by Mir Quadri
‘Will, I understand how you feel to not know what happened to your family. But it’s been ten years. You are obsessed with those murders. This is not healthy. You have to let go” she said.
“I can’t let go. This was my family, and until I find the guy who did this to them, I can’t let go” he explained. “Now, we have less than thirty minutes to reach the office, so let’s get going” he said as he walked out of the door. The both got into the car and Evelyn started driving.
Evelyn continued while driving “tell me something Will, do you blame yourself for their deaths?” she asked.
“Yes. I should have been there to protect them” he answered.
“Protect them how? You had no idea that someone would break into your house in the middle of the night and do this to your family. How could you have known?” she asked.
“I should have never gone to that damn Conference, leaving them alone here. No matter how much I try to forget, I can’t help but think this was all my fault” he said.
“You have got to stop blaming yourself. It was not your fault. The way you are right now… it’s not good for you” she explained and continued “anyways, the meeting you are about to have is very important. Try not to piss them off. As I said before, we have five more cases that we would need your help with. We have a suspect for one of the cases already in custody” she said.
“The double homicide at the Riverfront?” he asked.
“No, this one came in fresh last night. A rich banker was murdered last night while he was asleep in his bed. There was a 911 call by his wife and she claims she saw the murderer” she said.
“Claims? Looks like you don’t believe her?” he asked.
“Well, I think she is a suspect herself. She had a million dollar insurance on him, and generally speaking, money is a very good motivator for committing such crimes”
“If that’s the case, why would she come to you? Just for the thrill of being Hunted?” asked Will.
“I’m just saying she is a suspect too. I’m not saying she is the killer. This case is shit. We don’t have a lot to go on from the scene, which is why we need you on this one. We need you to Hunt her and tell us what she saw” said Evelyn.
“Yeah, you seem desperate” chuckled Will.
“Yeah, I am. So long story short, please try not to be yourself in the meeting and I am certain you will pass. We need them to sign off on this Mind Hunting process” she said as she pulled into the police station.
They both got out of the car and walked inside the building. As they entered the main entrance, Evelyn went straight to the receptionist, a blonde haired, blue eyed petite girl, Clare. “Hey Clare, are they in?” she asked. “They have already started the meeting Ms Monroe” replied Clara, hesitantly.
“What? Why did you not ask them to wait for us?” Evelyn asked acutely.
“I’m sorry ma'am. Mr Harry is with them right now” replied Clare.
“Office politics, huh?” chuckled Will
“Thanks Clare” replied Evelyn as she ran to the meeting room and barged in, as Will followed.
“JUST LIKE WATCHING A MOVIE”
This was a fancy conference room. There was a huge rectangular glass table in the middle with nine office chairs, five on one side and four on the other. The room was at it’s full capacity with Kate, Dan and Sarah — all members of Evelyn’s team on one side and all fat people on the other.
“I am sorry, were we invited to this meeting?” asked Evelyn sarcastically.
“Hey Evelyn. Glad you could make it” said Harry as he rose up to introduce her to the group. “Gentlemen, this is Special Detective Evelyn Monroe” he said and continued “Evelyn, this is Raymond Cas, the Chief of Police, Mark Rovans, the Director of Federal Bureau and Christian Tanner, the Chief of Internal Affairs” as Evelyn shook hands with all the three fat people.
“I’m presuming you have already met Kate, Dan and Sarah ” she said acutely with a false grin on her face and continued “and this is William Ross.” Will moved forward and shook hands with all three officials as both he and Evelyn sat on their side of the table, joining other members of their team.
Raymond Cas, was a fat, Asian descent man, with a small mustache in line with the corners of his fat nose. He had the reputation of a rude, brash and a sarcastic person in the department. There were some horror stories of how he made it to the top of the police ranks and how he had little regard for people underneath him. Mark Rovans, was fat, Irish with blonde hair. He was a well known public figure and someone who always tried to be politically correct, but couldn’t help being mean. Christian Tanner, another fat Irish man, had a slight accent on him - like he was from the South. He was known to have ‘informants’ within the police department, who he was very proud of. He was someone who generally knew it all before you knew that he knew. Harry, bald, Mexican descent, was Evelyn’s boss and the head of this department. Evelyn and Harry always had leadership ideology differences so they both ran their teams separately. Harry’s team used to handle only the ‘high priority’ and ‘highly visible’ cases and were generally not very open in sharing the progress with other teams and departments.
Sitting on the other side of the table was Kate Keller, athletic brunette with short hair. She was known to be fearless, and somewhat of a loose canon if not held on a tight leash. In the last four years of her service, she was transferred within departments six times in the first year, until she started reporting into Evelyn, who she liked as a leader very much. She was strong headed, firm and known to be loyal as a person. Daniel Roberts, short and muscularly bulky, was a rookie who had joined the team in less than a year ago. Sarah Kendall, was a short blonde girl who had just come out of her teenage phase. She was a computer nerd and one of the greatest hackers when she was at college. She was busted by Evelyn when she tried to hack into the police database two year ago, which she claimed was her way to ‘show off’ at a party. Evelyn got her recruited into her team to put her skills to the right use. Evelyn, was the boss lady, looked up by her peers and subordinates as a true leader.
