She saw me looking at the paintings, “Those were painted by some of the patients during art therapy and given to me when each one was discharged. I like them better than Monet or Picasso because I know the inner struggle they represent.”
I wanted to ask more about this art therapy but our coffee was brought in by a pretty young girl about twenty years old. She set the cups and saucers, a pot of coffee, and cream and sugar on Dr. Anna’s desk. Dr. Anna thanked her and she left after turning a dazzling smile my way.
We sipped our coffee and Dr. Anna seemed to be in no hurry to talk.
Finally I could stand it no longer, “What were you going to tell me Dr. Anna?”
She gave me a wicked grin, “I’m sorry, I was putting you through a test. I shouldn’t have but I can’t stop what I love to do. I was trying to see how obsessive/compulsive you were. You’re a very patient man.
“I told you over the phone that Sarah has made a lot of progress and over all that’s true. There was one incident, however, when she became Beth and talked about her cousin, Bucky visiting her.
“It upset me at first because I am very strict about security. When I questioned the security guards they assured me no one could have gotten into her room or in the building at all.”
“Actually, Dr. Anna, she told me the same thing when she was still in my jail. At the time, I suspected one of the deputies, Freddy, the one you met, because they were the only ones who could have gotten in.
“When I went to Macon, I found out quite a bit about Sarah’s family. She did have a cousin named Bucky who lived with them and had been in reform school. He tortured animals and set fires and all the stuff you read about in connection to serial killers.
“About three years ago, there was a fire that killed both of Sarah’s parents. Sarah and Bucky disappeared. Simon and I believe that Bucky and Twoon are one and the same and we thought it was my deputy, Freddy.
“But his coloring, hair color and everything is all wrong according to one of the victims who survived his attack in the Florida Panhandle. I don’t believe Sarah is Twoon. What do you think, Dr. Anna?”
“No, I most definitely do not believe that Sarah is Twoon. I have met several of the personalities but still no sigh of Twoon. I even tried to antagonize her to try to get to the rage Twoon has exhibited when he kills, but it didn’t work.
“I do think Sarah has some rage over whatever happened to her but I don’t think it will come out like that. She would more than likely hurt herself which we have to guard against as she continues her long journey.”
She stood up and stretched and I jumped out of my chair. I felt like we had spent enough time talking and I wanted to see Sarah.
As we started down the hall I asked her, “Is there anything I should avoid when talking to her? I don’t want to set her back.”
“I think you know not to talk about the murders. Other than that, I think you can talk about anything. Although she hasn’t yet met her other personalities, she knows about them. So you can also talk about them”
When she opened the door to Sarah’s room, Sarah was pacing. She saw me and threw herself into my arms. We did nothing but hold each other for awhile.
Dr. Anna cleared her throat, “I’m going to leave you to visit. By the way, Sarah can go into the enclosed courtyard. It’s pretty out there if you want to go out. Sarah has been dying to go down to the beach and if I finish seeing all my patients and it’s not too late, I’ll accompany both of you down there for a short time.”
“Oh, thank you, Dr. Anna,” Sarah said.
She took my hand and gave me the tour, the art therapy room, the group room, the occupational therapy room, the individual therapy room where Dr. Anna did the private sessions.
I expected her to do this in her office but there was a small room with two plush chairs, a small table with a lamp and hardwood floor with a round teal blue thick rug in the middle. The lamp was turned down low and there was no overhead light.
She pointed to a closed door, “That’s the biofeedback room. Someone’s in there having their session.”
“Have you done biofeedback?”
“Yeah, it’s the neatest thing, Robert. They hook you up to these electrodes and you can watch on the screen as you relax. It’s almost as good as a message.”
We finally reached the enclosed courtyard. It was between the buildings and there was chicken wire overhead. I didn’t feel closed in at all. Whoever had designed this had done an excellent job.
The courtyard was lush with all kind of vegetation with little walkways and benches along the way. There was even a small pond with goldfish swimming around.
