“That’s exactly what I do here,” Dr. Weatherall said.
“Did you examine her?”
“I did. It’s the first step.”
“So you remember her.”
“I didn’t at first. After you rang me, I looked through my files. I see any number of women in a week, so while I often remember their names, it’s difficult to keep straight all the details of an appointment.”
“C’n I reckon you’ve got files for all your patients?”
“Yes. For all of them.”
“So you have a file for Teo as well? C’n I get a copy off you?”
Dr. Weatherall steepled her fingers together and looked down at them, as if considering the request. After a few moments, she said, “I don’t see why not. But if I may ask . . . If Teo Bontempi has died and if you’re the Metropolitan Police, and, as you told me on the phone, there’s an investigation . . . with DS in front of your name signifying you’re a detective . . . ?”
“Right . . . She’s been murdered.”
Dr. Weatherall let out a long breath. She said, “I’m very sorry to hear that. How was she . . . Never mind. I suppose you can’t tell me.” She rose and went to the chair behind her desk. She sat and typed upon the keyboard of her computer. She accessed what she wanted and said, “This will take just a few moments. The printer’s . . .” and she indicated the doorway as a way of explaining that the printer was elsewhere. She added, “Shall I fetch everything for you now?”
Barbara told her that could wait till she was leaving, and she asked the surgeon what the result of Teo’s examination had been.
Dr. Weatherall gazed at the file she’d brought up on her computer screen. She read a bit, as if to make sure she had the details straight and said, “My notes say she seemed a good candidate for reconstruction. She’d been badly handled by whoever cut her originally, and although she’d been opened as an adolescent there was a great deal of scar tissue. That—the scar tissue—would need to be removed before anything else could be done. It’s not difficult, that part of the procedure. It is a bit iffy, however.”
“Because . . . ?”
“The file I’ve printed for you includes photos. You’ll see the extent to which she’d been disfigured. When the damage is as bad as hers, the first issue is whether she has any nerve endings left beneath the scar tissue. If there are, then I can rebuild a clitoris.”
“And if there aren’t any nerve endings left?”
“That doesn’t make the surgery more difficult. It alters the outcome, though. Whilst I can rebuild what’s been removed from a woman’s body in that situation, I can’t alter her experience of sex other than to eliminate the pain of it.”
“Why would a woman go forward with reconstruction if you find that there aren’t any nerves left?”
The surgeon pushed back from her desk, resting her hands on the arms of her chair. She said, “For several reasons. Normalcy or at least the degree of normalcy that I can give her. An end to infections as well and, as I said, an end to pain during intercourse. But the woman would, in effect, remain anorgasmic. So: no pleasure for her save the pleasure of being physically close to a sexual partner.”
“What was the case for Teo?”
Dr. Weatherall gestured at the computer’s screen. “You’ll see it in my notes: From examining her, I confirmed that I could definitely do a reconstruction. But in her case, as in everyone else’s, it would be only once I’d removed the scar tissue that I could offer a hopeful outcome as to sensation.”
“Did you explain all this to her?”
“Oh yes. I always do that, directly after the exam.”
“How did you leave things, then?”
“Regarding the reconstructive surgery, my notes in her file indicate that at first she wanted to think things over.”
“That’s it, is it?”
“In the notes, yes. But I wouldn’t have written down the rest as it’s what I always say: that should she decide to have the surgery, she would need to find someone willing to accompany her. And if she did want to go forward with the procedure, she was to ring me and let me know.”
“Did she?”
“Not at first. I thought she’d decided against it, which certainly happens. Sometimes a woman’s fear overtakes all other considerations. Sometimes a husband finds out what a wife wishes to do and he won’t allow it because he fears that being made whole will lead her into promiscuity. And sometimes a father becomes involved and he won’t allow it. A mother as well, for that matter.”