Struggles of Psycho

by Rhyam O'Bryam

  ‘I’m surprised you’re actually doing this.’ Philips leaned back in her chair. ‘Does it mean you’re missing something? That you need a confession from me? Perhaps I should change the terms of our arrangement. I just wished I could have been allowed to wash my hair. Was that you, Superintendent, who refused me? That was very cruel.’

  ‘Not me. But you have to follow the routines here now and shower when it is scheduled.’

  Perhaps Philips would have kept the conversation going. I certainly would not have. But the door opened behind me and I saw Philips look up, a wolfish expression on her face.

  On entering, Ivy Patterson had taken four or five steps towards the seat beside mine, but then she stopped. I turned to look at her. When I’d last seen her, it had been in hospital, where she had been seriously dehydrated. Now, I faced a very different person. With a new, bob haircut her black hair was a striking contrast to her pale skin, a contrast made stronger by her scarlet lipstick. If she’d have been taller, you might have thought her a model, with those fine, sharp cheekbones and slender limbs. Her outfit was certainly fashionable enough: an A-line dress so dark purple as to be nearly black, with black stockings or tights and black shoes.

  ‘It’s good to see you, Ivy,’ said Philips. ‘It lifts my heart.’

  ‘And it’s good to see you in prison garb.’ Ivy’s reply was spirited and strong, which I was encouraged by. But she quivered, as though trying to move forward and unable to do so.

  Looking down at her grey prison-issue top, Philips made a bitter face, like a snarl. ‘It doesn’t do me any favours.’

  Ivy nearly shouted her reply. ‘Get used to it.’

  ‘Well,’ Philips sat back calmly, ‘here we all are. Shall I tell them what really happened?’

  This was the kind of question from Philips that I had dreaded. I could feel my heart speeding up. Where was she heading? Nowhere that I could anticipate. There was nothing I could do to help Ivy, if this was some kind of trap.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ivy asked guardedly. ‘I’ve told them what happened.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure you have.’ Philips let out a long sigh and leaned back. ‘Just as I had told them everything. Except it wasn’t true, was it? And whatever you’ve told them isn’t true either.’

  ‘Of course it is.’

  ‘Sit down, Ivy, while I put the record straight.’

  As though released from a trap, Ivy took five quick steps and slid into the chair beside me. The two of them stared at each other and I tried to understand the unspoken communication. Philips was confident and relaxed; Ivy was—I couldn’t say. Intensely angry? Frightened? Struggling hard to master her emotions. There was a fierceness about her but the quality of it was indecipherable.

  ‘Superintendent, ladies and gentlemen of the jury who hear this. I’m going to explain the circumstances of Michael Patterson’s death. I had hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to do so. I had hoped that Ivy Patterson would do the right thing. But even though I still love her, I won’t go to jail for her.’

  What was this? I found myself leaning forward to be sure I heard every word that Philips was about to utter.

  ‘Ivy Patterson killed her brother, Mike, because he raped her.’

  The two guards on the other side of the partition, who normally were impassive and bored at such interviews, watching only for a sign of movement by the person on their side, were wide-eyed and attentive. Who wouldn’t be after a statement like that? Beside me, Ivy’s hand was trembling and she lowered it beneath the table.

  ‘It was raining, the night that Mike Patterson arrived. It was around eleven in the evening and he just barged in through the front door. I never bothered to lock it. And although I felt a moment’s anxiety – was it my uncle? – my fears were quickly dispelled by a shout. “Anyone home? Mike here”.

  ‘“Mike?” I pulled my dressing gown around me. “What are you doing here?” By the time I was on the landing, he was halfway up the stairs to greet me. It had been years since I’d seen him and he had put on a lot of weight. I was probably frowning. He, however, was grinning like an idiot.

  ‘“Long time, Amy. I hope you are well.”

  ‘“Very well.”

  ‘“Is Ivy here?”

  ‘At this point I made a mistake. I should have just ushered him downstairs and brought Ivy down later. Instead, it amused me at the time to let him past me to the bedroom. In fact, I gestured at the door. What he saw there caused his smile to collapse.

