An Evil Mind--A Suspense Novel

by Tim Kizer

  Speaking of the swap, it was a good trade. Sam liked his new body: his new face was rather handsome, and his new penis was half an inch longer than the old one.

  “I’m sure she did,” Sam said.

  “I hope she didn’t mess up the fingerprints.”

  Why hadn’t he gotten rid of the knife right after slaying Helen Hinton?

  After leaving the building where the killing had taken place, Sam (his name had been Edward Phillips then as he had still been in his old body) had given the knife to Jeff so he would dispose of it (he had put it in a plastic bag before going outside), and when Jeff came home, he had locked it in the safe in his study, intending to get rid of it the next night. Shortly after he learned of Sam’s arrest, it occurred to Jeff that his son could avoid going to prison for Helen Hinton’s murder by switching bodies with his cellmate. There was no longer a need to ditch the knife, and he decided to keep it as a souvenir, which just went to show that he was a little crazy.

  “There’s been no mention of the knife in the papers,” Jeff said.

  “Maybe nobody cares about this case anymore.”

  Jeff ate a salmon roll and said, “Do you think Edward told Aguero about the body switch?”

  Sam shook his head. “If he did, he’s an idiot. Would you believe him if you were Aguero?”

  “No.” Jeff took a sip from his bottle. “I wonder if he told anyone about it.”

  “He might have told his cellmate.”

  2

  The next day, Sam called Eric Pruitt’s office and made an appointment for Wednesday morning.

  He arrived at the headquarters of Pruitt Private Capital fifteen minutes before the scheduled time, wearing a suit and a tie. At 10:03 a.m. Pruitt’s secretary, a black woman in her forties with big earrings, told Sam that Pruitt was ready to see him.

  After they shook hands, Pruitt said, “You have ten minutes, Jake.”

  Eric Pruitt was forty-nine years old. He had deep-set brown eyes, an aquiline nose, and thin lips.

  “My company would like to help your son, Paul, get rid of his cancer,” Sam said. “We’ve developed a procedure that can permanently cure anaplastic astrocytoma.”

  Anaplastic astrocytoma was the scientific name of Paul Pruitt’s tumor.

  Pruitt looked at Sam for a long moment, and then said, “What’s your company’s name?”

  “New Horizons. It’s an experimental, highly effective procedure. It doesn’t involve surgery, drugs, or radiation. So far the success rate’s been one hundred percent. This is a totally risk-free offer. If we don’t deliver, you don’t pay.”

  “No drugs and no radiation? Is it a homeopathic treatment?”

  “No. We will transfer Paul’s consciousness to another body. A healthy body.”

  “Transfer his consciousness to another body? How are you going to do that?”

  “As you may know, consciousness arises from the electrical activity of nerve cells. We found a way to record human consciousness and then place it in another brain.”

  “Where are you going to get the healthy body?”

  “We have a pool of people who are willing to do a body swap for a fee. It’s going to be a white man between eighteen and twenty-five.”

  Although Sam didn’t think Pruitt was racist, he was sure the millionaire would prefer his son’s new body to be the same race as the old one.

  “How many patients have you treated?” Pruitt asked.

  “Ten.”

  “Can I talk to them?”

  “No. Our clients’ names are confidential. I’m sorry.”

  Judging by the skeptical look in his eyes, Pruitt did not trust him, and Sam expected the millionaire to think it was a scam until he got proof that his precious son’s consciousness had actually been moved to a different body.

  “How much is the procedure?”

  “Twenty million.”

  The twenty-million-dollar price wasn’t set in stone. Sam was willing to negotiate.

  “Did you say twenty million?”

  “Yes. You don’t have to pay anything upfront. You pay only if the procedure is successful.”

  Pruitt sat back in his chair. “Can I see your facility?”

  “Sure. I can show it to you today.”

  New Horizons’ office didn’t look like a high-tech scientific facility, but Sam thought that terminally ill folks and their parents and children wouldn’t care about that. Desperate people were eager to be fooled.

  “Where is it located?”

  “Dallas.”

  Pruitt thought for a long time and then said, “This is an interesting proposal, Jake. Let me sleep on it.”

  Sam nodded. “Here’s my card.” He laid his card on the desk in front of Pruitt. “If you have any questions, give me a call.”

  Chapter 27

  1

  Mark spied on Sam Curtis from eight p.m. to midnight on Wednesday. He saw nothing suspicious. Curtis came home at half past eight, and Mark waited three and a half hours for him to leave the house, but he never did.

  Was Curtis going to kill again?

  Curtis had killed Laura Sumner because the body swap ritual required human sacrifice. Obviously, Curtis or Jeff Phillips planned to switch bodies. Both of them were still in the bodies they had been in before Laura’s murder, so they didn’t need to make another sacrifice. They might kill again after one of them got a new body.

  What was Mark going to do next?

