doctors are? I mean, you know how they believe they’re God? Well, scientists, especially if they’ve had the kind of recognition Jacob has, are like doctors multiplied by twenty. So suppose a guy like that crosses just a little bit over the line— the line between reality and fantasy, I mean. Can you imagine trying to tell him what’s best for his kid?”
    “Gives me goose bumps to think about it.”
    Lindsay nodded. “A real blood-chiller. But, of course, there was always the chance he really was right— wasn’t crazy, I mean. That he really had discovered a cure.”
    “So you took Terry to Dr. Rumler to make sure.”
    She nodded again. “And then I panicked. I called Mike Brissette to ask him what I’d have to do to regain custody. He said it’s practically impossible to prove someone’s crazy, and particularly someone who’s respected in practically every household in the Bay Area. He was very discouraging. I guess that phone call cost him his life.” Her voice was shaky.
    “You think Jacob killed him?”
    “Of course. With all due respect, you simply don’t seem to grasp the fact that Jacob believes he has a mission to save the world. You’ve heard of that kind of maniac before, haven’t you?” She looked at me cannily. “You were in Guyana, weren’t you, Paul? And you knew Jim Jones before that, when he was in San Francisco. Jacob is that kind of nut. Capable of that degree of evil. Believe me.” I nodded and she went on. Sardis looked shocked. “Anyway, so I decided to try appealing to Marilyn. She’s been good to Terry and she isn’t a dumb woman.” She shrugged. “But it was hopeless. Jacob behaved as if I were the one who was crazy, but Marilyn actually came out and told me I was.”
    Sardis spoke, for the first time in a while. “But I don’t understand. She’s a scientist. If he hasn’t got the cure, she must know he hasn’t got the cure.”
    “Well, she didn’t exactly say he had. She denied that Jacob was giving Terry any treatments at all.”
    “You told her about the side effects?”
    “Yes, and Dr. Rumler and the whole thing. She flat out denied it.”
    “I still don’t get it. Why would she do that?”
    Lindsay shrugged. “She’s obsessed with him. It’s a very sick relationship, I think. He’s the better scientist, so she idolizes him, and he’s also the world’s handsomest man.” She shrugged again. “It’s sort of sad, really. He needed someone to take care of him and Terry, so he married Marilyn, who adores him and thinks he can do no wrong. She just refuses to see what’s happened to him, that’s all. He’s her whole world, and if she had to stop believing in him, she couldn’t make it. So she doesn’t see what’s happening around her.”
    “How about Steve Koehler? Did you go to him?”
    “Paul, every penny Steve Koehler has is sunk in Kogene, and Jacob is his only asset. Do you think he wants to hear anything against him? All the time I was Steve’s sister-in-law, I believe he spoke fifteen words to me. To my knowledge, he has never kissed or hugged his niece. I have never seen him display any emotion except greed, if that’s an emotion. Anyway, it’s as close as he gets. I’d say he should be eugenically sterilized, except that I’m quite sure he is incapable of so human a thing as fathering a child.”
    Sardis sucked in her breath. “What happened to these boys when they were