“I feel so foolish,” Rebecca sniffed, as she wiped her tears with a tissue. “I gave him everything; all my love, my attention, a son, a home, a family and he just threw it all back in my face like it meant nothing to him. I feel so stupid and naiive for believing him and trusting in him so implicitly.”
“You are not the stupid one here,” Dr. Moynihan insisted, “don't punish yourself. You should rejoice in the fact that you are capable of giving so much to another person. Take heart in the fact that you are able to grieve and that you are capable of feeling so intensely. Mark seems to be closed off from his emotions. I wonder if he ever truly feels sorrow or joy?”
“He feels very intensely for himself,” Rebecca half laughed. “He is his favourite topic of conversation.”
“Has Mark made any attempts to reconcile?” Dr. Moynihan asked.
“Sometimes he texts me to say that he misses me,” Rebecca answered.
“Do you think you would ever give him another chance and take him back?” Dr. Moynihan asked.
“I have to be careful, I realise that,” Rebecca said slowly, deliberately almost, as if she was measuring her words. “Even now he is capable of convincing me that he's sincere, and what’s more, he knows it too. When he knocks on my front door with his sad face and big blue eyes, asking me if we really have to go down this road, I feel myself melt a little inside. I have to force myself to be very business-like inside, because sometimes, even now, it's all I can do to stop myself from throwing myself into his arms and telling him that all is forgiven, even if it is just for a moment. A few months ago, I don't think I would have been able to resist his charms, but now I see what's there, or what isn't there, and it frightens me,” Rebecca's voice trailed off.
Brianna glanced reluctantly at her watch. “I'm afraid our time is up for this week, Rebecca,” she said, slowly getting to her feet. Brianna closed the door gently behind her patient. She was absolutely appalled by Rebecca's story of her husband. She was appalled but also fascinated by the man. She'd done some research on different personality types and Mark seemed to fall into the psychopathic category. He certainly displayed a lot of the characteristics of a psychopath.
Brianna made herself a strong coffee and sat at her desk. Rebecca was her last client for the afternoon so she was free to do some extra reading and research. She read through the notes she'd made during Rebecca's session as she rebooted her computer. She flicked quickly through the screens until she came to her files on personality disorders.
It had always been an area of particular interest to her throughout the course of her career. Mark McNamara sounds like a true psychopath, she thought to herself, he sounds like a charming individual but he has a chilling disposition underneath it all.
Brianna finally found the file she was searching for and began to read. The psychopathic personality is generally defined by a high score on what it known as the Hare PCL-R check list. The Hare PCL-R check list is usually used in combination with an interview to determine a true diagnosis.
Psychopaths are usually glib, and superficially charming. They have a grandiose sense of self-worth and a need for constant stimulation. They are also very prone to boredom and pathological lying. They are cunning and manipulative and lack remorse or guilt for their actions. They are shallow, with a superficial range or depth of feelings. They can be callous and display a distinct lack of empathy in their interactions with others, even those they claim to love.
They often lead a parasitic lifestyle with poor behavioural controls and tend to be sexually promiscuous. They have displayed early behaviour problems and are impulsive and irresponsible.
They lack realistic long-term goals and fail to accept responsibility for their own actions, tending to blame others for what goes wrong in their lives. They often have short-term relationships and have a tendency towards juvenile delinquency which can lead to criminal versatility.
Brianna read through the checklist, completely forgetting about her coffee. Many of the items on the checklist applied to Mark.
I would love to interview him, she thought to herself as she added further notes to her session with Rebecca. Brianna believed that Mark would score very highly on the Hare PCL-R check list.
The hallmark of the psychopathic personality is the cunning manipulation of others and the complete absence of conscience. It is thought to be untreatable and affects an estimated one per cent of the population. It appears to be more common in men than women and involves a moral blindness, an emotional emptiness and an inability to feel empathy, guilt or remorse.
Brianna recalled the case of Malcolm Webster, aged fifty two, who was found guilty of murdering his first wife, Claire Morris in Aberdeen, Scotland and attempting to murder his second wife, Felicity Drumm in 1999. She pulled up the details of the case on the internet.
The story would seem far-fetched, even by the standards of a Hollywood movie. Eight months into their marriage a man sedates his wife, places her comatose body into the passenger seat of their car, drives to a remote road near their Scottish home, sets fire to their car, causing her death, and claims it was a tragic accident.
He walks away with a six figure life insurance payout. Then he meets and marries victim number two. Their cottage mysteriously catches fire; Webster claims thousands in insurance, then the couple move to New Zealand, where they're involved in another car accident in another remote spot.
This time, the wife survives, and tests reveal that she has unwittingly taken sedatives. She files a complaint against her husband, who, by now, has returned to Scotland with her life savings and is on the point of bigamously marrying someone else. Finally, detectives and family members start talking and investigations against Webster soon commenced.
