She showed up at my office one day. Paid cash. Told me her name was Tessa. Since she wasn’t using insurance, I didn’t need her driver’s license or anything.”
“Tessa what?”
“Lendhardt,” Graham sighed. “Tessa Lendhardt.”
Josie took out her phone and fired off the last name via text to Trinity. “When did you find out that she had lied about her identity?”
He gave her a wry smile. “When I saw her at the park the morning after Lucy went missing. I really did go there to offer my services. Then I realized that the mother—that Lucy’s mother—was Tessa. I was shocked.”
Josie sat back down beside him. “Did you try to talk to her?”
“No. She seemed too stressed. I knew that she had lied to me. I thought she must have her reasons. I didn’t want to make things worse for her.”
Josie thought of Colin’s accusation. “Dr. Graham, I have to ask, were you having an affair with Tessa Lendhardt?”
He waved a hand in the air dismissively as he shook his head. “Oh no. She was only my patient. I am a professional. I would never become romantically involved with a patient. Even if she wasn’t my patient, she’s much younger than I am, you know.”
Josie narrowed her eyes at him. “That doesn’t always stop people.”
“I can assure you, ours was a doctor-patient relationship only.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police when you realized she had lied to you about her identity?”
“The very same reason I didn’t want to discuss any of this in the first place,” he grumbled.
“Patient privacy.” Josie didn’t want to get back into the same argument now that he was speaking more freely. “Why did Tessa come to see you?”
“Post-partum,” he said. “She thought she had post-partum depression. She had given birth about seven weeks before that. She felt she was having difficulty bonding with the baby.”
“Was she?”
Graham nodded. “I believe she was. I’m not sure this was due to post-partum, however.”
“Then what?” Josie asked.
“Tessa refused to discuss her childhood other than to say that her father was absent, and her mother was neglectful. But I believe that she experienced significant trauma at some point in her life, which hindered her ability to bond with her child. At least at first. We worked very hard on it, and she did bond with Lucy eventually. It was quite the triumph for her.”
“Could that trauma have been an abusive relationship in early adulthood?” Josie asked.
Graham shrugged. “I suppose, yes. I could never get to the bottom of it all. She never spoke of anything before her daughter was born, or if she did, it was only in the broadest strokes.”
“Did she ever talk to you about being in an abusive relationship?”
“No,” Graham said. “She said her husband was very loving. That was part of her issue. She had everything, but didn’t feel happy.”
“I’m talking about before her husband. Did she ever discuss relationships before she got married?”
“No. She refused. I tried hard to get her to discuss her past. I truly believe that processing events that have happened in a person’s past goes a long way to assisting them in living better, fuller lives in the present.”
“She didn’t talk to you about her childhood or any of her other relationships?”
“No.”
“What did she talk about?”
“Tessa had a great deal of anxiety. Crippling anxiety. She told me she was a stay-at-home mom. At first, when her daughter was an infant and then a toddler, she struggled greatly. She was alone with her child most of the time. She didn’t believe she was capable of taking care of an infant or a toddler on her own. She was… afraid all the time.”
“Of what?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. She was just… terrified. I tried to work with her on deep breathing exercises, meditation, things she could do to manage those feelings. For a long time, she was taking medication. It was prescribed by her family doctor. As I’m sure you know, I can’t prescribe medication. I urged her to see a psychiatrist to manage her dosages, but she simply went to her family physician.”
“Did she tell you which meds?” Josie asked. “Xanax?”
“For her acute episodes, yes. I believe she was taking some other anti-depressants as well. Medications for her long-term, underlying depression. She was eventually able to wean herself off them. Her anxiety did improve over time.”
“When did she go off the anti-depressants?” Josie asked.
“Oh, maybe two years ago? When her daughter was five, I believe.”
“When Lucy started school?” Josie asked.
“I really don’t remember,”