by David Archer
“Hello, Yolanda,” she said after the girl was seated. “I'm Dr. Wilkinson. What we're planning to do is hypnotize you and see if we can get some idea of what might’ve happened to you during this time that you’re missing, and then we shall try to see what transpired when Mr. Fredericks was killed. Are you ready?”
Yolanda smiled at her. “Yes, ma'am. I really, really need to know what happened.”
She smiled back. “I can certainly understand that,” she said. “Alright, then, let's begin.”
She started speaking softly to her, and after a few moments, Yolanda’s eyes slowly closed. Her face softened, and within a few minutes, Chance thought that Yolanda looked younger, almost like a child, as the lines of her face smoothed in relaxation. The induction took about ten minutes, and then Yolanda was fully under and no one there could have doubted it.
“Yolanda,” the doctor said, “I want you to go back to the last night you remember before you woke up to find that so much time had gone by. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Yolanda said softly. “I was sitting at home, watching television. I watched a movie, and then I went to bed.”
“Okay, now, after that, you got back up. How long after you went to bed did you get up again?”
“It was—I think it was a couple of hours. I woke up because I heard something, and I thought somebody was in my bedroom.”
“Okay, and was anyone there?”
“Yes,” Yolanda said. Chance and Jensen looked at one another, then went back to watching Yolanda.
“Who was there with you, Yolanda?” Dr. Wilkinson asked.
“I don’t know,” Yolanda said. “I can’t see him.”
“Are you sure it was a man?”
Yolanda’s face shifted for a moment, and then she nodded. “Yes, it’s a man, but I don’t know him. I can’t really see him, he’s in the shadows by my bedroom door.”
“Yolanda, what is he doing?”
“He says it’s time for me to do the special favor I promised to do. I start to ask him who he is and how he got in my room, but then he says—he says, ‘it’s time for a lark, a lark, a lark, it’s time for a lark and the time is now.’ I don’t know what that means, but all of a sudden I remember I’m supposed to do a special favor when someone says that to me.”
Once again, Chance and Jensen looked at one another. The expression on Jensen’s face was almost triumphant, but Chance was still cautious. They turned back to watch Yolanda again.
“And then what does he say?”
“He tells me to get dressed, and I do. I don’t even think about the fact he’s standing there watching me, even though I’m usually really shy. I wonder why I don’t think about that? I get dressed, and then he tells me to go in my kitchen with him.”
Dr. Wilkinson looked at Jensen, who was staring at Yolanda. She held a finger to her lips to remind him to be silent, and he nodded.
“Yolanda,” she said, “what happens when you get into the kitchen?”
“He says he needs me to do him a special favor, and would I do it for him, and I say yes. He hands me a picture of a man, and he says the man is Mr. Fredericks. He says the man is trying to hurt my mother, and that I have to stop him. He says I have to remember that my name is Ruby, now, Ruby Gutierrez, and that I’m a special secret agent who works undercover. My job is to kill people like Mr. Fredericks, before they can hurt anybody else. That’s my job.”
Dr. Wilkinson had tears in her eyes, but her voice was soft, yet firm. “What does he say after that?”
“He says I need to go with him, now, and he’s going to take me to where I can find Mr. Fredericks. He’s giving me a purse, a big one with a lot of money in it, and there’s a big knife.”
“And what happens next?”
“He takes me to this hotel and gets me a nice room, and he tells me to go to bed. He says when I wake up, I’ll be Ruby Gutierrez, and I’ll remember what I have to do. He says to remember that Ruby is a girl who likes to party a lot, and to keep going to nightclubs until I find Mr. Fredericks. When I find him, I’m supposed to pretend I like him so that he’ll take me to his hotel room, and then I can kill him.”
Dr. Wilkinson stared at Yolanda for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief. “Yolanda, now we're going to that night, and you’re in the hotel room with Mr. Fredericks. You're going to see everything that happened that night, and you’re going to tell me about it, but you won't get upset, no matter what happens. Are you there?”
