Chapter 1: A simple follow up investigation

Peterson Investigations read the sign on the frosted glass of the heavy solid oak door halfway down the long hall corridor. It was a small office on the fourth floor in a large rundown business building in downtown San Diego near, well in walking distance anyway, of the local city hall, county courthouse, and federal courthouse. The red brick and concrete building itself had probably been very prestigious back in it’s day, but now it was just dingy and rundown. But it still had location going for it which still counted for something even today. At the moment Miss Kimberly Peterson, Kim to her friends, was meeting with her newest client, Jessica Remington.

“What can I help you with Misses Remington.” Kim started off the meeting after her and Jessica took their respective seats around Kim’s large desk.

“My daughter Judy has simply disappeared, and yes, I have to tell you I reported her missing less than 12 hours after me and the pageant officials discovered her missing under mysterious circumstances. I’ve already been to the local city, county, and state police about the disappearance. I’ve even been to the FBI. They have all investigated her disappearance, and they will all admit it smells of foul play and a missing persons bulletin has been issued. I even understand they have put out an all points BOLO whatever that is.” Jessica went on.

“A BOLO is acronym law enforcement slang term that stands for “Be on the Lookout.” It’s commonly used on social media and online forums to alert others to be vigilant for certain things.” Kim explained to Jessica.

“But you know as well as I do that here in the States we have what may well be the world’s highest number of reported missing persons every year. According to the National Crime Information Center, the NCIC, and the Missing and Unidentified Person Files for the 2021 operational year, there were over five hundred thousand ... over half a million people reported missing last year alone. Moreover, ninety three thousand of those people still remained actively missing at the start of 2022.” Misses Remington started off.

“What do you think I can do then that the police and FBI haven’t already done Misses Remington.” Kim asked her next bluntly.

“Please call me Jessica, Kim. It’s not that I don’t trust the police Kim, but I would like to get a second opinion. The police are as they readily admit when you push them, overworked, understaffed, and underpaid civil servants. I’m not expecting miracles from you Kim, just a good honest follow-up investigation of all the facts Kim. Judy was a good girl. She was a beautiful girl. She won several high school beauty contests, and had just won the Miss Columbia University title when she went missing. She just walked out of the house some time in the early morning hours after she won the title and disappeared leaving everything behind.” Jessica, explained to Kim.

“Left everything behind?” Kim questioned.

“Her college books, her laptop computer, her cell phone, her car keys, her car ... everything ... I don’t even honestly know what she was wearing when she simply walked out the front door of the house and simply vanished.” Jessica, explained to Kim.

“How do you know she left the house Jessica?” Kim had to ask.

“The police asked me the same question Kim, after all it’s a big house with some rooms that haven’t been used in a long time, We even have a large wine cellar that some have compared to a cave system, ha, ha. So yes, the police asked permission and searched the entire house and property. They even brought the SAR people, the Search and Rescue people, with their dogs and other equipment Kim. I was surprised to learn that some dogs are trained to search for dead bodies, they are called, “cadaver dogs”, Kim. They didn’t find anything, and as I had told the police when I woke up from my unusually long sleep the house’s front door was standing wide open and unlocked, and the security system was deactivated. I still think I was somehow drugged, but my blood and toxicology report came back negative.” Jessica explained to Kim.

“It’s quite possible you were drugged Jessica, always trust your instincts. Lots of drugs don’t show up on those tox screenings for various reasons. Every state has its own procedures for missing persons cases Jessica. These procedures can differ among law enforcement agencies, but typically they use license plate scanners, online databases, social media, and personal interviews to gather information on where a potential missing person might be. The police employ different types of technology to find the last known whereabouts of the missing persons. They can obtain search warrants to go through a missing person’s cell phone records and social media accounts to see when the person was last active online, or if they had been planning to leave voluntarily. I assume they went through all the social media data?” Kim asked.

“Yes, everything just stopped Kim.” Jessica told Kim.

“When was this Jessica?” Kim asked her next.

