The Last Jeskey - Chapter 2

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 2

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

I watched as the girl got slowly up from her chair and headed just as slowly in my direction.  While I waited, I had plenty of opportunity to observe her and look her over.  As I had noted before, she was without a doubt the dirtiest, filthiest excuse for a girl I had ever seen.  She also had without a doubt the longest hair of any girl I had ever seen.  From what I could tell, it hung down almost to her ankles, and that’s on top of it being all tangled and messed up.  Didn’t this girl ever brush it?  For that matter, didn’t she ever take a bath?

The skirt of her dress hung down halfway between her knees and her ankles, and the entire thing looked not just out of place, but too big for her.  It also looked old.  Instead of wearing nice shoes, she was wearing what looked like men’s work boots on her feet, and they didn’t look to be in very good shape.  Obviously she didn’t wear makeup or any jewelry either.  It didn’t look like she cared about what she wore or how she looked at all.  She was simply…a mess.

“Take a seat,” I told her as she got close, and then I stood back to let her into the room.  Yup!  She smelled just as bad as she looked.  I wasn’t going to enjoy this little talk.  She started to sit in my chair, but I quickly stopped her.  “The other seat!” I told her.  She glanced back at me then went around to the far side of the table.  I noted the quick move of her head as she sat down and the way her arm caught all that hair so that when she was sitting it somehow wound up in her lap.

I closed the door and sat across from her.  I opened my notebook and picked up my pen.  “Name?” I asked as I looked at the paper and waited.  And waited.  I looked up, she was just looking at me.  “What’s your name?” I asked.  Still she said nothing.  “Tell…me…your…name!” I demanded.  Like before, I was met with silence.

I set my pen down and looked at her.  “Why the hell are you so dirty?” I asked.  “And I’m sorry to say it, but you smell to high heaven.”  The look on her face seemed to change to anger, but still she refused to utter a word.  “You know, I can lock you in a cell for impeding an investigation.”  Still no answer, and the look of anger on her face never changed.  Now what was I going to do?

“Did you witness Roxie shooting Bo, Steve, and Ben?” I asked.  “Were you there in the house when it happened?”

The damn girl gave new meaning to the old phrase, silence is golden.  “Did you help Roxie to kill those men?” I tried.  Still nothing.  Even the perturbed look on her face didn’t change.

I sighed.  Obviously I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this girl.  I was wasting my time with her.  Was it worth it to throw her in a cell for the night and let her think about clamming up so much?  Probably not.  Roxie had already told us that she had shot them.  Roxie also had assured us that she would cooperate fully.  Talking to the others was just because we had to check with everyone who was there to make sure the stories all matched.  What I had gotten out of both Dave and Gary had pretty much jelled with what Roxie had already told me.  The only question now was this girl, and I had no clue who she was.

“Stay here!” I finally told her.  “I’ll be right back.

I went out and down the hallway to talk with Dave and Gary.  “Your lady friend in there isn’t exactly cooperating,” I told them.  “Who is she?”

I saw smirks of amusement on both their faces.  Why should they think this was funny?  This was a murder investigation.  Not only that, it was the murders of their own father and two of their brothers.  I waited for an answer from either of them, but not only did they not say anything, eventually Gary actually snorted a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, completely perturbed at them.  “Who the hell is she?”  I saw Dave shrug, and Gary continued to snort bits of laughter.  “Shit!  I ought to lock the both of you up…forever!”  Why the hell wouldn’t anybody tell me who the girl was?  I was beginning to wonder if maybe she had more to do with this whole affair than I had originally thought.

Since nobody was talking to me about her, I went back to the interview room.  The girl watched me come in, but still said nothing.  What the hell was I going to do with her, just send her home?  But the fact that she wouldn’t talk, and both Dave and Gary Jeskey wouldn’t even give me her name, made me too suspicious about her.  Not to mention how filthy she was.  What the hell was going on?

“I’m wondering,” I said to her.  “If I should just send you home with Dave and Gary, or if I should throw you in a cell where I’m starting to think you belong.”  I was amazed at her sudden reaction to that.

“Home!” she said.  “I need to go home!”

I was so startled.  “So you can talk,” I said.  “Now tell me.  What’s your name?”  But I immediately saw her lips glue themselves together, and I knew she wasn’t going to tell me.  “Why do you want to go home so badly?” I asked.  I didn’t expect an answer, but I got one.

“I’ve got wash on the line and I need to get dinner cooked for the guys.”

“Wash…and dinner,” I said.  “You mean for Gary and Dave out there?”

“Yes.  Of course.  And Uncle Bo and Uncle Steve and Uncle Ben.”

“But they’re dead,” I reminded her.

She seemed confused for a moment, then those lips of hers glued themselves together again.

“You said Uncle Bo and Uncle Ben.”  I waited for an answer but got nothing.  “Were they your uncles?”  Still nothing.  “How about Dave and Gary out there?”  But as I expected, she had shut her mouth again and had every intention of keeping it that way.

As I saw it, my choices were to either send her home, or throw her in a cell overnight until I could get some answers about her, which something told me probably wouldn’t work on her either.  So…home it was.  Except for one thing I needed to know.  “You said home,” I said to her.  “Do you live there in that house where we picked you up?  Is that home for you?”

She seemed confused for a moment, almost as if she wanted to speak.  Then I saw a slight hesitant nod of her head.  So, Bo and the others had a girl living with them.  Who knew?  And I realized that that might be a very good question.  Who knew about it?  But first I needed this girl, whoever she was, to open her mouth and say something.

“Okay,” I said.  “Get up.  I’ll send you back with…those other two out there.  Are they your uncles too?”  Surprise.  No answer.

She stood immediately and I watched as she headed toward the door, and then her hair swayed to the side a bit and I noticed something else.  “Stop!” I said.  She turned back toward me.  I shook my head.  “Turn around again.” I had to physically grab her and turn her so I could see her back.  I pulled her long hair aside and held it.  There was a round hole in the top of her dress, and what looked like an old blood stain all around that area.

“Where did you get this dress?” I asked.  I noticed that she almost answered, but those lips quickly sealed themselves shut again.  That hole and that blood changed everything for me.  There was no way I was going to let her go when her dress had a bullet hole in the back, and obviously someone had bled profusely from it.

I pointed back at the chair where she had been sitting.  “Sit!” I ordered in no uncertain terms.  She grunted angrily, but under my stern gaze she finally sat.  I left the room and locked the door behind me.  I didn’t want her trying to run off.  I walked back to Dave and Gary Jeskey.

“Where is she?” Dave asked.

“Staying, for now,” I told him.  “I’m sending you two home though, although something tells me that’s probably a mistake.”

“Why aren’t you letting her go?” Gary asked.

“Because she’s got me pissed off” I said angrily back at him.  “What’s her name?”

The two of them just looked at me, then Gary sniggered another laugh.  “Do you two want to spend the night in jail again?”

Neither of them appeared to care.  I cursed.  Of course they wouldn’t care.  “Come on,” I told them.  “I’ll get someone to drive you home.”

After a quick word with one of my deputies, I left Gary and Dave in the care of someone else and went back to the interview room and…the girl.  Now what?  But she had a bullet hole in the back of her dress, and the red stain had been old blood.  Was it possible that the blood had been hers?  I seriously doubted it.

I was tempted to get Amanda, my only female deputy, in there and have her take a look at her body, but something told me that wasn’t the best way to go.  As filthy and unkept as the girl was, I wondered if a doctor might be the better bet.  A real doctor, who could tell if she had any bullet holes in her…anywhere on her body.  And knowing the Jeskey boys, and especially Bo, it was almost hard to believe that she wouldn’t.