  ‘I’d been fooling around with Ivy. Dressed only in black stockings, she was tied out in an X-shape on our bed, wrists and ankles bound to the bars of our bed’s frame. There were toys scattered over the bedspread and a thick, black vibrator was deep inside her pussy, which was glistening with the lube I’d used recently. Plus, she had a gag in her mouth. I’m sure Ivy blushed deeply when she saw Mike, but it was hard to tell because she was aroused and her cheeks always go red when she’s really excited.

  Having said this, Philips chuckled and beside me, Ivy gripped the table. ‘This is all lies,’ she muttered to no one in particular. ‘All lies.’

  ‘Cold now, Mike put his heavy, fleshy hands on my shoulders and pushed me back out the bedroom door and closed it. From outside my own door I heard Mike address Ivy in a voice that began at a reasonable level but soon rose to a scream. The point that Mike was getting across to his sister was that she had let everyone down.

  ‘“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted at one point. “You’re breaking Mum’s heart. She’s in pieces. Write to her. Send her a birthday card, a Christmas card. For Christ’s sake, Ivy, what would that cost you? And it would get her off my back.” He went on like this for a while. And then it went quiet.

  ‘I wasn’t sure what I was hearing next. But Ivy was making grunting noises that I decided were signs of distress. This was enough to get me to come in to the room, but Mike had turned the key in the door and it wouldn’t move. “What’s going on!” I shouted. “Let me in, Mike.” It was no good. The grunting got louder and more anxious, then all of sudden it stopped. I could now only hear the rhythmic calls of the bedsprings. And I realised what was happening. Mike was fucking – raping – his sister.

  ‘Immediately, I hurried downstairs in a rage. That Mike was an idiot I had known for years. That was he was a bully and a rapist, I should have guessed. And Ivy, who he was supposed to love and who definitely loved him, was the victim. Returning with a hammer, I raised it to smash through the panels on the doors when I heard a click. A sheepish-looking Mike pushed the door open, still tightening his belt. I felt like brining the hammer down hard on his head, but instead I dropped it and ran over to Ivy.

  ‘After I had untied her gag and then her wrists, Ivy just curled up into a ball, crying. “It’s all right. It’s all right.” I whispered and I held her tight.’

  At this moment I glanced at Ivy and was surprised to see that there were tears in her eyes. If Philips was making up the story, it had a surprising power to affect Ivy.

  ‘Mike was hovering at the door. “Get out!” I hissed at him and he went downstairs.’

  ‘“Oh God!” said Ivy. “My own brother.” And this was followed by another bout of crying. At long last she drew a deep breath and became calmer.

  ‘“Come on, to the shower.” I helped her wash the smell of her brother off her body.

  ‘“Make him leave, can you?” Ivy said as she wrapped a towel protectively around her body. Her eyes were red, close to tears.

  ‘“Not tonight. But I’ll take Mike over to the castle and punish him. You’ll be able to come downstairs without running into him.”

  ‘Ivy looked down at the floorboards, as if staring through them to her brother. Then she nodded, her wet, black hair swaying and sprinkling droplets to the ground.

  ‘Straight away, pausing only to pick up my brown, many-stranded whip, I went downstairs, to see Mike hovering around the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil.

  ‘“What the hell did you think yo
u were doing? Ivy is in bits up there.”

  ‘Infuriatingly, Mike just shrugged. “It was just one of those things. What’s done is done.”

  ‘“You’re such a fool.” I told him. “She loves – loved – you like no one else in her life. And now you’ve raped her. Christ.” I summoned up as much disgust into my words as I could. “I’m going to punish you for that.” I slapped the whip heads against the breakfast bar. They made a heavy, painful, slapping sound.

  ‘With a wince, but also a raised eyebrow that expressed intrigue, Mike came towards me. “You’re right, Mistress. I’ve been very naughty and deserve to be punished.”

  ‘“Follow me.” I took him across the yard to the castle. It was a cold, grey day. Unusually, the wind was coming from the east. Once we were inside, under the bare bulb, Mike looked appreciatively at the X-frame, then over at the wall, where bricks were piled up near the hole they had left. “What’s that?”

