Detective Mom

“That’s a good question. In the hypnotist case 20 years ago, all the potential victims claimed that they were not sexually assaulted, which led to the investigation being dropped. But this time we have an expert witness.”

“who?”

“What information can you give me in exchange?”

“I can describe to you the hypnosis I saw Harold undergo, and there are things you wouldn’t expect. Tell me, who is the expert?”

“The best clinical psychologist in the world, Raymond.”

I drove to Raymond ‘s mansion. I didn’t even know what to say when I saw him. Should I ask him why he wanted to be a witness? Or should I ask him if he was a hypnotist?

So I just parked the car in front of his house, I sat there hesitating, and finally decided to just leave. But Raymond called me, and his deep voice said,” Miss Abigail, you’ve been out for a long time, when are you going to come in? I’ll prepare some tea.”

“I’m sorry, something happened at the company, and I have to go back.”

“That’s a shame.”

“See you later.”

“I had something I wanted to show you.”

“Something about you?”

“No, it’s about Harold.”

His words were beyond my expectation. Before I could react, he continued, “I want you to see the true face of Harold. I think this information will be useful to you. Are you interested?”

There was no way I could say no, so I had to meet him, but the stuff wasn’t there, so he put me in a large SUV and drove to the airport.

As he pulled up in front of a private jet, I asked him, “Where do you want to take me?”

“Seeing is believing. I’ll take you to see Harold ‘s past.”

He faced me, almost a head taller than me even though I was wearing high heels. His body was as big as an elephant, and his baggy suit couldn’t hide his bulging muscles.

“Why do you know about Harold ‘s past?” I asked.

“He was one of my students 20 years ago, and I felt something was wrong with him.”

“Why? You think he’s a bad guy?”

“No, not at all. When I first met him, he was just an ordinary boy. He wasn’t good-looking and not popular with girls. But he was proactive, diligent in study, a very nice person, and loved to participate in charity. He was a good person in every aspect.”

“There should be a sequel, right?”

“The follow-up was that I discovered another side of him.”

“You mean he’s a hypocrite? Is his nice guy image just an act?”

“No.” Raymond shook his head slightly and said, “I found that he has a serious mental illness.”

“What type of mental illness?”

“Multiple personalities are very deeply hidden. Fortunately, I studied psychology, so I could vaguely see it. I conducted an experimental diagnosis and treatment on him with his consent. After confirming that he had multiple personalities, I planned to use hypnosis to repair his multiple personalities. In simple terms, I wanted to combine his two personalities into one, but I failed because I didn’t know how serious his problem was at that time.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The specific process is very complicated. To put it simply, his second personality was just a cover created by his real bottom personality to deceive his surface personality. But I didn’t know it at the time.”

“How did you find this out?”

“I only figured out something after the hypnotist demon incident, but he had already graduated by then. I went to look for him, but couldn’t find him. He disappeared. I have been investigating him all these years because there is one thing I can’t let go of...”

“What is it?”

“Originally, his surface personality could suppress his underlying personality, but my treatment ... may have caused him to lose control instead.”

“What will you show me?”

“You’ll know when you get there.”

I followed Raymond onto the plane. He flew the plane across the sea. I looked down from the co-pilot’s seat and saw two islands appearing below the clouds. There were towns on the islands, and the larger one had an airport.

“Is this the island you want to show me?”

“Yes, it’s called Male and Female Island. The big one is called Sun Island. Harold was born in the town on the island.”

“The younger one must be called Yindao?”

“Yes, my mother lived on Yin Island since she was a child, and her family’s business is also on that island.”

“What a coincidence?”

“Unfortunately, because my grandfather went abroad to study medicine and made money from running a private hospital business, he brought many young people from the island with him and set up a fund to support young people on the island to study. Among the young people who received the support was Harold.”

After the plane landed, people from the island came to pick them up. There were three luxury cars in total, and the person in charge of one of them was the housekeeper of Raymond’s property on the island.