“Come on,” I told her.  “Let’s go.”

“Home?” she asked hopefully as she stood up.

“Hell no!”

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 1

 Hold on to your hats, because here we go.

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 1

 

Freaky

 

Disbelief!  That’s the only way I could describe what I felt.  About everything!  Especially about what I had just seen.  When it happened, I was standing by the kitchen counter staring at everything and not believing any of it.  Uncle Dave’s friend Roxie had just grabbed Uncle Steve’s gun and shot Uncle Steve, then Uncle Bo, and then Uncle Ben.  Then she turned the gun on Uncle Dave and Uncle Gary and told them to sit down while she kept aiming that gun at them.  When I saw Roxie glance briefly at me after that, I nearly wet myself.  Fortunately, she looked away, back toward Gary and Dave in the living room part of the house, and had kept that gun aimed at them.

I’d heard the guys shooting guns lots of times outside, but hearing the gunshot in the house had been unbelievably loud, and it frightened the daylights out of me.  But that fright was only the first of more frights than I could count that day.

“I’m trying to find a reason not to shoot you two,” Roxie said to Gary and Dave.

 “I know it would be a lot safer for me if I kill you than let you live.  In fact, I know that keeping you alive is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.  So give me one tiny reason to kill you and I’ll be more than glad to leave you both just as dead as your father and your brothers.”

She stood there staring at them for a few moments, then carefully pulled her cellphone from her pocket.  Still aiming the gun at Gary and Dave, she carefully called someone.  “This is Roxie Simmons,” I heard her say into her phone while she kept the gun aimed at them.  “I’m at Bo Jeskey’s place right now, and I just killed Bo, Steve, and Ben.  I’m holding a gun on Gary and Dave right now, so I suggest you send someone out here as fast as possible, because I’m already regretting not killing these other two as well.”  With that, she ended her call and set the phone down on the table.

I noticed that Dave and Gary were staring at her in disbelief, just like I was.  “You called the cops?” Dave asked, clearly surprised.

“Yeah,” Roxie said calmly.  “The only question is, what’s going to happen first?  Will they get here, or will I shoot you two before they get here.”

“Don’t!” Dave had said quickly.

“Don’t what?” Roxie yelled back at him.  “Damn it!  You guys are all just too dangerous to let live, so why the hell shouldn’t I just kill you now like I did with them?”

She got no reply from either Uncle Dave or Uncle Gary.  I just kept standing where I had been in disbelief.  Were Uncle Bo, Steve, and Ben really dead?  I had no way of knowing, and there was no way I was going over there to look.

Roxie turned briefly toward me again.  “Freaky, you okay?”

I didn’t know how to answer.  Not to mention, was I supposed to answer?  So I said nothing.  She looked away, back at my remaining two uncles and ignored me again.

A little while later, I heard it.  The sound that I had always been told to listen for.  Police sirens.  “It’s the cops!” I said, scared out of my wits.  “I’ve got to hide!”

I took off quickly toward the back of the house, but Roxie called me first.  “Freaky!  Where you goin’?  Get back here!”

“I’ve got to hide,” I said, the panic increasing along with how loud the sirens were getting.

“Hide?” she asked.

“Yes!”

“Why?”

But it was Dave who answered from his chair in the living room.  “Nobody is supposed to know she’s here.  Especially cops!”

By the sound of the sirens, the cop cars were practically in front of the house.  “I’ve got to go!” I said, the panic in me probably worse than I had ever felt.

“You stay here!” Roxie commanded as she turned her gun on me again.  She pointed back toward the kitchen.  “Get back by the counter where you were.”

That wasn’t the first time a gun had been pointed at me.  It was something that happened fairly often.  Mostly from Uncle Bo pressing his gun against my head and telling me he couldn’t see any reason why he should keep me alive.  But for some reason, Roxie pointing that gun at me scared me just as much…or worse.  I moved slowly back toward the kitchen counter where I had been.  As soon as I got there, she turned the gun back toward Dave and Gary.

“Nobody knows she’s supposed to be here?” Roxie asked them.

Uncle Dave shrugged, but didn’t say anything else.

“This is the sheriff!” a voice yelled from the other side of the front door.  “Drop your gun and come out with your hands up.”

“Just come in sheriff,” Roxie yelled back.  “The door is open.  I’m not going to shoot you or any of your men, but I still might shoot these other two before it’s all over.”

I saw the door open slowly and a gun appear in the opening.  The gun was followed by a man pointing that gun at Roxie.  “Drop the weapon.  Now!” the man ordered.

Roxie turned her head toward him and smiled.  “No problem.”  With that, she set the gun on the table and raised her hands in the air.

The sheriff rushed in, quickly followed by more men than I could count.  He grabbed Roxie, turned her around and did something to her hands behind her back.  After that, Roxie kept her hands behind her back all the time.  I was guessing the man had used something the guys had called handcuffs on her, but I couldn’t see them or what they looked like.

All the men who had come in with the man were wearing weird clothes.  They were all dressed pretty much alike.  Weird!  I had never seen a cop before, but I somehow knew that these men were all cops.  And I wasn’t supposed to let any cops see me.  Ever!  Just like I wasn’t supposed to ever talk to anyone, especially cops.  If I ever did, the guys had told me more times than I could count that they would kill me.  I had no idea how many times they had pointed their guns at me just to make that point.  But now I was stuck here in the kitchen, and there were cops all over the house, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do…except not talk to them.  That was the only thing I knew for sure.

When two of them led Roxie out of the house, I got a brief glimpse of something metal connecting her wrists together.  I was guessing that was the handcuffs the guys had mentioned.  That was something I didn’t know anything about.  It was men’s business, not mine.

While the first man was looking at the dead bodies, I saw more of the cops talking to Uncle Dave and Gary.  But then one of them walked right over to me and stood in front of me.  He had some kind of thing in his hand and a pen like he was going to write something.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Don’t talk to cops!  Especially cops!  I kept my mouth shut and just stared at him.  The cop tried a number of times to get me to tell him my name.  He even asked me if I could speak, but I knew better than to say anything.  If I ever did, they guys would kill me.  And I knew that for a fact.

“Look!” the cop finally said as if he was angry with me.  “If you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to arrest you.”

Don’t talk to cops!  I continued to say nothing.  I was very glad when he walked away and went over to talk to another of the cops in the room.  I saw them both looking in my direction.  The second cop came over to me instead.

“What’s your problem?” he asked me.

I said nothing.

“Answer my question!” he yelled.

I still said nothing.

“At least tell me your name,” he said.

I kept my mouth shut like a good girl.

The cop looked around then spoke to another of the cops.  “Stick this one in a car and we’ll take her back to the station.”  He looked at Uncle Dave and Gary.  “In fact,” he said.  “Take them all back to the station.”

Before I knew it, there was another cop in front of me.  He reached out and grabbed my arm.  I tried to pull away, but he held me too tight as he dragged me to the front door and all the way outside.  Out the door, I was shocked to see not just so many cop cars, but the entire place seemed to be alive with flashing lights.  I still tried to pull away from the cop, but I got dragged over to one of the cars anyway.  He opened the back door and pushed me inside.  If I hadn’t grabbed my hair fast enough he would have closed it in the door!

