Private Eyes

The voice belongs to a woman, but Dr. Alex Deleware remembers a little girl. It is eleven years since seven-year-old Melissa Dickinson dialed a hospital help line for comfort-and found it in therapy with Alex Deleware. Now the lovely you heiress is desperately calling for the psychologist's help once more. Only this time it looks like Melissa's deepest childhood nightmare is coming true...Twenty years ago, Gina Dickinson, Melissa's mother, suffered a grisly assualt that left the budding actress irreparably scarred and emotionally crippled. Now her acid-wielding assailant is out of prison and back in L.A.-and Melissa is terrified the monster has returned to hurt Gina again. But even before Alex can even begin to soothe his former patient's fears, Gina, a recluse for twenty years, disappears. And now, unless Deleware turns crack detective to uncover the truth, Gina Dickinson will be just one more victim of a cold fury that has already spawned madness-and murder. Copyright 1992 by Jonathan Kellerman. Published by Random House Publishing.