“Yes.”
“What do you see?”
“I’m in a room with Mr. Fredericks, and he’s kissing me. He’s putting his hands all over me, and I’m pretending that I like it.”
“And what happens after that?”
“I take him to the bed and ask him to lay down, on his back. I set my purse on the bed, beside him, and then I climb up on top of him. I stand over him on the bed, and take off all my clothes, then I sit down on him and open his shirt.”
“What do you do then?”
Yolanda's breath was coming fast, suddenly, as she described what had happened, and she had tears running down her face. “I reach into my purse and get the knife, and I raise it up high and stab it down into his chest. He starts to scream, but then I stab him again, and again. I stab him a lot of times, and he just lays there the whole time. It only takes a few seconds, but then he closes his eyes and goes to sleep.”
The doctor was trembling, and Detective Jensen was staring in shock. The other two deputies were both standing there with their mouths open.
“What happens then, Yolanda?”
“At first I think he’s asleep, but then I know he’s dead. That was what I was supposed to do, I was supposed to make him be dead. When he’s dead, then I can go back to being Yolanda, and I can go home. I get down off the bed and I go to the bathroom, I take a shower. After the shower, I go back in the room and I wipe off the blood from the nightstand, and the headboard. After that, I put my clothes back on and leave the room. I go back to my hotel and go to sleep, but then I wake up again and the man was there. He says I’ve done good work, and it’s okay to go home now. He says I should get dressed and go with him, and he takes me home.”
Dr. Wilkinson was still trembling, but she managed to ask, “Yolanda, can you see the man this time?”
Yolanda was beginning to breathe slower, and she seemed to think about the question for a moment. She twisted her face from side to side, as if trying to get a better look, then shook her head. “No, I can’t see him. He’s in a shadow, even when we get in his car.”
Dr. Wilkinson looked at Jensen and Chance, and she was obviously shaken. Jensen looked like he was almost in shock after hearing Yolanda’s story, but Chance was simply watching.
She turned back to Yolanda and said, “Okay, Yolanda, let's come back to today, now. You're going to wake up in a moment, but you're going to remember everything we've talked about. You won't be upset about it, but you'll remember it all. When I count to three, Yolanda, you're going to wake up. One—two—three.”
Yolanda’s eyes opened slowly and she looked at Dr. Wilkinson. For a moment it looked like she was about to cry again, but then she composed herself and managed a smile. “Well,” she said after a moment. “At least now I know.”
“How are you feeling, Yolanda?” Dr. Wilkinson asked.
“I’m sad,” Yolanda said. “I feel bad that I killed that poor man, because he really didn’t do anything to me.” She shrugged. “I probably should feel a lot worse, but I don’t. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”
Dr. Wilkinson handed her a business card. “This is one of the most unusual cases I’ve ever seen,” she said. “If you need me, you call me. If you have to call collect from the jail, that’s okay, I’ll accept the charges. Just call me anytime you need to.”
Yolanda smiled again and thanked her, and then the two officers took her back to the van. Detective Jensen collected a copy of the video and then he and Chance walked out the door behind them. They got into the
car and then Jensen looked over at Chance.
“That,” he said emphatically, “was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.” He held up the video disc. “If this doesn’t convince the DA, nothing will.”
“It was intense,” Chance said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t give us anything to use against Dr. Cardwell. If we could identify the man, that might give us a shot, but Yolanda has no idea who it could be.”
“One step at a time, Bill,” Jensen said. “At least we have this. I’ll get a copy to the lawyer, and maybe between us we can get through to the DA.”
TWENTY-ONE
When they got back to the sheriff’s office, Chance picked up the Corvette and drove toward the hospital. He was planning to try to visit with Dixon, but he was told as soon as he arrived that the old PI was still in critical condition and not able to have visitors. Chance thought about trying to sneak past, but decided against it. It was more important that he find a way to get to Finnigan and Cardwell, and he wanted to devote his energy to that pursuit.
