Mystery: The Sam Prichard Series - Books 1-4

by David Archer

  Indie stared at the hypnotist, who grinned at her and held a finger to her lips but never stopped speaking in that soft tone. Indie realized that the sudden odd comments were probably designed to disorient Kim's mind for a moment, help her let go of the outside world so that she could focus on what was going on inside of her mind. She was amazed, and watched her mother even more closely.

  Kim was completely relaxed by this point, and Indie saw that even the few age lines she had were gone from her face. The doctor spoke softly for a few more moments, and then said, “Kim, I want you to pay attention to me, now. We're going to go back to yesterday and your visit to the dentist. You're in the dentist's office, do you see it?”

  “Yes,” Kim said. “I'm there.”

  “Good, now, the dentist is there with you. Tell me what he's saying.”

  “He says I'm going to be hypnotized so I won't feel any pain, and then he'll give me a shot so it won't hurt later.”

  “Okay, very good. Now, he's starting the hypnosis process. Tell me what he's saying.”

  “He's saying I should relax and just listen. He says a lot of things, and then he says I can't feel any pain, and to open my mouth.”

  “Did he say anything else?”

  “He says my cavity is bad, and I should have come in sooner. He's drilling, and he says that he can save my tooth. I can't feel the drill, but I can hear it, and he says he's got to give me a shot so it won't hurt later. I can feel the shot, but it doesn't hurt. He waits a little while and then he's drilling again, and he says the drilling is sort of like sex, and asks me if I like sex, and I say I do, and he says he's going to give me a bottle of medicine and I should drink it around the middle of the night and come see him, so we can have some great sex.”

  Dr. Stratton looked alarmed. “And what did he say after that?”

  “He says I won't remember that we want to have sex, but I'll wake up around one and drink the bottle, and then I should go to the night club on 18th Street and he'll meet me there and we can have sex. He says he wants to show me what great sex feels like, because he can tell I never had it. He says, no matter what, I shouldn't let anything stop me from getting there, because then I'll never know how good it is.”

  Dr. Stratton looked at Indie, her eyes wide. “Did it bother you when he said those things?”

  “No, I know it should, but it doesn't. I'm just thinking it would be nice to know what great sex feels like.”

  “And what did he say after that?”

  “He says I'm done and I'm going to wake up, and I won't remember anything he told me but I'll wake up at one and drink the bottle and then I'll come to the night club and see him. He says it's time for me to wake up, and I wake up. My mouth is numb from the shot and he says I'm all done and he'll see me next time and then I go out and Indie and I leave. We go to the lab and get my blood drawn again.”

  “Okay, Kim, when I tell you to wake up, you'll still remember everything he told you, and everything we've talked about today. When I count to three, you'll be wide-awake and you'll remember everything. One—two—three! Wake up, Kim.”

  Kim's eyes opened, and she suddenly looked normal. She looked at Dr. Stratton, and then at Indie, and she said, “Oh, that horrible man!” She began to cry, then, and Indie went to put an arm around her.

  “He wanted me to go and meet him, I remember now. He said he'd be waiting for me, and I was actually going to go! Oh, dear Lord, why would I do that?”

  “Kim,” Dr. Stratton said, “it isn't your fault. You couldn't have resisted him. I don't know what was in that shot, but I'm certain it was more than just Novocaine because you should have been able to reject the things he was telling you. Under normal hypnotic induction, you would have been able to, and probably would have awakened and stormed out of there. He was obviously using some sort of drug, and it was probably a dose of the zolpidem. Injected into the tissues of the mouth, it would go straight to the bloodstream in no time flat, and apparently it makes your suggestibility even greater, while eliminating normal inhibitions.”

  Indie looked at the doctor. “So, that's it? We can prove now that he's doing this?”

  The doctor looked at her, and frowned. “Well, unfortunately, this is only one case, and it would be his word against hers as to what really happened in there. I can testify, but his lawyers would get other experts to testify that what I'm saying isn't proven by medical science, and they'd be right. We need more than just this, but I'm sure it's going to help. I'll write up a report and fax it to the attorney right now.”

