If you’ve a moment?’
I nodded, but he was taking my assent for granted and already carrying on. ‘Douglas’s condition is still deteriorating,’ he said. ‘Even just in the last few days, there’s been a marked change, and it’s all for the worse.’
My confusion must have shown on my face. ‘He’s not well?’ I said. ‘I didn’t realise—’
Maxwell made a palms-out ‘don’t put words in my mouth’ gesture. ‘The medical situation is complicated by the legal one,’ he said. ‘Not an unusual occurance in here. I’ve made a diagnosis, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t share it with you.
‘It doesn’t,’ I admitted.
Maxwell raised his eyebrows expressively. ‘It will mean something to the defence, mark my words,’ he said. ‘The point is, since this is your first visit you’re apt to find him a little odd to talk to. He’ll be drowsy and unresponsive, but at the same time he’s likely to show a certain restlessness and discomfort.
s"" wles‘And his condition is –?’ I probed.
Maxwell made the same gesture again. ‘I can’t discuss that with you right now,’ he said, ‘although I’ve discussed it at length with Mrs Hunter. The other reason for me coming in to talk to you like this is that I’m advising you very strongly not to excite or upset Douglas in any way. If you do, it could have an adverse effect on his condition and it could be unpleasant – physically unpleasant, I mean – for you.
I shook my head in complete mystification. I had the unusual and uncomfortable sense of meanings flying over my head, unapprehended.
‘You mean that he’s mentally ill?’ I asked, groping blindly in the dark.
‘The governor? No, he’s very well balanced, taking into account a constitutional tendency towards depression.’
‘Doug Hunter.’
‘That would fall under doctor-patient privilege,’ Maxwell said, with a rigidly impassive face.
Juliet appeared at my side and he blanched. It took some doing, with a face that was already so pale.
‘What is aripiprazole, doctor?’ she murmured in her throat. ‘I’ve always wondered.