by P J Mann
Her moves were smooth, like a panther walking through the shade of a forest, as she considers a potential prey.
Officer Sheen swallowed hard, “I do, but I keep it for other occasions. Unfortunately, I am here on official business, and I prefer to keep it formal.”
His voice was steady, but there was a slight tone of embarrassment that betrayed his self-confident behavior.
She smiled “Well, when you feel ready, here is how you reach me,” and with that, she handed him her business card.
“Ms. LaMotte, we appreciate your entrepreneurship, but we are not at a business fair, please,” reproached Dr. Wright.
“I was just trying to be friendly,” she replied glancing at him with a seductive smile.
Laura shook her head, trying not to laugh. “Please, Officer tell us the reason for your visit. You said that it has something to do with Carolina Lynn. Has something happened to her?”
Officer Sheen turned to look at her, “that is what I am trying to find out here. Mrs. Lynn’s sister had contacted me because they haven’t heard from her since the day she left this therapy. This is the last place where Mrs. Lynn was seen alive.”
Laura became suddenly pale, and felt her legs failing her, “What do you mean with alive? Do you suspect that she might be dead?”
“To be honest, I do not know what to think. Since the day she left this place, nobody has seen her or had any news from her. Her telephone has been switched off, and her family started to be worried about it,” he replied.
“But this is terrible, are there any leads as to what might have happened to her?” Asked Gabriel.
“This is the reason why I am here, to start gathering information and reconstruct what has happened, starting from the moment she left this hotel. I asked Dr. Wright to have you gathered here because perhaps you have some information that might be vital to the search.”
There was a moment of silence where everyone tried to remember what happened a couple of weeks before, just before she left and immediately after.
“I wasn’t close with her. She was a sort of grumpy lady, you know,” Gabriel explained. “It wasn’t easy having a chat with her without being mocked. Besides this, I would have never wished anything bad to happen to her. I just avoided her, preferring the company of the other guys.”
Laura sighed, “She was a bit grumpy, that’s true, but once I started to get to know her better, she was just a lonely lady, who could not sleep the way she used to once. I can understand what she was going through, we are all here for the same reason, and whether our problem influences our mood or not, it is not making it easy to be nice to the rest of the world.”
“Did anything strange happen? Did she talk to any of you about any problems she might have or something that worried her?” Officer Sheen asked.
“She said that her sister’s daughter had some health issues, and she was needed there to help her sister, but she didn’t say anything else besides that,” Laura replied. “Hold on! Now that I remember, you found her pendant,” she added looking at Sabina.
“Indeed, I was walking to the hall where we do some evening meditation, and to reach the place we need to walk through the garden. As I was walking there, something shining attracted my attention and I saw the pendant Carolina was wearing on her necklace. It was stunning, and I remember having admired it when she was still here. She said her husband bought it for her in Hong Kong.” Sabina recalled.
“Can you show me the exact place where you found it?” Officer Sheen asked.
“Only if you tell me your name, handsome,” she replied winking at him.
He sighed, “fine, my name is Justin, Justin Sheen, are you satisfied?”
“Yes, Justin. Follow me, I will show you where I found the pendant,” she replied walking away and clearly expecting to be followed.
They all followed her, as they were all curious about it. Dr. Wright looked more anxious than interested, and Laura noticed it, wondering whether it was something that only she noticed or if it was also evident for Officer Sheen.
I might be wrong, but he seems concerned about what we might find out there. I know there is no reason to be, and just, as usual, my imagination is a little bit too vivid, Laura thought shaking her head.
“Here,” blurted Sabina as she stopped on a particular spot on the garden. “exactly in this place, I found the pendant. I am wondering when she lost it and how come that she didn’t realize its loss immediately.”
“Did you also find the chain or just the pendant?” Justin asked.
“Now that you mentioned it, no; I only found the pendant, but you’re right, the necklace also should be somewhere around here, if nobody’s found it yet. I think it is impossible to lose a pendant without the necklace,” Sabina said thoughtfully, while she started to look around hoping to find either the necklace or some other detail that could help the investigation.
They all started to look around, but none of them found anything. Regardless of this, they continued searching for a long time even when they were too far from the spot where she could have possibly lost both the necklace and pendant.
“Do any of you still have the pendant?” Asked Justin once they were all back together.
“Ms. LaMotte gave it to me, and I simply sent it by post to Mrs. Lynn’s address,” replied Dr. Wright.
“What kind of mail services did you use?” Justin pursued.
“It was such a small item, so I sent it inside a normal envelope. I realize now that perhaps with a courier, I could have tracked the shipment and we could know whether she received it or not,” Dr. Wright replied.
“I can still check whether the package is still in her mailbox or if she has picked it up. I will ask for a warrant to interview the other patients, those who have stopped the therapy. I need their personal details and so I can gather every bit of information that might help me cast some light on this case.”
Dr. Wright sighed, “Officer Sheen, I hope you understand I do not mean to be an obstacle to your job, but I need to protect the privacy of my patients, and without a warrant, there is nothing I can do to help you.”