“A little over a month ago Kim. I have a friend in the local city police department and she made me a copy of all the records, reports, and evidence they have. That includes the Columbia university campus police and their security files too Kim.” Jessica said, handing Kim a small USB thumb drive.

“You do know that time is critical in these types of missing persons investigations Jessica? The first 48 hours are always the most critical because that’s when investigators have the best chance of following up on leads, before people’s memories start to fade and details become lost and confused. It’s important to generate as much public awareness and as many leads as possible, because they tend to slow down after the 72 hour mark.” Kim explained to Jessica, July’s mother.

“As I said Kim, I’m not expecting miracles from you Kim, just a good honest follow-up investigation of what the police found, maybe you’ll find a lead they didn’t follow-up on, or something like that.” Jessica told her again.

“I’ll look it over... “ Kim started again, but Jessica cut her off.

“This is a $2,000.00 dollar retainer check Kim. I will pay your going hourly rate plus another $3,000.00 more when you complete your investigation. I will also pick up all your expenses. If you need anymore just call me. Of course I expect at least a weekly report on what you have done and found out.” Jessica told Kim as she handed over the check.

“Jessica I feel... “ Kim started and Jessica stopped her again.

“Kim, I’m well off and not hurting for money Kim, but I’m hurting for my missing daughter. Money is only good for buying what you need. I need some kind of closure on this Kim. Help me out here Kim.” Jessica begged Kim. So reluctantly Kim took the case.

A discrepancy is found.

The first week was spent reinterviewing all Judy’s friends and the other people that the police had already interviewed as a follow up. So far nothing had been added she explained to Jessica on Saturday when she met with Jessica for tea and crumpets in her rose garden on the large gated Remington Estate. Next, she explained to Jessica, that she intended to start interviewing the other girls in the Miss Columbia University pageant with Judy. Kim herself knew at 27 she was pretty, but she never considered herself to be in the beauty pageant contest winner category. Judy at 20 on the other hand was a contest winner and was actually thinking of entering one of the Big Four Kim had found out from some of Judy’s close friends. That seemed to come as a surprise to Jessica, Judy’s mother, for some reason.

Kim’s research showed that beauty pageants are competitions that originally traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, but pageants have now moved on to include such things like inner beauty, personality, intelligence, talent, character, and even charitable involvement. Judging is done through private interviews with individual judges, and answers to public on-stage questions.

Pageant titles are subdivided into Miss, Mrs or Ms, and Teen ... to clearly identify the difference between pageant divisions. Thousands of beauty contests are held each year, but the Big Four are still considered the most prestigious, and widely covered and broadcast by the media. The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, CNN, Xinhua News Agency, and global news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse collectively refer to the four major pageants as the “Big Four”. They are: Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth.

The organizers of each pageant determine the rules of their competition, this includes the age range of contestants. The rules may also require the contestants to be unmarried, and be “virtuous”, “amateur”, and available for promotions, besides other criteria. It may also set the clothing standards in which contestants will be judged, including the type of swimsuit.

Beauty pageants are generally multi-tiered, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. For example, the international pageants have hundreds or thousands of local competitions. Child beauty pageants mainly focus on beauty, gowns, sportswear modeling, talent, and personal interviews. Adult and teen pageants focus on makeup, hair and gowns, swimsuit modeling, and personal interviews. A winner of a beauty contest is often called a beauty queen. The rankings of the contestants are referred to as placements. Possible awards of beauty contests include titles, tiaras, crowns, sashes, bouquets, scepters, savings bonds, scholarships, and prize money. Some pageants have awarded college scholarships to the winner or to multiple runners-up.

So the next week was spent hunting down and interviewing first the contestants that had competed with Judy for the Miss Columbia University title, and then because of what she learned from them past contestants too. This is where she learned that more than a few past contestants over the years, especially those judged most beautiful, were on the Missing Persons Center’s list too. The Missing Persons Center’s worldwide map of missing people provides users with a comprehensive and up-to-date view of individuals who are reported as missing across the globe. Also the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States. Using NamUs 2.0 Technology, the NamUs database application fills the nation’s need for a unified, online, free, secure database for missing persons records and unidentified remains. Most commonly, NamUs is used by law enforcement, families and friends of missing persons, and medical examiners and coroners.