  “What about me?” Kim asked. “Am I out from under him now, or can he still make me do things?”

  “In a case like this, his power over you comes from you not realizing that he has it,” Dr. Stratton said. “Now that you know, I don't think there's anything else he can do. He probably thinks it didn't work, since you didn't show up last night, and I'm sure that's happened before, so I doubt he'll even try to contact you again, but if he does, you'll be aware and able to resist him.”

  Indie and Kim left, and drove to Carol's office to let her know what had been learned. By the time they got there, she'd already gotten the doctor's report, and they talked it over for a few minutes.

  “I've just gotten a court order for Carl Morris to go to Dr. Stratton today, as well. If she can break through and find out what he was told, then that would be two cases, and with all of the depositions I'm getting today, I think we can get Connors arrested and held, at least, while we work on developing the case. That's what I'm out to do this morning.”

  They thanked her for working so hard, and then went back to the house. Kim called Grace, Sam's mother, to let her know what they had found out, and Grace was horrified. They talked for a while, and were still talking when Sam called a bit later.

  “Hey, baby,” he said.

  “Hey,” Indie replied. “Well, Mom tried to go out in the middle of the night. She took a little bottle out of her purse and tried to drink it, and then she was supposed to go and meet Connors for sex. He'd told her to drink the bottle around one this morning, and that she wasn't to let anything stop her from going to meet him. Sam, that scared me; she was supposed to do anything to get to him, and I would imagine that would even mean hurting someone who tried to stop her! I took the bottle from her and Carol had it analyzed this morning, and it was full of alcohol and zolpidem, so we've got something, at least. Then this morning, I took Mom to a shrink who hypnotized her, and that's how we know what she was told to do.”

  “Dear God,” Sam said. “God, baby, she might have hurt you without even knowing what she was doing!”

  “Yeah, but—Sam, it was really weird. She started to drink the bottle, and then she just froze, and she looked at me and said I should take it away from her, but it was like it wasn't her talking, y'know? I asked if she was okay, and she said it wasn't her talking, it was Beauregard, and that Mom was gone in her mind somewhere.”

  Sam sighed. “Then, for once, I'm thankful she's a split personality nutcase! Beauregard may not be real, but he might have saved your life anyway! Now that we know, though, we've got something. Hopefully, that'll get some attention from the prosecutor, and we may be able to nail this bastard.”

  “Carol says it's not enough. She's going to have Carl taken to see the psychiatrist today, too, to see if she can find out what his hypnotic instructions were, and what really happened that night his family was killed. I'm hoping he can handle it, Sam, if it turns out he really did do it.”

  Sam was quiet for a moment. “We've talked about it,” he said, “and Carl knows he probably was the one who was using the tomahawk, but that it wasn't something he would actually do if he were in his own mind. Dr. Connors is the murderer in his case. I don't know what on earth the motive could have been, but somehow, whatever he told Carl to do, it resulted in him killing his family. He knows that, now, and if he can find out what that was, it should be enough to let him live with what happened, I think.”

  “I hope so,” Indie sa
id. “He seems like such a nice man, it's almost impossible to believe he could have done this.”

  “That's the thing, babe, he couldn't have. But the thing that Connors created by removing all of his inhibitions could, because it wouldn't know any better. Carl wasn't the killer; he was the weapon Connors used to kill those people. I just want to know why, but it could be just that they wanted to stop him from doing whatever it was he was really supposed to do.”

  “God, this is like a horror movie, like Silence of the Lambs or something. It's too weird to even comprehend.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Sam said. “Listen, I love you, and Carol is going to be trying to get enough to get me out of here today, so let's hope she can, okay?”

  “I love you, too, Sam, and believe me, my fingers are crossed and I'm praying. I think I'm going to ask Anita if Kenzie can just stay down there again tonight; this is too intense, I don't want her to sense everything I'm feeling right now.”

