by Andrew Hood
“What’s going on Belinda?” “We just found your motive!” With that she turned and walked to the conference room without looking back. She had vanished before Adam could ask any further questions.
“It’s nothing but bloody mind games with this bird. Don’t let her looks fool you Adam.” Tony had appeared out of nowhere with his morning coffee and notepad. He was already headed for the conference room and from the sound of it he knew no more than Adam did.
When Adam finally got to the room he was surprised to see his boss Don and one of the super-nerds already there. Super-nerd was the office name for the IT specialists who were used in investigations. If there was anything they didn’t know about computers and typical geek stuff, they sure as hell wouldn’t admit to it, and nobody else would be able to pick them up on it anyway.
Adam was instantly furious that Belinda had involved them without informing him first. He wanted to ensure that all information getting to Don was filtered through him. He wanted also to ensure that the right spin was added to everything.
“Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us Adam.” Don wasn’t impressed about the wait. Adam had picked the wrong morning to drop off his dry-cleaning. He hated being late but ignored the comment and found a seat. “What’s going on Belinda?”
“Ok, as you know Adam, I have been looking into the self help program ‘How to be Assertive in an Aggressive World’ which we have now found on the computers of the three killers and Shane Kirk.” She pointed to the whiteboard they had been using to keep track of the investigation. “I called Matthew, who I have worked with before, last night when something about the program didn’t make sense. Matthew Dean is one of our computer forensic specialists Don. I’m sure after what I am about to show you, Adam may request that he stay with the taskforce.”
Don nodded without saying a word.
Adam didn’t know whether to be happy about discovering some new information or angry that he hadn’t been the one to break it to the world. “Matthew, can you please get the lights?” Belinda was now turning on the projector in the middle of the table. She was milking this moment for all that it was worth. “Here I have a breakdown of how the audio program operates. From a psychologist’s point of view, the first twenty-seven minutes of the tape are standard pep-talk, build up the confidence, pop psychology stuff. The thing that got me thinking is the music. The music runs for seventy-nine minutes, but there was talk only for the first twenty-seven. You could argue that the rest was for relaxation, but it was like the session had not even really started yet. It made no sense to have the music running for fifty-two minutes without a message.” She stopped to let it sink in.
It occurred to Adam that Belinda used silent pauses more effectively than anyone he had ever met. Suddenly everyone around the room was nodding in agreement and curiosity, except of course for Tony, who had his regular arrogant smirk.
She continued after looking around the room.“I called in Matthew at about 7 pm and we have been working on the file together all night. Matthew, perhaps you can explain what we found.” The super-nerd now stood up and took the floor. He was tall and thin and it had occurred to Adam, when he had seen him around the office previously, that he looked as if he had been stretched at birth. “Firstly, I searched the program for viruses and ran a few of the standard diagnostic tests. Nothing showed up there, so I isolated the music from the voice into separate tracks and scanned each of them for anomalies.”
“Matthew!”Don interrupted.“Perhaps you can just explain what you found. I’m sure you were very thorough, I don’t want to hear about every test you ran.” His words were highlighted by the fact that he was starting to look restless. If they didn’t deliver their pitch soon they may lose part of their audience.
“Sure, sorry. Ok, so we found a subliminal track,” Matthew blurted out without fanfare. Belinda took over without indicating to Matthew that he had finished. “Basically guys, at the same time the voice stopped, the twenty-seven minute mark, the same voice started again. This time it was at a volume much lower than the first. With the music playing you wouldn’t even hear it.”
“What did it say?” Now Adam was losing patience. “The talking continues under the music. The next fifty-two minutes is standard brainwashing 101. I’ll tell you how it works.” She flicked to the next slide. “Firstly, they introduce the mantra ‘I Deserve Better’ or IDB. This is how most religious cults break in a new member.”
“So you think we’re dealing with a Cult now?” Don said. “I doubt it but the process they have used is very similar. They basically promise them a better world and tell them that they deserve to be there. They are then given what we call a ‘Center of Blame.’ In the case of this program all of their hatred is focused on authority figures around them. They are made to re-feel all of the shame associated with taking orders from others. Let me just state here, they are not instructed to act at this stage. It is more like, take it on the chin and use it to build the foundations of one big show of defiance. Basically, don’t act unless you are prepared to go all the way. When they finally feel they have no option but to attack, they take all of their hatred and frustration and they are told to strike. It is done for the benefit of others, rather than themselves, that they take a person out of this world. They think that they have made the world a better place and that there is no more that they need to achieve in this life. Then by committing suicide they are becoming heroes or legends. At the very end, they are told not to discuss it with anybody that may question the program. This is so nobody can talk them out of it. Finally they are given a hit of psychological cocaine so they get a high and can’t wait to listen again.” Belinda now crossed the room and turned on the lights for herself.
Adam, who was outwardly showing signs that he was still trying to get his head around the concept, was the first to speak. “What the hell is psychological cocaine?”
Tony was the second, “I’ll tell you what it is. It’s all a load of crap.”