With a little more digging she had the names of the sponsors and judges that did the private interviews of the contestants over the past 6 years, for some reason they didn’t go back any further than that. She was almost out of names when one of the past judges she was interviewing mentioned that all their contestants had to be interviewed by the pageant’s psychiatrist. She reviewed the names and titles on her list and found there was no listed psychiatrist on any of the lists. OH, there were several psychologist, a sociologist, and even a few medical doctors, even a dermatologist, but no psychiatrist, but according to the judge, who prided himself on his phenomenal memory, the psychiatrist’s name was Carl Young.

Checking back with the pageant organizers and sponsors Kim soon found that the pageant did in fact have a psychiatrist on call because it was not uncommon for contestants to suffer anxiety issues just before the contest actually started. The Doctor had an in town practice and only kindly volunteered his services free of charge to the pageant and contestants the pageant organizers finally somewhat reluctantly admitted to Kim. For some reason they seemed reluctant to admit the psychiatrist was part of the pageant itself. When Kim did some more digging she found he had been part of the pageant for more than 6 years.

She explained all this to Jessica at their next Saturday meeting over lunch. Jessica actually became argumentative and said she seriously doubted that this Doctor Young had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance, but Kim left after telling Jessica that she was highly suspicious of this psychiatrist. This was mainly because his name didn’t appear on any of the lists his name and title should have been on. But, Yes, when she did some further checking she found Doctor Young indeed existed and was listed with both the American Medical Association (AMA), and American Psychiatric Association (APA). He was even on Columbia University’s staff as a consultant she found. She also told Jessica she had set up an appointment with Doctor Young for Monday morning posing as a anxiety sufferer which seemed to be what the Doctor specialized in...

Interview with the Doctor, or pretty bait.

Kimberly Peterson, Kim to her friends, had been looking for Judy Remington for three weeks. Her investigation had soon turned up the fact that there were other missing girls from the past Miss Columbia pageants dating back at least 10 years, and that Doctor Young had worked at all of them. All of them were missing under the same mysterious unexplained circumstances as Judy herself. Each one had just walked out of their house, or apartment one fine morning, leaving all their worldly possessions behind, and disappeared without a trace. All the leads Kim had uncovered so far lead back to this one last place. This one last person anyway.

So she had made an appointment under one of the aliases that she kept for just such an occasion. As she sat in the waiting room she looked around but there was nothing that screamed out “Kidnapper” to her mind, ha, ha. But then again, it wasn’t like she was expecting a flashing neon sign above his office door that shouted out, “Kidnapper Here Beware”.

“Miss Lohand, the doctor will see you now. Just go on in.” The receptionist, a short unattractive dumpy brunet that would never win any beauty contest informed her finally. Kim stood up and walked over to the door and entered the doctor’s office. The doctor was seated behind his large desk going over some papers, but he looked up as Kim entered the office and closed the door behind her.

“Hello Miss Lohand, I’m Doctor Young.” He said, as he checked his note pad and then looked up at her. Then he indicated a large well padded high back executive chair in front of his massive oak desk. As she was sitting down in the offered chair she noticed that the chair had adjustable arm rests, neck and head rests, and even foot rests. In fact, the chair itself seemed to actually adjust itself to her as she was sitting down in it.

“Please have a seat and tell me what brings you here today Miss Lohand.” He asked her charmingly. Yes, Kim would admit to herself that he had a pleasant voice and great charm. Some people might even be tempted to call it charisma she thought to herself as she took her seat before the Doctor’s desk. The doctor appeared to be in his late 50s, or early 60s, maybe a little under 6 foot she would guess, and slim she noted. He still had a full head of wavy black hair with just a distinguishing touch of gray at the temples, and was wearing a distinguishing looking waxed Van Dyke moustache and beard combination.

