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.

 

My Funny Farm - Chapter 24 – The Full Diaper Bag – Part 1 of 2

 

My Funny Farm

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 24 – The Full Diaper Bag – Part 1 of 2

 

Detective Kinsley walked into work early the next morning.  She had spent part of last night on the phone talking with each of the members of Craig Bryson’s family.  She had also called her sister and warned her about what she had done.  Now it was time to deal with the mess she knew had to exist.

Before leaving work last night, she had made requests for two search warrants to be issued.  She wanted to search the homes of every one of the family members, but there were only two she felt she could fully justify.  The first was Craig Bryson’s home, particularly the private bedrooms of the occupants, and the second was the apartment that Nichole and her husband Michael lived in.  She didn’t know yet how far the conspiracy extended, but she was going to find out.  The only person she seriously doubted was involved was James, and still, even him she couldn’t rule out…yet.  For now, he remained on her suspect list.

The first thing she did was to make copies of the recordings involving Nichole and send them to two of her staff people to work with.  That much done, she got up from her desk to seek out another person in the department, someone more knowledgeable about financial affairs than she was.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

I didn’t sleep well at all that night.  Not only because they had ripped me out of my home and put me back into this…place, but also because I had no idea in the world why this had suddenly come about.  I had just been getting used to the baby idea, and had started to enjoy it.  Now look, no more toys.  At least, not the kind I wanted to play with.  But that was all secondary to the primary reason I had trouble sleeping.  No pacifier!  The police had purposely left that behind when they “arrested” me last night.  Funny thing though, I woke up this morning with my thumb in my mouth instead.  Suck…relax…suck…relax.  It was all I had.

Since the diaper they had put on me wasn’t one of my super thick night diapers, it was pretty much soaked.  I wondered how long it would take before I could get another one.  But even then, I doubted it would be as good as the one I was wearing now.

It seemed like a long time before someone knocked on my door and one of the staff members checked on me, but then I was now used to waking up fairly early.  And that was another thing I missed, my morning bottle.  Suck my thumb…relax…suck my thumb.

I was still in my room, wondering what to do with myself, when my usual doctor came in to see me.  Just looking at him had me more convinced than ever that he was still in high school.  He had to be!

“Mr. Bryson,” he said.  “Welcome back.”

“I don’t want to be here,” I told him.  “I want to go home.”

He shook his head.  “I’m sorry, but you can’t leave.  In fact, the reason I’m here is to let you know that the police left strict instructions for you when they dropped you off last night.”

“Instructions?”

“Yes.  For one, we…the doctors like me…are not allowed to work with you at all.  Not yet anyway.  Not until they say we can.”

“But you’re here now,” I noticed.

“Yes, but only to let you know just the few things that we’ve been told.”

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Yes,” he replied.  “Your family, all of them, are also banned from seeing you until further notice.”

I was startled at that one.  “All of them?”

“That’s the word I got.”

“So if they can’t see me, and you can’t even talk to me, then what am I doing here?”

He shrugged.  “To be honest, I don’t know.  Other than discussing your condition, is there anything I can do for you?”

“My condition?  How about the condition of my diaper?” I asked.  “Any chance of getting a fresh one?”

“Your diaper?” he asked.  “When did this come about?”

“I thought you couldn’t discuss my case with me.”

He sighed.  “True.  I’ll…talk to the staff for you.”

“Thanks!”  Something told me I’d be lucky to not be leaking all over the place before they got me a new diaper to wear.  And even though I wasn’t supposed to have to worry about leaky diapers, something told me that might be one of my new major concerns.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

It was midmorning by the time the search warrants came through.  Detective Kinsley decided to tackle the scene of the crime first, the home of Craig Bryson.  A quick phone call told her that both Emily and Caitlin had stayed home that day, but Bill was at work.  Kinsley had just wanted to know if she needed to worry about breaking down the door to get in or not.  With four uniformed policemen in tow, she headed for Craig Bryson’s house.