We sat on the bench by the pond and Sarah began to open up to me like she never had before.
“I don’t remember much of my childhood, Robert. I do remember my mother telling me how worthless I was and a loving daddy who was rarely home. He always brought me presents.
“I remember age fourteen when my grandmother came to visit and handed me what she called a bearer bond and told me not to let it out of my sight and whatever I did not to let my mama know about it.
“The bond was worth thirty two thousand dollars, which was a lot of money for a fourteen year old. I remember going to her funeral later but I don’t know how much later. What bothered me the most about my life was the missing time. It was very confusing for me and I always thought I was crazy. It’s good to know I’m not.
“My daddy would give me money when he came home from his business trips and I saved it all, along with the bond my grandmother gave me. I hid it all by lifting the edge of the carpet in my room and stuffing it in there.
“My daddy always told me not to tell mama about the money he gave me. I’m sure she would have taken it away from me.
“When you think about it, it’s amazing how well I functioned with all the time I was missing. But I managed to finish high school and then get a job in the local diner. I managed to hold down the job.
“There was a fire and this part is very fuzzy except I had the presence of mind to run inside the house and lift the carpet and grab my money before heading for the woods.
“I must have made it to the bus station and I must have bought a ticket because the next thing I knew I was getting off in Monroe Beach. You were passing by and I flagged you down. You remember that, Robert?”
“How could I forget it? You were the prettiest thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe it later when you accepted a dinner invitation from me.”
“Yeah, you took me to Lily’s Bed and Breakfast and introduced me to Lily and she took me under her wing for awhile, until she thought I could fly on my own.
“You kept taking me around the neighborhood until I saw the area where I wanted to live. I bought the shop and the condo. It felt wonderful to be on my own. You were so nice to me. I fell in love with you.”
When she said that it took my breath away, “Sarah, you never told me that before.”
“See how much therapy has helped me? I’m becoming more open, honest, and real according to Dr. Anna.”
“I’ve been in love with you for a long time, Sarah. I was afraid to say it, afraid I would drive you away. Then when you started responding to me in bed I felt that we had reached a closer point in our relationship, but you didn’t want to discuss it so I had to let it go for then. But now, Sarah, you’ve made me so happy.”
I pulled her onto my lap and started kissing her all over her face and neck. I thought about asking her to marry me then, but decided she needed to concentrate on working on herself and not be distracted.
CHAPTER 26
Dr. Anna found us in the courtyard and asked if we wanted to walk on the beach with her.
“After we walk on the beach, I’d like you both to have supper with me,” Dr. Anna said.
Sarah said she wanted to put on her bathing suit and would only be a minute.
Dr. Anna and I sat down on the bench by the pond. It was so nice and quiet that neither of us spoke, we just watc
hed the fish. Dr. Anna reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of bread and broke it in two and handed me half.
We sat crumbling the bread and feeding the fish until Sarah came back out to join us. She was wearing her latest one-piece bathing suit, one she had designed herself, with matching material tied around the waist to form a long skirt. The bathing suit was navy and aquamarine blue stripes woven with silver and gold threads. She was a knockout. I whistled.
Dr. Anna checked in with her secretary on the way out and picked up a handful of messages and stuck them in her pocket.
As soon as we got close to the ocean, Sarah untied her cover-up and threw it on the beach. She ran and dived into a wave.
“WOW, if I had know it would make her this happy, I would have written a prescription for it,” Dr. Anna said. “Let’s sit on one of these sand dunes over here, Robert. I don’t think I can make it any farther down than that.”
“You need any help?”
“Not right now, but I may need your help getting up.”
I watched Sarah while Dr. Anna read her messages. She suddenly handed one to me, “You better read this, Robert. It sounds urgent.”
It was from Freddy. “Excuse me, Dr. Anna,” I said as I pulled out my cell phone, “I think I need to call Freddy. He says it’s urgent.”
