Chapter 4: The Real Villain

We arrived back in the Sheriff's rear office with the usual feeling of having fallen from a somewhat excessive height. Healer Murchison looked bewildered at the experience. Once we were seated, I began to question him.

"What was Josephine's family name?"

"Errr! Yes! Josephine ... Josephine Dawson."

"When did she die?"

"It was 1996. Yes that's right. April 1996, I think it was."

"What is the name of her rapist? Is it Goodman Roseman?"

"Yes, Goodman Roseman. That's who she said it was."

"I don't suppose you kept anything of the fetus?"

"How ... How did you know. Being on a Healer course, it seemed not only a way of acquiring a specimen, but of keeping something that had been a part of Josephine. When she killed herself, it became even more precious to me. You must think me very weird?"

"Not weird at all! Perhaps you're a little sentimental in a funny sort of way. However it does introduce a possibility. You've probably heard of the new forensic approach, Disembodied Numerical Association."

"Would it be relevant after all this time?"

"I don't know, but of one thing I'm certain! Goodman Roseman won't know either!"

I excused myself to make teleson call to DC to ask for relevant data on Josephine Dawson. I returned to the room to continue my questioning.

At that moment, Sheriff Earp burst into the room.

"Ah! There you are! And I see that you've caught the Healer. Now Murchison, put your arms behind you. I've got a cell waiting for you."

The Sheriff turned to me and continued. "Goodman Roseman has recalled that as he was waking up he saw the prisoner in the process of lying down on the floor. How about that for damning evidence?"

"Hold your horses Sheriff. We have acquired evidence that puts a completely different slant on things. Goodman Roseman is probably involved in the robbery. If he is, have you any idea what he would have done with the loot?"

"Not off hand, I can't! Do you want me to get a warrant to search his property?"

"I think that might be a little premature. Now Healer, I want you to tell us all that has happened since Josephine died."

"Well, I was so depressed by her demise that my studies suffered. As a result of which, I got put back a year and was warned that if I didn't improve I would be sent down. I did! I pulled myself together and ... and somehow passed all my exams. For the next three years, I interned at the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital. After that I joined a practice in St Louis. Shortly after that, I saw this practice advertised."

"So what happened when you met up again with Goodman Roseman?

"Nothing happened at first. He was on holiday when I arrived in Dodge, so Goodman Jones, the Manager dealt with my mortgage. Later, Goodman Roseman saw and recognized me, but I didn't see him. That's when, I think, that he thought up his scheme to rob the Bank."

"How did he approach you to help him?"

"One day, about a year ago, he came to evening surgery. He was the last patient! You see, he wanted to spend some time with me to break my will without the other patients wondering why he was so long in consultation. He had already planned to rob the Bank. He just hadn't thought of a way of getting away with it. He had some crack-brained idea that I could just put everyone to sleep with a spell."

"Isn't that what you did?" Sheriff Earp asked.