with the traumas of Harp Ryderâs history or those of mine. Mine were already somewhat known to him. âI wish you had time to talk all this out to me. Youâve given me a nice summary of what the physical events appear to have been, butââ
âDoctor,â I said, âit happened . I heard the animal. The window was smashedâask the sheriff. Leda Ryder did scream, and when Harp and I got up there together, the dog had been killed and Leda was gone.â
âAnd yet, if it was all as clear as that, I wonder why you thought of consulting me at all, Ben. I wasnât there. Iâm just a headshrinker.â
âI wanted . . . Is there any way a delusion could take hold of Harp and me, disturb our senses in the same way? Oh, just saying it makes it ridiculous.â
Dr. Kahn smiled. âLetâs say, difficult.â
âIs it possible Harp could have killed her, thrown her out through the window of the west bedroomâthe snow must have drifted six feet or higher on that sideâand then my mind distorted my time sense? So I mightâve stood there in the dark kitchen all the time it went on, a matter of minutes instead of seconds? Then he jumped down by the shed roof, came back into the house the normal way while I was stumbling upstairs? Oh, hell.â
Dr. Kahn had drawn a diagram of the house from my description, and peered at it with placid interest. âBenignâ was a word Helen had used for him. He said, âSuch a distortion of the time sense would be unusual . . . Are you feeling guilty about anything?â
âAbout standing there and doing nothing? I canât seriously believe it was more than a few seconds. Anyway that would make Harp a monster out of a detective story. Heâs not that. How could he count on me to freeze in panic? Absurd. Iâdâve heard the struggle, steps, the window of the west room going up. Could he have killed her and I known all about it at the time, even witnessed it, and then suffered amnesia for that one event?â
He still looked so patient I wished I hadnât come. âI wonât say any trick of the mind is impossible, but I might call that one highly improbable. Academically, however, considering your emotional involvementââ
âIâm not emotionally involved!â I yelled that. He smiled, looking much more interested. 1 laughed at myself. That was better than poking him in the eye. âIâm upset, Doctor, because the whole thing goes against reason. If you start out knowing nobodyâs going to believe you, itâs all messed up before you open your mouth.â
He nodded kindly. Heâs a good joe. I think heâd stopped listening for what 1 didnât say long enough to hear a little of what I did say. âYouâre not unstable, Ben. Donât worry about amnesia. The explanation, perhaps some human intruder, will turn out to be within the human norm. The norm of possibility does include such things as lycanthropic delusions, maniacal behavior, and so on Your police up there will carry on a good search for the poor woman. They wonât overlook that snowdrift. Donât underestimate them, and donât worry about your own mind, Ben.â
âEver seen our Maine woods?â
âNo, I go away to the Cape.â
âTry it some time. Take a patch of it, say about fifty miles by fifty, thatâs twenty-five hundred square miles. Drop some eager policemen into it, tell âem to hunt for something they never saw before and donât want to see, that doesnât want to be found.â
âBut if your beast is human, human beings leave traces. Bodies arenât easy to hide, Ben.â
âIn those woods? A body taken by a carnivorous animal? Why not?â Well, our minds didnât touch. I thanked him for his patience and got up. âThe maniac responsible,â I said. âBut whatever we call him, Doctor, he was there