I looked all around.  I had never been in a car before, and the only times I had ever ridden in the guy’s pickup trucks was when they drove me into the woods to punish me.  Were they really going to take me away from the house?  Away from the farm?  It looked like it.  Panic was setting in once again.  I wasn’t allowed off the property.  I wasn’t even allowed to go far from the house.  Not even into the woods.

I pushed desperately against the door, but it wouldn’t open.  I banged my hand against the glass, but it didn’t break.  I was trapped.  And worse, I was trapped inside a cop car.  How many times had they told me, you don’t talk to cops – ever!  I wasn’t even supposed to talk to anybody – ever!  Bo, Steve, and Ben were dead now, but if I talked to anyone at all, I had no doubt in the world that Gary or Dave would kill me just as soon as they got the chance.  Or maybe they would both kill me at the same time.

I was in that car for a long time.  Looking out through the windows was all I could do.  I saw Roxie sitting in another car.  I banged on the window, but she didn’t seem to notice me.  She just sat where she was with her head down.  I saw them putting Dave and Gary into another car together, then the cops seemed to all come out of the house and head for their cars.  The cop that had put me in that car came back and got in behind the wheel.  Another one got in the other side.  He looked back towards me.  “You okay back there?”

You don’t talk to cops.  Ever!

And then the car was moving…with me in it!  I panicked again.  I was leaving home.  They were taking me away from the farm.  I wasn’t allowed to leave the farm.  I wasn’t allowed to have anyone see me that the guys didn’t say was okay, especially cops.  I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody, not even when they were friends of the guys.  And I especially wasn’t allowed to talk to cops!

I had never been off the farm before.  I had never ridden in a car before.  I had no idea where we were going, but I couldn’t help myself.  I looked all around at everything I could see.  It was all so strange.  Strange and weird.  Eventually the road wasn’t dirt anymore and there were places, and buildings, and other roads, and cars, and people, and…all kinds of things I never imagined seeing.  Who were all those people?  It was all too much.  I wanted to go home more than ever, but no matter how much I pushed against the door of the car, I couldn’t open it.

“Settle down!” one of the cops told me from the front seat.

Panicked, all I could do was sit there and stare at things I had no concept of, and keep pushing against the door that refused to open for me.  Eventually it all became too much, and I had to close my eyes.  It was a little while before I even realized I was crying.

I felt the car come to a stop.  I opened my eyes and saw a building.  Like all the buildings I had seen since they had put me into the car, this one was weird too.  The cops got out of the front of the car and one of them opened the door for me.  He grabbed my arm and pulled me out.  Before, I had only wanted to get out of the car.  Now I only wanted to stay in it…away from this cop.  Practically hurting my arm, he dragged me through some weird kind of door with glass in it.  Uncle Gary and Uncle Dave followed right behind me along with two more cops.

Talk about a weird place.  I didn’t see a living room, or even a kitchen.  Not even a bedroom.  What the hell kind of place was this?  The cop pulled me a long way into the building and right up to some weird chairs pushed up against the wall.  “Sit!” he commanded and pushed me down into one of the seats.  Uncle Gary and Uncle Dave sat down next to me.

“Wait here,” one of the cops said to Uncle Dave.”  Then all the cops walked away, leaving us alone.

I looked up at Uncle Dave sitting next to me.  “Should I run?” I whispered.

He looked at me.  “Don’t bother trying,” he told me softly.  “You won’t get anywhere.”

I wouldn’t?  Why not?

“Just stay here,” Uncle Dave told me.  “Eventually they’ll probably take us all home.”

That much sounded good to me.  Very good!

Then he added.  “You don’t talk to cops.  Ever!  About anything!  And trust me, I’ll kill you myself if you do.”

“I know,” I whispered back.  “I haven’t said anything to any of them yet.”

He nodded and looked away from me.

We sat there for a long time.  Long enough that I was worried about getting dinner ready for the guys on time.  Not to mention, I had wash hanging on the line.  What if it rained?  The guys would be furious at me, and I didn’t need that.

Sometime later, one of those cops came over to us.  “Dave.  You’re up first,” he said before he had even stopped.  Then he seemed to stand there looking us over, but his eyes landed on me and seemed to stay there for a long time.  “I have never, in my life, seen a girl as dirty as you!” he said.

I was shocked.  Dirty?  It rained just a few nights ago, and I had washed then.  Just a few nights ago!  What was he talking about, calling me dirty.  But I was a girl.  I knew better than to talk back.  Especially since he was a cop.  Don’t talk to cops!

Uncle Dave stood up.  “Come on,” the cop said, and Dave followed him away from the chairs, then through a door where they disappeared.

I wanted to ask Uncle Gary where they went or what they were doing, but I dared not.  I had a feeling that this was all men’s business, and girls should never get mixed up with what men did.  So I sat there and waited…forever!

The door they had gone through opened and the two of them came out.  “Gary,” the cop called while Uncle Dave headed back towards me.  “Your turn.  Let’s get this over with.”

Uncle Gary got up and headed toward the cop.  Was he really going to talk to a cop?  Uncle Bo would be furious with him.  Uncle Bo would probably kill him.  But then I remembered that Uncle Bo was dead.  But if Gary talked to a cop, somebody would probably kill him.  Uncle Dave sat down next to me.  Had he talked to the cop too?  Or did he not say anything?  I was guessing he probably didn’t say anything at all.  And most likely Uncle Gary wouldn’t say anything either.  That thought made me feel better.

Men’s business.  I was glad I knew nothing about it.  It was so confusing.  I just wanted to go home and get the clothes off the line and get dinner started.  That was my business.  And I didn’t want to get in trouble for not getting it done.

After a while, the door opened again, and Uncle Gary and the cop came out.  Uncle Gary headed back towards us.

“Okay little lady,” the cop called.  “Your turn.”

I looked up at Uncle Dave.  “No choice,” he whispered.  “Go.  But…”  He looked at me sternly and I knew what he didn’t have to say.

Don’t talk to cops!

The Next Story - The Last Jeskey

 Before we get down to business, I asked a question here a few days ago about if anyone had any problems leaving a comment about my self-published books on Amazon Kindle.  Someone said they didn’t know about those stories.  So I just wanted to remind you all that I have a number of books self-published on Amazon Kindle.  There’s a link at the top that says My Books, if you click on it you can see what’s available.  There’s also a link there to my Amazon page, or just go to Amazon and look up Karen Singer.  Thanks!

 

So here we go.  The next story I’m going to post is called The Last Jeskey.  As I warned you before, I know this story may not have any of the kinks that I know those of you who come here are looking for, however, if you do try to read it, you may find it difficult to stop.  You very well may find yourselves looking forward to each new chapter.

 

This story doesn’t really fit into any category enough for me to know what to do with.  As I mentioned last time, I really don’t want to publish it under my own name, and it doesn’t fit with any of the books published under my Karen Singer name, so I’ve decided to inflict it on you here…despite the relative lack of kinks.  But here’s the good news.  It really is a good story!  I promise!

 

I’ve searched my mind for something I can tell you about this story, but my mind keeps coming up blank, except to tell you that it’s about a strange girl.  Who is she?  But then, that’s what the story is about.  Oh, and the story takes place in the very northeastern corner of Tennessee.  Look it up on a map.  There are hills there, and some beautiful country.

 

There are 49 Chapters in the story, and it’s probably going to be about 50 posts.

 

Just so you have a clue as to what to look forward to, here are some of the exciting action scenes from chapter 1:

Some men sit in the living room.

Some people sit in some chairs.

And most exciting of all –  a woman stands in her kitchen.