  ‘“I’m going to wall up Ivy sometime. Or I was. She wants to experience suffer loneliness, darkness and the presence of death. Want to try it?”

  ‘“Nah. Too boring. You can strap me up here though. Have you got a heater?”

  ‘I laughed. “You are going to get the lash for what you did to Ivy and you are worried about being cold?”

  ‘“Well, for before and afterwards, you know.”

  ‘But I just stood there, arms folded, lashes dangling down and he pulled a face.

  ‘“Oh, never mind.” Mike quickly got undressed and stretched himself out along the polished wood, face to the frame. As I clipped him in, he smiled at me. “It’s good to have you back, Mistress. I’m all yours.”

  ‘I didn’t smile back, instead I slapped the whip against the wall. He winced. I didn’t hurry. I never hurry these games, so he had plenty of time to anticipate the pain. In fact, I only struck him once, but it was a really strong blow, with all my fury bubbling up at his ignorant, stupid nature.

  ‘He let out a scream. “Fuck’s sake, Amy!” After that, though, I relented and let him turn around, his cock bobbing in the air, half erect despite the pain he must have been feeling. I took it in my hand and looked him in the eye. “You stuck your cock inside your sister.” I gave it a hard squeeze and he shivered.

  ‘“I’m sorry, Mistress.”

  ‘“You will be.”

  ‘Then I made a mistake. I left him and went back into the house to get some candles and a feather duster. While there, I heard the door to the yard clatter shut but thought nothing of it. Ivy was going out for some reason. Yet she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. My heart began to beat faster as I heard voices and I ran towards the castle.

  ‘“I was here for decades for your sake. You didn’t see how dangerous she can be. I did it all for you. All the horrible sex games. The years shut away on the farm. All to keep you safe. And you… You attacked me when I was helpless. You—”

  ‘“Hang on there, Ivy, put that down.”

  ‘I came in to see Ivy holding a knitting needle in both hands, the point wavering and pressing against Mike’s ribs, near the heart. “I’ve wasted my life, Mike, wasted it for a horrible rapist.”

  ‘“Don’t,” he said, quietly.

  ‘“Don’t!” I screamed loudly. “You’ll be taken away from me, you’ll be jailed.”

  ‘But it was too late. With a sudden thrust, Ivy stopped Mike’s heart.’

  Again I looked at Ivy and she was crying, her whole frame shuddering. My impulse was to ask, was she all right, but I didn’t want her to say “no” and end the interview. My head was spinning. Could what Philips was saying be true? Surely not. This was not at all what I had been expecting. I had been ready to protect Ivy from threats, from an attempt by Philips to intimidate her and trigger the dominance she had once held over Ivy. But this? This story of Ivy committing the murder was bewildering and not knowing what to think, I had to take care.

  ‘After killing her brother, Ivy climbed into the wall space we had been preparing. “Wall me up, Amy,” she commanded.

  ‘“Now?” I asked, confused. Looking from her calm, determined face to the slumped body, with its tiny flaccid cock, I felt all at sea.

  ‘“Yes, now. Now is the perfect time. I need solitude and punishment for what I’ve just done.”

  ‘“What am I supposed to do about him? Why don’t I brick him up instead and we deny he was ever here?”

  ‘“That won’t work, Amy, too many people will have known about his plans, starting with my mother and father. No, I’ll go to jail for this but I don’t care.”

  ‘“I’ll just call the police then?”

  ‘“No!” She shouted. “They’ll take me away before I get to do this. Please, Amy, brick me up first. Even if it’s just for a few hours.”

  ‘With a long sigh and a shake of my head, I went to fetch the mixer. My thoughts were in total turmoil. I just didn’t want to lose Ivy. Which is when I had the idea of admitting that I killed Mike as an act of self-defence. It might well mean prison, but Ivy and I would be back together much sooner than if she admitted to cold-blooded murder.

  ‘Hurrying now, I moved the body back to the house and got him dressed, then cleaned the knitting needle of her prints, put mine on it and pushed it through his shirt to collect fibres. I made a mental note of the items I needed to throw in the river, including the computer and the X-frame.

