An Eye For An Eye. Arthur Klepfisz
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been a shadow in his life. He was wary of possibly using this as an excuse for behavior that only he could be responsible for. Andrew had been fascinated about the concepts of good and evil for many years, pondering the question of whether people were intrinsically good or intrinsically bad. If they were good, was it the fear of punishment that made them act so? He had come to believe that anyone was capable of doing bad things if their controls were loosened and depending on the circumstances around them. He knew about the mob effect where large numbers of people could be dragged into an environment where they carried out acts of evil, often feeling safe to do so under the umbrella of anonymity that a mob generated. He believed that there was a ripple effect, where having done one bad thing it would be easier to do more of the same.
Apart from his own behaviour, he thought back to his family's experience during the Holocaust where seemingly educated and cultured people could become sadists and murderers. He reflected on how the victims of these atrocities could also be part of a ripple effect, where the damage the victims suffered could cause further damage to the generations that followed because of how they related to each other.
Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil was something he totally agreed with, and recalled how during the Holocaust the people who murdered their victims could have been a former friend, or a teacher whose class the victim attended or even a doctor who used to treat them. People who once had been close to their victim now became their brutal executioners.
Andrew wondered how his own behaviour in having sex with a patient fitted into these concepts. Had his resolve been weakened by events in his life or was he totally to blame? What did it say about him as a person? He worried that he was becoming too preoccupied with these thoughts and whilst they addressed important issues, he feared that he could be buried in an avalanche of emotion. Once the thoughts squatted in his mind, it was difficult to evict them. They were issues he would eventually need to confront, but he increasingly believed that involving a therapist would be a safer approach. The idea of a psychiatrist needing to see another psychiatrist did not sit comfortably with him, but he acknowledged it was necessary. He knew that the saying “physician heal thyself ” didn’t mean going it alone but rather, admitting to himself that he required outside assistance.
He had never felt so alone before.
CHAPTER FIVE
Wednesday, 20 January 1988
11.56 p.m.
‘Get up.’
The command from Deborah met no resistance, and Brett was immediately alert. He checked his watch and guessed that the extra few hours sleep he’d been allowed were more to do with Deborah needing the time rather than any concern about his tiredness.
He knew that whenever Deborah invited him up to her compound, it was never just for a social outing. There was always some underlying issue that she wanted to speak to him about, and on this occasion he suspected that it had to do with psychiatrist Dr Wright and her concern that he might be involved in trying to expose her group.
Through his work with the Victorian Police Task Force, Brett had heard rumours that a number of aggrieved ex-sect members were attending Dr Wright, and it was therefore not a surprise to recently hear from Deborah that she was becoming increasingly troubled by this. She had become more and more concerned about the volume of ex-sect members airing their grievances about The Union to Dr Wright.
Brett had initially drawn her attention to this, but it was highlighted as a concern for Deborah when a sect member Beverley went to see her dermatologist, Dr Lee, who did sessional work in the same building as Dr Andrew Wright. The patients of Dr Lee and Dr Wright shared the same waiting room. Deborah described how Beverley had recently reported back to her the details of a coincidence that occurred when she attended her dermatologist.
While waiting for her appointment, Beverley had noticed an ex-Union member, Tracy, sitting at the other end of the waiting room. (Deborah tended not to believe in coincidences and felt many events were predestined rather than occurring by chance.) Beverley told her excitedly that on the spur of the moment she decided to go and sit next to Tracy. There were no other patients in the waiting room at the time, so Beverley chatted, asking Tracy how things were going in her life. Beverley recalled that Tracy and her partner broke away from The Union 10 months earlier, and after the brief startled silence that followed Beverley’s greeting, Tracy began responding cautiously to Beverley’s chatter. As she started describing the recent breakup of her relationship after leaving The Union, Tracy’s eyes filled with tears and her controlled answers lost out to the rage inside, leaving her inconsolable even with Beverley’s arm around her.
Beverley reported to Deborah the bitter allegations that Tracy had made about the role of The Union in destroying her relationship with her partner. In a rage undiluted by her tears, Tracy expressed the wish that Deborah would be punished for the havoc and damage she had inflicted on other people’s lives. With a humourless laugh, Beverley told Deborah that for the first time in her life she gave silent thanks that her dermatologist was running late, as it gave her the freedom to listen to more of Tracy’s story. She described to Deborah that it was like the waters of a dam escaping the walls that had held them back, so that the torrent of Tracy’s words and emotions spilt out unfiltered.
Over the next 15 minutes, Tracy’s pressured voice described how she and a few other former sect members had poured out their stories to Dr Wright, describing their hurt and complaints about The Union. Fighting to regain control, in a whisper that was more like a hiss, Tracy told Beverley how Dr Wright reassured her that he understood and shared the concerns of people damaged by The Union. He promised that he would try and speak to the appropriate authorities about the issues the ex- sect members had related.
After Beverley said that, Tracy suddenly clammed up, probably realising she may have said too much. Minutes later, as if orchestrated, Beverley’s doctor called her in for her consultation.
After Beverley told Deborah about the chance encounter with Tracy and what was said, Deborah organised some of her members to monitor the building where Dr Wright worked, recording which ex-Union members were entering. She also arranged to have the rooms of Dr Wright broken into and was able to obtain a list of his current and recent patients, revealing the names of nine former sect members.
On the drive to Deborah’s compound, Brett had decided that he wouldn’t mention the death of the prostitute. He wasn't sure that he would ever discuss this with her, for even though she adopted a priest like a role in her group, where members opened up to her, she was not inclined to dispense forgiveness following their confessions. What he or The Union could do about Dr Wright wasn't clear to him at this stage.
Brett was fully alert after Deborah’s voice jarred him awake, so he dressed quickly and joined her in the kitchen, where she had already prepared a coffee for them both. The hot liquid warmed him and he inhaled the aroma of the coffee beans, whilst her mongrel dog jumped up and licked the back of his hand, though Brett was on guard, knowing the mutt could readily switch from lick to snarl.
Deborah looked at Brett in silence, before asking directly what he thought should be done about Wright and his threat of interfering with her group. She said that she was now very aware that more and more ex-Union members were attending Wright and voicing their bitter complaints about her group to him. She revealed that about a month ago she had arranged for one of her current female members to be referred to Dr Wright as a patient, pretending to be unwell and posing as an ex-sect member, so she could gauge what Wright knew and how negative his attitude had become towards the group.
That visit demonstrated to her that Wright had become increasingly furious about The Union activities and had a strong desire to expose and close them down. Her stooge confirmed that the situation was as bad as she had feared.
Haltingly, Brett attempted to reassure Deborah that he was working on the issue, but her dismissive questioning pinned him down and he had to acknowledge that he really had no clear plan that would guarantee success in stopping Wright.
A task force headed by Brett had been set up close to one and a half years previously, with the primary purpose of exposing The Union activities and their alleged criminal behaviour. The Victorian Police