  “That might be a good idea, sweetheart. If you talk to her, tell her I love her and miss her, okay?”

  “I will. Love you!”

  “Love you, too, babe. Bye for now.”

  “Bye.”

  She had gone into the kitchen when she took the call, so she went back to the living room then, to check on her mother. Kim was sitting upright on the couch, and she had an odd look on her face.

  “Mom?” Indie asked. “You okay?”

  Kim looked at her and shook her head slowly. “No. Beauregard just told me that there's something bad coming, and that we need to be together for the rest of the day. He says we should be ready to do something terrible, because we may have to, but he won't tell me what it is.”

  9

  Sam and Carl were eating lunch when Carl's name was called. He stuffed the last bite of his bologna sandwich into his mouth and went to where Marilee was waiting at the cellblock door. He spoke to her for a moment, then turned and gave Sam a thumbs-up, before putting his hands behind his back and letting her put cuffs on him.

  Sam had told him that Carol was planning to have him taken to a hypnotist, and that he might find out what Connors had done to him, and what had really happened the night his family had died. Carl, who was a religious man, had asked Sam to pray with him, and they'd spent the hour before lunch on their knees together in their cell. Sam had prayed that Carl would be able to cope with what he learned, but Carl had prayed aloud for his family to forgive him for what he'd done, and for God to let them know that it wasn't truly he who had done it.

  Sam had cried with him as they prayed.

  With Carl gone from the cellblock, Sam watched the other inmates closely, but none of them seemed inclined to bother him. He went to one of the men and asked to borrow a pen and paper, then sat down at one of the tables and began to write. A new song had begun to form in his head, and he wanted to get it down on paper before he could forget it.

  It was a love song to Indie, but it was more than that. His time in prayer had given him a perspective that he hadn't had before, and he wrote a song that not only spoke of his love for her, but of his prayers for God to take care of her, and of her prayers to bring him home. (Click to listen)

  If only I could hold you in these lonely arms of mine, he wrote,

  And shelter you from all the world, and more,

  Then I'd be king of all there is, a Monarch in the land,

  And you'd be all that I'd be living for,

  But as it is, my arms are here, and you're so far from me,

  So I bow down each night, and then I pray,

  For God to keep you safe for me,

  Send comfort in His love,

  Until He brings me home to you to stay…

  There was more, and he sat there and wrote, praying as he did so that God would guide the pencil, that this would be the song that would tell Indie how much he loved her, and how much she meant to him. When it was finished, he was amazed that it had come out of him, and then he prayed once more, a prayer of thanks to God for allowing him to write something so beautiful.

  * * * * *

  Carl was loaded into a van with Detective Kennedy and four officers to escort him to Dr. Stratton's office, though none of them believed for a moment that he would give any resistance. Every officer and jailer who had dealt with him had reached their own conclusion that, somehow, this man was not truly guilty of the crime for which he was incarcerated, and each of them had said their own form of prayer that the truth would come out and that Carl Morris would be able to put this horrible thing behind him.

  The ride wasn't long, and the van was taken to a back entrance at the doctor's office, so that people on the street and in her lobby wouldn't stare at Carl. He had two pairs of cuffs on, because of his great physical strength, and his hands were also chained down to his waist. His ankles were linked with shackles, short enough that he could only take baby steps. If he had tried to run, they would have tripped him before he could go ten feet.

  Carl wasn't going to run, though. He was on the way to find out what had truly transpired that night, and that was the thing he wanted to know more than anything else in the world.

  He was taken inside through the back door, and then led into Dr. Stratton's office. At her instructions, his restraints were removed, but as they had to, the four guards stood there with their hands on their guns, ready to kill him if he showed any sign of violence. Kennedy stood right beside Carl, but the doctor had the other officers stand as far back against the wall as they could, and then she spoke to Carl.

  “Hello, Carl,” she said, “I'm Dr. Stratton. What we're planning to do is hypnotize you, and take you back to what happened in Dr. Connors' office last week. After that, we'll go to the night your family was killed, and I'll help you remember what really happened. Are you ready?”