Wow!  It’s amazing that I can write action scenes like that!  Doesn’t it all just get your blood going?  I know what’s going to happen, and even I can’t wait to read it again!  Believe me when I say, I spared absolutely no expense in bringing you this exciting story.  Really!  I didn’t spend a single penny on it.

 

So join me next time for the exciting beginning of one of the strangest stories I’ve ever written – The Last Jeskey!

A Quick Question

 A quick question please.

 

I know a lot of you have read my self-published books on Amazon Kindle.  In the last few years, have any of you tried to leave a comment and been unable to?  I haven’t had a single comment on any of my books since the middle of 2022 – and that’s the books in both of my names.

Please let me know.  Thanks!

 

Oh, and I’m about ready to release my latest story to you.  The Last Jeskey.

Me versus me

 Hi all!

First of all, a big fat thank you for reading my latest story.  I hope you enjoyed it.  In fact, a big fat thank you to all of you who have read any of my stories.  Like I said, I hope you enjoyed them.  I’d especially like to thank the people out there who have left me comments.  I appreciate those more than you can imagine.

One of those comment people asked not long ago if I would continue and finish Under Her Thumb and Mercy Me.  Believe it or not, you have no idea how much I’d like to finish both of those stories.  I tried though to finish Under Her Thumb while you’ve been reading this, and I managed to advance it by a grand total of one whole page.  That’s not going to work.  So until I can get interested in that story again, I’m simply not going to worry about it.

I’m seventy-two years old now.  Even at my age, I find there are more sides to myself than may be normal.  On the one hand, there’s the me who’s only real joy in life is to sit down at the computer and wiggle my fingers and churn out story text at a rate that most of you would find unbelievable.  Yes, I’ve discovered I can still do that.  I can’t tell you how much I love doing it.  Doing it makes me feel young again!

And then there’s the other me, whose only greatest joy in life is to climb aboard my lawn mower and spend a few hours cutting the grass every week.  Believe it or not, at my age, that’s one of the most enjoyable things I get to do anymore.  I bought myself a new mower five or six years ago and it goes real fast!  Get your motors runnin’.  Head out on the…um…front lawn.  Sigh.  It’s depressing being pathetic.

For the past year I had gotten back into golf again and was going out once a week with some buddies I met at the golf course, but that’s gone for now too.  I have my health problems and my wife who is seventy-seven has hers.  And right now, hers are bad enough that many days I’m afraid to leave her side for even the few hours it would take to cut the grass.  Getting old certainly comes with its challenges.  If you look at my calendar it’s a roadmap of going from one doctor to another, and that’s about the only places we go anymore.

Despite not getting much feedback, I enjoy posting stories to this blog.  I wish I could say that I’m going to keep posting, but I can’t promise you that.  I’m not going to say goodbye though.  Who knows, there just may be something else around the corner that may be gracing these pages in the coming months.  In fact, I’m writing something right now that’s been driving me nuts to keep writing for the last few weeks.  There are a number of problems with it though that I’ll mention in a minute.

As I mentioned, there are a few more sides to me than I probably should have.  There’s the Karen Singer side that you all have come to know, and there’s the real me, who’s an entirely different person.  And sometimes those sides of me clash.  Surprisingly often, they clash in the middle of the stories I write.  Sometimes I write something and have to decide if this should be a me story, or should it be the other me story.  That’s the case of the story I’m writing now.  On the one hand, the story is very much like the ones I publish in my own name.  But on the other hand, I look at it and say, no!  Not again.  I don’t dare publish this thing that way.  It’s got to be a Karen Singer story.  It’s a battle of the two me’s once again.

I finally took a good look at this latest one and decided – Karen Singer for sure!  I’ve already got a story in my own name (a three book superhero story) where the main characters, male and female, get swapped around, and they’re stuck that way until the end of the third book.  I also had another book out there where the main character was a boy who was raised as a girl, but I took it down and completely rewrote the thing, removing all those elements.  The result though is that it’s now something I hope will become another movie for me.

But this latest book that’s driving me nuts to write….  On the one hand, I don’t feel it’s good enough to be something I can publish, even self-publish.  I do have standards for that.  But on the other hand, I look at it and, damn it’s good!

So here’s the deal.  I’m not going to say I’m going to keep posting here, but there’s a chance.  Yes, a chance!  That I might be eventually posting that story here.  The only problem is that most of you won’t want to read it because it’s not…kinky (much).  I may be the only one who likes the thing, but then that’s why I write in the first place, for my pleasure.  Sorry about that.

Of course, there are a few problems before I can post it, if I do post it.  The first being, will I actually finish the thing.  I hate that I never finished Mercy Me and Under her Thumb, so I’d rather not leave a story in that state again.  Right now, I’m into chapter twenty-five of this new thing, and I’m guessing it may go to forty or fifty chapters.  But because of the format I decided on, the chapters are slightly shorter than my usual ones.

The other problem with it is, if I do finish it, should I waste it here, or should I actually try to publish the thing.  Like I said, it’s both lousy, and a really great story at the same time.  In some ways it’s not up to my publishing standard, but in other ways, damn it’s a good book!  It’s just another one of those me versus me dilemmas.

So that’s everything, and then some, in a nutshell.  I’m not saying goodbye, but I’m not saying I’m going to keep going either.  I’m leaving my options open.

Please stay safe and still put a little joy in your life – for me.

Till next time,

Karen

My Funny Farm - Chapter 25 – Life is a Funny Farm

 

My Funny Farm

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 25 – Life is a Funny Farm

 

Darn it all!  I wasn’t supposed to have to worry about things like this.  In fact, I wasn’t supposed to have to worry about anything at all.  Now look.  This poor excuse for a diaper was not just soaked with pee-pee, but I had a load of poo-poo in it too.  And I was still waiting for them to bring me a new one.  Where were those darn staff members when you needed them?  They only seemed to be around when you didn’t need anything.

“Hello Craig.”

I looked up to see one of the male prison guards standing in my open doorway.  But the best thing was the diaper he had in his hand.

“You asked for this?” he said politely.

“Yes!” I said as I got up from my bed and hurried to the door.

He seemed startled as I got close.  “Oh my,” he said.  “You…uh…smell a bit.  Can you handle it yourself?”

I couldn’t believe he would even ask.  He must have been one of the new ones who hadn’t grown overly lazy yet.  “I’ve got it,” I told him, even though I’d rather that someone else would take care of it for me.  That’s what was supposed to happen.  That’s what used to happen before I got shoved back into this lousy place.

Ten minutes later, I was happily enjoying the fresh diaper, when my little room got invaded by James, Ashley, and that detective, Kinsley.  Visitors!  At least I had a fresh diaper under my pants and didn’t smell so bad anymore.  The moment Ashley saw me, she ran to me and enveloped me in a huge hug.  “Oh Dad,” she said.  “I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah,” I agreed with her.  “I don’t want to be here.  Why am I here again?  I was just starting to get used to everything at home.”

“No you weren’t,” she replied.

“Yes, I was.  I was starting to enjoy it.”

“No,” she said.  “You only thought you were enjoying it.”

How would she know if I was enjoying something or not.  I was!  End of story!  I looked to the others.  “What’s going on?”

“Dad,” James said, “I’m sorry.  When you told me there was a conspiracy against you, I kind of blew you off.  I didn’t believe you.  But as it turns out…”

“You mean there really was something?” I asked.