Webster was found guilty of murdering his first wife and the attempted murder of his second wife. Along the way he had also stolen significant amounts of money from a number of sources, impressed people with dark tales of his time in the Saudi Arabian army, and drawn sympathy when he'd battled leukaemia; when, in fact, he had merely shaved his hair and eyebrows. Malcolm Webster is a true psychopath.
One of the investigating officers described him as “a charming individual with a chilling disposition.” However, despite a recent spate of cases involving charming and manipulative husbands like Webster, who have killed their partners, most psychopaths are not murderers or even criminals. They are husbands and ex-husbands, colleagues and managing directors, men who can charm, manipulate and run circles around the rest of us, simply because they act with no emotional attachment, compassion or deep connection to rein them in.
Some women are unwittingly married to a psychopath. Brianna searched through her extensive library of books and pulled out a copy of The Psychopath Test, which was written by journalist Jon Ronson. His book is a fascinating exploration of the psychopathic personality.
“The psychopathic personality seems to be a magnet to women,” Ronson writes. “Many of them are very attractive. They can be extremely charming, very persuasive in courtship and incredibly gallant.”
A shiver ran through Brianna as Rebecca's words ran through her mind again. Ronson's book seemed to be describing Mark exactly. She distractedly took a sip of her now cold coffee and continued reading.
“There is also a mystery to these personalities,” Brianna read, “essentially, something is missing. They may appear to be withholding something from you, and charisma flourishes in absence. They may well be successful too.
One study found a large proportion of psychopaths, in fact four or five times greater, among CEOs, directors and supervisors than among the general population.
Recklessness, ruthlessness, persuasion and charisma go down well in business, and even if they aren't doing well they'll talk a good game. They talk big and seem full of confidence. They have grandiose ambitions and they draw you in.”
Brianna jumped at a knock on her office door.
“I'm heading home now, if there's nothing else, Dr. Moynihan?” Eileena, her
receptionist, stuck her head around the door.
“Yes, that's fine, Eileena, see you in the morning.” Brianna took a deep breath and continued reading.
“Beware,” Ronson warned, “psychopaths are whirlwinds of malevolence. He's the lion and you're the impala running innocently through the field. A psychopath will use a partner to gratify his needs. He could be marrying for the short-term, whirlwind thrill of it, or to acquire social respectability. He may be in search of a trophy wife or he may be marrying for money. However, love and responsibility won't figure into his equation.”
Brianna flicked quickly through the rest of the book and got up to make a fresh, hot coffee. She closed her office blinds against the dark night sky. It was a horribly wet and windy night, with the rain pounding incessantly against the windows, as it had been all day.
She was fascinated by the psychopathic personality. She had done her final dissertation on psychopathic killers and was thrilled at the opportunity to be able to explore that side of psychology again. She went back to her desk and typed “psychopathic killers” into the search engine.
A list of names and cases popped up on her computer. The first case that she opened was that of Sarah Cleary, a young mother of two children, who was found dead by her father, Paul, in her County Clare home in February 2000.
Sarah's husband, Niall, had been conducting an affair, and a 2003 trial would find that he killed his wife while on an errand from work, before returning to his desk. He is now serving a life sentence.
The next case Brianna opened was that of Jason White, a charming Australian pilot. He was cleared of murder in 2010, but found guilty of the manslaughter of his estranged and wealthy wife, Jane. White bludgeoned Jane to death and buried her in a box when it appeared that the divorce settlement would not be in his favour. Family and friends of the victim spoke afterwards of his manipulative and calculating personality.
Earlier this year, police discovered the murdered body of Red Cross worker, Angela Hoyt, in her home just outside London. Police launched a huge manhunt for her partner, Martin Collett, who was originally known to Hoyt's family as a highly intelligent, devoted and engaging man, who had become increasingly vicious and manipulative. Collett committed suicide on a railway line.
Brianna rubbed her aching temples. She could feel the beginning of a headache. Her eyes were sore from staring at the computer screen all day and she was drained from another emotional day. She tried not to get emotionally involved with her patients, but it was difficult sometimes, especially in cases like Rebecca's.
She seemed like such a genuine, kind, caring woman and to be treated so badly by someone who was supposed to love her seemed unfair and very wrong. Brianna's mother had tried to instill in her that if she was a good person then good things would come to her, but Brianna knew that that wasn't the case a lot of the time.
She sighed and pulled some paracetamol from her desk drawer, swallowing the tablets quickly in an effort to extinguish the building pain behind her eyes before her headache really took hold. She longed to be back in her cosy little flat, without having to go to all the trouble of actually getting there. If she left her office now, it would be at least an hour before she was home, what with the rush hour traffic that she could hear noisily outside her office window.
Chapter 34
Rebecca sat up suddenly in bed. Her heart was racing and her entire body was covered in sweat. She switched on the bedside lamp which immediately flooded the room in light. Her eyes searched the room frantically, looking for any sign of disturbance, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was just as she'd left it earlier.
She took a few deep breaths, trying to steady her rattled nerves. She'd had that dream again, where she was surrounded by a blinding light and then there was a loud thunder bolt and lightning flash.
It had been a recurring dream of hers over the past few months. She always felt completely disconcerted after the dream. She couldn't really describe it as a nightmare because it was over so quickly and nothing had happened other than the blinding lightning and thunder bolt. She leaned over to her bedside locker and removed a thick book from her ever-increasing “to be read” pile.
She'd stopped off at her local book shop on her way home from the doctor's. Reading had always been her favourite pastime. It brought her so much comfort and peace. It was so wonderful to be able to escape to an entirely different life and place and time within the pages of her favourite books.
Mrs. Collins, the lady who owned Bessie's Books, was an avid reader herself and she and Rebecca would often spend many happy hours having sometimes quite animated discussions about their latest reads. She had inherited Bessie's Books from her mother when she'd passed away, and now she ran it more as a hobby than a profit making business. She had lost her husband a few years previously and their children were grown up with lives of their own to lead.
She devoted most of her time to Bessie's Books. It was like stepping into another world when you opened the door. It was set just off the main street and had a huge bay window at the front. The heady aroma of cakes and coffee greeted you as soon as you stepped inside the door. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with books of every description.
Mrs. Collins sold a mixture of new and second hand books and was happy to order any book that her customers requested. She had become quite an expert on the computer over the years, and could find her way around the internet faster than Rebecca ever could. She was forever recommending websites to Rebecca and discussing her latest internet find with her new friend. She and Rebecca had often talked about starting a book club, something which Rebecca was starting to find more and more appealing.
It was early days yet, but she and Mrs. Collins had already had some flyers made up and had handed them out at the local community centre and passed them on to any customers of Bessie's Books. When the weather was favourable, she would put out tables and chairs for her customers to sit outside and read, while enjoying the sunshine and a complementary coffee and cake. She spent hours baking cakes and biscuits for her customers most evenings and was never too busy to stop for a chat.
She really was one of the kindest and most accepting people that Rebecca had ever met and had been a true source of strength and friendship to her over the gruelling last few weeks.
Rebecca scanned the index of the book on dreams that Mrs. Collins had recommended to her until she found the section on light. She opened it carefully and began to read. The book explained that lightning in a dream denotes unexpected changes which are about to take place or are already taking place.
These changes may come about through some type of realisation or revelation. Often such a revelation has the effect of knocking down the structures we have built in as safeguards in our lives. Alternatively, the book explained, we need to make changes in the way that we think, while leaving our everyday structures in place. Lightning can also indicate strong passion, such as love, which may strike suddenly but be devastating in its effect. Rebecca read all of this and felt as if she was reading her own life story.
She hadn't believed in reading much into dreams until Mrs. Collins had convinced her of the very real power of dreams. She'd given Rebecca her favourite dream book and all she'd asked in return was that Rebecca keep the book by her bed for a month and as soon as she woke from a dream that she would immediately look up the meaning in the book.
This was Rebecca's first time reading the book and she was already fascinated.
When we dream of lightning, we are marking a discharge of tension in some way, Rebecca continued reading. There may be a situation in our everyday lives which actually has to be blasted in order for something to happen which will change the circumstances. This may seem like a destructive act on our part, but it is nevertheless necessary.
If we take all the known facts into account our intuition will make us aware of the correct action. Spiritually, lightning denotes some form of spiritual enlightenment. This may be the sudden realisation o
f a personal truth, or of a more universal awareness; literally, something which had not “struck us” before. In dreams a lightning flash can also represent the Holy Spirit.
Rebecca lay back against the pillows, amazed by all that she had just read. Mrs. Collins was right after all. She'd insisted that the power of the subconscious mind often reveals itself to us in our dreams, our unconscious state.
Rebecca had been plagued by that same blinding flash of light for months and it had really started to worry her. She had to open her eyes just for the room to be dark again. The blinding light only appeared when she was asleep.
She was relieved in a way at what her dreams had revealed. She could easily apply to herself most of what she'd just read. She'd begun to worry that she was getting some sort of a brain tumour with the lightning flashes, but the dream book had put her mind at ease a little.
She thought back on the meeting she'd had that afternoon with Dr. Moynihan. She was so relieved at being able to reveal her thoughts and feelings to another person who was in no way connected to her and that this stranger believed her story. She'd been afraid that Dr. Moynihan wouldn't believe her.
She expected the doctor to tell her it was all in her head, that people broke up all the time and that she was simply over-reacting to the situation, but Dr. Moynihan had listened carefully to her and had agreed with her that she'd been through a terrible time. It was such a relief to have that validation from a professional medical person.
Chapter 35
“May I speak with Mr. Mark McNamara please?” a very educated voice greeted Rebecca, when she answered her mobile phone.
“This isn't Mark's number,” she snapped down the phone.
Unfaithful (The Complete Trilogy) Page 20