“Alright, now that the introductions are over, let’s get started, shall we?” said Harry with a genuine grin.
“Mr Ross, let’s go back a little. Could you tell me what did you do before this …Mind Hunting thing?” asked Cas with a sarcastic look on his face.
“You are the top guy, right? I am surprised you haven’t done your homework before coming to this meeting?” countered Will.
“Will, please. Just answer the question” interrupted Evelyn.
“Phew…okay. I was a professor of Human Psychology at St. Davis University” answered Will.
“And how long did you work there?” asked Cas.
“I worked as a professor for a little over ten years” answered Will.
“What exactly is Human Psychology?” asked Tanner in his southern accent.
“Well, Human Psychology is scientific study of mental functions and behaviors of Conscious, Subconscious and Unconscious mind” he replied.
“Tell me something Mr Ross, when did you realize that you can get into people’s minds and do these…these…Hunting things?” asked Rovans.
“I don’t go into people’s minds. Just their memories” answered Will and looked up at Rovans for his the next question.
“A little detail would help your case, Evelyn” said Rovans, looking at Evelyn.
“Will…” interrupted Evelyn.
“Alright alright, I started practicing it as a kid with my mom. I think the first time I was in someone’s memory was when I was fifteen. This is something I learnt and mastered over years of practice as I grew up” he said.
“Is it fair to say that your mom taught you whatever you do?” interrupted Cas.
“Yes. She taught me the basics but I picked it up over years of practice” he answered.
“How did you practice this art Mr Ross? Did you perform this on your students at the University?” asked Rovans.
“No. Firstly
, this is no art. It’s science. It’s a skill. It comes with practice. I did not perform this on any of my students. I practiced this with several years of rigorous meditation while growing up, to channel my thoughts and tune my mind in one direction” he answered.
“So, this is religious?” asked Cas.
“No. As I said, it is science” he answered irritatedly.
“I wonder if it’s science and this is a skill as you put it, how come nobody else can do this but you?” asked Tanner eagerly.
“Do you know the average IQ of a person ranges between 85 to 115?” Will asked Tanner.
“Sure” replied Tanner
“And only 5% people of the world is over 125” continued Will
“Sure” replied Tanner
“Mine is 200” said Will with a smile on this face. The faces of all the three fat people turned pale as they looked at each other.
“So you’re saying that your smarter than all of us which is why you can do it” said Rovans with some courage.
“Yes, for starters” said Will. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room when Harry broke it “Well, let’s move forward shall we?”
“Alright, Mr Ross, tell us about your family?” asked Cas, cunningly.
“Sir, his background is already there in the report” interrupted Evelyn.
“Well, I want to hear from the man himself. So Mr Ross, sorry to bring this up but I think it is important for us to know what triggered you into helping the police” explained Cas.
“About ten years ago, my family was killed in a house burglary” said Will softly.
“I am sorry about that Mr Ross. Where were you when all that happened” asked Cas.
Will’s eyes turned red as tears rolled through his cheeks. “I was attending a Para-psychology conference in San Francisco at the time” he said softly.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Mr Ross. You seem to be in agonizing pain” said Cas as Will looked at him intensely.
“And I believe that’s when you decided to join the department and help us find killers. Why?” interrupted Rovans.
“Because I wanted to find the killers of my family myself. You know Mr Cas, the feeling of not knowing what happened to your family…I wished no one had to go through the same feeling. So I decided to help the police find the killers, not for you guys but for the families of the dead so they can get closure” responded Will.
“And how many cases have you solved so far Mr Ross?” asked Tanner
“Mr Ross has solved forty nine cases sir, cases that were deemed very complicated” said Evelyn briskly.
“Alright, let’s move forward. Mr Ross, can you tell us what exactly do you do in a … what do you call it?” asked Rovans.
“We call it a Hunting Session” said Evelyn. “Yes, what exactly do you do in a Hunting Session?” asked Rovans.
“In a Hunting Session, I get into the memories of the suspects and watch them relive those” said Will.
“Umm, maybe it will help if you could just take them through the process, step by step, Will” said Harry.
“Okay, I guess I got to start from the basics” said Will as he continued “The human mind has three systems — conscious mind, subconscious mind and unconscious mind. The conscious mind is your awareness of the present moment. For example, you are aware of your environment, your breathing, or the chair that you are sitting on” he said and continued after a brief pause “the subconscious mind or the preconscious mind consists of accessible information. You can become aware of this information once you direct your attention to it. Think of this as a memory recall. You walk down the street to your house without consciously needing to be alerted of your surroundings. You can talk on the cell phone and still arrive home safely” he said. “ With me so far?” asked Will.
“Sure” confirms Harry.
“Only 8% of your brain is conscious at all times. Remaining 92% is used up by your subconscious mind. Think of it as a memory palace. Anything you see is registered there permanently” said Will and continued “ so during a Hunting Session, I take the suspects to their memory palace, and have them re-live their memories. This way I see exactly how they lived through a particular memory. I see their memory exactly the way it’s registered in their brain.”