Chapter 9
The next five minutes in the State Crime Command’s conference room had been total mayhem. Belinda’s story, and Tony’s comments, had started a downward spiral of opinionated combat. Each person escalating the volume as they spoke over the top of others to get their point across.
“Guys, I don’t have time for this!” Don’s voice made it instantly known that he was taking control and Adam didn’t dare argue. “Belinda, are you seriously telling us that these people were brainwashed by a voice they could not hear?”
“Don, I know this all sounds crazy. Perhaps instead of brainwashed, we should say hypnotized.”
“But I didn’t think you could hypnotize someone into hurting another person?” Don said scratching his head in frustration. “It depends who you ask. I don’t believe you could with one session, but given the right type of person and many sessions, anything is possible. Remember the title of the program ‘How to be assertive in an aggressive world’. It’s already targeting people who are having trouble voicing their opinions and turning them against an aggressive world.”
“So anyone that listens to this tape is going to start killing people. How come you haven’t killed anyone yet Belinda? I thought you had been listening to it all night!”Tony always went for the knockout punch with Belinda. Adam thought he had a good point.
“One thing I can tell you for sure Don,” she went on ignoring Tony, “is they wouldn’t get a 100% success rate. If you found someone who was weak and under enormous pressure you could manipulate their situation to endorse your message.” Belinda was now showing the signs of her exhaustion. She blinked slowly before continuing.“This would have affected different people in different ways. If you had ten people exposed to this program, only 2 or 3 would have gone through with the objectives. The rest may have acted differently, had a nervous breakdown or just killed them-selves in frustration without ever knowing why. What I’m trying to say here is, the results would be unpredictable in a single person but possib
ly more effective when exposed to a larger number of people. It didn’t affect us because we were already suspicious of the message, just like you can’t hypnotize everyone, especially if they are highly skeptical. Some of these people would have welcomed the message. They thought it was doing them good remember.”
Adam needed to get some control back over his investigation. “Ok Belinda, given that we have nothing else to go on, who made the program?” “There is nothing in the content of the program which tells us who they are or what they want! Matthew is running some tests on the computer file itself to see if it can tell us anything more. Matthew?”
As the conversation had escalated Matthew had edged out of the line of fire. When the attention turned to him he could not hide his discomfort. “Ah, to be honest it’s a long shot guys. I don’t expect the file to tell us much. We are better off trying to find out who is distributing the program. I will need more time. We have already been up all night on this!”
Don rose from his chair. “Ok, I’m not totally convinced but I have seen enough. Matthew, I hope you weren’t busy because you’re on this investigation now!”
“Ah, I may have to check with my . . .” Matthew tried to reply.
Don interrupted: “Belinda, stay with him and advise Adam the moment you have something.”
“Right!” “Tony, seeing as though you don’t believe any of this either, you’re in charge of finding out what is really going on.” Don now turned to Adam, who had just seen any power he had in the taskforce taken from him in an instant. “Where is Shane Kirk? How come we haven’t brought him in yet?”
“He has been helping us by phone. He told us about the program. We nearly caught him yesterday but he slipped through.” “Get him!” Don ordered on his way out of the room. He paused briefly at the door. “One last thing. From now on, whether he remembers or not, Adam is in control of this taskforce. All information coming to me goes through him first! I hope that you will remember that Belinda? Adam, if you can’t control this investigation, I’ll get Tony to take over.” He left without waiting for an acknowledgement.
( * ) “I’m really sorry Adam. I didn’t mean to make you look bad in front of Don.” Belinda had followed him back to his desk. “I just thought everyone would want to hear the good news.”
“For god’s sake Belinda, you don’t get it, do you?” Adam scratched his head in frustration. “Quite frankly Adam, I don’t get it. I have been up all night working on this. It’s the only break we have had on this case. I deliver the good news and just because I didn’t want to tell the same story five times to five different people, everyone gets upset.There wasn’t one ‘good job’in there. Not even from you!”There was fire in her eyes. Adam thought his clothes might catch alight like certain parts of his anatomy.
“I’m sorry Belinda. You have done a great job.” Adam tried to calm her but wasn’t prepared to stand up to do it.
“Well, thank you, but it’s a bit late now, isn’t it?” Belinda said still pouting. “Let me explain the attitude from Don. You have done your job very well here but in the wider sense of the case, what you have given us is the ‘bloody dagger’. We still don’t know who is responsible for the murders or what their motive is. This is a huge part of your section of the investigation but without someone in cuffs it means little to Don.” Adam took her hand. “It does mean a lot to me though. I really appreciate the all-nighter.”
“I need to get some sleep. I am sick of the sight of this place.” Snatching her hand back, she now pulled the hair that had fallen across her face in her outburst and hooked it around her ear.
Adam had been studying her face for too long and now needed to break the silence. “Belinda, go home and get a few hours rest. I will meet you at the coffee shop we stopped at the other day, when we first discussed the case, at 2 pm. Forget the office. You need a change of scenery today.”
