Amfortas

 

 

" Kinderman looked at Amfortas. He’d finished the soup. 

 

“Very good,” said Kinderman. “Your mother will get a good report.” 

 

“Have you any other questions?” Amfortas asked him. He felt at his coffee cup. It was cool. 

 

“Succinylcholine chloride,” said Kinderman. “You use it at your hospital?” 

 

“Yes. I mean, not me personally. But it’s used in electroshock therapy. Why do you ask?” 

 

“If someone in the hospital wanted to steal some, could he do it?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“How?” 

 

“He could lift it off a drug cart when no one was looking. Why are you asking?” 

 

Kinderman again deflected his question. “Then someone who is not from the hospital could do it?” 

 

“If he knew what to look for. He would have to know the schedules for when the drug is needed and when it’s delivered.” 

 

“Do you work in Psychiatric at times?” 

 

“At times. Is this what you brought me here to ask, Lieutenant?” Amfortas was drilling the detective with his eyes. 

 

“No, it isn’t,” said Kinderman. “Honest. God’s Truth. But as long as we were here…” He let it trail off. 

 

“If I asked at the hospital, they would naturally want to look good and insist that it couldn’t be done. 

 

You understand? 

 

As we were speaking, I realized you would tell me The Truth.” 

 

“That’s very kind of you, Lieutenant. Thank you. You’re a very nice man.” 

 

Kinderman felt something reaching out from him. 

 

“Likewise and ditto by me,” he acknowledged. Then he smiled with recollection. “You know ‘ditto’? It’s a word that I love. It really is. It reminds me of Here Comes Mister Jordan. Joe Pendleton said it all the time.” 

 

“Yes, I remember.”

 

“Do you like that movie?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“So do I. I am a patron of schmaltz, I’ll admit it. But such sweetness and innocence, these days — well, it’s gone. What a life,” sighed Kinderman. 

 

“It’s a preparation for death.” Once again Amfortas had surprised the detective. He appraised him warmly now. 

 

“This is True,” said Kinderman. “We must speak some other time of these things.” 

 

The detective searched the tragic eyes. They were brimming with something. What? What was it? 

 

“You’re through with your coffee?” asked Kinderman. 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“I’ll stay behind and get the check. You were kind to spend this time, but I know you’re very busy.” Kinderman reached out his hand. 

 

Amfortas took it and squeezed it firmly, then stood up to go. 

 

For a moment he lingered, staring quietly at Kinderman. 

 

“The succinylcholine,” he said at last. “It’s the murder. Is that right?” 

 

“Yes, that’s right.” Amfortas nodded, then he walked away. Kinderman watched him threading through the tables. Then at last he was up the steps and gone. 

 

The Detective sighed. "

 

 

Investigations lead Kinderman to the psychiatric wing of the hospital where his friend was slain. Here he finds a number of suspects:

 

Dr. Freeman Temple – a psychiatrist who has a dismissive and even contemptuous attitude towards his patients.

 

Dr. Vincent Amfortas – another doctor at the hospital. He is mysterious and not very talkative, and seemingly apathetic toward everything since the recent death of his wife. (The name “Amfortas” is the name of the Fisher King in Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal, which itself is derived from “Anfortas,” the name of the character of the Fisher King in the Middle High German medieval Grail romance Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Dr. Amfortas, like his literary and operatic namesakes, is a type of the Wounded King or Maimed King, a role traditionally occupied by the character of the Fisher King in medieval romances related to the Holy Grail legend, whose literary and mythological roles are discussed in detail by Jessie Weston in her 1920 examination of the Grail tradition, From Ritual to Romance.

 

Patients – there are a number of elderly people at the hospital suffering from senile dementia. The fingerprints of different senile patients are found at murder scenes, but interviews with the patients make it clear they are seemingly incapable of carrying out the elaborate killings and mutilations.

 

Tommy Sunlight – a mysterious patient, found wandering aimlessly eleven years ago dressed as a priest, who brags of being the Gemini Killer reincarnated and claims to have carried out the recent murders, even though he logically could not have done so, being secured in a locked cell in a straitjacket. At one point he claims the doctors and nurses let him out to kill. He also looks identical to Damien Karras, a priest who supposedly died in The Exorcist by falling down a flight of stairs.

 

James Vennamun – the actual Gemini Killer himself, whose body was never found, suggesting that he may have survived and resumed his crimes.