A Despicable Crime

by Liza O'Connor

  Jacko continued to stare at her.

  “Once the paint dries, we’ll be ready to put the desk and other items in Stone’s office,” Vic explained. “David stopped by a short while ago and said you were throwing in a hundred pounds to help pay for the new furniture. Stone will appreciate knowing that you helped out as well.”

  “When did you talk to David?”

  “When I returned with the permit.”

  Jacko burst into laughter. “David is far more deceptive than I realized. He played me from the first!”

  “How so?”

  “He insisted you were off trying to get a permit.”

  “That was true,” Vic replied.

  Jacko shook his head. “But since I knew it was not possible, I placed a hundred-pound bet with David that he couldn’t get you a permit in five days.”

  Just then Xavier entered the office. “Bloody hell, Vic. I told you that you couldn’t build anything without...” Xavier stopped yelling as Vic held out a permit.

  He took it from her and held it to the lamp. “This looks real.”

  “It is real. Surely, you must understand the concept of taking care of your friends before strangers.”

  “David has friends who work for the building supervisors?” Xavier asked.

  “Actually, I believe George is a building supervisor. So, he filled out my permit based on David’s blue prints. Then he stopped by once he got off work and watched Luke and Tubs build the two walls and a door. It was all done within an hour. He told Tubs and Luke he was very impressed with their work, and to ask for him by name whenever they needed to build anything. Which was great news, since he’ll now be our building inspector for the printing business as well.”

  “Well, it appears you have everything under control here, so I’ll return to our house,” Xavier stated.

  Once Xavier left, Jacko reached into his pocket and handed Vic two hundred pounds. “Buy Stone the most comfortable chair you can find.”

  “I already have. But I appreciate the money because it was very expensive.” She rolled it in from the back room.

  “Nice looking, but how does it feel?” Jacko asked.

  “Give it a try,” Vic said.

  Jacko sat down and groaned.

  “You cannot dislike that chair,” Vic insisted.

  “Hell no! This is the finest chair I’ve ever sat in.” He then whispered softly. “If Xavier ever sits in this chair, he is going to be most annoyed.”

  “Not to worry. I bought him one as well, so he wouldn’t feel mistreated.”

  “May I ask how much this chair cost?” Jacko asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want one.”

  “Well, the price on the chair stated a thousand pounds. However, the guy who makes them is a friend of David’s, so he sold me two for three hundred pounds each. I intended to buy another one for myself tomorrow, but if you want one, we could go now.”

  “I would, only I’m short of cash now,” Jacko admitted.

  Vic laughed. “Xavier already gave me the money for my chair, and I’ve got the hundred you gave David, and I’ve got another hundred, so if you’ve a hundred, then we can buy two more chairs.”

  “Let’s do it,” Jacko stated. “But I’m paying you back the two hundred pounds as soon as I see you again.”

  Knowing Jacko had had a long day, she didn’t insist he admire all the other furniture she’d bought. Instead, she hurried him to her carriage and they headed back to a small shop near the Thames. Vic had to bang on the door of the shop several minutes before the man arrived.

  Vic apologized at once but asked if she could buy two more chairs at three hundred a piece.

  The man laughed. “Since you are my best customer, I will give you three chairs for six hundred pounds.” Vic handed over the money and Jacko helped put the chairs into her carriage.

  Once they headed back to the office, Jacko asked who would be getting the other chair.

  “Well, one is for me, one is yours, and now Pete can have one too.”

  “I will pay for my chair and Pete’s,” Jacko insisted.

  “You can pay for yours, because it will be going to your house. However, while Pete will be using the chair, the chair will become the property of Thorn’s Private Inquiries.”

  “Fair enough,” he stated. “Xavier was very fortunate to find you, and I hope matters work out for your sister. Personally, I have never liked her. But I know you care deeply for her, so I hope the doctor succeeds in making her a better person.”

  “Thank you, Jacko. And thank you for agreeing to pick up Stone for us, so Xavier, David, and I can determine if the doctor can help Claire or not.”

  Jacko gripped her hand. “You are my wife’s best friend, and my best friend’s beloved. I will always help you, if I can. But honestly, you are the most competent person I know. If anyone can save Claire, it will be you who sets it in motion.”

  Jacko’s words gave Vic hope. She prayed the doctor could cure her sister, because the alternatives were unacceptable.

  Chapter 13

  Before the sun had even sent a ray of light on the horizon, David, Xavier, and Vic were riding out of London. Vic was stretched across the back seat, with her head in Xavier’s lap, sleeping. David sat on the other side staring out the window. Xavier did much the same from his window.

  Neither man felt inclined to speak.

  Vic slept for several hours before the first pot hole jolted her awake. “Bloody Hell!” she complained and sat up as the carriage slammed into more holes. “This road is in worst shape than before.”

  “I suppose they may decide to half-fill the holes at some point, but I doubt if anyone is in a hurry to do so,” Xavier replied.

  “Why is the road not maintained?” David asked.

  “Because the doctors here prefer not to have relatives and friends constantly visiting the inmates.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Xavier shrugged. “Honestly, most relatives who come to visit make the patient worse, not better.”