“Absolutely!” Detective Kinsley confirmed.  “And I’m afraid it turned out to be much worse than anyone realized.  We’re here now to fill you in, and hopefully it will help to set you straight on a few things.”

She set her laptop computer on the small dresser in my room.  As she was getting things ready, I turned to James.  “Uh…son,” I said.  “I’m sorry, but before I left home I decided that maybe you aren’t the best person to be handling my affairs.  I mean, Bill is a professional, so I going want to change everything over to him.”

I expected him to be angry.  Instead, he said.  “Let’s see how you feel about that after you see some of what we’re going to show you.”

The detective started the video playing, and I was shocked to see my nursery back home.  “Who was taking the pictures?” I asked as I saw myself crawling after Nichole into my bedroom.

“It was a hidden surveillance system,” James told me, just as I watched myself suddenly fall to the floor.  I was shocked.  “What happened?  I don’t remember falling like…”  I looked closer.

“I thought she killed you,” Ashley told me.  “Keep watching Dad…and listen!”

Kinsley swapped that video for another one that showed me strapped down to the changing table with my legs tied way up over my head.  Nichole was trying to shove something in my ass.  “There!” I said excitedly.  “I told you she was doing things to me.  I don’t know what the hell that thing is but it was big!”

“It’s called a tunnel plug,” Kinsley explained.  “It’s a hollow cylinder made to keep your sphincter wide open.  You literally can’t stop yourself from defecating, and you can’t feel it happening either.”

The video suddenly switched to show her standing back with her cellphone, and suddenly the me in the video was going mad with pain.

“Oh Dad…” Ashley said.  “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.  She was killing you and nobody believed it.”

“I believed it,” I told them.  “That thing hurt!”

“I’m sure it hurt,” Kinsley told me.  “But not as much as the things she did to you that didn’t bring you physical pain.”

“I don’t understand,” I replied.

“Here,” she said as she pulled up another video.  “This one you’re going to have to listen to carefully.”

I suddenly saw myself lying on the couch with my head in Nichole’s lap.  She was talking to me.  I listened closely and heard her telling me one thing at a time all about how I wanted to be a baby, and then how I would only use the words pee-pee and poo-poo, and that I would love playing with the toys, and…the list seemed to go on and on.

“Now listen carefully!” Kinsley suddenly said.

I paid attention to the video again and heard Nichole telling me all about how I would only think of James as a young boy from now on, and that he wasn’t qualified to handle my financial affairs.  I would want Bill to do that instead.”

Kinsley stopped the video.  “That’s why you suddenly wanted Bill to do it.  Because Nichole told you to want it.  Not because James isn’t qualified.  In fact, if you can still use what little reasoning is left in your head, you’d remember that your son James is far more qualified than Bill is.  But don’t worry, Bill won’t ever stand a chance of touching your money.  He’s going to jail for a very long time.  Along the Nichole, Michael, and Bill’s lawyer who drew up the paperwork and demanded a cut of all your money they planned on extorting from you.”

“Extorting?” I asked.

That’s what this was all about.  And it turned out that Nichole has quite a history of defrauding people out of their money.  The family set that nursery up for you in good faith, trying to help you.  But Michael and Nichole got other ideas on how to use it against you.  Then they brought in Bill to help them.  It wasn’t your entire family against you, just Bill, Nichole, and Michael, oh, and their lawyer.  Emily and Caitlin started crying the moment I began showing you this.  They both were doing it out of their love for you.  Like I said, Nichole though had a long history of using hypnotism to steal people’s money.

I was still trying to understand it all.  Most of it I didn’t remember happening so Kinsley was kind enough to play a segment of Nichole telling me I wouldn’t remember being hypnotized at all and that I wouldn’t  even consider Nichole capable of doing such a thing…which is just what I had thought about her.

Still confused, I asked.  “What happens now?”

“Now?” Kinsley said.  “Now you stay here and let the doctors work with you until you’re well again.  Then…I guess that’s up to you.”

Let the doctors work with me?  I didn’t have much faith in the doctors in that place.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Kinsley, James, and Ashley sat down at a conference table with two of the center’s doctors and the primary administrator.

“I’m Charles Lackley,” the administrator told them.  The head of this facility.  “You demanded to meet with me and our entire staff of doctors, but I’m not going to call any of them in here when I see no reason for it.  In any case,”  He pointed to a very young looking man at the table.  “That is Doctor Jasper.  He is the one who has been assigned to your father’s case in the past.”  He pointed at a female doctor sitting next to Jasper.  “Doctor Hasfell was in the hall and was kind enough to agree to attend this meeting as well.  Mr. Bryson has been here before.  We know all about his condition, which is only that he wants to commit suicide.”

“Guess again,” Kinsley told them.  “I think you’ll all change your mind as soon as you see some of what I’m about to show you.  And just so you understand, all of what you’re about to see has been entered as criminal evidence for the court system.  The only reason we’re allowing you to see this much is because it’s necessary for you to see it for Mr. Bryson’s mental and medical needs.”

“Criminal?” Lackley asked.

“Very!” Kinsley told him.

She turned her laptop so that they could see the videos and started at the beginning.  It didn’t take long until both doctors and the administrator appeared to be very concerned.  When the videos she allowed them to see ended, Kinsley said, “That woman, Nichole, ran a systematic course of hypnotic conditioning on him, three days a week, three times each day.  And worse, as you can see, she presented those ideas to him in such a way that they were completely logical, and so that he would want to accept them before she even told him what her ideas were.  According to my sister who is Mr. Bryson’s usual therapist, hypnotic conditioning like that can often leave residual effects in someone, even after they’re told not to follow those instructions anymore.”

“From what we saw, Doctor Hasfell noted, she did indeed manage to get him to the point where he would be declared incompetent.  We saw that he can’t read hardly anything anymore, and he can no longer count either.  It’s ludicrous!”

“And she had a longer list of instructions she was planning on sticking into his head,” Kinsley told her.  “We just got there before she could get to them all.”

“It’s a good thing too,” Jasper agreed.

“Mr. Lackley,” James said.  “I’m very sorry, but my father has absolutely no faith at all in the doctor you assigned…Doctor Jasper here.  I’m sorry,” he said to the doctor, “but that’s simply the way it is.  He has mentioned it to us a number of times.  My father is old enough now that to him, you look like you’re still in high school.”

The doctor seemed upset.  “I’m a well qualified…”

“Stop Jasper!” the administrator said quickly.  “There are a few things we need to consider here.  First of all, if the patient and the family feel they want a change, then we should look into it.  But more than that…”  He pointed at Kinsley’s laptop.  “According to that video we just saw, her big trigger phrase to drop him into a trance is obviously ‘Nichole says to go night-night.’  We should consider that and then build from there.”

“But we would probably need the woman, Nichole, to say it,” Jasper pointed out.

“I was considering a different approach Lakley told him.  He turned to Hasfell.  He doesn’t know you does he?”

“I doubt it,” Hasfell replied.  “I never worked with him or even met him.  “I’ve got my own patients to see.”

“What if we told him your name is Nichole,” Lackley asked.  “Do you think you could work with that?”

She considered that.  “Maybe,” she admitted.  “But let me be clear, hypnotizing him again should probably be a last resort.  As his therapist pointed out, there are still residual affects to consider.”

“Let’s go with it,” Lackley decided.  He turned to Kinsley.  “I take it we can have access to work with the patient now?”

“Yes,” Kinsley replied.  “The more, the better.  I just felt you needed to see some of the evidence in this case before you did.”

