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Dear Diary:February 7

I had my first session with the psychiatrist Marc sent me to today. Her name is Lorraine Butler. Today we, I mean me, took a mental test. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. She told me it is commonly given to find out someone’s personality traits.

Dr. Butler showed me a list of personality traits the test predicts. She had my test scored, then we discussed the results. Of course, it showed I have depression. Big surprise! There are a bunch of others. The most interesting is the one for masculinity/femininity.

I answered all of the questions honestly. The score for masculinity/femininity, Dr. Butler told me, showed more on the scale of masculinity, not femininity. I don’t know whether to be happy about this or angry.

Why didn’t Dr. Frankenstein give me this test? If he had, maybe I wouldn’t be in this mess. Maybe I would still be a boy. The man is, sorry was, a quack. I hate him even more than I did before.

I like Dr. Butler. I will be seeing her once a week from now on.

“So, the MMPI showed that Robbie is more masculine than feminine,” Marc said. He was on the phone with Lorraine Butler getting an update.

“I have to ask, Marc. Are you considering an insanity plea?” Butler asked.

Marc paused thinking about his answer. Finally, he said, “I’ll wait until you know more to answer that, Lorraine. I’m reading through her diary entries…”

“You have the diaries?”

“No, I have copies. The cops grabbed the real ones,” Marc said.

“I want them. Can you get me a copy?” Butler asked.

“Sure. I’ll have them scanned and emailed. There’s over five-hundred pages.”

“That’s okay. I can speed read. Send them, please,” Butler said.

“I was going to tell you something, but I’ll let you find it and then we’ll talk. When do you see Robbie again?” Marc said.

“Next week, sometime. Send me the diary and we’ll talk then.”

“Wait a minute, I have a question,” Marc said.

“Okay, shoot,” Butler said.

“What do you make of the fact that Priscilla, Robbie’s mother, appears to be the first victim and she was suffocated with a pillow while the others had their skulls split open with a hammer? ”

“I thought the cops believe it was a burglary gone wrong,” Butler replied.

“I don’t think they do. Wait until you read the diaries.”

“Why, what will it tell me?”

“Robbie’s pretty angry with his mother. And she’s also pretty angry with everyone involved with this trans affirmation. She did not want it and Robbie blames everyone involved. Thinks they pushed her into it,” Marc said.

“Motive,” Butler replied.

“A lot of it,” Marc agreed.

“I don’t want to say anything about it. We didn’t get into any of that. I’ll call you after next week’s session.”

“Okay, later,” Marc said.

“Kellie, do you have a couple minutes to see me?” Marc asked. He called the office law clerk after speaking to Lorraine Butler.

Fortunately, after Robbie was arrested, both the personal life policy on Priscilla for two million and the key-man policy were paid to Blake. Chris Grafton, Marc’s officemate, directed Blake to a reputable financial advisor. Blake paid Marc a six-figure retainer.

There was a soft knock on Marc’s door then Kellie Johnson, a student at Marc’s law school alma mater came in.

“How busy are you?” Marc asked.

“I don’t know, busy enough. What do you need, Marc?” she asked. Kellie was in her final year of school. She was a single mother and would join the office upon passing the bar exam. She was also very smart and an outstanding legal researcher.

“I have a project but it’s not a priority. A couple weeks?”

“Okay, no problem,” Kellie said.

“I need a very brief, informal report on Minnesota’s insanity and diminished capacity laws. Short, sweet, distinct and right to the point. Basically, I need an update,” Marc said.

“You’re thinking about Robbie Craig?” Kellie asked.

“It’s a possibility, it’s also a long shot but I want to be ready. Keep it to yourself.”

“Have you ever done one?” Kellie asked .

“No. Despite what the media leads people to believe, they are very rare and almost never work. But…”

“I know,” Kellie said. “I’ll put it on the pile.”

“How’s school going?”

“Good. On schedule,” Kellie replied.

“And you want to work here?” Marc asked.

“If I can and if I can get enough business to make a living,” Kellie answered.

“We’ll keep you busy. In fact, we could use another lawyer now.”

“Are you going to…”

“No, we’re waiting for you. We all think you’ll make a fine lawyer.”

“That’s a relief,” Kellie said.

The door opened and Maddy, with Connie behind her, walked in.

“Uh, huh, hitting on the help again,” Maddy said taking a shot at Marc.

“If you’d learn to knock first, I wouldn’t have to be so careful,” Marc said.

Connie pulled up a chair by her favorite smoking window. Maddy said hello to Kellie who said, “I’ll be filing the harassment suit against him any day now.”

“I’ve warned him but does he listen? No!” Maddy said.

Kellie started to leave and, with Marc’s door still open, Ryan the receptionist called out to Marc.

“There’s a Jason Briggs on line one for you, Marc.”

“Got it, thanks.”

“Jason Briggs?” Connie asked.

“Robbie’s case,” Marc answered.

“Should we leave?” Maddy asked.

“No, you’re okay. Jason, thanks for calling,” Marc said answering the call.

“Is this about the trans girl’s multiple homicides?” Jason asked.

“So far only one homicide. But, they’re at the grand jury today,” Marc said.

“What do you need? ”

Holding up an 8 x 10 color photo of the hammer found in Robbie’s bed, Marc said, “Their main piece of evidence is a hammer, a three-inch, straight claw hammer. It has scratches on it that the M.E. claims matches exactly with scratches made on the skulls of four of the victims.”

“Yeah, I know someone who can run those tests. But I can tell you right now, those scratches on the hammer…” Briggs started to say.

“Made from pulling nails out of boards,” Marc said finishing the thought.

“Exactly,” Briggs said.

“I know that but I still need them tested. And I may need an expert to testify to it. Maybe one who has a piece of a skull with those same scratches but made by a different hammer.”

“Can I get the hammer and the skull fragments your M.E. has?” Briggs asked.

“They won’t want to but I’ll see what I can do. Do you know anyone locally here?”

“Not off the top of my head, no. But I’ll look. Send me the photos of the hammer and skull fragments they were compared to.”

“Will do. I’ll have copies made and overnight them.”

“Anything else?” Briggs asked.

“We have a paying client,” Marc said.

“That’s always helpful,” Briggs replied.

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Come in,” Marc said to the knock on his door.

Ryan came in with a large envelope. Inside was an inch thick stack of documents.

“You just got served,” Ryan said.

“The first degree indictments,” Marc said as Ryan handed the envelope to him. Ryan left closing the door as he did so.

Marc opened the envelope, removed the papers and looked them over.

“Are they?” Maddy asked.

“Yeah,” Marc replied. “There’s also an arraignment scheduled for tomorrow. I better call Robbie.”

“What’s up with Kellie?” Connie asked .

“Well, not what my suspicious fiancée thinks,” Marc said.

“I’m not suspicious. I like Kellie and she’s too young for you. Or, more accurately, you’re too old for her.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Marc replied.