  “Why is that?”

  “The patients are not the only ones being harmed by madness. Resentments inevitably build up in those who used to love them.”

  Vic huffed. “Xavier’s right. The more you love a person, the more they can hurt you, and the angrier you become, even though you love the person, or who the person used to be, and it’s hard not to be mad at them for changing.”

  “That is my predicament,” David said softly.

  “It is mine as well. Despite all the cruel things she has done, I still love her. I still hope there is a chance to save her. Dr. Frederick Block has a soothing way about him. He knows a great deal more than most of the doctors do.”

  She turned to Xavier. “Don’t you believe so?”

  Xavier stroked her cheek. “Frederick is a very good doctor. However, he has his weaknesses as well.”

  “You mean the fact he fell in love with the nice persona of that demon woman,” Vic replied.

  “Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I fear he will someday release her and honestly, I don’t believe she should ever be released.”

  “Why is that?” David asked.

  “She is a split personality. However, her second persona almost killed Frederick, so he doesn’t let that one come out to play anymore.”

  Vic snorted. “Which means the horrible half of her has received no treatment and could likely be getting even angrier and more demented by the day.”

  “That is true, and she is very clever. She managed to fool me several times into believing she was Ariana.”

  “Claire is nothing like that. She has only one personality,” David insisted.

  “That is also true,” Xavier replied as they slammed into another hole.

  “We should have taken Casey and my carriage,” Vic grumbled.

  “It would have fared no better,” Xavier warned.

  David grimaced from pain when his shoulder slammed against the side of the carria
ge. “Well, I see why I could find no information about the place. No one survives their first journey.”

  Xavier chuckled. “That is not far from the truth. But it does contain the best doctors and staff by far of any asylum I know. The doctors in this facility will have no more than twenty patients each. Many, such as Frederick, will only take five or six patients because they wish to spend an hour with them every day. Whereas, the standard asylum will have five hundred to a thousand patients with one supervising doctor and twenty-five security guards. The supervisor rarely talks to any of the patients, and the guards do little more than bring them food, and water them down with hoses when they misbehave.”

  “Dear God!” David stated. “I had no idea the regular asylums were like that.”

  Vic huffed. “Part of the problem is they just throw anyone in them. I have a friend whose mother got tossed into Bedlam. She was there two months before I found her, then it took several more days to plan her escape.”

  “You helped someone escaped from Bedlam?”

  “She wasn’t insane. Her second husband just wanted to keep her money and house while he married someone else.”

  “I see. How did you get her out?”

  “Jacko got her out, but I did the front work. I took the midnight tour for ‘gentlemen’ who wished to visit the crazy ladies, so I could discover where Alice’s mother had been placed. Then the next night we went in and I caused a riot while Jacko got Alice’s mother out of Bedlam.”

  “The riot resulted in police assistance from every precinct in London and the bordering counties,” Xavier added.

  Vic glared at Xavier. “I will not apologize for that. Had we waited even another hour, Alice’s mother would have died.” She then refocused on David. “The cretin she had married decided she wasn’t dying fast enough, so he sent in an assassin. Jacko barely got her out in time.”

  “Dear God!”

  Xavier spoke up. “Just to be clear, the doctors here truly wish to help their patients. And they are open to new experimental ideas, such as the one I presented to Frederick.”

  Vic focused on David. “I’ve seen how strongly a mesmerist can control a person of the opposite sex. But in this case the mesmerist will be a good doctor. But he does not know her at all, so we should give him a list of triggers that tends to set Claire off.”

  “I doubt I can even remember them all,” David admitted.

  “Let us do the best we can. Xavier...never mind, your writing is illegible. I’ll take notes and we’ll both take turns noting potential triggers and the outbursts that resulted. The first on the list will be the loss of both our parents.”

  David stared up at the ceiling. “The very first time Claire saw Tubs, she hated him on sight, but I’ve no idea why.”

  “Me either. However, I do know why she hates Jacko. He wouldn’t let her steal Pete from him.”

  David nodded. “She still hates Jacko.”

  “She tried to put me in Bedlam, so she could steal my child, only Xavier put a stop to it.”

  “Yes, that was the first time I left her. But even when you gave her Maddy, she became obsessed with destroying Maddy’s real mother’s life.”

  “That almost lost us Maddy, had it not been for Xavier’s assistance.” Vic leaned against Xavier and smiled at him for saving the day.

  “Don’t forget when she tried to marry me,” Xavier warned.

  “What?” David asked.

  “That was before you met Claire. She knew I loved Xavier, but decided, since I appeared to be male, that she should marry Xavier, since I couldn’t.”

  “I may have been near death and drugged, but I still had the sense to refuse her,” Xavier assured him.

  Vic notice David’s brow was deeply wrinkled. “It was an act of selfishness, not love,” she assured him. “She was being shunned by society and thought Xavier would be an easy way in.”

  “Vic, can we stop talking about Claire for a moment?”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I am now questioning if Claire was ever the woman I thought she was.”