“And you were right!” Lackley agreed.  “What she did while he was away from here has taken things into an entirely different direction.”

“There’s one other thing as well,” Kinsley added.  “It may or may not be true, but I have no evidence either way to say that his initial interest in suicide wasn’t caused by Nichole.  She claims she didn’t, but as I found out, I can’t believe a single word she says.”

Lackley didn’t look happy.  “We’ll take that into consideration.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

After seeing those videos, I had a lot to think about.  My mind was completely confused about everything in my life.  What was true?  What wasn’t?  Everything I felt…everything I thought…seemed absolutely true.  I did enjoy being a baby.  I did enjoy playing with all the toys.  I wasn’t the least bit interested in trying to control when I went pee-pee and poo-poo, and I enjoyed that aspect of it too.  Why should I need to read anything if everyone else would read the stories to me.  And what the heck was wrong with the way I counted?  It was perfect!  I could prove it by counting my fingers.  What were they all talking about?  It was so frustrating!!!

And then one of the staff members came and dragged me down to where the doctor’s offices were.  I was surprised when they brought me to a different room than I usually went to. 

“Mr. Bryson,” the woman in there said brightly as I walked in.  “Hi.  I’m Doctor Nichole and I’m very glad to meet you.”

Nichole?  Doctor Nichole?  What was going on here?

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

I was in that behavioral center for four months.  Four very long, very frustrating months.  James, Ashley, Caitlin, and Emily came to visit me often though.  All of them showing me more love than I ever remembered feeling from them before.

During one of Caitlin’s little visits, I finally got the courage to ask her something that concerned me very much.  “Caitlin,” I said.  “Something happened at home not too long before they pulled me out of there.  Something between you and Bill.  You said you had been to the doctor, but there was nothing wrong.  I got the impression though that something is wrong.  What’s going on?  Can you tell me?”

She smiled.  “Oh Gramps.  We just didn’t want you to worry about anything.  That’s all.”

“So you do have a problem?”

“Not the kind you think,” she said.  “Gramps…I’m pregnant.  And now, I doubt Bill is going to be around anymore.  Not only will he be going back to jail after his trial, but I’m going go divorce him as well.  I’m going to have to bring my baby up by myself.”

I looked at her.  “Not by yourself.  “I’m going to be there for you too.”

She hugged me.  “Thanks Gramps.  That’s what Emily said too.”

There was another visit from James shortly after that where he told me that they were in the process of putting my bedroom back just the way it was before they turned it into a nursery. 

“Don’t change it!” I told him.  Leave it just the way it is.”

“But Dad, why?”

I had to explain it all to him.  And I was the one with mental difficulties?

When they finally let me out of there, they weren’t happy with my progress, but I was.  In fact, I was more than happy.  Yes, I could read again, although I wasn’t that interested in doing it.  And yes, I could count properly again.  You want to know what straightened me out as far as counting?  A clock.  A simple clock.  But that clock was tied directly to when they allowed me to have a fresh diaper to change myself.  Remember those numbers that Nichole told me didn’t really exist, four and nine?  Well, the only time I was allowed to ask for a fresh diaper was at nine o’clock in the morning, four o’clock in the afternoon, and nine o’clock at night.  That’s it!  At least James and Ashley were bringing those really good diapers to the center for me to use, otherwise I don’t know what I would have done.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, I still needed the diapers because…well…there were a few things I simply didn’t want to leave behind.  Like wetting and messing – please notice I’m not saying pee-pee and poo-poo anymore, although I sometimes forget and still use those terms.  Hey, there’s nothing wrong with them, right?  I also love playing with the baby toys and taking naps and drinking from baby bottles and of course, sucking on a pacifier.  I can’t help it, I simply enjoyed it all.  Why couldn’t the behavioral center doctors understand that?

One other thing they never really got a chance to work with me on much at all on was my interest in girly clothes.  Since I didn’t have any there at the center, it was never much of an issue.  Doctor Nichole, or whatever her name really was, never bothered to go into it, and I didn’t see any reason to push the subject.

Did I mention I was happy enjoying the life everyone had been trying to shove me into?  Yes, I knew that Nichole had set me up to like it with her hypnotism thing, but the truth was, whether she was responsible for it or not, I did enjoy it.  And don’t forget, I had an interest in it before it all started.  In fact, at that time I was going to buy myself some…uh…fun things before any of the young ones moved into the house with me.  I just never got the chance.  So when James told me they were destroying the nursery they had built for me, I stopped him.  I loved the life they had set up for me, why should I want to end it?

And speaking of ending lives, I finally realized that I didn’t want that anymore, especially if I had a nice simple life I could live and enjoy fully.  And even more importantly, especially since I was going to have a new family member to enjoy that new life with.

As I said, I was in that behavioral center for four months before they gave up on me…or before I gave up on them.  Probably both.  I moved home and back into my nursery.  Emily and Caitlin seemed to enjoy taking care of me again, although neither of them did it to the extent they had done it before.  Still, everything was great.

Caitlin’s baby was born near the beginning of May, when spring was just beginning to poke its head around my little world.  Bill was gone for good by then and Caitlin’s divorce was final.  Baby Mallory had to be the cutest little thing in the world, and there’s no exaggeration there at all!  For the first few months, Caitlin kept the baby upstairs in her bedroom at night, but brought the baby down to my nursery every day so we could play together.

A few months later, my nursery suddenly grew another crib.  A smaller one than mine of course, and I was no longer alone in my big pink nursery.  I now shared it with Caitlin’s daughter Mallory, my great-granddaughter, and the new absolute love of my life.  Why should Caitlin build another nursery for her when mine already had everything the little girl could possibly need or want…including me.

When Caitlin or Emily didn’t care for her or feed her, I did.  When they weren’t doing it, I changed her, fed her, held her, loved her, and dried her tears.  The bars of our crib faced each other so I could keep watch over her all night and call out if there as any kind of problem so that Caitlin could hear me over the baby monitor she had upstairs in her room.  Between the three of us, that child got the best and most loving care possible.

I can’t tell you the number of hours that Mallory and I spent crawling around in our big play area together, playing with the toys, playing with each other.  Having fun.  And trust me, after she was born, our play area grew a phenomenal number of new toys, and it seems like more magically appear all the time.

You know what I discovered was fun?  Mallory and I wearing matching outfits most days.  That was incredible, and the truth was that it made me feel more like a little toddler than ever.  How lucky could an old Gramps like me get?  Huh?

So now, most days when I’m not out riding my lawnmower around the yard, I spend playing with baby Mallory on the floor of our nursery.  Very often Caitlin joins us there, and sometimes Emily crawls around and plays with us too.  All those simple baby toys are the greatest source of joy for all of us, whether alone or all together.  It’s through all those toys that we have bonded and become such a close-knit family.  A family dedicated to love…and simple fun.

Now who says I don’t have any imagination anymore?

 

The End

My Funny Farm - Chapter 24 – The Full Diaper Bag – Part 2 of 2

 

My Funny Farm

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 24 – The Full Diaper Bag – Part 2 of 2

 

This was one of the big ones.  Detective Kinsley opened the door and walked into the interview room where Bill and his lawyer, Bartlett, had been waiting for some time now.  Both men looked fit to be tied.

“Why have you kept us waiting all this time?” Bartlett demanded.

“I’ve been busy,” Kinsley replied.

“I’m going to be filing a protest about this too!” Bartlett told her.

“Wonderful,” Kinsley replied, not caring in the least.  “File away.  I don’t care.”

“You will,” Bartlett threatened.