  ‘Once, I was happy with the scene of my fight with Mike, I went back to Ivy who had confined herself to the hole behind the wall.

  ‘“Ivy, you don’t need to do that. I’ll take the blame. I’ll say it was me.”

  ‘She looked at me, her eyes ringed red and her black eye-liner all smudged. Then she shook her head. “Thank you, Amy. But I deserve this. And I want to experience it. And won’t it help your story? You can say I was here the whole time.”

  ‘So I did as she asked. It was a pretty good job, nice and flat. You really wouldn’t know anyone was behind the wall, except that the cement around those bricks was a darker colour. And that too would improve over time.’

  Philips broke off her story and looked at me. ‘You know, it’s a really strange feeling, making the person you love completely helpless. Completely at your mercy. There I was, looking at the wall. Knowing Ivy was behind it but already feeling like she had gone from me forever. I savoured the moment. No, not savoured. But I dwelt in the bitter-sweet feeling. Then I dragged the X-frame outside to my car and put it in the boot. I went and got my computer too. Balinaskiddy Bridge is only ten minutes away and was quiet, no traffic, so I quickly dumped those items over the rail. The rest you know.’

  Leaning back, resting her arms on her the table, Philips looked across to me, then to Ivy. Her expression was accusing. ‘It only occurred to me after the police had come, taken my statement and sent for the various specialists, that Ivy was trying to trick me. “Trust no one”. What wise words. A part of my mind had been troubled all this time, turning over Ivy’s strange behaviour. Why was she there, bricked up in the wall?

  ‘It wasn’t guilt. Or her enjoyment of being enslaved. She was there to establish her alibi. She didn’t trust me to take the blame, so she wanted the police to find her like that, obviously unable to have committed the murder. Moments earlier, I had felt like a saint, going to martyrdom for the sake of the woman I loved. Now I felt only a cold rage. I knew I was right. She didn’t trust me and she wanted me in jail. There was no question that as soon as that happened, she would be gone from the farm and would probably escape me forever. I could see too, that her testimony would be designed to destroy my self-defence plea. She would make sure I was jailed for murder.

  ‘This insight came to me in an instant and with the same strength as when you solve a chess puzzle. I was sure I’d grasped her real motives. Well, she had overlooked something. What if the police didn’t go into the castle? What if I arranged things so that even if they did, it wasn’t obvious that the wall had recently been cemented in a particular place? What if I never told them about Ivy, but i
nstead, said she’d run off a few weeks ago? Who would ever find her?

  ‘Somehow you did, Superintendent, well done. And I have no doubt that Ivy has done exactly as I predicted. Made me the murderer. But I’m not. She is.’

  There was almost a note of triumph in Philip’s voice.

  For a while, no one said anything. Then Ivy stood up. ‘Are we done listening to her lies? Can I leave?’

  ‘Certainly.’ I stood up beside her and nodded to McCarthy, who opened the door and ushered Ivy out. When the door was closed, I turned back and sat down once more. Philips looked at me expectantly.

  ‘You had your meeting with Ivy,’ I said. ‘Now will you give a statement about what really happened?’

  ‘But you have that already, Superintendent. I’ve just given it to you.’

  ‘That was not very convincing.’

  Philips frowned. ‘You are a man of some experience in this line of work. Didn’t you notice Ivy’s reactions to what I was saying? She was upset because she was remembering being raped and how she took her revenge. Didn’t you see that?’

  It was true that I had seen something unexpected in Ivy’s responses, but of course, I was not going to share my thoughts with Philips. Although I said nothing, she smiled complicitly.

  ‘You’re going to stick to that story?’ I asked, one more time, without hope.

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  I caught the eye of the sergeant standing behind her and he put his hand on Philip’s shoulder. ‘Then the interview is at an end,’ I looked at my watch, ‘at eleven fifteen.’

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Outside the interview room, McCarthy was waiting for me and although we had to debrief Ivy Patterson, I turned first towards my office, my partner in train. When the door was closed, McCarthy let out a whistle. ‘What a bitch.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Philips, of course. Reasonable, fucking, doubt. That’s going to be her defence.’