On the day she last saw James Holmes, University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton went to a campus police officer with concerns about a patient.

Fenton testified Thursday during a hearing in Holmes’ murder case that she had no contact with Holmes after June 11. That same day, Fenton said, she contacted Officer Lynn Whitten about a patient. Fenton did not identify the patient, citing the confidentiality issues that were the focus of Thursday’s hearing.

“I was trying to gather information for myself,” Fenton said.

“I communicated with Officer Whitten,” Fenton said later, “to gather more information about this case and to communicate my concerns.”

She did not say what those concerns were. Moments earlier, when asked whether she had ever contacted authorities for reasons required by the state law that mandates psychiatrists report specific threats of violence made by their patients, Fenton said she had not.

The testimony of Fenton — a key figure in the timeline of Holmes’ path from promising neuroscience student to accused murderer of 12 at the Century Aurora 16 movie theater — stood out during what was the most weighty hearing to date the case. Fenton has never spoken publicly about her relationship to Holmes.

The purpose of the hearing was for prosecutors and defense attorneys to debate whether a notebook Holmes mailed to Fenton the day before the July 20 rampage, which also left 58 injured, is a confidential communication between a doctor and a patient. The defense says it is. Prosecutors believe they should be able to look at it.

The hearing ended Thursday unfinished, and the issue will be taken up again Sept. 20.

Fenton’s testimony looms large in the debate. On Thursday, Fenton confirmed that she had treated Holmes at least once, on June 11. The next day, prosecutor Karen Pearson said, Holmes’ key-card access to CU buildings was cut off. The day after that, Pearson said, Holmes began to withdraw from CU.

Crucially, Fenton testified that her doctor-patient relationship with Holmes ended June 11 — playing into the prosecution’s argument that Holmes was not Fenton’s patient when he mailed the notebook.

But 18th Judicial District Chief Judge William Sylvester said he was unconvinced that the relationship was formally severed, a small victory for the defense. “What (Fenton) may have perceived as terminating the relationship may not have actually terminated the relationship.”

Later he said: “The court is unable to make a determination as to whether that relationship was terminated.”

Sylvester also found that Holmes’ relationship with Fenton is governed by the state law confidentiality provisions for both physicians and psychologists.

That does not mean the notebook — which may contain information about the planning and motives behind the attack — is officially off-limits to prosecutors. But it does mean prosecutors will have to argue that the notebook falls outside of confidentiality in other ways.

They appear ready to do just that. Deputy District Attorney Rich Orman argued that the notebook was not set with any therapeutic purpose in mind.

“He planned he would be dead or in custody or something else — on the run — when the package was received,” Orman said.

Later in the hearing, defense attorney Tamara Brady argued that a mental-health counseling relationship could continue to exist even after someone has been put in prison. Or, she said, the notebook may have been a plea for help from a trusted counselor.

“Perhaps the package was to say, ‘I’m feeling bad. Please stop me,’ ” Brady said.

Brady also hit upon the theme during an exchange with Fenton in which Brady seemed to hint that Holmes had called a CU hospital switchboard number just minutes before the shooting began. It would have been possible to reach Fenton after-hours using that number.

“Do you know whether James Holmes called that number 9 minutes before the shooting started?” Brady asked.

“I don’t know,” Fenton said.

Thursday was the first time since the shooting that Holmes, a man who allegedly stockpiled weapons while attending classes, saw Fenton, a woman who may have learned some of his secrets. Holmes’ head crooked toward the courtroom door when Fenton’s name was called as a witness.

But rather than revelations, Thursday’s hearing mostly produced moments of attorneys on both sides metaphorically tiptoeing around mousetraps.

Time and again, when prosecutors asked questions, the defense would object on the grounds that the information solicited was privileged. Sylvester often agreed — the court couldn’t allow the information out into the open, he said, only to later rule it should be kept under wraps.

The most precise detail, then, came not about the notebook but about what it was mailed in.

It was a padded envelope, a U.S. postal inspector testified. It was purchased, along with a sheet of Forever stamps, on July 12 at the Fletcher Post Office in Aurora. It was dropped in the mail sometime after the last pickup July 19 and scanned through at the main Denver processing center on July 21, during which pictures were taken of its front and back, as is the case with every envelope processed there.

It was delivered July 23 to the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The exact contents of the envelope, though, remain the subject of mystery — at least for a little longer.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold