The Devil's Deal, page 26
part #3 of Deadly Deception Series
“Dr. Whiterfeld and I will finalize the hypnosis routine, as you know it should be shorter than a usual hypnotic one. We need to isolate a few keywords,” Dr. Wright explained. “Dr. Doyle and Dr. Eckstein instead will prepare the place where the murder will be committed on the top floor of this resort, relegated to a room that is now empty.”
“If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask I will be around from now on,” he replied walking towards the exit.
Julius was feeling excited, in the last couple of days he didn’t even think about smoking, it seemed to be something as unthinkable as using heroin for him, and he felt as confident of his own life like he’s never felt in the past. Another couple of days and I will be ready to leave this oasis of peace and return back to my life. I cannot wait. He thought.
There are so many things I need to take care of, once I get rid of this stupid addiction that I will need probably the rest of the year. This man is going to reclaim his life.
He was walking in the woods alone, as he decided that for that day, he would have spent the rest of the day on his own, rather than indulging in some other activities.
Sometimes it is good to be alone with my own thoughts, particularly when there is nothing that can haunt me or worry me in a particular way.
He was returning back to the resort when he spotted a couple of people in the yard of the building on the other side of the road. It seemed like they were photographers, considering the equipment they were taking from the car to the house. It’s maybe too early for bird spotting, the migrating birds shouldn’t be arriving until a couple of months from now, he considered. Oh, well in this little spot of paradise there are so many things to photograph, that you don’t necessarily need to be a birdwatcher to bring camera equipment here.
The next day, at around midday, Gina received a call from Officer Stanley.
“Hello, are you having fun there?” She giggled, amused.
“Not really, for the last few days, nothing has really happened around here. I am wondering whether we are surveilling the wrong target,” he replied.
“No, the target is the right one, and if nothing happens this is only good news,” Gina ensured.
“By the way did you receive the pictures we have sent you?” he wondered, suspicious of the quality of the internet connection in that place.
“No, I haven’t received anything so far, can you try to send it once again?” She asked, checking her email once again, just in case it arrived delayed.
“I am going to send it right now. Up here the internet connection comes and goes, but now it seems to be stabilized so let’s keep our fingers crossed that it will at least stay solid until you receive the files,” Officer Stanley replied as he sent them.
It took a few moments, “here they are!” Gina chanted victoriously.
“Great, because yesterday a new guy came to the resort, and he is still there; hold on, now he is leaving again.”
“I will send them over to Lieutenant Avaliani and Detective Sheen, I wonder if they know that guy. As for me, I have never seen him, but it’s also true that I have only been taking care of the case a couple of days, so perhaps I do not know all the players,” Gina replied as she sent the pictures to print, after having them sent to Jonas and Justin.
Justin was working unofficially on the case from home, as he didn’t have an office anymore in the same department as Jonas. As soon as the pictures arrived in his inbox, he opened them eager to understand what was going on at the resort.
He looked at the picture that clearly showed Gabriel coming out from the car, he knew he had seen that face before, but he could not recall when had he seen him or in which occasion.
It took a while for him, but then he remembered, “That guy was one of Dr. Wright’s patients on the previous therapy. What is he doing there?”
He grabbed the phone and called Jonas.
“Avaliani,” he replied without looking at who was calling.
“Hi, it’s me, have you received the pictures from Gina?” Justin asked.
“I was just taking a look at them, why?”
“Because the guy who has been photographed getting out of the grey car, was one of the patients of Dr. Wright’s previous therapy group. Carolina Lynn was also in the same group,” Justin replied without taking his eyes off of the screen. “I wonder what is he doing there.”
“Could it be that he went for a consultation about the result of the previous therapy?” Jonas guessed.
“I don’t know, Gina said that the guy stayed there overnight and only a few minutes ago he left the resort. I don’t know what to think,” Justin admitted.
“Maybe he needed another therapy session, but since Dr. Wright was too busy, he decided to come the morning after. It might be that he decided to stay the night, considering that the resort was empty and booked until the end of this week,” Jonas tried to find a plausible answer, but to be honest, he also found his presence there quite strange. “I will ask the guys there to increase the surveillance, we need to understand what is he doing there, whether he is going for therapy or he is somehow involved in the case. Personally, I cannot see a connection between him and Dr. Wright, except that he has been his patient and might require a follow-up visit from time to time.”
“Okay, keep me updated,” Justin replied.
“No, just come down to the Department, from now on, we will keep in constant radio communication with the officers who are surveilling the premises. If we need to move, we should not waste a second calling everyone in to converge on the resort, we need to be ready to move at a moment’s notice.” Jonas ordered.
“I’m on my way, see you in about half an hour,” Justin replied as he switched off the laptop and prepared to leave the apartment.
Justin, Jonas, and Gina met in the interrogation room, they decided to follow the operation from the same room, “this way we won’t miss any details when information is forwarded from one to another,” Jonas observed. “I am afraid we might spend the rest of the week here working around the clock, but we need to know what is going on in real time, we cannot afford to miss something that happened during the night just because we needed to go to sleep. We will have time to sleep after we crack this case, but for right now, we need to be focused entirely on this case. I have a strange feeling that something is going to happen soon, and we will regret not having been here to stop it.”