He also had the bluest eyes she had ever seen, they seemed to pull her in as they made eye contact across the desk. The word that popped into her mind unasked at that moment was they were “Mesmerizing”. She also admitted to herself at least that he looked a lot like the attractive 66 year old actor Pierce Brosnan at the 2020 Golden Globes awards with his Van Dyke beard short goatee and waxed mustache. The commit about him in the entertainment magazine she had read at the time was; “You either die as James Bond, or live long enough to look and be cast as a evil Bond villain in the next new James Bond movie.”

“Thank you,” Kim said, as she made herself comfortable in the indicated seat making sure that her short skirt didn’t ride up to reveal too much as she sat down self-consciously in the offered chair before the desk. Sure she wanted to tempt the guy to show his true colors, but not show him everything she had too obviously she reminded herself.

“I’ve been experiencing ... anxiety ... I guess? I get wound up over stuff and I don’t know why. It’s starting to affect my job performance, my sleep, my relationship with my boyfriend. I just don’t know what to do Doctor.” She started her rehearsed story for the Doctor. Doctor Young scribbled some notes on the legal pad he was holding and then looked up at Kim.

“A general feeling of anxiety is not uncommon Miss Lohand. Have there been any major changes in your life that you think might have caused such feelings of anxiety?” The Doctor questioned her.

“Nothing I can think of Doctor. True, my job is pretty stressful, but there hasn’t been any major changes in the last few months.” She stuck to the details of her rehearsed story.

“And what is your occupation?” The Doctor questioned her further.

“I’m a secretary at a law firm downtown.” Kim was familiar enough with the job that she was confident she could bluff her way through any questions about it he could ask.

“And how are you feeling right now? Any anxiety?” The Doctor continued to question her.

“Are you kidding, I’m in a shrink’s office Doc, of course I feel a bit anxious, ha, ha, ha.” Kim told him honestly and gave a little nervous laugh. With that the doctor smiled back and made some more notes 0n his large legal pad.

“Of course you are my dear, but rest assured there is nothing to be anxious about here. Your perfectly safe here in my office Miss Lohand. All we are doing is having a pleasant conversation about how you feel. Let me help you relax a little more Miss Lohand.” With that he reached out and pushed a few buttons on his desk and the blinds on the windows drew shut and the lights in the office dimmed a little more. At the same time a preset program started in the massage chair itself. Body scanner sensors took over to adjust the massage to Miss Lohand’s specific body shape and size. It personalized the therapy ensuring that the massage hit all the right spots on Miss Lohand’s body. It monitored her body’s responses and adjusted in real-time for the optimal massage.

The program actually used concealed cameras in the room to detected increases in pulse rate, and/or perspiration, which are indicators of tension, and focused more on those areas. It’s like having a masseuse who understands your body’s needs without you saying a word. All this is done inside the chair where weighted unbalanced wheels, and gears, spin, the spin creates vibrations, akin to what you feel in a vibrating cell phone, but on a larger scale. This buzz offers a gentle, widespread massage across your body, a perfect complement to the more focused work of the rollers.

“Is that a little better?” He questioned her. Kim didn’t have to lie about it, she did feel a lot more relaxed sitting in the comfortable chair with the lower lighting.

“Yes, it’s quite calming Doc, tee, hee, hee.” She found herself answering back and giggling like a immature schoolgirl for some odd reason.

“When did you first notice these feelings of anxiety?” Doctor Young asked next.

“Well, honestly Doc, I’ve always been a bit anxious, but about six months ago I suffered, what I can only assume was, a panic attack. I’ve never had anything like it before or since. To be honest it scared the living daylight out of me at the time Doc. Since then I’ve had three more lesser incidents. I was talking to my friend Jessica Remington the other day about my panic attacks and she said you had done wonders for her daughter Judy so I made an appointment to see you.” Kim went on with her rehearsed story.

If Kim hadn’t been so relaxed, and concentrated on remembering her rehearsed story, and been paying closer attention to the Doctor himself, as she should have been, she would have noticed the sudden twitch of Doctor Young’s right hand that loudly snapped off the point of the pencil he was taking notes with when Kim mentioned the Remington name. As it was she went right on talking oblivious of the Doctor’s one very telling mistake.

