This Thing of Darkness by Barbara Fradkin Read Free Book Online Page A

intimidated by the human dangers on the street. Refusing to be violated, even when the violators came to his own home. Ready to fight.
    Tragically, ready to die.
    For once, the walk did not put Green in a better frame of mind. It did not energize him for the week ahead but left him feeling outraged and ready to fight as well. When he came back inside, he found Sharon curled up on the living room sofa with her petite feet tucked under her, sipping a cup of tea. Finally at rest. He made himself a cup and sank down beside her, reluctant to drag her back into the ugly reality of murder. In the end, his expression must have given him away, because she snuggled against him.
    â€œWhat is it, Mr. Bigshot Detective?”
    â€œYou know the man who died on Rideau Street? We still need a positive ID , but it looks like he was a psychiatrist named Samuel Rosenthal. He used to work at Rideau Psychiatric.”
    She pulled back, looking puzzled. Recognition widened her eyes. “Dr. Rosenthal! Of course. I didn’t know him while he worked there, but everyone knew of him. My God, poor man.”
    â€œWas he controversial?”
    â€œWell, I remember we often had to patch up patients whom he’d taken off their meds. He was into patient empowerment and natural remedies. St. John’s wort for bipolar disorder, for example.”
    â€œDo you remember anything about what he was like?”
    She took a slow, thoughtful sip of tea. “It was awhile ago. His patients were very loyal to him, so I think he meant well. And he was right, sometimes we are far too quick to pump patients full of drugs when psychotherapy or a healthy lifestyle change would be better. Drugs are faster and cheaper for the healthcare system.”
    She was slowly waking up. She uncurled herself and set down her tea as if to better marshall her arguments. Sharon had been on this high horse before, railing against a public healthcare system which funded doctors to dole out pills during fifteen-minute sessions but not other therapists who might actually talk to the patients to help them sort out their lives. It sounded as if Sam Rosenthal had shared her view.
    â€œStill,” he said, “he must have made some enemies that way.”
    She chuckled.“Looking for a colleague driven mad by him contradicting their advice?”
    Or a patient. The thought came out of the blue and seemed far-fetched the moment he formed it. Rosenthal had barely practised in years.“Did he treat all kinds of problems?”
    â€œI don’t know. Most of the trouble came with his young patients. Misdiagnosed bipolars or first-episode schizophrenics. Those were the real tragedies.” He must have looked blank, for she twisted around to study him dubiously.“Do you really want to know all this?”
    â€œI don’t have much to go on with this guy. The working assumption is a random gang assault, but you know me. Never overlook the longshot.”
    She laughed. “Yes, the champion of zebras. Okay. Schizophrenia can be a devastating lifelong disease, but if there’s any illness where proper drugs can make a huge difference, this is it. But to have the best outcome you should catch them early, before or during their first psychotic break. Typically that’s in their teens or early twenties, where it can be hard to distinguish from other problems, especially if there is illicit drug use. Kids, even their parents, don’t want to accept the diagnosis either, so they’re willing to grasp at straws.”
    â€œLike a nice herbal remedy.”
    â€œYou got it. Megavitamins or some fancy diet. My favourite is Bach’s flowers, based on some guy’s wacky ideas from the 1930s, as if we haven’t learned a thing about the disease in the decades since then. I’m not saying Western medicine has all the answers in the treatment of mental illness and there’s no place for alternative approaches, but the field is full of