Justin smiled and nodded, “I understand, and that is the reason why I am going to ask for a warrant. I do not want to cast undue suspicion upon your study. I just need to understand what happened to Mrs. Lynn, whether she is dead or alive.”
“I don’t even want to hear about this eventuality,” Laura snapped. She didn’t understand how carelessly Officer Sheen spoke about Carolina’s potential death.
Perhaps for him, she is just another case to add to his resume, for me, she was a lady who had lost her beloved husband a long time ago and was trying to deal with the grief and the problems of sleeplessness. Laura thought.
“Please, Laura, don’t take it too personally. I understand what you mean, but I am sure that Officer Sheen didn’t mean to sound rude,” Sabina said softly.
“Isn’t it so?” She added looking at Justin with a freezing glance.
Once again, Justin felt exposed in front of that woman, “Uh… but… of course, I am sorry if I might have sounded rude.”
“It is indeed a coincidence that in three weeks, three of us had to leave suddenly. I would not be surprised if also they had disappeared,” replied Gabriel almost jokingly.
“Perhaps it is not a coincidence, and I’m starting to believe that this visit will be more useful than I ever thought,” Justin replied thoughtfully.
“Dr. Wright is it possible to have a look at the rooms of the three patients?” He asked. “That shouldn’t require a warrant,” he added sarcastically.
“Of course. Please, come with me, we will ask the reception to give us the keys,” replied Dr. Wright, “You can resume your afternoon activities, or perhaps would be better to call them evening activities, considering the time.”
“Couldn’t we come with you too?” Asked Gabriel, who started to feel intrigued by the mystery.
“I would prefer to have the least people as possible around, w
hile I am working,” Justin replied curtly.
Gabriel nodded, disappointed.
“Is there anyone else besides you to coordinate this therapy group?” Asked Justin, as they were walking to the room that was once occupied by Carolina.
“There is also Prof. Doyle, he would be here to meet with you, but he needed to be at the University today to take care of some personal matters, and will be back only in the late evening. I cannot say the exact time when you can find him here, though,” replied Dr. Wright. “Here, this is the room.”
Justin strode inside, and the first impression he got was how beautiful that room was. Of course, he realized immediately that the hotel was not for people who are on a budget, but he wouldn’t have imagined that the rooms would be so spacious and luxurious.
I am curious about the price to rent not just one room but the entire premises for an entire month. – he thought as he started to look around – generally therapy sessions are carried out inside the facilities of a healthcare institution, not in a luxury hotel.
Dr. Wright looked at Justin hoping he wouldn’t find anything that might have slipped the attention of the cleaning lady, and which might have revealed anything about the real reason behind the therapy group attempting to cure people of insomnia.
“May I ask you a question?” Justin wondered turning his gaze at Dr. Wright.
“Of course.”
“This might just be a silly question, but I am looking at this hotel, and I cannot stop thinking about how much it might cost to book a room, let alone the entire premises for an entire month,” Justin asked. “Who is paying for this?”
Dr. Wright remained silent for a moment, trying to understand whether he could find a hint of suspicion in Officer Sheen’s question, or was just an innocent curiosity, which had nothing to do with the investigation.
“There are many players in this game, Officer. Many pharmaceutical companies are very interested in getting the hands on a product that can cure people of insomnia. People nowadays are subjected to an increasing mental strain due to stress at work, unemployment threats, just to name a few. These factors are playing an essential role in affecting the sleeping pattern and in many cases; they can lead to chronic insomnia, which is not possible to be treated with the traditional sleeping pills currently on the market.
“Prof. Doyle is a researcher at the University, and when his studies met the interest of big companies, he asked me to join his team,” Dr. Wright explained. “This is not the only project we were involved in, and I believe it won’t be the last either.”
Justin shook his head. Of course, I should have figured that out. Big Pharma is one of the most profitable business models, and the big companies can afford even more expensive studies, he thought.
“I understand, though, why was this place selected? Why not in a healthcare institution?”
Dr. Wright smiled, feeling confident that there wouldn’t have been any threat to their plan, “Well, the first thing to keep in mind is to get the patient in an environment that is totally isolated from the sources of stress. This is also the reason why we took their mobile phones and computer or any other source of distraction for the whole length of the therapy. They can contact their families every day or whenever they want by using the telephones in the reception, but there is no access to the Internet or any other social media. This was a sort of oasis of peace, the perfect spot for our therapy group.”
Justin nodded, hmm, that was perhaps something I could figure out myself. This is indeed an oasis of peace; you can barely hear any other sound besides the chirping of the birds, he thought.
Without saying anything else, he continued to search the room. He wasn’t even sure what he was looking for, but whatever it was, he knew it would have added another piece to complete the puzzle of that missing woman.
Carolina Lynn, he thought, you could not have disappeared suddenly after leaving this place. This is a hotel, not a black hole.
The search continued unfruitfully through all the rooms occupied by the three former patients. Nevertheless, he checked them all just for the sake of curiosity; he knew that those rooms had been cleaned the same day of the check-out, so there was only a slim hope to find still something that could help him.