He left the hospital, watching for any sign that he was being followed and saw none. He would need somewhere to stay for the night, but he was leery of going back to any of the hotels he’d already used. Instead, he drove out of the city toward Henderson and, after a quick stop at a drugstore, he checked in to one of the alibi motels there.
He went into the room and dropped his bags on one of the beds, then flopped onto the other. His instincts were telling him to simply go and eliminate Cardwell, let her reap the justice that was her due, but that wouldn’t help Yolanda, Maggie or anyone else. In order for them to be free, Elizabeth Cardwell had to pay for her crimes in a court of law, rather than a court of simple justice.
He sat up after a few moments and took out his phone, then called Gabriella. He told her about Pete being shot, then shared with her about the hypnosis session with Yolanda.
“Then, the man who was in her room, that was the one who brainwashed her?”
“We don’t know who that was,” Chance said. “As far as we can tell, Elizabeth Cardwell is the only one capable of programming these people this way, but she may have people working with her. It’s interesting that Yolanda was programmed to become somebody else when she heard a certain phrase, almost like a child’s nursery rhyme. It’s not anything I ever heard before, but I guess they’d want to use something original, something nobody would say by accident.”
“Yeah, I guess so. How much can I tell Carmelita? Should I tell her about all of this?”
“I suppose you can,” Chance replied. “Go easy on her, though, remind her that this isn’t Yolanda’s fault at all. She literally had no idea what she was doing, and in a way, she wasn’t even really there.”
“Like a split personality,” Gabriella said. “I’ve read stories about people who literally live two different lives, and don’t even realize it for years. When one of them takes over, that’s who they are until that personality lets go.”
“Yeah, I think it’s a lot like that. So, how are the boys doing? Do they miss me?”
Gabriella giggled. “They do,” she said, and then she lowered her voice seductively. “But not as much as I do.”
They talked for a few more moments, and then said goodbye. Chance stripped out of his clothes, leaving his guns laying on the bed, then went to the shower. He had the water set where he wanted and was about to step in when his phone rang, and he hurried out to catch it.
“Bill Simmons.”
“Hey, it’s Josie,” Josephine said. “You wanted a way to get close to Daniel Finnigan, right? What if I found one for you?”
“I’m all ears. Tell me about it.”
“Well, Finnigan doesn’t know you, right?”
“Nope. I’ve never even seen a picture of the guy, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know who I am.”
“Well, Finnigan is a regular at one of the, shall we say, less legal bordellos in the area. I hacked into his phone and found out that he’s going to be paying them a visit tonight at ten. Now, the interesting thing about that is that it’s one of the only times he doesn’t have a whole squad of his soldiers with him.”
Chance grinned. “Just tell me when and where,” he said.
“I’ll call you back in five minutes.” The line went dead.
Chance put the phone down and sat on the bed. It was actually less than three minutes later when it rang again, and he snatched it up.
“Bill Simmons,” he said.
“Okay, I’m going to text you the address. You need to be there before nine thirty, because Finnigan is due to arrive at ten. And, Bill? Do me a favor and forget about this phone call. I don’t know what you want with Finnigan, but if he ever found out I put you on to him, I wouldn’t live very long.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Chance said. “Finnigan’s not going to bother you, or anybody else.”
“Don’t say that,” Josephine said, sounding almost frantic. “I don’t want to know what you’re going to do, I don’t even want to know as much as I know. Wait a minute, yes I do. Is this something you’re doing for Pete? I mean, you know it was Finnigan who…”
“I know,” Chance said. “Just relax, Josie, and let me handle this.”
“Geez, geez, okay. Anything else I can do to help?”
Chance started to say no, but then a thought struck him. “You’re a hacker, right? Can you get into the jail computer system?”
“The jail? Sure, that’s easy. They don’t have a clue what IT security is supposed to mean. What do you need?”