“Uh-huh,” Kinsley grunted.  “If you say so.  But first, I need to discuss a few things with your client.”

“My client has important business to take care of!” the lawyer shot back.

“Your client is a low-level accountant!  His job is barely important at all!  As far as I’m concerned, he may very well lose that job by the time I’m finished with him.”

“How dare you!” the lawyer accused.

“I dare!  So shut your mouth or I’ll find and excuse to charge you with something too.”

“I’m going to file a…”

“Go right ahead.  Now shut up!”

“I will not!  Now despite what you think, my client does indeed have important business to take care of, and since you kept us waiting so long, you can wait a bit longer while we handle it.  Oh, and you better make some phone calls because we need access to my other client, Mr. Craig Bryson.”

Kinsley was surprised.  “Not gonna’ happen!” she told him.  “Now what could possibly be so important as you claim?  I already know it has nothing at all to do with his job.”

“Craig Bryson’s expressly stated that he wanted my client here to handle all of his financial affairs.  He no longer trusts his son James at all!”

Kinsley was a bit surprised.  “That’s your business?”

“Yes.  And it’s very important.”

Kinsley turned to Bill.  “You know, Caitlin told me that Craig Bryson decided to change his financial executor last night.”

Bill was startled.  “Yes!” he replied happily.  “He told us during dinner.”

“And it’s business we need to take care of right away,” the lawyer insisted.

“It’s not gonna’ happen,” Kinsley replied calmly.

“It is going to happen!” the lawyer insisted.  “It’s going to happen today, as soon as possible!  Make the calls to give us access to Craig Bryson.”

“That deal will happen over my dead body!” Kinsley shot back.

“This is Craig Bryson’s will!  It’s what he wants, and we have witnesses to prove it.”

“Not hardly,” Kinsley replied.  “How could it be what he wants, when it was you, Bill, that made that decision for him.”

“Me?  How could I make a decision like that?”

“You wanted to take care of his business all along, didn’t you.”

“Yes.  I live right there in the house.  It only makes sense.”

“Except when it comes to fraud!”

“Fraud!  What are you talking about?”

“And extortion,” Kinsley added.

“What?  This is outrageous,” Bartlett replied.  “Craig Bryson himself stated what he wanted done, and everyone in the house heard him.”  He opened a file folder.  “I’ve already drawn up the paperwork to file as soon as possible to officially change his money management to Bill.  This needs to be filed right away!”

Kinsley shook her head.  “Why?  What possible reason could there be that your paperwork can’t wait another day?”

“Mr. Bryson is not of sound mind!  He can’t handle his own affairs at all.”

“And yet you just told me that he made the decision to have Bill here handle all his money for him instead of James.  That sounds like his mind is sound enough.”

“It isn’t!” Bartlett insisted.  “He’s getting old and has lost to much of his reasoning function.”

“Including his reasoning to change his money manager?  I don’t think so.”

“It’s what he wants, and we need to file this paperwork immediately!”

“Let me see it,” Kinsley asked.  “Pass it over.”

Bartlett passed the stack of papers over to her and Kinsley began reading through it.  She didn’t get very far before she went back to the beginning and started reading more carefully.  She was dumbfounded by what she read.

She finally looked up at Bartlett.  “Mr. Bartlett,” she said.  “I’m sure it took you a long time to prepare that document.”

“Yes, it did.”

“Which means to me that you had to know about what they were doing well in advance of anyone else.”

“What do you mean, what they were doing?”

“This conspiracy to defraud Craig Bryson out of his money.”

“What conspiracy?  There is no conspiracy!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!  Very!”

“Okay,” Kinsley said.  She opened a file folder in front of her and pulled out a plastic wrapped piece of paper.  “Let’s start comparing your document there with this list of hypnotic suggestions I found in Nichole’s desk drawer this morning.”

Bartlett looked startled.  “Hypnotic suggestions?”

“Number one!” Kinsley said.  “He will want to be a baby and will love it.  The more of a baby he gets to be, the better.”  She glanced over at Bartlett’s document.  “Oh look, right here near the top of your list of incompetency reasons is that very same idea.  Practically word for word!”

She went through two more, the said, “Let’s skip down to the most important one, okay?”  She got no answer from either Bartlett or Bill.  She looked at Nichole’s list and read, “He won’t like it that his son James is handling all his business affairs.  He will believe that Bill should be doing it instead.”  She looked up at Bartlett.  “Isn’t that exactly what he announced to you at dinner last night?  An idea that was hypnotically implanted into his head just that day, and just so you Bill, could gain control of all his money.  Millions of dollars!”

“Hypnotically implanted?” Bartlett tried.  “That’s absurd!”

Kinsley was surprised.  “Is it?  Let’s see.”  She turned the laptop so they could see the recording made by the picture frame and pulled up the video of Nichole implanting all the suggestions into Craig’s head, including that he would want to change his money manager from James over to Bill.”

Both Bill and Bartlett were shocked.  “Where did you get that?” Bartlett demanded.

“We made a recording of everything that goes on in that nursery of his,” Kinsley explained.  “And you wouldn’t believe some of the things we found.”

“This is outrageous!” Bartlett complained.  “It’s entrapment!”

“No it’s not.  Not at all,” Kinsley countered.  “Not only has Mr. Bryson himself expressed his concerns about a conspiracy against him, but I worked on this directly with James Bryson, Mr. Bryson’s son, who is the executor for Mr. Bryson’s affairs.  In fact, it was James himself who installed that video surveillance system.  There is no trace of an entrapment charge here at all.  But instead, I’ve got an entire bag full of evidence against you,” she told him.  “Or…an entire diaper bag full if you want to use that analogy since it seems to fit the circumstances.  And guess what, not only does it show everything that Nichole did to him, but as you just saw, some of it implicates your client, Bill.  Now the only question I’m trying to figure out, is exactly who else is involved, and I already know of one other person.”

“Who?” Bartlett asked.

“You!” Kinsley said.

“I am not!” Bartlett protested.

Kinsley chuckled.  “Yes you are.  “It had to take a while to put that document of yours together.  And everything in it was the exact things that were on Nichole’s list of hypnotic suggestions.  It’s quite obvious to me that you’re also part of this conspiracy.  I’m charging you with conspiracy to cause mental harm, fraud, and of course the main entrée on the menu – extortion!  You’re going to jail along with the rest of them.”  She stared him in the eyes and saw nothing but fear there.  “Now,” she said.  “Do you want to tell me who else is involved in your little conspiracy besides you, Bill, and Nichole?”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Detective Kinsley expected this next interview to be the shortest one.  A mere formality that’s all.  After talking with Bill and his lawyer, she knew now that there had been four people lined up against Craig Bryson expecting to get his money.  Three family members, and the lawyer.  Bill, Nichole, her husband Michael, and Bartlett.  She was happy to hear that Caitlin was in the clear.

She walked into the interview room where Michael had been waiting and sat down.  After this one, she would be tackling Nichole.  She was looking forward to that little talk.

“Michael,” she said.  “I’ve just come from a rather lengthy discussion with Bill and his lawyer Mr. Bartlett.  I’m going to tell you right up front that between all our evidence and now talking with them, I know pretty much everything.  I know that your wife, Nichole, has been systematically hypnotizing your grandfather and trying to make him incompetent, and also to arrange to have Bill handle all his money affairs so that you…and they…can get that money.

“Lucky you, Bill and Bartlett named you as one of the four people involved, although it seems that your involvement has been barely anything at all, except to discuss it all with your wife, which makes you complicit in the crimes committed.”