  Carl smiled at her. “Yes, Ma'am. I've made my peace with God and my family, but I still need to know what I did, and why I did it.”

  She smiled back. “I can certainly understand that,” she said. “All right, then, let's begin.”

  She started speaking softly to him, and after a few moments, his eyes slowly closed. Like Kim, his face softened, and within a few minutes, Detective Kennedy thought that Carl looked younger, almost like a child, as the lines of his face smoothed in relaxation. The induction took some time, but after about ten minutes, Carl was fully under and no one there could have doubted it.

  “Carl,” the doctor said, “I want you to go back to when you went to see the dentist last week. Are you there in the dentist's office?”

  “Yes. He had me sit in the dental chair.”

  “Okay, now, he uses hypnosis, so he's going to hypnotize you. Can you see that happening?”

  “Yes. He's telling me to relax, that I won't feel anything. He says I should just listen to him, to everything he says.”

  “Okay. What does he say after that?”

  “He says he's got to give me one shot so my mouth won't hurt later, and that it won't hurt me. I feel it, but it doesn't hurt and then he says he has to wait a few minutes before he can clean my teeth, so he stops talking for a little while.”

  “And when he starts talking again, what does he say?”

  “He says my teeth are in pretty good shape, and then he asks me if I like him, and I say yes, I do. He says if I like him, then I should want to do things for him, and would I do things for him, and I say yes.”

  Dr. Stratton looked at Kennedy, who was staring at Carl. She held a finger to her lips to remind him to be silent, and he nodded.

  “Carl,” she said, “what does he say after that?”

  “He says he needs me to do him a big favor, and would I do it for him, and I say yes. He says his wife is trying to kill him and he needs me to go and stop her, but she's so dangerous that the only way I can stop her is to tear her head off, and he asks me if I'm strong enough to do that. I say yes, and he says he's going to give me a bottle of some medicine, and I should drink it around midnight. He says don't let anyone see the bottle and m
ake sure I get rid of it after I drink it. He says I shouldn't let anyone see me drinking it or going to her house, no matter what I have to do, and then I should go to her house and he'll meet me there and let me in. I should go to her bedroom and tear her head off while she's sleeping. He says then he'll let me out and I can go home and go to sleep and I won't remember any of it.”

  Dr. Stratton had tears in her eyes, but her voice was soft, yet firm. “What does he say after that?”

  “He says he's done, and I'm going to wake up and I won't remember what we talked about, but that I'll get up and drink the bottle and then I'll go to her house. He says he knows I know where it is because she works with me sometimes at the Mary Williams home and I've given her rides before.”

  “And what does he say next?”

  “He tells me to wake up and I do, and then I go home.”

  She stared at him for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief. “Carl, now we're going to that night, and you’re in bed sleeping, but suddenly you wake up. You're going to see everything that happened after you woke up, and tell me about it, but you won't get upset, no matter what happens. Are you there?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do you do when you wake up?”

  “I go downstairs and I get the bottle where I put it in my desk, and I drink it.”

  “And what do you do after that?”

  “I go to the door and open it and start to leave, but my son comes out of his room and asks me where I'm going.”

  “What do you do then?”

  “I remember that I'm not supposed to let anyone see me go, and I turn around and go to him and hit him.”

  The doctor was trembling, and Detective Kennedy was staring in shock. The other deputies were all standing there with their mouths open. “What happens then, Carl?”

  “He starts yelling that I'm hurting him, and I hear his mother and sister coming, and I remember that I can't let anyone see or let anything stop me, so I take my tomahawk off the wall where I keep it, and I hit him with it. He falls down and his head is bleeding, but he's trying to get up, so I hit him again with it, and then my wife and daughter are there and they're screaming, so I start hitting them, too. I hit my daughter in the head and she falls down and doesn't move, and my wife is screaming at me and hitting me, so I hit her, too, I hit her in the chest, and I hit her again and again...”