Lost Lake

CHAPTER NINETEEN

When Ami arrived at work the next morning she found a message from George French asking her to come to his office as soon as possible. Ami was nervous during the crosstown trip and she didn’t feel any better when she saw how grim Dr. French looked when he greeted her in his waiting room.

“My friend faxed me a copy of Rice’s military record,” the doctor said as he escorted Ami to his office. “You’re not going to like it.”

As soon as Ami was seated French handed her a government document titled “Report of Transfer or Discharge.” While Ami read it the psychiatrist gave her a quick synopsis of the report.

“Carl Rice was drafted into the service from the San Diego area and was in Special Forces. After a year of learning Vietnamese at the Army Language School at Fort Meyer, Rice was sent to Vietnam, where he saw combat. After this mission, Rice was hospitalized for combat-related stress. After his discharge from the hospital, Rice returned to the states and was assigned to be a language instructor at Fort Meyer. After his tour in Vietnam his records show no further service overseas.”

French pointed at a section of the form that indicated the soldier’s rank.

“Remember Rice told us that he was a captain?”

Ami nodded.

“This says that he was a sergeant.”

“I don’t know anything about military ranks. Is that a big difference?”

French laughed. “Night and day, Ami. A sergeant is a noncommissioned officer. A captain is a commissioned officer. Captain is a much higher rank.”

French handed Ami another document and pointed to a section marked “Conduct.”

“Here’s the really bad part. Rice was kicked out of the army because he wore the insignia of a captain and an improper uniform when he wasn’t authorized to do so.”

French handed Ami a psychiatric report from Walter Reed General Hospital signed by Captain Howard Stienbock.

“Read this,” the doctor said.

Ami started to feel queasy as she read Dr. Stienbock’s report.

I certify that Carl Ellis Rice, a 31-year-old Caucasian male with approximately 14 years of active-duty service, was seen by me on7 March and 15 March 1985 at Walter Reed General HospitalNPOP Clinic at the request of his company commander.

Pertinent history: On several occasions Rice was alleged to have worn a captain’s bars and combat ribbons to the class he was instructing in Vietnamese. Rice stated that these episodes occurred following rejection by a woman whose identity Rice chose to keep secret, other than to say that she was the daughter of a general in the United States Army. Rice stated that he had worn the bars because he was secretly a captain, although he is listed in official military records as a sergeant. When asked to explain this discrepancy Rice refused on the grounds that I was not cleared to receive this information, but he did state that he was frequently sent on top-secret missions. My attempts to get Rice to clarify his remarks were met with smiles or vocal refusals made on grounds of “national security.”

Mental status: Rice presents as a hyperalert 31-year-old with no evidence of organic brain dysfunction. His mood was depressed and his speech slow and difficult to hear. There is no evidence that the episodes in which he allegedly wore the captain’s bars occurred during dissociative states. Rice was hospitalized during a tour of duty in Vietnam for combat-related stress and depression.

Findings and conclusions:

A. Diagnosis-Paranoid personality disorder coupled with possible paranoid delusions as a result of combat-related stress, exacerbated by recent personal problems. I have concluded that Rice may feel that he was a failure in combat and may have created a delusional construct in which he is a captain who has been sent on secret missions to compensate for his feelings of inadequacy. Without more information I cannot form a definitive diagnosis, and Rice refused to be forthcoming with me.

B. Subject is able to distinguish right from wrong and is able to adhere to the right. He is mentally capable of participating in his own defense.

C. Subject is cleared for action deemed appropriate by command.

“What does this mean?” Ami asked.

“This is strictly a guess, but let’s assume that Rice wanted to reestablish a relationship with Vanessa Wingate when they met again in D.C. Only she’s not interested in him the way she was when they were teenagers. Rice knew she hated her father and suspected he had done all sorts of terrible things, including murdering her mother, so to win her back to his side he made up this story about her father ordering him to commit all sorts of crimes. Maybe-if he’s in a paranoid state-he even believes it.”

“I checked the St. Martin’s Prep yearbook,” Ami said. “Rice did graduate in the class of 1970 with Vanessa Wingate.”

“That doesn’t mean that he was her lover in high school,” French said. “But, true or not, it looks as though he believes that she was his lover. If he was obsessed with Vanessa, he may have seen her with Congressman Glass and decided that they were lovers. He may have imagined that Glass was a rival who was standing between him and the object of his desire. That might explain why he was depressed. He may also have convinced himself that Vanessa would be his again if he removed this obstacle. That would be one explanation for why he murdered the congressman.”