The Silent Patient

Back at The Grove, Theo seeks out Elif. He wants to know about her past altercation with Alicia and asks what she said to Alicia to set her off. Elif tells him that she asked Alicia “if he deserved it […] Him. Her bloke [her husband, Gabriel]” (118). Theo is disgusted but doesn’t press the matter. He leaves. Outside, he gets a call from Max, whom he had previously called, hoping for more information about Alicia. Max reluctantly agrees to speak to Theo and suggests they meet at his office the next evening. 

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).