Forgotten Place by LS Sygnet Page A

but
given the nature of Journey's injury, not to mention the timing and
the location of the attack, it could've resulted in a subconscious
trauma she hasn't even realized yet."
    "I don't get it," Crevan said.  "Are
you saying that some guy cuts her throat, and suddenly she can't
talk because her brain doesn't believe she can talk?"
    "It's a little more complicated than
that.  Think hysterical blindness in the case of someone who
witnesses a particularly horrific event.  Say someone sees a
plane crash with victims burning to death while they're trying to
run away from the wreckage."
    He wrinkled his nose.
    "Because that incident was so traumatic,
even though there is no injury to the structure or function of the
eye, the retina the optic nerve, none of it, the witness becomes
blind.  Not just visually blind, but unable to see imagery at
all."
    Orion's arms crossed over his chest. 
"Go on."
    "So say for instance that in the course of
treatment, the psychiatrist learns that while the burning victims
were indeed traumatic for anyone to see, there was a subconscious
trigger that the event caused in his hysterically blind
patient.  Say for instance as a small child, she witnessed one
parent murder the other by burning him or her to death.  She
may not even remember it, but the plane crash triggered a
subconscious memory –"
    "And now she can't see anything at all,"
Johnny finished.  "Now that makes sense.  Journey's
subconscious knew the significance of the attempt on her life, on
the anniversary of David's death and in a parking garage no less...
but not talking?  Are you suggesting she knew something about
what happened to her father that she hasn't told anyone, Doc?"
    I peered at Devlin.  "What do you
think, Dev?"
    "I think she blanked out a lot of what she
heard after a certain point this morning."
    "Go on," I nodded.
    "This guy scared her, beyond cutting her
throat.  He said something to her that her mind isn't going to
let her remember, and certainly won't let her speak."
    I leaned forward and nodded at him. 
"She may not even be consciously aware of the intended message,
Devlin.  Think about it.  She was what, ten, eleven years
old at the time her father died?  About the same age when ADA
Ireland was investigating Datello?"
    He nodded slowly.  "She might've heard
something that seemed innocent at the time, but it clicked when her
attacker said something.  Not consciously, but like you
said.  Subconsciously."
    "I want to talk to Dr. Waters about this
theory," I said.  "And you need to track down Samantha
Wine."
    "Wait a minute.  Who the heck is
Samantha Wine?" Ned asked.
    "She's the reporter friend of Journey's, the
one that Tim Evans identified as the most likely of their circle to
know why Journey dumped Linder."
    "Ned, I think you should focus on a possible
connection to Datello before you talk to him tomorrow," I
suggested.  "If Orion is right and there's a link, no matter
how tenuous, it could explain a thing or two, particularly if
Devlin can charm Ms. Wine the way he did Journey this
afternoon."
    I winked at Devlin.  "That was very
impressive, Dev."
    He chuckled and shook his head.  "That
wasn't the tactic I was going for, but hey, whatever works,
right?"
    Tension grew and leeched across the table
from Orion toward me.  I ignored it.  "In the meantime, I
know you're dead set against this Shelly, but I would really like
to be part of the interview with Linder."
    "Helen, you're barely into physical rehab
yet."
    "It's a simple
conversation.  If I'd stayed away from the pickles tonight,
there wouldn't have been a single bad side effect of my involvement
in the chat with Journey this afternoon.  If you think about
it, getting sick was really his fault," I hiked a thumb at Crevan.  "He's the
one who brought the least stomach friendly food to the sickly woman
for dinner."
    "Hey, sushi was my first plan."
    "And I'd be blowing chunks for hours if I
had to watch you eat raw eel," I grinned at