“Yolanda Martinez is an inmate there. I need to know who her visitors have been, and whether anybody else has had any contact with her. Pete and I have been to see her, and her lawyer, Alvin Kramer, but I need any other names that have been in touch with her or visited her.”
He could hear her fingers tapping on a keyboard. “That’s easy enough,” Josie said. “Besides the three of you, she’s had two other visitors. One was another lawyer, probably the public pretender, and the other was a guy named Vincent Fratello. That help anything?”
Chance’s eyes were wide. “Vincent Fratello? Josie, there was a news story about a guy named Fratello being murdered a day or two ago. Can you look and see if it’s the same guy?”
“Hang on a second,” Josephine said. “Okay, I found the news story, and yes. It’s the same man. Want me to send you a picture of him?”
“Yes, send it to this phone, and send me a picture of Finnigan, too. And, Josie? Thank you.”
“No problem, Bill. There isn’t much I won’t do for Pete Dixon. He’s the reason I’m in a wheelchair, and not in the ground.”
“Wheelchair? I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
Josephine giggled. “What, he didn’t tell you? Eight years ago, Pete Dixon pulled me out of a wrecked, burning car. Hadn’t been for him, I would’ve been charbroiled, and he got some nasty burns on his hands while he was doing it. I ended up with some pretty serious damage to my legs, so I can’t walk very much, which is why the wheelchair. Pete’s sort of been my hero ever since that day, and I’d probably marry the bum if he would give up drinking.”
“Sounds to me like he ought to take you up on that,” Chance said. “Does he know you feel that way?”
“Oh, yeah, he knows,” she said. “Unfortunately, he thinks he’s too old for me. He’s almost fifty, and I’m only twenty. I was twelve when he rescued me, and he even bought me my first computer. When you can’t get around very well, you have a lot of time on your hands. Turned out I had a natural talent for computer hacking.”
“Keep after him, Josie,” Chance said. “I think you might be good for him.”
He hung up the phone, then went back to finish his shower. He had forgotten to turn off the water, so it was starting to cool off already by the time he got there, making the shower a lot shorter than usual. Then, he opened the bag he had picked up at the drugstore and took out the men’s hair dye he had purchased. It was the simple kind that works quickly, combing through
his hair and turning it from its usual light brown to a deep black. Once that was complete, he put on the pair of half lens reading glasses he’d bought and decided that even Gabriella wouldn’t recognize him.
By the time he came out, Josephine had sent him a picture of Vincent Fratello, and he instantly realized he’d seen the man before. He grabbed the file Dixon had been putting together and flipped through it, then found the photo of Yolanda from Pahrump. Sure enough, the man with her had been Vincent Fratello. The other photo showed Chance what Daniel Finnigan actually looked like, a thin, redhaired man who reminded him of some old movie actor his grandmother always liked.
Fratello was probably the man who had appeared in her bedroom the night she disappeared, the one who recited the phrase that triggered her new personality. That meant that he was some sort of handler for Cardwell, or whoever the actual mastermind was. Chance couldn’t help but wonder if he had been eliminated because he knew too much.
He glanced at his phone to see the time and realized that it was getting close to eight PM. He needed to be at the bordello by nine thirty, Josephine had said, so he got quickly dressed, packed on all four of his pistols and headed out to find a late dinner. With time being short, he settled for a quick run through the drive up window at a fast food place, then ate as he drove toward the address Josephine had given him.
The Corvette, despite the obvious power of the car, was pretty quiet. Chance had turned on the radio earlier, letting it provide some background music, but a sudden breaking news announcement caught his attention. He turned up the volume and listened.
“This is a breaking news announcement from KYMT radio. Dr. David Loftin, director of the local Rivers Center Rehabilitation Facility, was found murdered in his home just an hour ago. Police are searching for a female suspect who was seen with him earlier in the evening, though they have not released the suspect’s name.”