  “David, you cannot condemn her by this list. We are listing her bad moments when she did something outrageous. Don’t push aside all the wonderful times you’ve had with her.”

  “Perhaps we have enough for the doctor to work with,” Xavier suggested.

  “Fine. But I’m adding her false accusations that David had stolen Maddy.”

  David sighed. “You should also add her refusal to accept Danny into our home.”

  Xavier rubbed his neck. “If we are still adding items, then make note of Claire’s reaction to the sewer system and her angry statement that the young man deserved to die.”

  “Done, now let’s make a list of the good things,” Vic insisted.

  “She’s so brilliant and beautiful. And at the first of our marriage she adored me,” David said.

  “While I was the oldest, Claire always took the mother roll, sometimes to scold and sometimes to praise. She was always smarter than me.”

  A loud “humph” came from Xavier.

  “Xavier’s right.” David replied. “You are very clever, Vic. Never underestimate the usefulness of being such. Creating new ideas can win out over pure brilliance.”

  Vic grinned “Since you are both creative and brilliant, I will take your word for it, and thank you, Xavier, for the supportive humph.”

  When their carriage finally crept to fifteen-foot gates of the asylum, Davy cursed the guards for the sorry condition of the roads. “I would have been better off driving the carriage through the woods!”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t try that,” one of the guards replied. “This is your only way in, and that mouth of yours isn’t making me the least bit interested in opening the gates.”

  Xavier opened his door and stepped out of the carriage. “I’m Xavier Thorn, here to see Dr. Frederick Block. He is expecting us.”

  Another guard peeked through the window of the carriage. “Which one is the patient?”

  “Neither. Now would you please let Frederick know we are here?”

  The fellow in charge motioned to one of the other guards, who quickly ran through the gate to the asylum. “So, you’re the one who brought Frederick the double personality?” the head guard asked.

  Xavier saw no reason to deny the matter. “I am.”

  “She damn near killed him today,” the guard laughed.

  “What happened?” He asked.

  “He thought she might like a walk, but the moment we closed the gate, the other personality took over. Instead of running off, she grabbed up a rock and attempted to bludgeon him to death. So, I shot her. Frederick is the best doc we have.”

  “Did you shoot to kill or just stop her?”

  “Oh, she’s dead. Once they are outside the gate, we shoot to kill.”

  Xavier was stunned by the guard’s words. He also wondered why Frederick had not mentioned her death when they had spoken. “When did this happen?” Xavier asked.

  “This morning. That’s why you are here, right?”

  “No, it is not why we are here. What have you done with the body?”

  “Frederick has it. He really liked the nice one.”

  “She was a good woman. I am very sorry she lost control.”

  Xavier then spotted Frederick leaving the building, his shoulders slumped over, and his hand pinched the bridge of his nose, no doubt to hold back his tears. When he arrived, he wasted no time telling Xavier of Arial’s death.

  Xavier gripped his arm. “I know you had grown fond of her. I am sorry her other personality proved to be the stronger.”

  “As am I. I thought I was making excellent progress.”

  “Are you up to discussing Vic’s suggestion of mesmerization, or should we return to London?”

  “I would rather work on Vic’s idea. Today, I need something that might have a positive outcome.”

  Xavier didn’t admit that he didn’t believe this would work. The only reason he went along with it w
as to help Vic and David discover Claire was too far gone to be saved.

  Vic and David climbed from the carriage. Once they had entered the building, Frederick led them to his office.

  Once everyone was seated, a servant took their orders of drink and food. He then promised to return as soon as possible.

  When the door closed, Frederick gave a weak smile. “Be warned. By the time he returns with the food, your teas will be cold. I have therefore acquired a new device that will warm the tea up.”

  “Do you mind if I examine it?” David asked.

  “By all means.”

  “David is a man of many talents, one of them being an inventor.”

  “I’m impressed, but not surprised. Bright people are always attracted to other bright people.” He smiled at Vic. “I believe your suggestion will work.”

  David stopped his inspection and returned to his seat and smiled. “Then we have reason to hope?”

  “Nothing works on everyone, but I am convinced this technique could work on some.”

  “But not Claire?” David’s voice cracked.

  “We will not know until we try. Now did you bring a list of potential triggers that tend to set her off?”

  Vic pulled out two sheets of paper. “We wrote a page of triggers, but it makes her sound worse than she is, so we also added a page of good things about her.”

  Frederick smiled at Vic. “Knowing the positives of a person will be very helpful as well. To be honest, when most of my clients show up, the family has nothing nice to say about them.”

  He read through the positives first, then frowned as he read Vic’s and David’s trigger issues. “Vic can you explain in more detail about the ship sinking.”

  “I can. Just be warned I will cry.”

  His smile exuded such kindness. “You are among friends. You may cry all you want.”

  Vic took a deep breath and described the explosion and how he, Claire, and her mother swam to a floating piece of the ship, but due to her mother’s skirt she couldn’t climb upon their raft. “Late that night, she told us to sleep and all would be fine in the morning. When we woke in the morning, Mother was gone.” Tears streamed down Vic’s face.

  “Did your sister cry?”