“Don’t you worry, we completely understand, and there is nothing I want more than closing this case, before starting my new career at the Georgetown Police Department,” declared Justin.
For the whole day, nothing seemed to happen, and at the Police Department, they started to feel quite frustrated, also considering the option of leaving at least to go for dinner, when the radio started to beep.
“Any news?” Jonas asked eagerly.
“I am not sure about it, but the guy who arrived yesterday, the one who was a previous patient of Dr. Wright, and who left this morning is coming back, it seems like he is not alone, there is also a girl in the car. I don’t want to sound offensive, but it seems like she is a prostitute, at least considering the way she is undressed, perhaps they are going to have some fun before the end of the therapy,” Officer Stanley said.
“One prostitute for five men? Either some of them are not interested, or she is about to have a long night ahead of her,” Gina observed.
“Anything else that happened?” Jonas wondered.
“No, besides this, everything seems to be going like every other evening,” Officer Stanley replied.
Dr. Wright felt extremely nervous, this was the final test, and nothing was supposed to go wrong, he made sure that he would have been alone with Julius that evening, so as he saw him returning from the restaurant, he pretended he was going to the kitchen, “Oh, Mr. Mendoza, are you coming from the restaurant?” He asked casually.
“Yes, I have to say that it is difficult to find a restaurant of such good quality with the same fair prices,” he replied.
“You are certainly right about that, I was going to have a tea before retiring to my room, would you like to join me? I would like to understand what are your feelings now that you have almost reached the end of the therapy,” Dr. Wright replied.
“That is a good idea, it will help me to relax a bit and have a better night sleep,” Julius replied following Dr. Wright to the kitchen of the resort.
“So, please, Mr. Mendoza tell me how is the relationship with your family, any news?” he asked as he prepared the teas for both of them, being careful of being unnoticed when he poured the drug in Julius’ cup.
“Yes, well I have called my father a couple of times, and it seems like we can finally have a civilized conversation even about the topics that had divided us in the past, without getting upset and me deciding to tuck tail and run from confrontation,” he replied as he started to sip his tea.
“I am very pleased to hear that. I was really hoping I could also help in that regard.”
Dr. Wright kept silent pretending being busy drinking his tea when instead, he was only waiting for the moment when the central nervous system would have been depressed enough to allow him to reach Julius’ subconscious.
Moments after Julius finished his tea, Dr. Wright noticed something; Julius’ eyes were staring off into nothingness.
“Mr. Mendoza, can you hear me?” He asked talking slowly with a lower tone in his voice.
Without raising his head, Julius nodded.
“I want you to focus on my voice, listen carefully and do exactly what I will tell you.” Dr. Wright continued.
“Yes...” Julius replied.
“I want you to go to your bedroom and remain there for an hour, and when one hour has passed, you will go up the stairs to reach the third floor, do you understand?” He asked
“I will go to my room, and after one hour, I will reach the third floor,” Julius replied.
“Very well, listen carefully, and do as I say. You will reach room number 336, you will open the door, and grab the napkin on the table. With that, you will grab the pistol on the same table. On the bed, there is a girl, aim at her head and shoot, do you understand?”
Julius flinched, “I will reach the room 336, grab the napkin on the table and with it grab the pistol, A girl is on the bed, I will aim at her head and shoot.”
“Very well, at that point, you will place back the pistol on the table, leave the room and go back to your bedroom where you will fall asleep for the rest of the night. Nothing of what happened upstairs will remain in your memories. When you wake up tomorrow, you will feel relaxed and in a good mood, without any memories of the previous night.”
Julius nodded.
“Now I am going to count until three, as I say the number three you will come out from your trance, one... two... three.”
Julius shook his head and smiled, “thank you for the tea, I think I will go to sleep now.”
“Yes, I am about to do the same, it has been a long day. Have a good night,” he said as he walked towards the laboratory.
There he took a deep breath and felt like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders. “How is it going?” Klaus asked.
“It seems like everything went fine, the drug worked within seconds, we just need to wait and see what is going to happen.
They remained silent waiting for the hour to pass. The whole resort was immersed in an unnatural silence when the sound of a door opening and Julius’ steps walking towards the stairs and then to room 336 broke the perfection of the silence.
A muffled voice speaking and the cries of the girl who was tied to the bed started to become audible, then the sound of the shot of the gun through the silencer, and then Julius’ steps walking back towards his room.
They waited until his door was closed without even breathing, fearing that from one moment to another, he would have realized what he’d done and started to scream.
However, after the sound of the door closed, nothing more could have been heard, and the perfect silence was once again restored.
They still didn’t have the courage to move a muscle, despite the signs of a perfectly successful hypnosis routine.
They slowly walked towards the room where the girl had been killed, and as they walked in, the image was too strong for any of them as they both ran to the restroom to puke. The poor girl was laying there on the bed in a pool of her own blood.