“What’s complicit?” Michael asked.

“Helping commit a crime, or in this case, having knowledge of it and not reporting it.”  She got the impression he still didn’t understand.  “I’m sorry, but you’re still going to jail for it.  Just…maybe not for as long as the rest of them.”

“Jail?”

“Yes!  Sorry, but that’s the way it works when you conspire to steal someone’s money.”

She noticed that Michael didn’t exactly look happy, and he shouldn’t.  “Tell me,” she said.  “Your wife is quite a hypnotist.  Did you know that when you married her?”

He nodded.  “Yeah.  She learned it in college.”

“She took a course in it?”

“No.  It was just something she picked up in the dorms.  She used to set people up with all kinds of hypnotic suggestions to get them to do things.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.  Act like a chicken.  A lot of times she had them making out with things or people they never would.  She was real good at it.”

“How good?”

“Real good,” he replied.

“How do you know?  Did she ever hypnotize you?”

“No.  I was never interested.”

“That you’re aware of,” Kinsley noted.

“Uh…I’m sure she didn’t.”

Kinsley figured that someone like Nichole probably tried to hypnotize everyone she could, including him.

“She was so good,” Michael told her, that she used to hypnotize people and get them to think she had loaned them money, and then had them pay her back.”

“When she didn’t loan them any money in the first place?” Kinsley asked.

“Right.  Pretty good, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kinsley admitted, realizing that fraud was an old habit for Nichole.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Kinsley walked into the interview room and sat down across from Nichole.  “Nichole, Nichole, Nichole,” she said.  “You’re quite the hypnotist, aren’t you.”  She saw only a very brief bit of concern on Nichole’s face before it evaporated.

“Hypnotist?  I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’ve never done it.  I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

Kinsley almost had a fit hearing her say that.  She smiled instead.  “I’ll bet you say that to all your victims.”

“What victims?  I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh!  Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t!”

“I had an interesting little chat with your husband a few minutes ago,” Kinsley told her.  “And believe me, he’s pretty much in awe of what you can do.”

“What I can do?  He’s my husband.  And I’m glad he’s in awe of me, I just don’t know why.”

Kinsley chuckled.  “According to him, you’re an old hand when it comes to using hypnotism to defraud people.  He told me all about the scheme you had going in college to rip off all your friends, and they never knew what was going on.  Quite impressive, I must say.”

“I never…”

“Stop it Nichole!” Kinsley said sharply.  “I know everything.  I’ve got…”  she chuckled.  “As I put it to Bill and his so-called lawyer, I’ve got a whole diaper bag full of evidence against you.  Especially you!”

“Me?  What did I do?”

“Well, maybe we should just start at the beginning with torture and intent to commit bodily harm.”

“What?”

Kinsley opened her laptop and pulled up the first video showing Nichole shoving the big plug into Craig’s ass, and then attaching the electric shock device and shocking him nearly to death.  Emily and Caitlin had cried seeing it, Nichole simply looked angry.

“Where did you get that?” Nichole demanded.

“James helped me install a surveillance system in that nursery.”

“I didn’t see anything like that in his room.”

“Of course not.  If you had, we’d never have been able to get all these wonderful recordings. 
The system was on a motion detector by the way, so that anytime anyone was in the room it was recording.  And Nichole, the abuse you were dishing out was pretty much non-stop, all day.”

Nichole said nothing.  She just glared angrily at the detective.

“As for you not knowing anything about hypnotism, let’s take another look.”

Kinsley played one of the first videos where the volume had been boosted so that it was easy to hear everything Nichole had said to Craig, reminding him of each and every thing she had instilled into his head so far.  When it was over, Kinsley said, “When we searched your apartment, we found the list of suggestions you wanted him to have to make him incompetent.  As you just saw, you went straight down that list, at least as far as you had gotten with it so far.  You still had a number of things you were planning on doing to him, but the proof of all of it is right there in front of you, including telling him every time you woke him up that he would never remember being hypnotized, and that if anyone ever asked, he’d say you were incapable of such a thing.  Proof Nichole.  Right there.”

Nichole still said nothing.

“You systematically hypnotized him three times a week, three times a day, to put those ideas into his head, not only robbing him of his ability to do the most basic things, but also to make him want to be nothing but a baby for the rest of his life.  Incompetent!  All so you and your friends could get your hands on his money.  Proof Nichole.  And you saw it.  And trust me, there’s a lot more where they came from.  Would you like me to play you the part where you were drunk and singing and dancing?  You were singing an old Carpenter’s song.  But the words you sang said that he was going to make your dreams of money come true.  Would you like to hear it?  Would you like to see your drunken self, singing and dancing?”

“No!” Nichole told her.

“That’s what it was all about Nichole – money.  Money, and fraud!  And as I said, I’ve got tons of evidence now against you and all your friends.  I only have a few questions left that I haven’t figured out yet, but they’re minor little points.  First of all, was it you who put it into Craig Bryson’s head to commit suicide in the first place?  Did you make him want to kill himself?”

“No!  Of course not.”

Kinsley shook her head.  “I don’t know whether to believe you or not.  We already know you lie whenever it suits you.  But the truth is, it’s a minor point in the grand scheme of things.  As I said, we’ve got more than enough to put you away for a very long time.  There’s just one more question I have.  How about Jared?  Was he part of your little conspiracy too?”

Nichole was surprised.  “You mean Emily’s Jared?”

“Yes.”

“God no!”

“Emily was concerned that he might be because of the way he was abusive towards Craig.  She’s very concerned about it.”

Nichole shook her head.  “Look,” she said.  “Jared just wants everyone to see him as some kind of badass, so he goes around talking big and doing some…well…sometimes it can be some pretty cruel stuff.  But then Emmy kind of gets a kick out of some of the BDSM stuff too.  She used to be so hung up on Jared.  She still is in fact, even though they don’t live together anymore.  But then, have you seen him?  He’s a hunk and a half.”  She smiled.  “I’ve been to bed with him a few times myself.  Of course, dumb Emmy doesn’t know that, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  But no, he was never involved.  We never even talked to him.”

“So it was just the four of you,” Kinsley stated for the record.

“Look,” Nichole said.  “Michael kind of came up with the idea for me to hypnotize Gramps and get him to give us some money.  But we didn’t know just how rich he was, so we asked Bill since he’s so interested in money.  Bill told us though that Gramps has millions just laying around doing nothing at all, and he wanted in on the scheme.  He told us if we did it right, we could all get rich.  Probably more than a million dollars each.  But then he came and told us that we had to make his lawyer friend part of the deal as well.  I got the impression his friend didn’t give him much of a choice.  After that, we were already going to have to split Gramps money four ways, there was no way we wanted anyone else in on it, so there was no way we were ever going to ask someone like Jared.  As if we would anyway.  He may be a hunk and great in bed, but he’s an idiot!

Two minutes later, Detective Kinsley left the interview room.  Now she needed to figure out what to do next on the case.  But the answer to that was obvious.  It was time to check in with the victim, Craig Bryson.  Actually, it was time to check in with him and his doctors.

One thing she wanted to make sure of, and she’d probably have to get her sister to back her up on it, but if Craig was going to remain in that behavioral center where he belonged, then he needed a different doctor.  Craig was absolutely right about one thing.  A doctor who was still in high school wasn’t the best person to treat Craig’s problems.  Even if it was a doctor who just looked like he was in high school.  He needed someone older…and wiser.  Hopefully.