  His objective was to punish the man who had murdered his daughter. Since that man’s soul currently occupied Sam Curtis’s body, his objective was to punish Sam Curtis. The easiest and quickest way to do it was to kill him. Did Mark need a confession? It would be nice if Curtis confessed to swapping bodies and murdering Helen but not necessary. If Curtis told him that Jeff Phillips was his accomplice, Mark would waste Jeff, too.

  Putting Curtis in prison wasn’t a good option because he would switch bodies with his cellmate while in jail awaiting trial.

  Should he help Edward Phillips gain his freedom? At the present time, Edward Phillips was an innocent man, who’d had nothing to do with Helen’s murder. He had robbed a convenience store, but he didn’t deserve to be executed or remain in prison for the rest of his life. Mark had to do his best to set him free. After all, if it hadn’t been for Phillips, he wouldn’t have known that his daughter’s killer was on the loose.

  He could hire a good appeals attorney for Phillips. The problem was, the case was going to cost tens of thousands of dollars. He would have to find a way to raise the money.

  Could the swap be reversed? Mark searched the Internet for a body switch ritual involving human sacrifice but found nothing useful.

  Anna Wesley’s cellphone company informed Mark that she had never received any calls or messages from Sam Curtis. Evidently, Curtis had chosen to dump his girlfriend. Mark reviewed the text messages Curtis had sent to Sandra Chandler and found that he had broken up with her shortly after his release from the Dallas County Jail.

  On Friday, as Mark browsed websites dedicated to black magic, he recalled the murder of Walter Kindred, who had been killed the same way as Helen and Laura (he had read about it in late October, when he was looking for cases similar to his daughter’s). Had Kindred’s murder been part of a body switch ritual?

  The man convicted of killing Walter Kindred knew the answer to that question. Mark realized that he wanted to talk to him. The fact that the guy was in Massachusetts, eighteen hundred miles from Dallas, didn’t discourage Mark. He decided to visit Kindred’s killer next Thursday.

  2

  Edward Phillips’s face lit up when he saw Mark. He sat down, picked up the phone, and said, “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine,” Mark replied.

  What was going on in Phillips’s head? He must be constantly on edge, angry, and anguished, with no alcohol or drugs or cigarettes to dull the pain.

  Did Phillips have nightmares every night?

  I may be the only person who can give him hop
e, Mark thought.

  “I did some digging and came to the conclusion that you’re telling the truth,” he said.

  “Thank you, Mark. You made my year.” Phillips smiled. “Did you talk to my parents?”

  “I talked to your father.”

  “How’s he doing?”

  “He’s fine. Is he from Australia?”

  “Yes, he is. Can you check on my mom, please? Just give her a call.”

  “Sure. Have you thought about telling your parents about the body switch?”

  “They’re not going to believe me. Do you know how often Phillips visits my dad?”

  “Your father said that he hadn’t talked to him since March.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I checked Jeff Phillips’s credit card records and found out that he was in Austin the day Laura Sumner was killed. I suspect he helped his son murder Laura.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “I also suspect Jeff helped his son kill Helen.”

  “Are you going to follow Edward every day?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t kill him. After you arrest him, please make sure they put him in solitary confinement.”

  If Phillips thought that Mark could arrange for Curtis to be held in solitary confinement until he was transferred to the state prison system, he was badly mistaken. In county jails, well-behaved adults without mental health issues were not supposed to be kept in segregation for long periods of time. His lawyer would get Curtis released into the general population within a month of his arrest.

  “You think he’ll confess to killing Helen?”

  “I hope he will. You’ll have to tell the police that he killed Helen and Laura Sumner.”

  “I will.”

  “Remember I told you there was a full moon on the night he switched bodies with me? I’m beginning to think it wasn’t a coincidence. It’s possible that the ritual works only on full-moon nights. You see, if Edward could switch bodies whenever he wanted, he would have done it the day we first met. Why did he wait twenty-five days?”

  That was a good point.

  If Curtis could swap bodies only on full-moon nights, he’d need to be placed in solitary confinement just once a month.

  “When did he switch bodies with you?” Mark asked.

  “January eleventh.”

  “Maybe the ritual works only on the eleventh day of the month.”

  “That’s possible, too. Please follow Edward on the next full-moon night. If he switches bodies, you should find out who he switched bodies with. The next full moon is on December second.”

  “Okay.”

  “Today is eleventh. Please follow him tonight, too.”

  Mark nodded. “Okay.”

  “Have you told Detective Aguero about the body switch?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t tell him. Don’t tell anyone.”

  “I’ve already told my wife.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She thinks it’s bullshit.”

  “Does Aguero have any new leads?”

  “He knows that Jeff Phillips was in Austin the day Laura Sumner was killed, and he suspects that Jeff was involved in her murder.”

  “Does Jeff know he’s a suspect?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He might get a new body. Keep an eye on him.”

  Maybe he should follow Jeff Phillips tonight instead of Curtis?

  “How is your appeal going?” Mark asked.

  “My lawyer’s working on the brief.”

  “When is he going to file it?”

  “Next month.”

  “How are you holding up?”

