The Silent Patient

The next day, Theo is in Max Berenson’s office. Theo turns the conversation towards Alicia. Max had dinner with Alicia and Gabriel the night before the murder; Max says that they both seemed normal, although Alicia was perhaps “a bit more jumpy than usual” (123). Max confesses that he hated Alicia. He says that even before the murder, she exhibited “Mood swings. Rages. Violent fits” (125) and threatened to murder Gabriel. Max also reveals that Alicia attempted suicide after her father’s death. She took an overdose of “pills or something” (125).

As Theo is leaving Max’s office, Tanya—Max’s assistant and wife—secretly tells him that if he wants to know about Alicia, he has to talk to her cousin Paul, in Cambridge: “Ask him about Alicia and the night after the accident, and—” (126). Tanya stops speaking when Max enters the room. Theo recognizes that Tanya is afraid of Max and wonders why. The mystery also deepens by Max’s comment that if Theo is after “gossip,” he should speak to Jean-Felix Martin, the gallery-owner who displayed Alicia’s work.

Chapter 13 consists of excerpts from Alicia’s diary, ranging from July 22-26. Compared to previous excerpts, these are more tumultuous. Alicia had an argument with Gabriel about the fact that he keeps a gun in the house although she’s asked him to get rid of it multiple times. She writes,

I raised my voice, but he raised his louder, and before I knew it we were yelling at each other […] There’s an aggressive side to Gabriel, a part of him I only glimpse occasionally—and when I do, it scares me. For those brief moments it’s like living with a stranger (128). 

Another day, Max comes over for dinner with Alicia and Gabriel. He and Alicia have a moment alone in the kitchen and she tells him that she plans to tell Gabriel about a previous incident in which Max drunkenly kissed and groped her. He forces himself on her again in this moment; she bites his tongue, and he calls her a “fucking bitch” (132). Alicia sits through dinner with Max and Gabriel, pretending like nothing happened. The diary’s tone is fearful: “I feel better for having written this down. I feel safer, somehow, having it on paper. It means I have some evidence” (134).

In the last of the diary entries, Alicia is happy, recounting her birthday. Gabriel prepared a picnic for her. Then, he asked her if she would have a baby with him. He had previously said he didn’t want kids. Alicia has also revealed in her diary that she’s scared to have children—“I am not to be trusted with them. Not with my mother’s blood running through my veins” (128). However, when Gabriel asks her, she is overjoyed and agrees.

Theo places a follow-up phone call to Max. Max is annoyed. Theo asks what hospital Alicia received treatment from after her suicide attempt and Max reveals that Gabriel had a private doctor come over and treat her, keeping the incident quiet. Theo asks if Alicia was the main beneficiary of Gabriel’s will. Max reveals that he is the main beneficiary. That same day, Lazarus calls Theo into his office and reprimands him for pestering Max. Max called to complain about Theo’s “harassment.” Lazarus tells Theo, “You’re going about this the wrong way. You’re asking questions, searching for clues, like it’s a detective story” (139), and directs him to simply stick to therapy—and not to visit any more of Alicia’s relatives. Theo agrees. 

Theo immediately breaks his promise to Lazarus and goes to Cambridge to find Paul, Alicia’s cousin, following the secret tip Tanya gave him. He finds the home of Lydia Rose, Paul’s mother and Alicia’s aunt, who cared for Alicia after Eva passed. He is looking for clues to “find out what happened to shape [Alicia], make her into the person she became—a person capable of murder” (141). This is the psychological mystery that has transformed Theo into a detective of sorts. Since he can’t talk to Alicia about her childhood for clues, he has to seek them externally. Walking the property of Alicia’s childhood home, Theo notices an old woman’s face—Aunt Lydia’s—at the window. Then he hears footsteps behind him, and someone strikes him on the back of the head. Theo subsequently losing consciousness. 

Theo comes to and finds Paul Rose standing over him, smelling of whiskey. Paul has already checked Theo’s ID and discovered he works at The Grove. Paul agrees to answer Theo’s questions about Alicia. Theo learns that Lydia and Paul moved into the home when Lydia’s husband, Paul’s father, died; Paul was eight or nine at the time. It was meant to be temporary but then Eva died, so they stayed. Alicia’s father, Vernon, died only a few years ago. He hanged himself in the attic and Paul found the body. Paul notes that he last saw Alicia at her father’s funeral. Paul says, “I never believed it, you know. That she killed Gabriel—it didn’t make any sense to me […] She wasn’t a violent person” (146). Lydia demands to speak to Theo, interrupting Paul and Theo’s discussion. 

Theo talks with Lydia, who is belligerent and appears to have some sort of mental health disorder, possibly dementia. “There was madness in her gaze; I felt quite sure of that” (148), Theo says. Lydia makes it clear that she has long disliked Alicia, saying “She’s a little bitch. She always was, even as a child” (148). She says she took care of Alicia and that Alicia was ungrateful. Alicia even created an unflattering portrait of Lydia, an “obscene mockery” (149). Lydia concludes that Alicia should be in prison, not a mental health institution. Theo leaves the house sad, thinking to himself that he would surely have ended up like Paul—an alcoholic under his parents’ rigid rule—if he hadn’t left his parents’ home. Having met tyrannical Aunt Lydia, he understands why Alicia left home as soon as she could, as growing up with Aunt Lydia was surely unpleasant. 

Theo comes home and tries to check Kathy’s emails, but she’s logged out of her email. He notes the irony of the fact that she’s rehearsing the role of Desdemona in Othello: “I had enough self-awareness to appreciate the cliché I had become—the jealous husband—and the irony that Kathy was currently rehearsing Desdemona in Othello hadn’t escaped me” (151). He concocts outlandish theories to explain the emails and prove Kathy’s innocence, like maybe she was writing in character, preparing for the play—but, he notes, she signed the emails “Kathy” and not “Desdemona.”

Theo reflects that their relationship hasn’t changed on the surface. However, internally he’s spiraling, wondering why she cheated, and externally he’s taking steps like checking her email and her phone whenever he can. When Kathy mentions that she’s meeting a friend, Nicole, on Thursday night after rehearsal—and will therefore be home late—he’s suspicious. He concludes there’s “only one way to find out” (154) if this is true. He plans to follow her.

Theo goes to Alicia’s gallery to meet Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix expresses dislike for Max and also seems to have had a fraught relationship with Gabriel. It seems Gabriel may have viewed Jean-Felix as a threat or been jealous of his close relationship with Alicia. Alicia and Jean-Felix met in art school and knew each other for years. When Theo asks how Alicia seemed when Jean-Felix last saw her—days before the murder—he responds, “She didn’t look like she was going to shoot her husband in a few days” (158).  

Jean-Felix shows Theo four of Alicia’s paintings. The first is of the car crash that killed Alicia’s mother, Eva. The second is the painting of Jesus on the cross—with “Jesus” being Gabriel. The third is that of Lydia, showing her morbidly obese and nude on a sagging bed. The fourth painting is the self-portrait, Alcestis. This time Theo notices a new detail, however; there is a bowl of apples in the painting and the apples have maggots on them. Jean-Felix encourages Theo to read the Euripedes play.

Theo asks Jean-Felix about Alicia’s father and her subsequent suicide attempt. Theo read the sequence of events to mean that Alicia loved Vernon and was grief-stricken by his death. Jean-Felix tells him that Alicia hated Vernon. Asked why Alicia would then try killing herself after Vernon’s death, Jean-Felix suggests guilt as a motivator. However, Theo gets the sense that Jean-Felix is withholding information. 

Following Jean-Felix’s advice, Theo picks up a copy of the Euripedes tragedy, Alcestis. He notes the “deus ex machina” ending—referring to the fact that a seemingly unsolvable problem (Alcestis’s death) gets abrupt resolution (when Heracles brings her back from the dead). The conclusion shocks Theo: Alcestis’s inability to speak. Admetus asks Heracles in desperation, “But why is my wife standing here, and does not speak?” (166). The chapter concludes with Theo wondering, along with Admetus, “Why? Why does she not speak?” (166)