“So Jessica Remington recommended me Miss Lohand?” Doctor Young questioned her.

“OH, yes, Doctor, she said you helped Judy tremendously with her anxiety issues during the Miss Columbia Beauty Pageant.” Kim answered the Doctor. At that point he slowly stood up from behind his desk and casually walked around it to stand next to and slightly behind Kim’s own swivel chair.

“If you would please turn your chair around and look at the wall behind you Miss Lohand.” Doctor Young directed his newest patient Jane Lohand.

As Kim swiveled her chair around she heard a soft click and suddenly the room was even darker, and a large bright black and white spinning spiral was somehow projected onto the wall in front of her now. It was a simple black and white spiral design spinning slowly with twisting black lines forever pulling the observer’s eyes down towards the pulsating flashing center.

“Is this quack really trying to hypnotize me?” Immediately popped into the forefront of Kim’s relaxed, but fully alert mind unasked. It was all she could think about for a long moment, but she wasn’t too worried. After all she knew from all her college psychology classes and her own reading and research on the subject that it was impossible to actually hypnotize someone against their will and there was no way in Hell she was just going to sit here and allow this Doctor Young to hypnotize her.

It was no wonder she had thought he looked like a evil Bond villain she said to herself as she swiveled her chair around. She was still thinking that when she suddenly felt cold metal pressed firmly against the side of her neck’s carotid artery and then heard and felt a slight hiss of air on her skin. At the same time as the hiss of air she felt a sharp sting on the side of her neck.

“Owww!” She exclaimed, putting her hand around her neck protectively in alarm to shield it and spinning her chair back around quickly to look accusingly at Doctor Young’s now retreating back. The Doctor was just sitting back down in his own chair and putting a shinny silver pistol like device down on his desk she noted.

“What the fuck Doc?!” She exclaimed angrily, still holding the side of her neck that was still stinging from the injection.

“An air injector gun of my own design Miss Lohand, I just used it to deliver medication directly into your bloodstream via your carotid artery. My air injector is both very efficient and painless, hardly leaves a detectable mark Miss Lohand. Some animal rights groups like the ASPCA and PETA even consider it more humane than a large hypodermic syringe and the associated long ugly hypodermic needle, ha, ha, ha.” The Doctor explained to her and laughed and then paused to let it sink in before continuing.

“In your own case it delivered a measured dose of a certain drug I’ve developed through a process of trial and error over the years in my psychiatry practice Miss Lohand. The drug went directly into the carotid artery on the side of you lovely neck Miss Lohand. As I’m sure you are aware, the carotid arteries are the two large major blood vessels on either side of your lovely neck that supply blood directly to your brain. Do not pass goal, do not collect $200 dollars, go directly to jail, Miss Lohand, ha, ha, ha.” He lectured her and laughed as he sat back down behind his desk.

“What did you just give me.” Kim demanded angrily and in alarm now.

“Just a little something I have perfected in my psychiatry practice over the years to help my more lets say high strung flighty patients like yourself Miss Lohand to relax. They soon find themselves relaxing even when they don’t consciously want to relax sometimes, ha, ha, ha. I noticed you were much too tense and stressed out for our first hypnosis session today Miss Lohand so I took matters into my own hands so to speak Miss Lohand.” The Doctor went on explaining.

“You are probably thinking to yourself at this very moment that no one can be hypnotized against their will, and normally that would be absolutely true, Miss Lohand, ha, ha, ha. But thanks to this drug I’ve perfected you will calm right down I guarantee, and it will make you very compliant in short order Miss Lohand. I’ve had a lot of experience with lets say resistant subjects over the years, ha, ha, ha. One could say I’ve built my whole practice around handling resistant subjects Miss Lohand, ha, ha, ha.” Doctor Young smiled and laughed at the still seated but struggling Kim.