  “Not very well.” Phillips paused. “I think it’s partly my fault. If I hadn’t gotten behind the wheel that night, I wouldn’t have been arrested and I wouldn’t have met Edward Phillips. I think about this every day.” He sighed. “Every day. My lawyer advised me to plead guilty. He said I’d get a suspended sentence. Edward told me that I shouldn’t listen to him because he was a public defender. Edward said he knew a good lawyer, who would help me for free. And I believed him. If I’d done what my lawyer told me to do, I’d be home now. God, I was such an idiot.”

  “Don’t think about what you could have done. It’s going to drive you crazy.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  Phillips lowered his head and wiped his eyes.

  “Did Barlow tell you about Walter Kindred?”

  “No. Who is he?”

  “He lived in Massachusetts. He was killed the same way as Helen.”

  “When?”

  “October of last year. I’m going to visit his killer in prison next Thursday.”

  Phillips thought for a long moment and then said, “If he knows how to perform the ritual, ask him how to reverse the switch.”

  “That’s why I want to talk to him.”

  “Thank you, Mark. I appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”

  “No problem.”

  “Ask him where he learned how to perform the ritual.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you find any information about the ritual on the Internet?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Looking over Mark’s shoulder, Phillips said dreamily, “It would be great if there was a way to get my body back.”

  3

  When Mark got home, he called Edward Phillips’s mother and she told him that she was doing fine. He spied on Sam Curtis from seven to twelve that night. When he arrived at Curtis’s house, he saw Jeff Phillips’s Cadillac parked in front of it. At eight o’clock Curtis and Jeff Phillips got in Curtis’s car and went to Pistons Bar and Grill, where they stayed until eleven-forty. In the bar, Mark watched them from a distance, being careful not to attract their attention. When they returned to Curtis’s house, Jeff got in his Cadillac and drove home (Mark followed him to his place, waited twenty minutes, and then left).

  Chapter 28

  1

  Eric Pruitt called Sam two days after their first meeting and said that he had a couple of questions for him.

  “Can you meet me today?” Pruitt asked.

  “I can meet you in two hours,” Sam said. He wasn’t busy and could get to Pruitt Private Capital’s headquarters in less than an hour, but if he did that, Pruitt might think he had a lot of free time on his hands, and that wasn’t the image Sam wanted to project.

  “Sounds good.”

  Sam walked into Pruitt’s office one hour and fifty minutes later. They sat down on the leather sofa, and Pruitt said that he was very interested in the consciousness transfer procedure.

  “How do you record consciousness?” Pruitt asked. “And how do you put it in another brain?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. It’s a trade secret.”

  “You said you’d put my son’s consciousness in a different body. How will I know that the consciousness in that body belongs to my son?”

  “That’s a very good question. We thought over this problem and came up with a solution. Are there things that only you and your son know?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “After the procedure, you’re going to quiz him on those things. You’ll know it’s your son’s consciousness in that body if he gives you correct answers. Am I right?”

  Pruitt made no reply. He was probably trying to figure out if there was a flaw in the method suggested by Sam that would allow a fake Paul Pruitt to be passed off as the real one.

  “If I were you, I’d think up a password and give it to Paul,” Sam said. “Ask him to memorize it, and don’t share it with anyone else.”

  “Can his mind get scrambled during the procedure?”

  “No. Your son’s mind is guaranteed to remain intact.”

  “I don’t have to pay anything upfront, right?”

  “That’s right. You’ll pay us after verifying that Paul’s consciousness has been successfully transferred to a new body.”

  �
��How do you want me to pay you?”

  “We prefer wire transfers.”

  “All right. And the price is twenty million?”

  “Yes.”

  Sam’s heart began to pound harder. He had a feeling Pruitt had decided to try the procedure.

  “I did some research and found no mention of your company on the Internet,” Pruitt said.

  “We prefer to stay under the radar. Very few people can afford our service, so we don’t do any marketing.”

  “Do you have a website?”

  “No.”

  “I found no mention of a technology that allows to transfer consciousness from one body to another. Science says that it’s still impossible to transfer consciousness.”

  Sam smiled. “We keep our technology secret, and we have no plans to let the public know about it.”

  “Why?”

  “Let me ask you this. Suppose scientists discover a serum that allows people to live forever or several hundred years. Do you think they’ll tell the press about it?”

  “Yes, I think they will.”

  “You’re wrong. You can’t let people live forever. The earth can barely sustain the population it has now. Can you imagine what will happen if people stopped dying from old age? The global economy will collapse, countries will fight for resources, the world will be in chaos. And if they tell the public that only the elite will be permitted to live forever, there will be rebellions. So, when an immortality serum is discovered, only a select few will be told about it. Our technology is in the same league as the immortality serum.”

  “You could win a Novel prize for this.”

  “We don’t care for fame or recognition.”

  “Are you going to drill holes in Paul’s skull?”

  “No. The procedure doesn’t involve surgery and is completely safe.”

  “How long is the recovery period?”

  “One hour.”

  “Will the consciousness of the original owner of the body stay in that body?”