I got up and walked down the beach and made the call.
“You’re not going to believe this sheriff. We have two more bodies. Whoever is doing this thought they were safe as long as Sarah was locked up. He buried these two. If it hadn’t been for the wind we would probably have never found them.”
“Who found them and what about the wind? What’s that got to do with it?”
“A family with two kids, ages ten and twelve were having a picnic on the beach. It got so windy they ended up between the sand dunes. After they finished the picnic the parents stretched out on the blanket and decided to nap. The two kids, two boys, decided to build a big fort with a mote.”
“Which family are we talking about, Freddy?”
“The Voyles family. The two boys decided to see how big they could build the fort and how deep they could build the mote. The parents were waked up by the boys whooping and carrying on about finding a hidden treasure.
“It was a silver charm bracelet. They showed it to their parents and went back to digging to see what else they could find. But when they got deeper, the sand was a rusty brown and they said it stunk.
“Mr. Voyle told the boys to stop digging and that’s when he called us. Sheriff, this is the worst ones yet. It’s a young couple. The boy’s throat has been cut. But it’s the girl that I couldn’t believe.
“If they hadn’t been buried so deep, I would think an animal had started eating her. Her breast and genitals have been eaten off. What kind of monster are we dealing with here, sheriff?”
“I don’t know but it sounds like he’s sunk to a whole new level. Has the autopsy been done?”
“Yeah, Simon had a hot shot forensic man down here. Don’t ask me to pronounce his name. He’s from India and is supposed to be the best in the FBI.
“Robert, he said both of them had been buried alive. They both have sand in their lungs. George has started more patrols on the beach and I’m down there every chance I get. What else do you want me to do?”
“I’ll call you back later, Freddy. You did a good job.” I disconnected. I wanted to bring Dr. Anna up to date and see if she thought I should stay around here any longer.
Sarah was playing in the waves like a child and I wondered if Beth had come out. Dr. Anna was watching her and laughing every time a wave knocked her down.
As soon as Dr. Anna saw my face she became serious. “What is it, Robert? What’s happened?”
“Two more murders, the worst yet.” I told her all about it and she sat shaking her head.
“So, he’s become even more personal in his attacks and his rage is escalating. I think he buried them alive because he ran out of time, don’t you, Robert?”
“Yeah I do. I think he would have wanted to see them suffer some more. I feel guilty for saying this, Dr. Anna. But my first thought was that now we know for sure it’s not Sarah. Do you think that makes me a terrible person, Dr. Anna?”
“No, I think that makes you human, Robert.”
Sarah came running up from the beach, “What is it? What’s happened?”
“Sit down here by me, Sarah,” Dr. Anna said. “They found two more bodies on the beach.”
Sarah started crying. “Is that tears of relief, Sarah?”
“Yes, Dr. Anna, it is. Ever since I found out I had MPD I have been wondering if I could have killed all those people. I was dressed like the killer when they picked me up, wasn’t I Robert?”
“You were, Sarah. I think the killer dressed you like that after he killed Tory.” As soon as the words left my mouth I knew I had made a mistake.
It was like time had stood still. No one said anything and then Sarah said, “He killed Tory, my only friend in town besides you, Robert? Dr. Anna, you want to see some rage?”
She jumped up and ran down the beach screaming to the top of her lungs. I started after her but Dr. Anna held me back. I sat next to Dr. Anna and for the next forty five minutes we watched Sarah rage.
She ran and screamed, she stopped and sat and pounded her fist into the sand. She got up and ran some more stopping every now and then to pick up shells and throw them as hard as she could. At one point she found a sharp piece of driftwood and sat down and stabbed it into the sand.
Just as I was getting concerned Dr. Anna said, “I’m so proud of her, Robert. This is a breakthrough, believe it or not. She should progress pretty fast now.”