“Fuck you Doc!” Kim cussed him, and put her hand back on her neck and started rubbing it. She then went to stand up to leave his office, but her legs refused to cooperate, so she found herself sitting back down in her chair heavily. Her arms now felt as heavy as lead and utterly useless, and as she watched helplessly they both slowly fell back into her lap to lay there uselessly. With that her entire body relaxed back into the chair bonelessly and she found herself sinking down into her high backed executive chair involuntarily.

“Help!!!... “ She was able to scream out loudly once before she even lost that ability too.

“This room is well soundproofed Miss Lohand, and even if by some chance my receptionist did hear you, ha, ha, ha, she would ignore your screams for help. She is well programed as you soon will be too Miss Lohand, ha, ha, ha.” The Doctor laughed evilly again.

“Whaaaa... “ She tried to say, but her mind was just too fuzzy and confused to complete the thought. With that Doctor Young got back up again and turned her chair back around to face the wall and spinning spiral once again.

“Just stare into the spinning spiral for me Miss Lohand like a ‘good girl’. Let it draw you in. Focus on it Miss Lohand. Feel it pulling you in. Pulling you in forever inward. Pulling you forever to the middle, ever to the center,” Doctor Young started his hypnotic induction, and yes, Kim knew what he was doing but couldn’t seem to fight it for some reason.

“Your mind follows the spinning spiral, down, down, down. Moving forever inward. Pulling you deeper and deeper. Each moment you watch you are becoming more and more relaxed.” Doctor Young went on. Kim tried to fight it, but the spinning spiral was just too mesmerizing to resist. It had already captured most of her visual attention and it just felt so good to lay back in her comfortable chair and listen to the Doctor’s voice. She could feel her eyes starting to drift closed as Doctor Young reached out and picked up her left arm and felt her pulse.

“Ah, yes, Miss Lohand, slow and steady. slow and steady. Your doing very good Miss Lohand.” He could see her eyes starting to blink, to try to close, but still absolutely focused on the spinning spiral before her.

“Can you hear me?” The Doctor asked, and Kim surprisingly found herself answering without even really thinking about it.

“Yes, I can hear you Doctor.” Came out softly from the now relaxed Kim, her mind fully captured by the spinning spiral.

With that Doctor Young started to slowly massage her temples while standing behind her chair. It felt so good that Kim relaxed even more. Somewhere deep inside her mind a faint little nagging voice was screaming something was dangerously wrong here. She knew deep down inside herself that something was wrong. That she needed to resist, to fight this, to run away, but between the spinning spiral drawing her deeper and deeper, and the Doctor’s calm gentle voice lulling her to sleep she was loosing the battle. Plus, the soothing, and calming effects, of the of the massage chair was having it’s effect on her too. Then add the Doctor’s magic fingers massaging her temples now, and she just couldn’t seem to bring herself to do anything about the nagging irritating little voices in the back of her brain, so she ignored them.

“I don’t know if there is enough of the real you left in there at the moment to even wonder about what gave you away my dear, but maybe I owe you an explanation even though it will do you no good at this point, tee, hee, hee. It is much too late to escape, even if you still wanted to my dear. You said you came here because your good friend Jessica Remington told you how well I had done helping her daughter with her stress anxiety issues, but you see that’s quite impossible because Jessica Remington doesn’t even know I exist Miss Lohand.” The Doctor explained to the tranced Kim as he continued to massage her temples.

“Shortly after dear Judy, her lovely daughter went missing, Misses Remington, beautiful Judy’s distraught mother, paid me a visit Miss Lohand. Though my name, as I’m sure you are aware of, doesn’t appear on any of the official lists Jessica Remington somehow managed to find me. You see some of the pageant’s judges are hypnotically primed by me to direct any ... any ... lets call them “persistent troublemakers” ... to me if they become too big a nuisance. Dear Jessica evidently became too persistent, just like some other mothers of past pageant winners. I was forced to subject dear Jessica to, the same hypnosis process I subjected her beautiful daughter Judy to. It’s the same hypnotic process I subject all my ... my ... I guess you would have to call them products Miss Lohand.” The Doctor paused to adjust something.