“Alright, I will see you there but don’t bring any of these idiots with you. If Don wants me to work with you I will, but he didn’t say anything about me working with that idiot,” she said pointing in Tony’s general direction.
“What is it with you two?”
“That’s none of your business. You don’t know me that well yet.” Belinda turned, collected her things from her desk and walked out of the office. Adam couldn’t get the memory of her face out of his mind. It was as if her eyes were still watching him even though she had left the room.
Adam began to focus when checking his email a short time later. He noticed that Shane Kirk was starting to give him some of the answers that his own team had been unable to get, which started to get him excited in a different way.
He was not about to let Matthew the super-nerd off as lightly as he had Belinda. Matthew didn’t have her legs to break the ice. He told Matthew he could have an hour’s rest but would then be needed for the rest of the day. This gave Adam an hour to prepare his evidence.
( * )
“Hi Shane, this is Adam.” Adam wanted to take the initiative this morning. He hadn’t even waited for Shane to say hello when he had answered the phone. “Hi detective, can you please hold for a moment?” Adam could hear some movement in the background over the line. He was sure Shane was setting up the tape recorder that he had discussed on a previous call. “Sorry about that. Why are you calling me this morning? Will the others be joining us?”
“No Shane, from now on, I would like you to call me on the mobile only. I have the others tracking down the people responsible for this mess.”
“Fantastic, so you got my email last night?” “Yeah thanks, we’ve got our top man on it. We should have him in the next few hours.” Adam never wanted to miss an opportunity when it presented. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you tell me where you are and I will get one of the guys to come and pick you up?” It was worth a try.
“Well, that is good news detective, but I think I’ll wait until you have him in custody first. Then as I told you previously, I’ll come to you.” “Shane, this is getting ridiculous and quite frankly I’m sick of playing games with you. I’m going to hang up now and the next time we talk, it will be as I am putting handcuffs on you and arresting you for attempted murder. Do you understand me?”
“But I found him, I gave you his details for god’s sake! If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t even know the program existed.” “One of my team would have found him eventually, but you saved us some time and I appreciate that more than you will ever know. Right now there is nothing more you can offer me and as such, I will track you down and bring you in. Let’s not forget Shane, you did almost kill someone.”
“Did you just say she is not dead?”
Adam laughed. “Sorry mate, but you are not the criminal you think you are. You couldn’t even get murder right.” The line went dead in Adam’s ear and he smirked to himself as he put the phone away. He had wanted Shane to feel as if he had run out options and was now sure he was seriously questioning his next move.
For this case to work out in his favor, Adam had to start distancing himself from Shane so that the credit would align to the rightful owner - himself.
( * )
As he sat waiting for Belinda in the coffee shop later that day, Adam was feeling lucky. Since the morning’s activities he had discovered his position, with a few minor adjustments, to be a lot better than he expected at the start of the day. Belinda had now alienated herself from Don by going over Adam’s head, which meant he could now filter the information getting through. He had also sent Matthew tracking down IDB over the net but had not told him the full story of how he had come by the lead. Lastly, Tony was still trying to dig into the background of the murderers to find another motive altogether. He had everyone running in different directions with himself in control of activities.
“I’m sorry, have you been waiting long?” Belinda had crept up on him. When he looked up his eyes opened wider than he had expected. “Wow, you look great. Are you the same woman that was up all night solving my case?” Adam had
always known the right thing to say to a women but he hadn’t planned his words with the usual precision on this occasion. He didn’t know what was different, but Belinda looked fantastic. As she sat down her hair swayed like a pendulum across the back of her neck.
She outwardly ignored his comment but he could see it was noted. “What do you mean solving your case? What have you discovered since this morning?” “Well, after your all-nighter, I got inspired to do a little digging for myself ” Adam lost his train of thought. “It’s the hair isn’t it? You have had your hair done?”
“Are you doing your own investigating now? Did it hurt?” She put on a sad face.
“Very funny! Anyway I found a guy online that claims he wrote the program. I have got Matthew trying to track him down now,” Adam replied with pride.
“Wow,great work.I’d love to see if it fits the profile I have been building.Can I talk to him? Perhaps I can match his dialect to the script on the program?” Adam’s chair squeaked loudly and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Unfortunately no, I got him in a chat room which refreshes its text every 5 minutes, so I lost it. I was able to give super-nerd his username and I can remember most of what he said. I can go through it with you now if you like? Is it the hair or the makeup? I can’t put my finger on it.”
Adam had been so busy he had not had a chance to fully prepare his story for Belinda and had almost been caught out in the detail. He was still distracted by her new look anyway, which left him rambling but no longer interested in work.
“Ok, I have let my hair down and put some makeup on. I was up all night working on your case so I had to make myself presentable. Can you give it a rest now?” this time Belinda mocked frustration.
“Ok, ok I’m sorry. Let’s get some coffees.”
“Great.I’ll have a Cappuccino.You know you really shouldn’t call him supernerd. He did a lot of work for you and I last night. Please call him Matthew from now on; you owe him that much. Besides, what were you doing on an Internet chat-room? Sounds a bit nerdy to me!”