Raymond dismissed them and drove me to a small police station on the edge of town. There was only one old policeman in the station. When he saw Raymond, he immediately stood up to greet him and said warmly, “You’re back?”

He looked at me again and asked, “Is this your wife? She is so beautiful, like a goddess!”

Raymond shook his head and introduced him, “This is Miss Abigail. She is the deputy editor-in-chief of the media group.”

“The media group ... is for ... that person?”

“Yes, Miss Abigail wants to know about Harold.”

The old policeman’s face suddenly darkened. He opened a safe, rummaged around in it and found a notebook and said, “Let’s go.”

Raymond and I followed the old policeman to a stream. Raymond introduced: “The island has abundant rainfall, and the mountains of Yang Island are prone to storing water. The groundwater has become the source of this stream, which flows all year round.”

The old policeman said, “My niece’s body was sunk in this creek. The place where the body sank is right here.” He pointed to the center of the river and said,” Harold might have been afraid that the body would be discovered if it was transported to the seaside, so he sank it nearby. But the body was found downstream, and when it was found, only bones were left.”

The old policeman said, “When he committed the crime, he was five years younger than my niece, that is, thirteen years old. He could not be sentenced because he was under fourteen years old. The police from the mainland came to the island and took him away. I still regret not shooting that little beast at that time!”

I asked, “But he even used the money from your Gao family’s scholarship fund to study.”

Raymond said: “After he was taken away, we had no idea where he was. He went to the foundation office in Langang City to apply for a scholarship, but the staff didn’t know him and gave him the money after seeing his identity information. He even became my student in the end, but I didn’t recognize him either, after all, I had no connection with him when he was a child.”

“Can you give me some information about the girl he killed?”

“She is my friend.” Raymond said, then looked at the old policeman, who took out a photo from his notebook and handed it to me.

The girl was quite pretty, tall and slim. The old policeman said: “ Savannah had been spotted by a modeling agency in the mainland, but she wanted to go to college first. She didn’t expect this to happen when she returned to the island.”

I asked,” Why did Harold kill her?”

“Because he failed to pursue her.” The old policeman said: “He had been pestering Savannah for several years. Savannah was a good person and did not decisively reject him. Later, he must have known that Savannah was going to leave, so he violated her and then killed her.”

“But he was only thirteen at that time.”

“So he is a devil, a born devil!”

Later we went to the elementary and middle schools where Harold had studied. I learned about his past through the memories of various people involved. The people involved had different impressions of him, but the common point was that they did not have a deep impression of him. From teachers to classmates, it seemed that no one was familiar with him. I asked him if he had any friends, and his former classmates said that he was always with Savannah during that time, but the old policeman immediately refuted that Harold was harassing his niece.

We said goodbye to the old policeman and drove to the pier.

Raymond said: “The efficiency of the small airport here is very low. We should be able to return tomorrow after refueling the plane tonight.”

“So I have to spend the night here, with you?”

“Don’t worry, my house is very big.”

When we boarded the yacht, the sky was overcast and the sea breeze was whistling. The speedboat sailed through the waves and traveled a distance of ten kilometers to reach Yin Island.

Seeing the gray clouds coming from the horizon, I was a little scared and followed Raymond step by step through the pier. He held my hand, and I didn’t refuse because I was afraid. People kept greeting him along the way and asked him if I was his wife, and he denied it one by one.

By the time we arrived at his mansion, it was pouring rain.

The hall on the first floor of the mansion has become his studio. He said: “I’m sorry, no one lives here anymore, so I just move all my paintings to the hall as it’s convenient for me.”

I uncovered the canvas and saw a beautiful woman painted on it. She was naked, and Raymond had faithfully depicted everything about her on the canvas.

“You’re painting here?” I asked.

“No, most of them are upstairs.”

We went up to the second floor, where there was an equally large hall furnished with painting sets, including beds, chairs, a dining table and a lounge chair. I remembered that the beauties in some of the paintings were lying on these antique furniture.