He looked at Dr. Wright, “I will be back tomorrow with the warrant, and at that point, I will need all the documentation of those three patients. Particularly I will need all the information you can gather about Mrs. Lynn. Do you think it possible to have also Prof. Doyle here, so I can talk to him as well?”
“Of course, he will most certainly be here. Anyway, I will call him later asking him to be here tomorrow, just in case he is planning to remain at the University.”
Justin smiled, “I appreciate that, see you tomorrow, then.”
That said, he walked back to his car, thinking about the information he could gather. He sent a fast message to his supervisor asking to be granted a warrant, explaining the situation briefly. Something he considered very important was the pendant she lost before leaving the place. “I suppose there is not any other option but checking her mailbox. If it is true and the pendant was sent inside a normal envelope, then the postman should have slipped it into her mailbox,” he said as he started up the engine.
It was late in the evening when Prof. Doyle reached the hotel and went straight to the office of Dr. Wright. “Any news?” He asked.
“You bet there is,” replied Dr. Wright. “A certain Officer Sheen appeared today, trying to reconstruct what happened to Mrs. Lynn. It seems like Mrs. Lynn’s sister called the police as she hadn’t heard from her sister for days.”
“Do we have anything to be worried about?”
“I am not sure, but Ms. LaMotte mentioned the pendant she’s found, I told him that I’ve sent it back to Mrs. Lynn by standard mail. I thought that he might go to check her mailbox and since he won’t find anything there, this can be interpreted like she was at home, and received the pendant, and after she disappeared,” Dr. Wright said.
“That was a smart move, we do not need any trouble,” he replied. “I have been back to my lab to get some of the notes I have left there. I might have found a way to improve the next formula, but at least according to the computer models I have run, there is no way to make it work within a week. The best formula seems to take two weeks.”
Dr. Wright shook his head, “The expectations are too high, we need more time, and our client knew that from the beginning. But I guess for the moment we have a bigger issue to deal with, the fact that tomorrow Officer Sheen will come back with a warrant and he pretends to have all the details of our patients. He also mentioned he will want to talk to you also. I don’t know what he needs from you, but we have to be very careful what we say.”
“I guess it is better not to test anything before we get rid of this Officer. It also means that since we have a week and a half until the end of the planned time, we should avoid risking what happened with Mrs. Lynn, Mr. Abbey, and Mr. Blake. Regardless of what our client said, this is not the time to play with fire,” Prof. Doyle said.
Dr. Wright nodded, “I wish I had a way to call our client. This is something I would like to have taken care of as soon as possible.”
“I guess he already knows and he’s working on it. Perhaps Officer Sheen will never get the warrant…” replied Prof. Doyle.
“Well, whatever the case, it’s probably better to be ready for the worst. As for me, I am ready to go to sleep.”
Prof. Doyle remained in the office to think about what Dr. Wright said. He wasn’t sure there was indeed a threat, if it was true that the disappearance of Mrs. Lynn could be switched after she left the hotel, then there wasn’t anything to fear. However, there was still the issue of Mr. Abbey and Mr. Blake…
“I am not sure whether there has been anyone from their family who went already to the police reporting them missing,” he whispered sighing. “I am wondering whether the money we are receiving for this testing is enough to cover the level of str
ess we are subjected to… I can’t wait until when we will reach the final formula; I am starting to get sick and tired of all this circus.”
He walked away from the studio and switched off the light, taking a last glance at the room like to look in the eyes the beast lying inside his heart.
Laura sat her book down, thinking about the visit from the Officer. “I cannot believe the ease with which he talked about Carolina being possibly dead,” she said aloud. “I understand that this is his job and he needs to keep a cool temper, and not get involved emotionally in the cases he’s following, yet I can’t avoid feeling bad about it. I really hope she is okay.”
She sighed and tried to continue reading the book from where she left off, but that was not an easy task, so she decided to take a bit of fresh air on the balcony.
However, when she was opening the window, Laura hesitated, and recalling the last time she was out on the balcony when she saw two men arguing in the yard, she refrained from going out. “I don’t want to be paranoid, but… Ok I AM paranoid, and I do not want to feel like I am risking anything,” she said aloud walking away from the window.
She switched off the lights and tried to peek from the window, but the balustrade was too far to allow any sight of the yard. “I might try and get out on the balcony; I know that if I keep myself at the right distance from the balustrade, nobody can see me, but for some reason, I don’t feel even safe to open the window.”
Therefore, although she was convinced about the benefits of having some fresh air, she decided that perhaps it would have been better just to go back to bed and try to fall asleep by reading her book.
“The best thing to do is stop thinking about all the problems which I cannot possibly solve. Better just to hope that Carolina is safe and sound. I need to focus on my insomnia, and since I am making excellent progress, I have another great reason to be focused. Perhaps, I can take advantage of the individual psychotherapy session tomorrow to talk about my concerns to Dr. Wright. I am sure he will be able to help me overcome this stupid feeling.” She said, feeling upset about her sensitivity.
