The Fregoli Delusion Read Online Free PDF

having bullied Brett, but on other occasions he vigorously denied the
accusations. It didn’t make a lot of sense. Then after Brett came back from
Baltimore we noticed he talked about this boy all the time. I knew the boy had
gone off to Connecticut to go to college, but Brett insisted he kept running
into him here in town and that the boy continued to have it in for him. He
talked about the boy stalking him, wearing disguises. To Dr. Caldwell this was
the key to diagnosing his illness as Fregoli syndrome. People with this
condition believe that a single person is persecuting them by following them
everywhere disguised as other people. He might look at you, Lieutenant, and believe
you were this boy disguised as a police officer. Then he might go outside and
see a courier go by on a bicycle and decide that the boy had switched disguises
and was after him again. It’s exhausting.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Hank
saw Maureen Truly leaning against the closed door, nodding as though she knew
what Walter was talking about. When he looked at her, she made eye contact but
said nothing.
    “So he gets this all the time?”
Karen growled.
    “Not exactly. It’s intermittent.
If he misses his medication, he gets it. If he’s under extreme stress, he gets
it. If there’s nothing at all unusual happening, he sometimes gets it. It might
go away over the course of a day or last for several days. They don’t really
understand a lot about it.”
    “Who’s the boy, out of curiosity?”
Hank asked.
    “His name’s Richard Holland. He’s
not a boy now, of course. He’s actually a senior executive with us,
vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs.”
    Hank’s eyebrows shot up. “He’s
Brett’s age and he’s an executive with your company?”
    “He’s a year older, but yes, he’s
been with Jarrett for several years. H.J. brought him in. Apparently Holland’s
father worked for H.J. a long time ago.”
    “Does he ever get violent when he
has these delusions?” Karen asked.
    “No,” Walter replied emphatically,
“not at all. Look, he’s never hurt another person in his life. He’s been beaten
up before, as I said, but he never even tried to defend himself. He’d never hit
another person, not even at his most agitated. And he’d absolutely never shoot
someone with a gun. We have no firearms in our home whatsoever. He’s not
capable of shooting anyone.”
    “I take it we can confirm all this
with his shrink.”
    “We’ll provide you with written
consent.”
    “And we can search his room for
the gun you say he’d never use.”
    Walter frowned. “This is a
sidebar, Detective, without Brett and his legal counsel. My son gave me
permission to discuss his condition, as you heard, but I’ll thank you not to
push it too far. Entering our home for any purpose other than an interview will
require a warrant.”
    “Okay, okay. But let me guess
where you’re heading with this. I’m going to go back into that room and ask him
again who he saw on the bike path this morning. Now that we’ve had this little
chat, you and his lawyer are going to back off and let him tell me, right?”
    Walter nodded reluctantly.
    “Okay, great. But then you’re
going to insist he’s not a reliable eyewitness because of this Fregoli thing,
right? Because he believes that a bunch of different people are the same guy,
following him around?”
    “Essentially, yes.”
    “I never went to Harvard,” Karen went
on, “but I bet I’m smart enough to guess who he’s gonna tell me he saw. Am I
right?”
    Walter stared at her, then dropped
his eyes and nodded. “That’s right, Detective. He said he saw Richard Holland.”

 
    4
    The captain’s office had a
television set, so they crowded inside at 2:00 p . m . to watch
the news conference. Chief Bennett was at the podium making his statement when
Hank turned it on.
    “Good afternoon, everyone.”
Bennett stared into the camera with his usual arrogance. “I understand it’s
very