An entire wall here is covered with floor-to-ceiling windows. We were attracted to the window by the rainstorm. The mansion is on the hillside. From here we can see the sea, the beach and the pier in the distance. The rainstorm suddenly became heavier, and the wind was howling, making the rain as dense as smoke. In a flash, the visibility was less than 100 meters.

My reflection was reflected on the glass. I was wearing a white suit uniform today, with a silk suspender top underneath, tight pants underneath, and flesh-colored stockings underneath the pants.

Raymond came closer to me, also looking out the window, and said,” Harold tried to change, but the end result was that he developed a dual personality. His original main personality as a murderer was suppressed to the bottom. It’s not that he didn’t try. If he persisted, perhaps his bottom personality would slowly disappear, but I messed it up. Not only did I release the demon in his heart, I also taught him hypnosis, so that the demon had the tools to kill people.”

“So you think the hypnotist 20 years ago was Harold? He was the one who killed Oscar’s family? He was also the one who killed Emily?”

“I don’t like to pre-empt answers, as that will only interfere with my judgment. I can only say that there is such a possibility, but more evidence is needed to draw a conclusion.”

“If he is still in a state of dual personality, then it is very likely that the crime was committed by his lower personality.”

“Miss Abigail, have you had any contact with Harold recently?”

“I...”

“Is it inconvenient to say?”

“No ... it’s inconvenient.”

“Can you tell me what kind of person he is now?”

“He is now ... a bad guy.”

“Evil?”

“This ... No, he is not evil, he is just a bad person, lustful, vulgar, selfish and dirty, a sinister villain.”

“It seems he has changed a lot.”

“Or maybe he hasn’t changed at all, and he’s still the same thirteen-year-old who rapes and kills people.”

“You shouldn’t have contact with him. No, you shouldn’t investigate this case at all. It’s too dangerous.”

“What led to your decision to cooperate with the police?”

“It’s you.”

“I’m worried about you. You’ve investigated too deeply and know too much. I’m afraid you’ll be in danger. I’m worried that you’ll be deceived and controlled by others.”

“In your eyes, am I just a little girl who is easy to coax?”

“No, you are very smart, the most intellectual woman I have ever met. I think you can resolve most difficulties, but hypnosis is different. You have not yet truly understood the horror of a hypnotist.”

“You’re telling me that you’re going to use hypnosis to make me depressed and then commit suicide?”

“It can be done, but it goes beyond that. The hypnotist may even be able to control your emotions.”

“Feelings? Can hypnosis really make me fall in love with someone?”

“What do you think? What do you think love is? Is it really the pure soul bond that artists portray?”

“It’s definitely more than just sex.”

“No, it’s not. But it is hormones, endorphins, and patterned neural reflexes. These things are intertwined with the only bit of soul bond to form a complex inner feeling. It is mysterious, but not impossible to replicate. At least most of it can be replicated.”

Raymond ‘s words made me think deeply, and I began to re-examine what had happened in the past few days.

What was that ... thing between Harold and me, what I had done, what I had felt?

“Miss Abigail? What’s wrong?”

“Raymond, this could happen to me, too, right?”

“It could happen to anyone.”

I felt a little cold and uneasy, so I hugged my arms. Raindrops kept hitting the glass, shattering my reflection.

He asked me,” Miss Abigail, what happened to you?”

“Raymond, is it true that you can tell from my expression and actions if I’m lying?”

“This is the foundation of clinical psychology.”

“So I can only tell the truth.”

“Or say nothing at all.”

“But I want to say it.”

“I’m listening.”

But if I really want to talk about it, where should I start?

I was in a trance, and he seemed to be able to see through me. He said, “You can start from anywhere.”

“I had sex with Harold.” I said it suddenly, and my eyes were suddenly filled with tears. I felt sad and sweet, and there was an indescribable sour feeling.

I looked at Raymond. He was a hundred times calmer than I had imagined, and he was quietly waiting for me to continue.

I said, “I had sex with him.”