“In the meantime, there’s still Twoon out there,” Robert said, “and I need her to remember that night she was arrested. My friend Simon told me about a hypnotist in New Orleans with the FBI named John Shepherd.”
“I’m sorry, Robert,” she interrupted me. “I don’t like hypnosis except in some rare cases. I think it’s better for Sarah to remember things at her own pace.”
Before I knew it I had gotten into an argument with the good doc and she was winning, partly because I cared so much about Sarah but also she was making good sense.
Sarah came back to where we were sitting covered in sand. She was smiling. “How is that for rage, Dr. Anna?”
Sarah looked worn out and she curled up in Dr. Anna’s lap. She became Beth and started sucking her thumb and fell asleep.
“I’ve noticed that Beth sometimes comes out when Sarah gets tired, especially if it’s an emotional tiredness,” Dr. Anna said while rubbing Sarah’s back.
“By the way, Robert, what are you going to do? Are you going to stay around here awhile or are you going on back now that they’ve found more victims?”
“What do you think I should do, Dr. Anna?”
She shook her head, “I don’t give advice, Robert, you have to make your own decisions and take responsibility for them.”
I was confused. I guess I didn’t have a clue about what psychotherapy was about, “Which would be best for Sarah?”
“I think you’re still trying to get me to make this decision for you. I’ll let you off the hook this time. This is more what I would like for Sarah than anything else. I’d like to do at least one session with both of you. Would you feel threatened by that, Robert?”
“I do feel a little uncomfortable but I want to do it for Sarah and also I’m curious about how this psychotherapy works.
CHAPTER 27
Dr. Anna took Sarah and me to her office. It was a little bigger than the individual therapy room. Sarah had woken up as Sarah. Dr. Anna had explained to her that she wanted to do a session with both of us at least once before I had to go back.
I had found Dr. Anna easy to talk to but now that I was actually in a session I couldn’t think of anything to say. I expected Dr. Anna to sort of lead us but she just sat there. Sarah appeared to be used to this.
Finally Sa
rah broke the silence, “I think I know what I want to talk about, Dr. Anna.” She then turned to me. “I want to talk about what we were talking about in the courtyard, Robert.”
When Dr. Anna nodded Sarah turned to Dr. Anna and said, “What we were talking about…”
Here Dr. Anna interrupted her, “Talk to Robert as if I’m not here.”
“Oh, okay, like we do in group, right?” She turned to me, “I think I’ve loved you for a long time but I only recently realized it. I think that’s why I was unable to, you know, until lately.
“But even when I realized it I was afraid to tell you. I was afraid you would hurt me.”
“Why would you believe loving someone would hurt you, Sarah?” Dr. Anna asked. “Could it be because of the abuse from your mother you were telling me about? Or was it more the abuse from your daddy?”
As soon as the words daddy came out of Dr. Anna’s mouth, Sarah became Beth. She stuck her thumb in her mouth but when she saw me she pulled it back out, “Hey, Sherith. I remember you. You’re Sarah’s boyfriend. I like you a lot.”
“I love you, Beth.”
She started screaming, “No, I don’t want you to love me.” She curled up in her seat and stuck her thumb back in her mouth and started crying.
Dr. Anna got up and went and sat in the chair with Sarah and pulled her against her. While Sarah was crying, Dr. Anna leaned over and whispered to me, “Robert, I think we’re on the verge of another breakthrough here. Just play along and follow my lead.”
That reassured me. I thought I had said something wrong.
Dr. Anna stroked Sarah’s hair and said, “Beth, if I let you sit in my lap will you talk to your daddy over there?”
When Sarah nodded, Dr. Anna pulled her away from her shoulder and turned her toward me. She even looked more like a little girl. Dr. Anna reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue and began mopping up Sarah’s face.
“Now, Beth, I want you to tell him anything you want to. He can’t hurt you anymore. I’m right here to protect you.”
She put her thumb back into her mouth and Dr. Anna pulled it back out.
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