When they returned from the restroom, Gabriel was already taking care of collecting the body in a body bag, which would have to be placed in the trunk of his car, waiting for the second victim to join her in her miserable destiny.
He looked at them with a severe glance, “help me!” he whispered.
The rest of the night was spent purging the crime scene of every trace of blood and evidence of their involvement, and when the first rays of light broke through the curtains, they could consider themselves satisfied with the outcome.
“Mr. Mendoza will wake up in a couple of hours, we’d better go and at least take a shower to look a bit less battered,” Klaus proposed.
Dr. Wright took a last glance at the room as he walked out of it and shook his head.
He went for a shower, and also tried to sleep for at least an hour. When he woke up, he felt like the world just ended, but he tried to look forward to the rest of the day, he could not give up now that he was so close to achieving what he’d been dreaming for such a long time.
The alarm clock welcomed Julius to a new day, and he felt so relaxed and in a good mood like he’d never felt in years. In his mind, he was already hoping it was Sunday, the day when he would be heading back home.
Whistling, he went to open the curtains, and although the weather was still a bit grey, he felt positive about the fact that it wasn’t raining. “I will go to the woods again, today, it was such a relaxing and rejuvenating experience to have a walk yesterday that I can’t wait to repeat it today.”
He reached the hall where breakfast was already being served and started to take something from the buffet table. Dr. Wright saw him, and it seemed like he didn’t remember anything about what happened the previous night.
“Good morning, Mr. Mendoza, how are you doing today? You look like you’re in a good mood,” Dr. Wright noticed, with a satisfied smile.
“Oh, Dr. Wright, you have no idea how well I slept last night. I feel so relaxed that I started to whistle coming down to breakfast this morning,” Julius replied happily. “Instead it seems like you could not sleep for many nights, are you sure you are feeling okay?”
“No, I had so much work to do that I had to sacrifice a good night’s sleep. I should know better, that this is not a great practice to engage in, but I needed to get some things done that could not wait until the day when your therapy is done. Thanks for asking, and don’t you worry, I will have time to rest quite soon,” Dr. Wright explained; he was exhausted, but he needed to focus for just a little while longer.
He took out his mobile phone and went to check the bank account to make sure that Mr. M. kept his promises. With a broad smile, he walked to his office; I need to transfer those funds abroad immediately, I don’t want to leave anything to chance, he considered.
After an hour and a half, Julius knocked at his door, ready for another session of hypnotherapy, that would have been the last one, but he really didn’t need it.
“Dr. Wright, I'm coming for my therapy session, but I can see that you absolutely need to get some sleep. Could we maybe try and have it a bit later? You should go sleep for a couple of hours, and then we can meet again,” Julius proposed.
Dr. Wright smiled, “Do I really look that bad?”
“You look like you need to rest.”
Dr. Wright considered the schedule he would have for that day and the kind of night that was waiting for him, he was supposed to be in perfect shape to run the hypnotic routine with Abraham, so he nodded, smiling.
“I suppose you are right, see you back here in a couple of hours, I hope this unpredicted change of schedule doesn’t interfere with any other activities you had planned for the afternoon,” he replied.
“This is like a holiday for me, I do not have a particular schedule that cannot be changed. See you later,” Julius replied, walking away.
The radio, at the Police Department, beeped once again.
“Tell me your news,” Jonas replied.
“The girl that arrived yesterday is still there, or at least we haven’t seen her leaving. She didn’t call a taxi, and the car that brought her in is still in the same position and hasn’t moved the entire time. Either they are having some serious fun, she is still sleeping or…” Officer Stanley said uncertainly.
“…or she is dead,” continued Jonas. “However, this is something that I find difficult to believe.”
“Then you should tell that to the prostitute murdered in Tbilisi,” Justin recalled.
Jonas didn’t reply, something was wrong, but he wanted to wait, so far, there wasn’t any indication that she could have been dead. What if I order my men to breach the house and all they find are a few men having fun with a prostitute that is not even close to being in danger? We wouldn’t be only in trouble; we would have jeopardized the entire operation.
“I know what you are thinking, but we do not have any evidence that can sustain this suspicion, we need something more solid. We are going to wait tomorrow morning, and if she isn't seen leaving the resort by then, we will arrest them all and will search for her,” Jonas replied.
“What if we find her dead?” Gina asked
“I can’t risk the whole operation now; this is the last chance we might have to catch them red-handed. If we screw up now, they will disappear the following day, and we will have another unsolved murder. Actually, we will be dealing with quite a number of unsolved murders. Does this make you feel any better? Because as a supervisor, I have the sole responsibility for the aftermath of an investigation on my shoulders,” Jonas replied, trying to keep his composure.
“As you wish, Sir, we will continue to keep an eye on the situation and will inform you of every movement that happens in that house,” Officer Stanley replied. “Hold on, now the guy you identified as Mr. Garcia-Mendez, is leaving the resort. He doesn’t have any luggage with him, so I presume he will be back.”