When they got there, they didn’t even get a chance to knock before the door was opened by both Emily and Caitlin.  The two of them seemed surprised to see so many uniforms with her again.  “Come in,” Emily told her.  “You said you wanted to talk to us today.”

“Not right now,” Kinsley told her.  “That’s for later.”  She handed over the search warrant.  “That’s a warrant authorizing us to search this entire house.”

“Search it?” Caitlin exclaimed.  “What for?”

“We’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“But what about why you pulled Gramps out of here last night?” Caitlin demanded.

“Kinsley shook her head.  “That discussion is for another time.  Now please stay out of our way.  I suggest you either stay in the living room until we finish…or outside.  Your choice.”  She turned to the uniformed men and pointed towards one of them.  “Stay with them.”  To the rest she said, “Let’s go.”

Ten minutes after they arrived, Bill showed up with another man.  “What’s going on here?” Bill demanded the moment he got inside and found a uniformed officer watching over his wife and Emily in the living room.

“Sir,” the uniformed officer said.  “We’re in the process of exercising a search warrant on this home right now.  I need you to either stay right here in this room, or leave the house.”

“I take it you have a warrant?” the second man asked.

“I’ve got it here,” Emily told him as she held it up.

“Let me see,” he said.  He took the warrant from her and looked it over before turning to Bill.  “We’ll have to enter our protests over this later.”

“Have they spoken to you yet?” Bill asked his wife.

“Not yet,” Caitlin told him.  “We thought that’s why the detective was coming, but when she arrived she said she wasn’t interested in talking yet.”

“Then when?”

“How should I know?” Caitlin replied.

Upstairs, Detective Kinsley was searching the one room she was the most interested in, Caitlin and Bill’s bedroom.  She literally looked very carefully through everything, but she found nothing at all.  Not one shred of evidence that even might point towards the conspiracy that she was convinced was going on.  Along with the other policemen, they searched everywhere in the house, but just like that one bedroom, they found nothing incriminating.  She was forced to give up.  The house hadn’t panned out at all.

She went downstairs and headed for the front door.  “We’re done!” she called to the house’s occupants.

“We’ll be filing a formal protest as soon as possible!” a man she had never seen before called back.

“File away!” she told the man.  “By the way, who are you?”

“Henry Bartlett,” the man replied.

“My lawyer!” Bill explained, as if he expected her to be impressed.  “Now when are you going to sit down and tell us what’s going on?”

“When I’m ready, and not before!” Kinsley told him.

“We’ll be filing a protest about that too,” Bartlett told her.

“Like I said,” Kinsley replied.  “File away.”

“Come on,” she told the uniformed men with her.  “We’re done here.”

“When can I meet with my other client, Mr. Bryson!” Bartlett demanded.  “We’ve got urgent business to attend with him.”

Kinsley shook her head.  “Yeah, I’ll bet you do.  But right now, I’ve got him locked down where he belongs, and I’ve fixed it so that nobody, not even his doctors can talk with him.  So your business, as you call it, is going to have to wait!”

“How long?”

“Until I decide otherwise!  Come on,” she said again to the men with her.  “Let’s go.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

“Shit!”  I had to change my own damn diaper.  I had to clean myself up.  I had to do everything for myself…just like I used to.  Well, I didn’t used to have to change my diapers, but for some unknown reason, I couldn’t seem to control myself anymore.  I went pee-pee with absolutely no warning at all.  Not that I really minded that much.  In fact, I rather enjoyed it.  I liked the feel of the wet diapers too.  I just knew from experience that the thin cheap diaper they gave me to change into wasn’t going to last me very long, and I’d be doing this all over again very soon.  Yeah, those nice thick diapers were a lot more convenient as far as that goes.

As I wandered around with nothing to do, I took note of the other inmates.  Most of them were exactly the same ones who had been there before.  I guessed they were more permanent residents than I had thought.  A few of them came over to speak with me, and it was obvious that none of them even realized I had been gone for a few weeks.  What was wrong with them?  Oh yeah, they were nuts!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Both Michael and Nichole were home when Kinsley served the search warrant on their apartment.  The place was small enough that the uniforms sent them outside so all the police could help with the search.