“So you go into their memory palace and see the memory yourself while the suspects live it?” confirmed Harry.
“Exactly” said Will.
“But how do you do this? How does this process start?” asked Tanner.
“The process starts off with me holding the suspect’s hands…” said Will.
“Why? Why holding hands?” interrupted Cas.
“Because for a Hunting Session to happen, I need to be able to control the suspect’s mind. For me to do that, I need some kind of connectedness to the person whose mind I am trying to enter. Besides, it gives me a good sense of his or her pulse so I can end the session middle way if the suspect’s heart rate goes too high” explained Will.
“Please continue, Will” said Evelyn.
“Okay, so the moment I get into the mind, I land up into a corridor. The suspects subconsciousness. It is a string of doors arranged in parallel on both sides with bright spectrum of white light illuminating this corridor from both ends. Each door has a distinct memory in it, safely locked in. The first door, which is the brightest of the doors, has the strongest memory in it. That is the door I get into, first” said Will.
“Why the first door?” asked Cas.
“Maybe because it stores the most recent memory” added Harry thoughtfully.
“No” confirmed Will and continued “Think of it this way. What are the things that you generally end up remembering in life? Your first love, the first paycheck, the first kiss, the moment you laid eyes on your first kid? All these are very easy to remember no matter how old you get. Why? It’s because these are easiest to be recalled from your subconscious mind to your conscious mind. When I get into the memory palace, the point where I stand in the corridor is the point where the conscious and the subconscious mind meet. Hence, the first door has the strongest memory that the conscious mind can recollect easily. Killing a person is an event that is pretty strong and one would remember it throughout his life. Hence, I get into the first door which most likely has that memory in it” he explained.
“Once I get into this memory, I standby and watch exactly what happened. What were the series of events that led to the murder” he continued.
“As the suspects live through their memories, can they see you watching them? Does the suspect know that he or she is being Hunted?” asked Tanner.
“No. The suspect has no knowledge that this is going on. For the suspect, he or she is reliving the memory like it’s their first time. They can’t see me or talk to me because I am not a part of their memory. It’s important to note that I am invisible to the suspect. He or she is just living the memory like it is their first time” he explained.
“Why can’t you bring any evidence back from these sessions, like pictures of the event etc?” asked Cas.
“You guys don’t understand — I am looking at the events, but in reality, I am not physically present there, am I? I am sitting in the Hunting room, Hunting the suspect’s memories. The only reason I am able to see the events is because my mind is seeing them, not me physically. So I cannot physically carry anything. My mind travels into the suspect’s memory palace and witnesses his or her memories. It’s just like watching a movie. You do not control what happens in the movie, yet you watch it and later on talk about it with your friends. I do exactly that” he explained.
“So basically, we got to believe whatever you come back and report to us? Is this even admissible in the Court of Law? After all, it’s just your testimony?” asked Rovans.
“Which is why we do not admit anything Mr Ross reports to us in court. We only ask him to locate the evidence and help us with clues to take the investigation forward. Like for example, we were able to close a case yesterday, when Mr Ross Hun
ted Mr Hendricks, who killed a poor woman brutally by a metal rod. After the Hunting Session, Mr Ross was able to point us to the evidence, which was the metal rod, the body of the victim, which was buried outside the house and DNA evidence like saliva and the ring. All these are admissible in the Court of Law and was more than enough to get a conviction” added Evelyn.
“Yeah, before you guys came in, your team was kind enough to show us the video recording of yesterday’s Hunting Session. Mr Ross, we heard you saying some stuff during the session” said Cas while looking through the papers in front of him and continued “yeah, on one instance you said ‘Come back Jon. You’re at the door. I say come back’ and on another occasion you said and I quote ‘Come back, Jon. You’re in the house now. I say come back’. What was that all about?”
“Sometimes we associate a memory with something distinct — like a place, or a song etc. When you visit that place or listen to that song later in life, your mind immediately reminds you of the memory you have of that place. Like for example, I met my wife the first time over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Whenever I see a picture of that bridge, my mind instantly reminds me of that moment when I first saw her on that bridge, and if prolonged, that memory takes over my mind and I get lost in it, until someone brings me back into my real senses — by maybe waking me up, shouting in my ears or something like that” Will replied.
“Yeah, so?” asked Cas.
“Similarly, while the suspects are in a session, or in other words, being Hunted, some part of their memory can remind them of an equally strong memory, and the suspect can see that strong memory flash in front of their eyes and I ask them to get back by forcing my brain power onto them and pulling them back. In the world of Hunting, I call these events as ‘Interferences’ ” said Will as he continued “When Jon was being Hunted yesterday, the rain reminded him of his daughter, which was another strong memory. If I hadn’t called him back, he would have gotten lost in that memory and would have started living that memory. I had to pull him back into the session before losing him. It’s important to note that Jon would not be able to hear me calling him back as well. This is something that I say in my mind, that sometimes results in me saying it out loud. It’s a reflex of my brain trying hard, just like a swear word is often a reflex of your brain on your tongue when it’s supremely pissed.”