I asked him if there were any breakthroughs, he just smiled and said not all Germans were Nazis, some were sentinels of God. And that was about it.”
“He never told you what he found?”
“No, but we remained friends, and when I told him I had gotten this job, he was so excited and promised he would visit me.” He hesitated for a moment like he had something to hide.
“Well, did he?” she asked.
“He came here, and we walked the halls. I told him about my patients and that there was one in particular I was concerned about. I was afraid I couldn’t save her. I had tried everything and I was losing the battle. He smiled at me and patted the bag he was carrying.”
He must be talking about Kristen, the patient he always referred to as the one he could not save.
“So I went on my rounds,” he continued, “and he asked if he could visit with some of the patients. Then that night, we had dinner, and that was it. He disappeared.”
“You never saw him again?”
“No. I tried to find him, but in those days there was no internet.
I wrote letters, made phone calls. Nothing.”
“You weren’t able to save that patient, were you?”
“Oh, no. I saved her. I don’t know how. But I did.” He paused.
“It was you.”
Shelly sat frozen in front of Dr. Wall, trying to piece together his story and its implications. He wasn’t talking about Kristen at all. Now it began to sink in. Was he trying to say that this guy may have had something to do with her remission?
“Now, I can’t prove anything, Shel, but the week before, I took you to x-ray, and you still had a mass in your chest that was huge. The day after his visit, it was gone. I couldn’t explain it, but I had a feeling he had something to do with it. But without proof, I decided to keep my mouth shut.”
She sat speechless—he kept talking.
“I guess teaching him to be a clown allowed him to hide from his family he despised so much. He liked making children laugh. When he found out what his uncle had done, he wanted to prove that his family was better than that. The last thing he said to me