For a while, Kinsley was afraid they wouldn’t find anything useful there either, but there was a small desk in their bedroom, and in one of the drawers, on top of all the other papers, was something she looked at in disbelief.  Proof!  Damning proof!  Absolute proof.  At least as far as something illegal going on was concerned.  The only problem was, no matter how much further she searched, she could find nothing at all to tell her exactly who might be involved in the conspiracy…if it could really be called a conspiracy.  But that one bit of proof was really all the evidence she needed…for now.  She grabbed the papers, carefully putting them into an evidence bag.  She didn’t have an evidence bag big enough for the big shopping bag she found right next to the desk.  She simply had one of the policemen with her put it into the car.

When she left, the uniformed policemen handcuffed Nichole and brought her with them.  As far as Detective Kinsley was concerned, it was time she started living in a cell.  Her biggest question there was to wonder if she should have arrested Michael as well, but she had no proof at all yet that Michael was involved.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

James walked nervously into the police station.  He didn’t know why he was nervous, but he put it down to just the fact that he was in a police station.  Once there, he was sent to a small interview room to wait for Detective Kinsley.  He had to wait nearly ten minutes before she finally breezed into the small room.

“James,” Kinsley greeted the man waiting for her.  She took a seat opposite him and set her laptop computer and a file folder down on the table.

“I take it that you found something from that picture we hung on Dad’s wall?” James asked.

“You might say that,” Kinsley told him.

“So he was right.  There was something going on.”

“Most definitely!”

“Damn!” he cursed.  “And I blew him off!  I told him it was all in his head.”

“Oh no,” Mr. Bryson.  It wasn’t in his head at all…although in another way, it really was all in his head.”

James was startled.  “What does that mean?”

“It means that something really was going on, and it was worse than I thought.  But the big question right now is, exactly who in the family is involved?”

“Who?”

“Yes.  And that includes you.”

“Me?  I’m not involved in anything!”

“I certainly hope not, because you’re the one who raised the alarms with us to begin with.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not involved.”

“And how do I convince you that I’m not?” James asked.

“Well,” she replied.  “To begin with, let’s go through a few of the videos that were captured by that picture frame.  And just so you know, I had one of my people sew a highlights version together and raise the volume in places, just to save some time.”

James considered that.  “Okay,” he agreed.  “Let’s see.”

Kinsley opened her laptop and set it where they both could watch the videos.  She started it playing.  It only took a moment before James came out of his seat.  “What the hell is going on?” he demanded as his eyes remained glued to the screen.  What did she do to him?”

Kinsley had absolutely no doubt that James was innocent in all this.  In fact, just the fact that they wanted to take control of the money away from him had told her that much, but now his reaction was further proof…as far as she was concerned.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Ashley sat in one of the interview rooms for quite a while before Detective Kinsley finally arrived.  “What’s going on?” she asked before the detective even had a chance to sit down.

“What’s going on is something far more criminal than I originally thought,” Kinsley replied.  “And our purpose right now is to find out just what your involvement in any of it is.”

“Something criminal?” Ashley asked.  “I’m not involved in anything like that at all…as far as I know.”

“That’s what we’re going to discuss right now,” Kinsley told her.  “Let me start with some of the evidence, and then let’s see what you think about it.”

“Evidence?”

Kinsley set her laptop up and began the first video.  The shocked look on Ashley’s face as the video showed her father falling limp to the floor told her everything.

“Daddy!” Ashley screamed at the computer screen.  “Is he dead?”

“No,” Kinsley told her.

“He looks dead.  He’s not moving!”

“I thought the same thing when I first saw it,” Kinsley admitted.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Emily screamed loud and shrilly as the video started and showed her grandfather falling to the floor like he was dead.  And when she saw the part where Nichole used the electric shock device to hurt him so much, she screamed again.  “I’ll kill her!” she yelled.  “I’m gonna kill her.  Oh Gramps.  What did she do to you?”

