‘You mind if I ask what your duties there involved?’
‘Initially, I dealt with prisoners. We wanted information, and they were naturally hostile to us, especially after what happened in the prison in the early days. We needed to find other ways to get them to talk.’
‘When you say “other ways” . . .’
‘You saw the photographs: humiliation, torture – simulated and otherwise. That didn’t help our cause. Those idiots on talk radio who laughed about it had no understanding of the impact it had. It gave the Iraqis another reason to hate us, and they took it out on the military. American soldiers died because of Abu Ghraib.’
‘Just a few bad apples getting out of line.’
‘Nothing happened in Abu Ghraib that wasn’t sanctioned from above, in general if not in detail.’
‘And then you arrived with a new approach.’
‘I, and others. Our maxim was simple: don’t torture. Torture a man or woman for long enough, and you’ll be told exactly what you want to hear. In the end, all they want is for the torture to stop.’
She must have seen something in my face, because she stopped talking and eyed me intently over her coffee. ‘You’ve been hurt in that way?’
I didn’t answer.
‘I’ll take that as a “yes”’, she said. ‘Even moderate pressure, and by that I mean physical pain that doesn’t leave one in fear of death, is scarring. In my view, someone who has endured torture is never quite the same again. It removes a part of oneself, excises it entirely. Call it what you will: peace of mind, dignity. Sometimes, I wonder if it even has a name. Anyway, in the short term it has a profoundly destabilizing effect on the personality.’
‘And in the long term?’
‘Well, in your case, how long has it been?’
‘Since the last time?’
‘There’s been more than one?’
‘Yes.’
‘Jesus. If I was dealing with a soldier in your position, I’d be making sure that he was undergoing intensive therapy.’
‘That’s reassuring to know. To get back to you . . .’
‘After my time in Abu Ghraib, I moved into counseling and therapy. It became clear at a very early stage that there were problems with stress levels, and those increased when the military instituted repeated deployments, stop-loss, and began calling up weekend warriors. I became part of a mental health team working out of the Green Zone, but with particular responsibility for two FOBs: Arrowhead and Warhorse.’
‘Arrowhead. That’s where the Third Infantry is based, right?’
‘Some brigades, yes.’
‘You ever encounter anyone from a Stryker unit while you were there?’
She set her cup aside. Her expression changed.
‘Is that why you’re here, to talk about the men of Stryker C?’
‘I didn’t mention Stryker C.’
‘You didn’t have to.’
She waited for me to proceed.
‘From what I can tell, three members of Stryker C, all known to one another, have died at their own hands,’ I said. ‘One of them took his wife with him. That sounds like a suicide cluster to me, which would probably be of interest to you.’
‘It is.’
‘Did you speak to any of those men before they died?’
‘I spoke to all of them, but Damien Patchett only inform ally. The first was Brett Harlan. He’d been attending the Veterans Outreach Center in Bangor. He was also a drug addict. For him, it helped that the needle exchange program was based next to a veterans center.’
I couldn’t tell if she was joking.
‘What did he tell you?’
‘That’s confidential.’
‘He’s dead. He doesn’t care any longer.’
‘I’m still not going to reveal the substance of my discussions with him, but clearly you can take it that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, although—’
She stopped. I waited.
‘He was experiencing auditory phenomena,’ she added, slightly reluctantly.
‘So he was hearing voices.’
‘That doesn’t fit with the diagnosis criteria for PTSD. That’s closer to schizophrenia.’
‘Did you investigate further?’
‘He discontinued treatment. And then he died.’
‘Was there a specific event that triggered his problem?’
She looked away. ‘It was . . . nonspecific, as far as I could ascertain.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘There were nightmares, and he was having trouble sleeping, but he couldn’t relate it to a specific occurrence. That’s all I’m prepared to say.’
‘Was there any indication that he might have been about to murder his wife?’
‘None. Do you seriously think that we wouldn’t have intervened if we thought that there was such a risk? Come on.’
‘Is it possible that the same stimulus could have led all three to act as they did?’
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
‘Could something have happened in Iraq that led to a form of . . . collective trauma?’