Kinsley had no doubt at all that Emily was not part of the conspiracy, but she showed her a bit more of the videos just to be sure.  After a few she finally said, “Emily, I’m crossing you off my list of suspects…for now!  But that doesn’t mean I won’t be coming back to talk to you more about this later.  Understand?”

Emily nodded and wiped her crying eyes with her hand.

Kinsley started to get up to leave when Emily suddenly asked.  “How about Jared?”

“Jared?” Kinsley asked.

“My boyfriend.”

“Oh yes.  He was in that meeting with your family when all this started.  Where is he?”

“We kind of…split up.  I couldn’t take some of the things he was doing anymore…but…we still date.  Is he involved?  He liked saying some really mean things to him.”

“I don’t know yet,” Kinsley admitted.  “I had forgotten about him.  But I won’t ignore him anymore.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Detective Kinsley walked into the interview room where Caitlin was waiting.  This was one of the big ones she wanted to cross off her list.  If anyone else was involved, Caitlin was a prime candidate.  She knew she was keeping Caitlin’s husband Bill, and his lawyer, waiting in another room, but they could wait, especially since Bill had been such a pain in the ass by calling the lawyer in the first place.

She hadn’t talked to Bill yet, but she was convinced that he had to be involved since he would be the one who could literally get at Craig Bryson’s money.  The only question now was if Caitlin, his wife and partner, was also involved.  It only made sense that she was.

But then there was the other evidence that she had seen.  In all the videos of Caitlin that she had watched, Caitlin had shown the most loving care possible to Craig…with the one exception of painting his fingernails before taking him out in public.  But that was the one and only thing she had seen.  It was time now to let her face the evidence.

A minute later, Caitlin’s screams had nothing at all to do with worry about herself, and everything to do with her concern for her grandfather.  In minutes, there were real tears streaming down her face as she watched blatant abuse after blatant abuse being perpetrated on her grandfather.

But now came the real test.  The one thing that she hadn’t done with any of them except James.  She played the videos that the sound had been increased on so that Caitlin could easily hear all the hypnotic commands that Nichole had placed into his head.  But even there, after playing the first few, she skipped ahead to one of the last ones.  “I wanted you to hear this one particularly,” she told the crying woman.

“What more can there be?” Caitlin asked, still crying.

Kinsly hit the button and let Caitlin hear Nichole telling Craig that he would always think of his son James as a young boy, too young to take care of his financial affairs, and that he would want Bill to handle it all instead.”

Caitlin sat there with her jaw open.  “But Gramps told us last night at the dinner table that he wanted to make that change, and I was so happy because it was something that Bill had been harping about since Gramps first tried to commit suicide.”

“You were happy?” Kinsley asked.

“Yes!”  She shook her head.  “Bill and I haven’t exactly been seeing eye to eye on a few things lately.  In fact, things have been pretty rough between us.  But I thought that if Gramps would turn over his money matters to him that it would make Bill a lot happier, and hopefully, all of our problems would go away.”

“So Bill managing your grandfather’s money would have solved all your problems,” Kinsley stated.  How?”

“I don’t know.  Just that it would be one thing he’d be a lot happier about.”

“You didn’t mention getting any money out of it.  Wouldn’t that have helped things for you?”

“Why would we get Gramps’ money?  Bill works and so do I, and we live at home.  We’re actually fine as far as money goes.  Bill just doesn’t think so.  He thinks we need a lot more.”

“Was making your husband happy why you tried extra hard to show so much loving care for your grandfather?”

“What?  Making Bill happy?  No.  I just…I love him.  I love Gramps to death.  And…I really enjoyed doing all that with him…I mean, taking care of him like that.  I loved doing it.  It wasn’t for money.”

Kinsley wasn’t sure yet, but she didn’t get the feeling that Caitlin was involved.  For now though, Caitlin was going to stay on her suspect list.

 

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